New-York tribune., 1907-09-07
New York. August 23.


the city, and he thinks the city school is the
only candy fit for the baby. the real gilt edged
goods. Now, / think he's got big bunch OF
pond lilies growing in his rafters, and I'll tell
you why.
''Persihage" has always gone TO a city school
near home. and l tell him he wouldn't know
how to hang UP his hat if he were cut loose
once. The fellow that goes away to boarding
school in the country learns how to tie his own
tie, and when the time comes 10 step out OF
papa's buzz wagon and drive his own little
gaSOlene cart he knows how TO make the car
buretter spark all right. When / first went
away to school, two years ago. L had never
dressed in the morning without first asking
mother what suit to put on A trip downtown
alone was like one Of Mr.. Pearys polar expedi-
tions. Gee I'm not afraid Of the cars now
I guess 1 could travel TO London and back alone
Then a fellow gets a little independence that
way and feels like real man Say. chap
thinks lot Of his mother and father of course;
but if he can't slip off the binding twine once
in a while he gets aSphyxiated in the air OF his
own dear little home parlor. boy goes TO
school TO learn other things besides how 10
"parlez vouS" and spout Greek and square
roots The most important thing he learns is
how TO take care Of himself in the real world
and TO feel independent There is no way 10
learn this well to get away in good
boarding school in the country. where you have
a good bunch of teachers to sort of lead you
but to keep the screws on too tight Then
fellow feels that it's up TO him: and II he
makes muss Of it, he's the boy The cOronerl
hold for il
Now I've been a boy long enough to be wise
10 the fact that you got to feed him something
in while to keep his appetite up
School isn't all prune souff1e anyway: but if
you give a chap the pill in some kind of dish
so it seems new and hardly like a pill at all, he
likes il and forgets he's taking medicine That's
what tbs country school does. kicked good
and proper when the folk wanted me to go off
up the Hudson to stay till Christmas. But
Il had fla II off
we had q parade ground for military drill that
made me think l real soldier, like those
at a fort l visited oncg And when we cut
loose on forced march across the country and
through the woods-well, / didn't need TO read
any more Cooper. ! was the real thing in
leather stockings. And. you may laugh, but ii
was straight fun making your own beds and
cleaning your room And as for taps and
lights out at 9:30 il seemed all the more
like being the guaranteed goods in Uncle Sans
army. SO / got all running away from
school and got that Jump and runny feeling
worked OF in the open air. so when 1t came
time to study was glad to sit down and Work
rny@think tank for a while
Then another thing about going away to the
country school and living there Is the gang
as the street boy calls il. Every real boy wants
TO be Of the gang. When l was at home
in the city used to watch our nelghborhooo
gang go by, and wapt TO JOin in. but mother
wouldn't let me. Now, at the school IN the
country. where all live together, we have a
real gang, and all good fellows ana SelIie!Ilell
We get to be a little world Of own We
surely do hang together. I've heard old grads
say that their best lifelong friends were made
I'm the dorrnitories and the Fairgrounds Of
the old school. The chap in the city school
inst goes and recites and then goes home again
How can he get any real school spirit? And
III bet "Persifage" hasn't good solid friend
TO my six
Besides all the boys 'Persifage" knows were
born and brought UP right in his neigh borhood
They know the same things have sihe same
ideas and were all talked out when they were
three years old. Now fellows from
al over the country. Each fellows got some
thing TO tell the other fellows We sit around
every evening after dinner and swap yarns
1t certainly broadens a fellow out got more
of my education that way far than / have
by studying Before 1 went away to school
thought the rest Of the country was suburb
of New York, except a little that wasn't good
enough 10 be let in. ] thought everybody pro-
nounced his RS the way they do Fifth ave
nue.. I've got some real ideas about the world
now that didn't get studying.
- Then say Il does do fellow good 10 live
in the broad. open country all the year around
for a few seasons, where the green grass grows
all around without any keep off, signs. and
where he can see nature the way the Lord made
it ] can't explain TO you exactly what I'm
driving at but those woods and mountains and
CLEAR sky sort Of makes fellows mind feel
clean all she time
Oh. / forgot 10 say how good the country was
for exercise. although l mentioned it a little
Won hmm