Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1898-01-16

| 10 throw stones. He has frequently beer
! detected i'm efforts 10 bring our Shanghai
| into collision with the rooster next door
! 1t was he who placed the dead dog inside
our vestlbule doors. To him may be at
tributed the brick covertly thrown into
! the laundry of our Chinese friend and
i neighbor, Hop Lee. In fact, nothing Is Toe
mean for the boy across the street TO do
| 1t is the regret of our lives that our
! honest. chromo-earning lad must breathe
the same air that this juvenile fiend in
hales. If his parents could be brought
| TO a Just appreciation of his faults the
public might hope for protectlon-that is,
| il along with that appreciation came the
application of a barrel stave. What
pity some folks are so blind TO the faults
OF their children!
Now, our chap is thorough boy-good,
honest. and wthal mischievOus, though
not mean-thank gracious for that Some
Of his pranks are positively cute, and
ofttimes / cannot suppress a smile at the
trouble he takes to amuse himself. Ere
auently he brings chalk home from scnool,
and though he will not study in the class
room, he will work his sums on the
brick walls of every house in the neigh
borhood. True, he doesn't do it on our
walls. for his mother objects, but some
of the other houses are almost white with
his arithmetical efforts. 1t takes the
people of our vicinage hours to scrub
off the figures Of the little rascal, and
some OF them get red-hot about it, But
we keep our tempers. We are resolved
to pick no quarrels with the neighbors.
When our boy gets enthusiastic about
a thing he'll work like a Trojan TO in
dulge his hobby. I've seen him labor Tor
hours 10 cut the lead-pipes out or the I'M
tenanted house next door, and all because
he wants the metal to make buckshot
for his gravel-shooter. If it was the boy
Across the street he would use every
blessed one of those buckshot TO smash
the windows of that untenanted house.
Not so with that chap Of ours. After
working for hours TO get the lead he VIII
shoot it all away in ten minutes at the
O'Hagans' fantail pigeons. The boy
across the street-may the gods save him
from the penitentiary-though he was
tremendously funny when he carried on
our gate on Valentines night, and when
| smoke TO his father about II the OLD
man Indignantly asked If l wanted the
young imp kept in a glass case. Now
outside Of ringing all the door-beils In
the neighborhood that night, our lad
hardly stirred, though some incendiary
neighbors even wanted 70 take offence at
that | hope and trust that the editors
will continue their fight along the lines
indlcated-not that j wish 10 restrict the
Youngsters, but simply because / want
vengeance on the boy across the street.
If his parents won't rear their children
like we do ours. they should be made to
suffer for It,
The school teachers are real mad, and
they are saying horrid things. The more
they think the madden they become, and
I'm glad I'm not a pupil in their class
rooms They are bitterly regretting the
three weeks pay that they didn't get in
december. when the Council decided that
Richmond couldn't I'LL the Christmas
stockings of all her servants, and hence
cut them off minus their richly deserved
salaries. And the worst OF 1t rs that
the "school ma'ams" are not only mad
with the Council but they are mad with
When one gets mad with |
ones self look out for trouble. We are |
generally very indulgent with our own |
mistakes.
II was this way with the fair young |
ladies' who magnanimously relieve us |
of our children five days in the week. |
when the City Fathers (they couldn't |
have been the fathers OF many children, |
ar they wouldn't have acted as they did |
decided that this prosperous rural NUM- |
cipality couldn't afford TO pay for the |
education OF our youngsters nine months |
in the year, great storm was raised.
and a few people even became vexed. |
But some good spirit suggested that tho |