The Marlboro democrat. [volume] (Bennettsville, S.C.) 1882-1908, 1905-02-03
COME BACK HOME.
This Is the Advice fam Jones Gives
to Runaway Boys.

This Is the Advice fam Jones Givel
to Runaway Boys.
--liG-~. ~.
IF ANY Such Boys Road This W. Hope
They Will Follow His GOOD
Advice ana 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
ming away from home. and no tidings
of their whereabouts come back, to
parents and loved ones. The great
troubls with boys is the fact they
don't think. In the first place, the
closer boy Gan be and the closer he
lives under the shadow of a gooi
mother the better it Is for him. The
nome roof Is the best covering and
shield that a boy can know In this
world. The literature of the day l.
largely responsible for this craze on
the part Of boys and young men to
ieave home and wander I'D and down
through the earth. suppose no boy
has left good home, a good mother
and father, but what thoughts Iot
home and friends occur ever and anon
70 him. at night time, wherever ht
pillows his head he must think OF
mother at home; but he doesn't rea,
'Zs now mother and father suffer be.
cause OF the absent boy. hope thes,
lines may fall under the eyes of many
wandering boys, AMI that If they re-
iuse to come back to their homes.
they will sit down and write to moth.
er and father, or brother and sister
Ihey need not say where they are.
but let their loved ones know they
are well and how they are gettirg
along: How many thousand mothers
nave oeen made to utter the sad, pa.
Ghetto words: Where is my wan
acring by tonigbtS 90 search for
him where you will and bring him to
me with all his blight and tell him
that l love him STILL" A mother'-
love and a fathers devotion are as
long as all eternity. .Broade,
than this world, and there Is no lano
SO distant, no pathway so cold bu
what mothers feet would tread that
way, a fathers weary efforts woulc
.tad that way until they come In tle
presence OF the one who had wander.
ed OH. a good boy can do better at
his own home and in he community
where he was raised than he can do
!nywh2re else on earth. a bad boy
can do we'll nowhere. Latitude and
ongitude and geographical position
otS not determine the well-doinp OF
L fellow. Character alone settles the
q qlestion with him.
The judge OF our circuit court re-
'ated the following incident to me
lew days ago. Eight or ten BOYS
we're indicted in his court as railroad
ramps for riding trains, every one Of
Vhom were strangers to him and
from diff rent towns and States In the
union. They were convicted and he
entenced them simply to pay the
cost or to three months imprson
ment. None Of them could pay their
inc and all went to the chainganp.
Some OF them have broken down ip
their prison life aud have written IT,
oheir parents at home OF their condi-
zion and their parents sent the money
30 pay their tines and brine them
nome. One of them, a son 81 poor
widow, who earned the money to pay
her boys fine at the wash tub. One
II those boys lived in the State OF
tennessee, one In the city Of Atlanta,
pf respectable family, another one In
North Carolina. The others are still
in the chaiDgang; soma Of them, per.
laps, nave no parents to whom they
can write or friends who will come to
their relief, and others perhaps art
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
| not'cs that the police Of Atlanta
look up a young Arkansas by the
other day and the little fellow broke
down and told his history and the
family to which hL LelOnged and his
parents were notified OF his where.
aboutS. There Is no M re commend
lble work In citles by detectives and
roliccmen than the arrest and deten-
tion Of strange h)ys and they ought
20 give themselves more diligently to
the work OF finding out the name OF
every stray boy in every city. Lock
him up until he gives his Identity
In this way they may save many a
boy to his home and his. mother and
save him from wreck and ruin. Car.
tersville, like other towns, has been
contributing to the number who have
have wandered eff. TIA Cartersvllle
boy who Is away from home shall read
these words let him instantly sit down
and write AMI tell the loved ones at
nome how be 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 or how they went. II boys
could see that 1t was crime thus to
make mother and loved ones suffer.
and how cruel 1t Is to give no tidings
OF themselves OF those who are any.
ions and who are all the time think.
ing CT 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 homo on the part OF boys
and young men. When boy leaves
home and wandets Cff the mother
goes to bed and suffers The father
IS troubled and worried so he is scarce
y fitted for the business, OF his lie
The vacant chair at the table, tht
pillow on which no head rested The
night be- fore hia chair In tha ,itrinr