The Jennings daily record. [volume] (Jennings, La.) 1900-1903, 1902-06-12
Not a Bad Boy

We'll. there" exclaimed Aunt Kez-
Zy, that's jest what I've been expect
ing. Nat Jones has finally gone to
jail"
You don't mean it," said her sis
ter, Mrs. Edwards, as she quickly
turned from the window where she sat
mending her boys trousers. What
does the paper say"
why, here's quite a piece about it,"
replied Aunt kezzy, telling how he
never would mind in school and got to
be a truant, and then lazy, and wasn't
willing to work for his living, and
now he's been arrested"
Read it." said Mrs. Edwards. That
will just about kill his mother, and
should think it would. She'll wish
she'd never had any children I guess"
Aunt Kezzy readjusted her specta-
cles, drew her chair little nearer to
the window and read the account.
NAT Jones, from Emmaville, near
Batavia, and three other young fellows
with him, who have been burglarizing
homes in Buffalo and Rochester. were
caught last night in the dining room
of Samuel Rosters residence just as
they had gathered together lot of
with it. The police have been on their
scent for some weeks and succeeded
last night in securing all four. They
are now safely lodged in the Jail at
Auburn and will have abundant time
to mediate on their experiences. Nat
Jones, the ringleader, came from a
good family, but was ungoyernable
from boyhood and has been a vagrant
viii
joice that he and his associates have
at last fallen into the clutches OF the
law"
ut makes my blood run cold to
think Of it," said Mrs. Edwards. II
hope I shall die before l ever hear any
thing like that about Charley! I'm
terribly sorry for Mats mother. l
haven't seen her for twenty-five years,
an then and so happy in her new home
and with her baby. She'll wish now
that he'd never been born!"
Aunt Kezzy assented to all vrs. Ed
wards calculations. winding up by
saying, I'm not sure but we old maids
have the best of it after all. We are
free from good many responsibilities
and disappointments which distress
good many mothers
That evening Mr.. Hudson, who was
at the head of a great manufacturing
company. drove over from his home
two miles Away to talk with Mr.. Ed
wards absdt buying some of his fine
oak and maple lumber. which he want
ed to purchase.
AS he sat before the open fire chat
s.ng with the family after his business
"ad been transacted. Mr.. Edwards
asked him if he had seen the notice
about the arrest of Nat Jones. and as
he had not she got the paper and read
it, remarking, Il suppose he always
was bad boy and this is what every
one expected he would come to-"
Mr.. Hudson quite bristled at this
statement. You're wrong, there" he
said most emphatically. Il knew Nat
when he was a boy full of life and
mischief and investigation when he
wanted something to do and could not
find it. If had had my factory then he
might have had work and become a
strong man. He wasn't at all bad
boy. | tell you, half the men in our
penitentiarieS are there because when
they were young no scope was given
to them to air their ideas and their
energies, and SO many of them ran
away from their homes and became
Migrants first and then, after little,
criminals. There's Bob Little, who
was sent up a few months ago for
breaking open a safe. You remember
him don't you? They expelled him
from school because he was continual
~ up to all sorts of deviltry, when
really all the boy wanted was work
instead of books And he wasn't a
bad boy, not bit of it. But what did
he do when they turned him out of
school? Why of course he wandered
down to the railway station and
lounged about there, talked with the
brakemen and others as they came
and went on the freight trains and
then because his folks found fault with
him and treated him shabbily he went
off one day on a freight to the next
town. He begged his meals there, took
hand-me-outs' as the tramps call
them, from some kind farmers wives,
the house to his room and bed and
was off again the next morning No
work was offered him, in fact, there
was none in that little village for
him to do. and the fellow was so
brow-beaten and discouraged he had
no ambition, no energy, and a don't
care spirit possessed him. So he went
on freights to other towns farther
away, and he stayed at some low
tavern or boarding house, heard the
talk of all sorts of men who claimed
they had had no chances in life and