Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-05-15
THE BOY WHO foaeErs.

A letter written to the Chicago Tri-
hume by mother who visited her sue
cessful son in Chicago to find her coun-
try manners source of shame and her
presence an annoyance to him is made
the text OF an editorial by the Baxter
New Era, wherein an Improbable boy
i'll jeans clothes is turned out at
o'clock in the morning to do half days
work before breakfast ard a long day
of toll afterwards. The Era's boy was
given Is cents to make good appear
ance in society and required to return
any balance left over. lie was at last
told to git
without dollar to begin with"
continues the Era, Eve take it, he
worked until he reached the broadcloth
period and found himself living on Easy
street. Had he remained at home his
ceasing toll and no hope for the future,
ewing to the mean, penueious, grasping
proclivities of his parents. The man in
the broadcloth remembered the boy in
the jeans clothes. In SC remembering
he forgot his mother. The true way to
drive a child out of your heart is to be
mean to stinginess to him, to Oyerwork
him. to deny him social privileges that
other young men have. and finally send
him into the world without dollar and
no loving encouragement. The heart
rending cry of this mother comes too
late. She drove love and affection from
his heart, and lamentations can never
restore her in his affections. This
woman closes her letter with
How are you treating your
mother?'
May we not ask: Mother, how are
you treating your boy?'"
The Eras article is both unjust and
generally untrue to any type. 1t is SO
far from the conditions that actually
exist between children and parents, and
so opposed to common observation, that
it should not be passed without COM
ment. The Era editor appears to have
taken the boy jokes of the paragrapher
seriously. His boy grown to manhood
is Mr.. Bounderby over again. If he has
ever observed instances Of maternal op-
preston and cruelty such as he has
made the basis of his article their infre-
quency should convince Kim of the I'M
failing rule of motherly affection and
tenderness.
The average boy gets all he deserves
in one sense and escapes much that he
has richly earned in another. There are
few men of 40. born in poverty or ordi-
lary circumstances, who can not look
back with dim eyes to the toll and self
of his youth and boyhood. II the Era's
boy wore jeans, be sure his mother
wore calico and his father overalls. If
his spending money was limited 1t
meant that his mother went without
something needed that he might have so
much. No doubt he thought his par
ents penurious and stingy His currish
|selfshness In after life is evidence of
his boy nature. He forgot his mother.
Had he been thief ard remembered
he might have retained more of manli-
ness.
But 1t is not the boy who has worked
hard at home who forgets. 1t is the
other boy. The one who forgets waits
for his father to come home and do the,
enc, es. He aprrop.iates the rockers
while his mother stands. His supply of
pocket money and lack OF responsibility
are aids to the formation of idle and
vicious habits and but assist his natural
impulse toward selfishnesss. This. boy