The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-07-05
THE SMALL BOY AGAIN
HE HAS CELEBRATED WITH
NOISE AND RIOT
WITH
American Boys Have No Reverence for
Their Elders and Are Great Trials
The Fourth Safely Over, We Breathe
Again for a Year

And now it's all over but the shout
: ing. No, am wrong; there is the
binding up of wounds, the suffering,
the deaths, funerals, the doctors bills
and the mourning. All these things are
the direct result of the intelligent man
ner in which we celebrate our inde-
pendence. Yesterday morning there
were hundreds more whole little boys
in the country than there are this
morning. Today there are boys with
but one eye, with broken legs, with
fingers blown off and faces blown up.
The police did great work in keeping
boys within proper limits and there was
less noise at unseemly hours than usual.
In reality, the small American boy has
no respect for law or the police; he is
only afraid of what his father may do
If he finds out what he has been up
to, but respect for law because it is
the law is not in his mental makeup.
The boy who can shoot off a pistol as
he passes a woman on the street, and
the boy who can throw a frecracker
directly in front Of little girl, to see
her jump, should have things done to
them. But way down deep in the
American heart-masculine hearts
sympathy for the boy, and feeling
shat the Fourth Of July belongs to him,
and that those persons who do not
want to take what comes should have
stopped at home.
The other day when 1 wrote about
the small boys in one of the best resi-
dence districts of the city, / thought
that some protests would be registered
and that I would be informed I was
mistaken. Instead of that many have
said they were glad I said what l did,
only did not make it strong enough.
One letter came indorsing what I had
said and the writer drew attention to
the fact that we, as a people, are in
the habit of throwing all the blame
for the evil in this country on the for
eigners who live among us, and he
said that it was almost as much as
ones life is worth to say that an
American born boy can do wrong.
There is a great deal of truth in this.
When it comes to political corruption
We are told that it is all carried on
by foreigners. Read Lincoln Steffen's
book, 1.-The Shame of the Cities" and
disabuse your mind of this idea.
We are very nice people in this
country, but we have not cornered all
the virtue and righteousness in the
world. The idea that we have is
sort of provincialism which afflicts the
American people. You will seldom find
the travelled American possessed Of
this idea. He knows better.
And as for the small American boy,
doubt if there is boy in the world
who has SO small regard for law and
order, so diminutive bump of rev.
erence for age or institutions, so Slight
an idea of what is due from youth
to parents and guardians as he. His
actions on the day we celebrate attest
to my conclusions. Ask him what hap
pened on the Fourth of July and he is
likely to tell you that it is Washing
toms birthday or the day that Roose-
Welt became president. He neither
knows nor cares. He does know that
1T is the day upon which he can make
the noise and riot that his soul loves
And he makes it without let or him
drance. He burns out his eyes, blows
off his fingers, sets the house on fire,
frightens his sister and her friends
into spasms, causes his father all
sorts of expense, makes his mothers
heart to bleed and probably just es-
capes with his life, all of which makes
him very, very happy. Indeed, from
the time that school closes in June
until it opens in September we live
In the shadow of the small boy. What
he needs he seldom gets because his
mother is SO tender-hearted. Well,