The times., 1899-11-05

When the authors of books like Sand
ford and Mertoun" undertook to describe
the conversation of boy, they made him
say things like this:
Ny dear Alfred, there is no doubt that il will be
a wild and tempestuous night See how the light
ming flashes, and listen 10 the majestic roll Of the
thunder. We should be very thankful that we are
at home and protected.
Or this:
Uncle George" said little Rollo, "what makes
the thunder;"
And then there would be a long disqusi-
ton by Uncle George on the principles of
physics. There were bad little boys in
some of these books, but a large part of
their conversation was either omitted or
| decorated with picturesque dashes, calcu-
lated to fill the youthful mind with Curl
osity.
Tom Brown" however, marked new
era-it was the advent Of the boy who talk
ed slang, played football and cricket, and
got into scrapes galore. On that account
ii held its own against Eric the monstrOsi-
ty, although there is a certain amount of
playing to the gallery in both books, in the
shape OF religious sayings put in as a sop
to the Philistine. The real boy has but
lately gotten into literature. We have him
in the poems of Field and Riley, freckled
hehA SACOtg pOGliS VI SbAly ana Sdtdult OI I'LL
pulse at times, full of all sorts of unex-
pected feelings and behaviors which he
| himself understands as little as anyone
Some of his experiences were chronicled in
| HOwells "A Boys Town" but rather too
lntrospectiyely to be really natural and in
teresting The latest and one of the best
contributions to boy literature is William
Allen Whites unique collection of stories,
The Court Of BoyylIe."
Mr.. White is a Kansas editor and the
boy Of his stories is the same little rascal
who meanders through the Indiana verse Of
Riley and pops out of the songs of Field
with an impish grin. He is the boy of all
history, the youngster Of the Middle Ages of
ancient Greece and Rome of the Stone Age
ard ages before that; but he has the par
ticular flavor of the broad acres of the
West. He belongs to the middle class
the average American-and the Illustrations
Of the book, by Orson Lowell, plainly indi-
cate this. In no other society would one
find worsted notices on the walls OF din
iug-room and parlor, conveying the senti-
ments. God Bless Our Home and Give
Us This Day Our Daily Bread" The teach
er who crooks her finger as a signal that
note be brought to her desk can be found
in almost any public school-erect, digni-
fed, cool calm, precise, self-controlled and
French twist" TO the hem. of her starched
white apron. One knows at glance that
she Will read that note aloud, to the grief
OF sender and sendee. She did and this
was what il said, and what happened when
and after, it was made public:
1t is enough to submit the plain but painful
statement that, when the teacher tapped her
pencil for attention, 4 red ear, a throbbing red
ear, hared out from either side Of Piggy Pen
ningtoDS Fourth Reader while not far away a
pair Of pig tails bristed up with rage and hmnil-
laticn from desk where a little girls head lay
buried IN her Then the teacher unfoldcd
the cracking paper and read this note:
"Frend Mary: Did you mean anything by let
ting Him sing with you. l don't care ii you
did but | never don ANYTHING 10 deserve it. but
if you dident l very sorry viii tell you
bout il at the partey. Well, that is all | can
think Of today from
Aourse ever,
''WIN PENNINGTON
'P. S.-H You still meen what you sed about
roses red and Yilets blue all right and so do /.
Piggy waded home through blood that night
The boys could not resist calling ont Friend
Mary" or Hello, Roses Rcd, though each boy
knew that his tauHt would bring on a fight.
Piggy fought boys who were three classes above
him. He whipped groups OF boys of assorted
sizes from the lower grades; but the fighting
took him away from his trouble, and in most
cases he hoHored his combatauts He was little
the worse for wear when he chased the last
swarm OF primary urchins into ms fathers cow
lot, fastened them in, and went at them one by
one with 4 shingle.
And then new tortures awaited him at
home. Did that teacher know what she
did?
Piggy Pennington was the king of Rov
Vile, and this incident Will probably wake
a thrill Of sympathetic emotion in the
breasts Of some grown men who have had
to maintain their superiority in the face
OF public humiliation. There are four prin-
cipal characters in the book though others
appear from time to time. There is Jim
my Sears, whose family included MANY
tormenting small brothers and sisters. so
that he did not rejoice when a new infant
appeared in his home. There is Bud Per-
kins, the little Southerner, who whipped all
the other boys when he first came and so
stood well in the democracy of boyhood
even though his father was a nobody who
went fishing three or four days in the week
and had no visible means of support.
Finally, there was 'Mealy'' Jones the
mothers darling of the settlement. This
is pen-picture Of Mealy:
His mother named him Harold and named
him better than she knew lie was lust such a
boy as one would expect to see bearing he
roic name. He had big, faded blue eyes, a nub-
bin OF a chin, wide. wondering cars, and freckles
such brown blotches OF frecklcs his face and
neck and hands, such a milky way OF them
across the bridge OF his snUb nose, that the boys
called him ''Mealy."
It was Mealy who went swimming with
out permission and was caught by Nemesis
in the shape of his father That is the
first story and IL is entitled THE Martyr
dom of Mealy Jones'" "A Recent Confed-
crate Victory tells how Bud Perkins
father was buried and Bud adopted by a
gentle little spinster. While the Evil
Days Come Not" is the romance of Piggy
Penningtons life. already quoted, and one
of the best Of the half dozen. James
Sears; Naughty Person" tells how Jim
my took to the woods on the advent of
his latest baby sister, and was filled with
resentment at the affair. Much Pomp
and Several Circumstance" is the story
of a circus-is It necessary to say more?
But without the prologue and epilogue
the book would be incomplete Into these
Mr.. White has put all the poetry and
beauty and mystery OF boy life. which the
boy feels, but cannot tell, and the grown
man can describe long after he has lost
the power to feel. There are also charm
ing bits of verse interspersed with the
stories these in a style which reminds one
of Riley. But the prologue is possibly the
most fascinating thing in the book. Here
is a paragraph from it:
For BoyviIle is a Free Town IN the monarchy
OF the world It's citizens mind their own busi-
ness, and they desire travellers in this waste to
do likewise. The notion that specialized gentry
should come nosing through the streets and al
leys OF Boyylle, studying the sanitation which
is not Of the best, and Objecting to the Consti-
tuition and bv-laws-whiCh We're made when the
rivers were dug and the hills piled up--the notion
of an outsider interfering with the Divine right