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 Gives
to Runaway Boys.
If Any Such Boys Road This We Hope
They win 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
ming away from home, and no tidings
Of their whereabouts come back to
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 he
lives under the shadow of a gooi
mother the better it Is for him. The
home roof Is the best covering and
shield that a boy can know In this
world. The literature of the day |,
largely responsible for this craze on
the part Of boys and young men to
ieave home and wander up and down
through the earth. suppose no boy
has left good home, good mother
aud father, but what thoughts o,
home and friends occur ever and anon
to him. at night time, wherever ht
pillows his head he must think OF
mother at home; but he doesn't real
'zs how mother and father suffer be.
cause OF the absent boy. L hope these
lines may fall under the eyes Of many
wandering boys, Cn1 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 thny
are well ard how they are gettir g
along. How many thousand mothers
have been made to utter the sad, pa.
thetic words: Where is nv wan
dering boy tonight9 Go 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 al eternity. Broade,
than this world, and there Is no land
SO distant, no pathway SO cold bu
"hat mothers feet would tread that
way, a fathers weary efforts would
isad that way until they come in tn,
presence or the one who had wander.
ed oG. a good by can dc better at
Ills own homo and in he community
where he was raised than he can do
anywhere else on earth a bad boy
can 40 well nowhere. Latitude and
ongitude and geographical position
loes not determine the well-doing OF
Fellow. Character alone settles the
q leStiOn with him.
The judge OF our circuit court re
iated the following incident to me
few days ago. Eight or ten boys
we're indicted In his court as railroad
ramps for riding trains, every one of
whom were strangers to him and
from different towns and States in the
union. They were convicted and he
,ente need them simply to pay the
cost or to three months imprison
nent. None OF them could pay their
ine and all went to the chainganp.
Some of them have broken down in
their prison life aud have written to
Gheir parents at home OF their condi-
uion and their parents sent the money
5o pay their fines and bring them
nome. One Of them, a son of poor
widow, who earned the money to pay
ner boys fine at the wash tub. One
II those boys lived in the State OF
Tennessee, one In the city Of Atlanta,
ot respectable family, another one In
North Carolina. The others are still
in the chatngang; soma Of them, per.
lapS, have no parents to whom they
can write or friends who will come to
tnAlr relief, and others perhaps art
too stubborn and proud to let their
be known at home. This is
unly one OF the many instances where
courts are compelled to punish boys
l not'cs that the police Of Atlanta
look up young Arkansas by the
other day aud the little fellow broke
down and told his history and the
family to which he belonged and bis
parents we're notified Of his where
abouts. There is no m re commend
able work In cities by detectives and
policemen than the arrest and deten-
tion Of strange boys and they ought
10 give themselves more diligently to
the work OF finding out the name OF
every stray boy in every city. Lock
MIN up until he gives his Identity
In this way they may save many q
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. If.a Cartersyille
boy who Is away from home shall read
these words let him instantly sit down
and write AMI 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 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 arc any.
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 homo on the part of boys
and young men. When a boy leaves
home and wandets Cff the mother
goes to bed and suffers. The father
is troubled and worried SO he Is scarce
Iy fitted for the business OF his life
The vacant chair at the table, the
pillow on Which no head rested the
i.sl, Ia. Ii