The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1904-01-31
DR.. Shuts
On the Boy

| Dr. J. W Shuts has a very interesting
article in Outdoor Life for February. 1t
! is entitled Take the Boy Along Three
| illustrations accompany the article. The
photographs are Of Wichita people in
| hunting array. The article follows:
! When people get old they are generally
plethoric with wise saws and sayings 1
use to hear my grandmother say: What
! is one mans food TO another's pizen.'
| interpret it now to mean that no two
men are alike, and I am sometimes aston
/ ished to see how il is possible for us all
/ to be so unlike. In a practice of medi-
/ cine of nearly thirty years, and a great
part of it among children, it has afforded
me good opportunity TO study the little
ones. Often when at the bedside of a
boy who had entered the stage of con-
valescence. 1 have asked him il he would
not like TO have a gun and go hunting.
and how eagerly 1 have watched for the
response. His sweet, little eyes would al
ways answer before his lips could formu-
| late reply. when he might say, "Oh.
yes; will you take me? Papa goes, but he
| doesn't take me along
When 1 contemplate how different it
hONAN &c IL hC " ID NY tfOS liz
selfish and Indifferent his father must be
of his boys happiness and future welfare.
We all recognize that the moral infiu-s
ences thrown around the. youth so argreat
way in moulding his future manhood. If
you be good and moral man, make your
boy your inseparable companion, both at
home and in the field. Make it so pleas
ant for him while in your society that he
will seek your company, instead of that
of bay boys / don't mean by this that
your boy should be found every night by
his mothers side reading Pilgrims Prog
ress'' or Saints Rest" for when I was
a boy 1 have heard our old skinny, cross
eyed governess say that L was the mean
est boy in Augusta county. and 1 have
sometimes thought that she was correct
and at others that she was nervous
and ugly.
Teach the boy that to do right in every
thing and try to make everybody happy
should be his chief aim in life.
l think that a man who takes his gun
and dog and slips out through the back
way and hunts all day alone is on the
same plane with the man who slaughters
for gain; and, while he may pass for
gentleman in every other respect he does
not deserve TO be called a sportsman.
That which makes sport afield pleasant
is the genial oompaniohship. have gone
for a day in the field with some old friend
and returned tired and hungry without
game enough for breakfast and still think
that we had a pleasant time
/ think that the great majority of boys
have the hunting instinct born in them.
l am satisfied that / had, for distinct
~ remember when l was only six months
old l would take crying spells that would
last for hours. and the only thing that
would pacify me was for my mother to
take the gun in the back yard and shoot
it off, when l would almost instantly fall
asleep and slumher by the hour. with my
face wreathed in smiles. Between the
ages Of six and twelve months, my ia Their
spent much money for ammunition TO
keep me quiet. At the end of the first
year, when the north side Of the wood
shed had been torn TO Kindlfn'g wood, it
dawned upon him tina. the shot in the
charge was unnecessary, and the gun was
discarded and my mothers slipper was
substituted; the report was almost as
loud, but not so pleasant. l han no pro
longed crying spells the second year.
but my back became so caIlous that the
neighbors predicted that I wouiu be a
shoemaker
Every boy, before he reaches the age
of ten years reaiizes that gun is "A
powerful seusine OFFS destruction, and the5i
boy who is taken zeut by his fathersand,s
taught the mode of handling firearms
ie. no l,r ;oly. h.,
shoots his sister or mother If he has a
nervous mother. she may insist that he
may not go hunting until he learns to
shoot, or go near the water until he
learns to swim.
1t is not for these reasons alone that
the father should take the boy along, but
every boy and every man will have some
pasttime in life, either moral or immoral I
Here is presented to the boy billiards,
horse racing, foot and base ball all, dog /
and cock fighting. prize fighting, yacht /
ing and golf. Some of these are immoral. /
some expensive and some foolish. ! would /
ask you If you ever knew a true sports 1
man who was very bad man? The true /.
sportsman is not the man who loves to /
annihilate animals anu birds. The shed (
ding of blood affords him no pleasure. I
His pleasure consists in seeing has we'll (
bred dog quarter his ground systematical- I
~, see him stop suddenly. see his eyes I
Glisten, when every fiber Of his whole 4
body is at its greatest tension, a statue /
that can only be appreciated by a man .
with. a soul-a sportsman. one dlficu.. /
shot made by this man affords him more /
pleasure than the slaughter Of "A whole (
bevy pot hunter. The sportsman Is (
a lover of all nature: he loves 10 watch +
the ripping streams, he loves TO see the 1
wild flowers. he loves to hear the song I
of the wild birds. he loves to get tired and /
loves to get a good appetite. and II he 4
has had good luck he loves 20 get of the I
train on the side that the depot is on and !
would rather walk home from the depot
than ride Anu when he gets home ne .
loves to eat
When l see sportsman with nice /
boy I often wonder; Does he take the 1
boy along / never forget the many 4
times Yspen I was a child that my father 1
would saddle the pony. letting the blanket
protrude back Of the saedie far though /
to afford me 4 seat When We would ride
over the hills Of dear old Virginia, whenE
partridge and pheasauts were YleEty. ;
never had but one happier day than these.
and that was ny tenth birthday. My
father brought me q gun from tbs county
seat The gun was longer than 1 vas.
the stock extended the ruH length Of the
barrel. and the barrZi had '-Londcn
stamped on it. and the method II dis
charge was q flint lock. i was a sun
that had 20 b. loaded from beth ENDS
Ny powder was carried IN a horn and