The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1908-07-23

Old, feeble, if the day be fair,
His valet wheels him in his chair.
Then one last trip he takes on wheels,
His head no higher than his heels.
to let their condition be known at
home. This is only one OF the many
instances where courts are compelled
to punish wandering boys.
Inoticed that the police of Atlanta
took up a young Arkansas boy the
other day and the little fellow broke
down and told his history and the
family to which he belonged and his
parents were notified of his wherea-
bouts. There is no more commend
able work in cities by detectives and
policemen than the arrest and deten-
tion OF strange boys, and they ought
to give themselves more diligently to
the work of finding out the name
and the home of every stray boy in
the city. Lock him up until he gives
his identity. In this way they may
save many a boy to his home and
mother, and save him from wreck
and, ruin. Cartersville, like other
towns, has been contributing to the
number that has wandered. Ii q
Cartersville boy who is away from
home, let him instantly sit down
and write and tell the loved ones at
home how he is, and how he is get
ting along. So many of these wan
dering boys are killed by trains and
by other accidents, and may be the
loved ones at home never hear OF
where Or how they went. Ii boys
/ could see that it was a crime to make
mother and loved ones suffer and
how cruel it is to give no tidings OF
themselves to those who are anxious
| and who are all the time thinking OF
them by day and dreaming OF them
by night.
There is scarcely an act that entails
so much punishment on the innocent
as the crime of running away from
| home on the part OF boys and young
men, When a boy leaves home and
wanders Off the mother goes to bed
| and suffers. The father is troubled
and worried so that he is hardly fit
ted for the business of his life The
vacant chair at the table, the pillow
upon which no head rested the night
before. his chair i'll the sitting room,
his voice no more-a thousand things
remind the folks of the absent one
| say again, come home boys, come
home, but, if you will lnot come home,
sit down and write father and mother
and tell them how it goes with you,
whether you tell where you are or
not.
These weird, miserable novels,
whether high-class or low-class nov
els, furnish the incentive and motive
for many a boy to leave home and
| the company he gets in when he is
once gone is such that he soon falls
in with their ways and goes to the
bad before he scarcely realizes at all
what he has done L heard "a fellow
talking the other day how he and his
young brother ran away from home
because their father whipped them;
how they spent one night away and
| the next day went back home They
were only gone q little over twenty.
four hours, but he said when he got
back he found his mother in bed
sick, and he said | believe If we had
staid week mother would have been
dead when we got home. He said;
"We were not at home an hour he.
fore mother was up rejoicing over the
fact that her boys had come back. y
What must be the suffering OF a
home where a boy has been gone a
month or year and has sent nc
tidings back. Honor thy father and
thy mother, boys, and thy days
shall be long upon the land which
the Lord, thy God, giveth thee. No
child can dishonor his parents and
do we'll here or hereafter. Let a boy
suffer anything before he will wound
his mother or do dishonor to his
father. These Internal novels with
their weird lies and contorted char
acters have made a fool of many il
boy and started him on a tramp &c
| the devil and the dogs.
In the State of Mississippi, ruIia.
way boy who was then a young man,
came to me and told me that he lad
been a runaway for more than five
years, that he had never written Il
line to his father or mother, and
asked me did | know his father and
mother, telling me the town and
county where they lived. l said
"Yes, know them well.'' He said
"Will you write to them for me, ant
see il they will let me come back I,
see them" | did so, and when b.
did come back to his Georgia home
there was regular camp-meetihg
picnic, and May festival allcombined
l can never forget how eagerly thai
boy looked into my face when h
asked me about his parents. Fiv'
years is too long, boys, to keep quiet
Then mother may be dead, fathe
buried, and the mischief you hay
done can never be undone. Com
back, nov, boys, or write immediate
tly. God alone can measure til
depth and breadth OF a parents lov
for wandering child. would tina
every boy that has run away from
his home could realize how deeply h
has wounded and how fearfully h
has lacerated the heart and feeling
of those who loved him best. Iwoul
, that every editor OF every paper il
! the United States would catch u
this refrain and write on the subjec
of the sacred duty Of runaway boy
to come home or to write back t
their parents. You could serve you
country no better, gentlemen, tina