The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1905-02-01
COME BACK HOME.
Fhis Is the Advice Gam Jones Gives
to Runaway Boys.

Fhis Is the Advice Gam Jones Give
to Runaway Boys.
) If ANY Such Boys Read This We aop
!; They Will Follow His Good
Advice and Return.
To The Atlanta Journal:
There Is an epidemic of runaway
boys. Scarcely day passes but what
we read OF boys and young men run
Mig away from home, and no tidings
OF their whereabouts come back tc
parents and loved ones The grea,
trouble with boys is the fact they
don't think. In the first place, the
closer boy can be and the closer be
lives under the shadow of a good
mother tine better it is for him. The
home roof is the best covering and
shield that boy can know In this
world. The literature OF the day is
largely responsible for this craze on
the part Of boys and young men to
leave home and wander up and down
through the earth. Isuppose no boy
Las left good home, a good mother
and father, but what thoughts OF
home and friends occur ever and anon
to him. At night time, wherever he
pillows his head he must think OF
mother at home; but he doesn't real
ize how mother and father suffer be-
cause OF the absent boy. I hope these
lines may fall under the eyes Of many
wandering boys, and that if they re-
fuse to come back to their homes,
they will sit down and write to moth
er and father, or brother and sister.
They need not say where they are.
but let their loved ones know thsy
are well and how they are getting
along. How many thousand mothers
have been made to utter the sad, pa
thetic words: Where is my wan
dering boy tonight? Go search for
him where you will and bring him to
me with all his blight and tell him
that I love him STILL" 4 mothers
love and fathers devotion are as
long as all eternity. Broader
than this world, and there Is no land
so distant, no pathway so cold bu'.
what mothers feet would tread that
way, fathers weary efforts would
lead that way until they come in the
presence OF the one who had wander
ed of. A good boy can do better at
bis own home and In he com munity
where be was raised than he can do
anywhere else on earth. A bad boy
can do well nowhere. Latitude and
longitude and geographical position
does not determine the well-dcing Of
fellow. Character alone settles the
question with him.
The judge OF our circuit court re-
lated the following incident to me a
few days ago. Eight or ten boys
we're indicted in his court as railroad
tramps for riding trains, every one Of
whom were strangers to him and
from diff rent towns and States in the
union. They were convicted and he
sentenced them simply to pay the
cost or to three months imprison.
msnt None Of them could pay their
fine and all went to the chaingapg.
Some Of them have broken down in
their prison life and have written to
their parents at home OF their condi-
tion and their parents sent the money
to pay their fines and bring them
home. One Of them, a son Of a poor
widow, who earned the money to pay
her boys fine at the wash tub. One
OF those boys lived In the State OF
Tennessee, one in the city Of Atlanta,
OF respectable family, another one in
North Carolina. The others are still
In the chaingang; soms Of them, per-
haps, have no parents to whom they
can write OF friends who will come to
their relief, and others perhaps are
too stubborn and proud to let their
condition be known at home. This is
only one Of the many instances where
courts are compelled to punish boys.
potics that the police Of Atlanta
took up a young Arkansas boy the
other day and the little fellow broke
down and told his history and the
family to which he belonged and his
parents were notified OF bis where
abouts. There is no mere commend
able work in cities by detectives and
policemen than the arrest and deten-
tion OF strange boys and they ought
to give themselves more diligently to
the work Of finding out the name OF
every stray boy in every city. Lock
ilim up until he gives his Identity.
IN this way they may save many a
boy to his home aud his mother and
save him from wreck and ruin. Car-
zersyille, like other towns, has baeD
contributing to the numb=r who have
have wandered of. II Gainesville
boy who is away from home shall read
these words let him Instantly sit down
and write and tell the loved ones at
home how he is getting along. So
many OF these wandering boys are
killed by trains and other accidents
and may be the loved ones never hear
CT where OF how they vent. II boys
could see that it was crime thus to
make mother and loved ones suffer,
and how cruel 1t is to give 60 tidings
Of themselves Of those who are an1.
ious and who are all the time think
ing Of them by day and dreaming Of
them by night.
There is scarcely an act that en-
tails so much punishment upon the
innocent as the crime Of running
away from home on the part OF boys
and young men. When boy leaves
home and Wanders cf the mother
goes to bed and suffers The father
is troubled and worried 30 he is scarce
ly fitted for the business Of his life.
The vacant chair at the table, the
pillow on which no head rested the
| nipbt hefora hia chair In the SitLin o