The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-04-08
DESIRE TO BREAK THINGS.
1t Comes Again to Youthful Heart of
GroWnup Bow of so.

From the New York Sun.
Il think said a grownup boy of so
who has made fortune at his chosen oe-
cupaton, that I'd like TO be a house
wreeker; for a little while, anyway"
He was standing where he could watch
comfortably, the operations of gang of
men at work demolishing an old brick
building tearing down brick walls. and
tearing up floors. and ripping things up
the back generally. As he loked he kept
on talking.
Il suppose" he continued, that we all
have the bump of destructiveness, and
have 1t, commonly, most prominently de-
veloped when we are young. When we
get older, and have learned the cost of
things we don't go in for breaking things.
so much, or not If It's our own property:
but when we are young we do like to bust
things.
"All children are destructive. I don't
know why this is sol but I have an idea
that at that age we find a sort of in
structlve delight in our first mastery of
things and we first find this mastery in
our power to break things, and we come
to take a delight in the exercise of this
power, and this spirit of destructiveness
stays with us, in more or less degree, all
through life.
Now | wrote all day at desk, hand
ling nothing heavier than papers of one
sort and another and I'd like to get out,
as they say, and do something. Now look
at thatl'
One of the men, with crowbar about
five feet long and with a slightly curved
chisel edge end. had been pecking at
mortar seam between two bricks in a
wall a foot thick and three feet wide
that stood between the places where the
windows had been. He was getting the
wedge end of the crowbar into a seam
about two feet down from the top of the
brick wall, and pretty soon he got the
crowbar far enough in so that he could
use it for a lever, and then he managed
with it to work the mass of brick above
1t gradually away from the wall remain
ing below until he had the moving mass
of about six cubic feet of bricks and
mortar topping on the inner edge of the
wall, and then down it went, with smash
and crash.
'.Ger-zoopr said the youth of SO, that
was busting things up somewhat, hey?s
1t seemed to fill him with great delight.
At another part of the building three or
four men were at work trying to tip over
all at once, a section of brick partition
wall standing between two doorways The
wall was about nine feet wide and of
about the same height. Three men got
at this with crowbars, prying at the top
with their crowbars. resting against a
floor beam, and another man helped with
piece Of scantling. And they got this
wall to weaving, finally, on its base, lurch-
ing forward at the top. and then coming
back to upright and then they kept at
it. making it move further over at the
ton every time it weaved and at last,
with one prying, they got ii over so fal
| that IL was past it's center of weight and
| couldn't recover itself. and then down
went the wall with a grand crash all
| to smash. broken into bricks and mortar
| dust.
THAT was a good ONE said the. old
| how. with a gleeful voice, and then as
the men on the job went on breaking and
smashing things. and tearing things
down. he went on to tell how he'd ike
10 pet in there with a crowbar himself,
| Of what a relief it would be to him II
! he could get away from mis- daily, duli,
nrim routine for time and get out and
break something.
81 suppose" said a friend who was
with the old boy, that instead OF gong
| 10 the seashore or the mountains thls
summer YOU might get job with some
house wreeking concern ana put III Sout
vacation time that way
eyes. [ suppose I could do That the
old how said, and then ne started on lor
| bie office. TO take up again, until sum
mo-, fine at least, his own precise laoors'
~ # had been some relief to him, any
,,a,, IN see those men with the crowpars
f,1e4;ng things. tearing down the OLD
L.