The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1905-01-21
MODERN boy is
UNNAMED SAVAGE
x i-ss-sss
Mother Complains of Associ-
ates of Her Son in School
and on Streets

Said a woman recently: why don't
you write about the bad manners of
children in general and those of little
boys in particular? My one small boy
is trained within an inch of his life, but
l find that constant association with
other boys is rubbing off the polish
which it is my life effort to put on, and
i become quite discouraged. Not only
their bad manners might be touched
up, but worse things, such as stealing
in .shops when the clerks backs are
turned, which I find is quite common.
THE manners of little girls are not
much better. Go-for them"
What this anxious mother says is too
true, but it must not be imagined the
problem is an easy one or that mothers
do not try to train their boys well. But
try as they will, the contact with other
boys in the streets or at school soon
makes them careless, and often they
get the idea it is smart to be rude. The
actions of small boys in street cars or
in stores, open ones eyes in this mat
ter. In cars / have seen boys of ten,
twelve or fourteen sit perfectly still
while a white-haired woman stands
in the aisle beside them, until ones
blood fairly boils. Now one is inclined
many times the very boys who have
had the best training at home, are the
worst offenders When the time comes
to get off the car, these boys will push
ahead, almost knocking down old Won-
en-, and Jump off without a thought
of courtesy to others. The boldneSS Of
little girls in public buildings or in the
street is very alarming sign of the
times, too. The other day the writer
came down in an elevator with two
little girls not over ten years old, who
were joking with the elevator man in
the boldest manner and when the ma
chine came to a standstill, they started
to push every one out of the way to
step out first. Something happened to
them just then; they were taken hold
of by some one and given a lesson and
told to wait politely for older persons
to get out first.
But it is perfectly useless to talk;
one dear woman started to administer
a rebuke recently to some diSorderiy
boys who were making her life a burden,
and they stood in front of her, looked
her full in the face and repeated every
thing she said mockingly. She was
simply aghaSt at their impertinence.
The modern boy, unless he is what is
known as "a goody goody," is an un-
tanned savage. What sort of men we
will have in twenty years it is quite
impossible to say, but the probabilities
make one shudder. Some fathers are
inclined to treat the delinquencies Of
their boys lightly and to say they will
come out all right in the end. They
may be right, but it would seem to
the onlooker that boys of the present
day are not, disciplined or punished
enough. If there was a distinct and
severe penalty for each offense, in the
way of cutting off their pleasures of
skating. bah or other sports, we would
see some Improvement perhaps.
The more serious charge of stealing
is, alas, too common. A druggist told
the writer not long ago that it would
astonish anyone to know the amount
of petty peculating which went on in
his shop, done not by Sum children,
but those of well-to-do families He
said he simply charged the things
taken to the head of the house and told
him what had been done. The morti-
fed fathers pay it without word
Stealing in high and low places is pain
fully common. Even the magazines are
full of stories of charming burglars of
lady" thiefs, who are so fascinating
$ that no one wants them punished.
Only this week a woman in New York
wrote a letter to the New York Her
aid, begging them to do away with
Buster Brown, the enfant terrible who
each Sunday in the Herald is shown
perpetrating some new piece of mis-
chief and filing the infant mind with
ways of deviltry hitherto unthought
Of The writer said her little son spent
his time emulating Buster and the con-
sequence was she was worn out. Boys
can think of enough terrible things to
DO without assistance from the news
na11arS