The Newark journal. (Newark, Ark.) 1901-1959, 1909-07-16
Copyright, by Joseph B. Bowles.)

| one that was awakened by some one
| else. Be it also remembered that he
does not do such things for the pleas
ure of doing them-not many boys do
so. at any rate. OF course, the tough,
who has become a concentrated lie or
whose fingers have acquired a native
coat of wax. finds his chief Joy in the
exercise Of his cultivated gifts. The
! boy may become such a tough, but, I'M
! til he does, his inner sense OF right
! protests against his own misdeeds. If
/ he is bad he is not entirely to blame,
for he had a sense of right to start
with and still has it where you can
| find it If you know where to look for
| Ii.
Where his honor breaks down, there
| is a reason. It may be a case of atay-
! ism That Is another way of saying
that the laws of heredity work in
freakish way sometimes. not steadily
on from generation to generation, but
irreguarly and itermittently. A child
of this generation may run back to
some old forgotten ancestor and pluck
one of his flowers of virtue. or gather
up the filth from his garbage heap. 1t
generally begins to break out in boy
at IA, when 1t comes at all. That is
one reason why a boy should be very
choice and deliberate in the selection
of his ancestors; they are likely to
butt In on him at any time He Is not
responsible fer that, but he must not
give way to it. It may be a case of
paternal neglect. Il may be that his
hOnored pa was not on guard to see
the atavistic beast coming and supply
the lad with ammunition TO kill him.
The inherited influence did not come
in the form of habits, but was a ten
dency or a spasmodic impulse which
those who had the making of his hab-
its failed to protect him against.
His sense of honor sometimes
breaks down when physical ailments
keep him from getting possession of
his own powers, and somebody has not
sense enough to have surgical or medi-
cal or athletic or dietetic attention
given to him. Nervous irritation and
the sense of being a negligible guam
tity often lead to loss of respect for
his own word and of noble pride in his
own actions. It more often breaks
down at the treatment he receives.
1t is indispensable that his honor be
recognized and trusted 1t is there to
start with. Get a microscope, If nee
essary, and identify and locate the d.
vine thing. 1t is conscious of itself
and must be recognized. To be doubt
ed is to be doomed. He is often called
a bad boy when bis energy is con-
strued into evil and his mischief into
malice. When some stupid mother, de-
void of Imagination, and some idiotic
father minus memory, accuses him
of deception or of taking things not
his own, 1t amounts to an invitation to
him to lie and steal When some
wrong has been done and he is ac-
cused of it without preliminary study
and inquiry he soon finds that his
reputation is already bad and he be-
comes reckless as to whether he de
serves it. Many a boy has been re-
claimed to honor by such men as
Judges Tuthill of Chicago, Lindsay of
Denver, Brown of Salt Lake City, DR..
Merrill of Denver, and that growing
list of lovers of children who are sub
shutting sense for scolding and broth
erly friendship for brute force, through
his exhilarating sense of being trusted.
Out in Council Bluffs, Ia, one sec
ton of the police force is made up of
boys. They do duty on special occa-
CT hn of 4 oic
sion TO the Kid Force" are efficiency
and good behavior between times of
serving. To be trusted in that way Is
an ambition that keeps hundreds of
boys on their good behavior all the
time. | think it is the very smalles.
number of boys wT,nout honor for the
one who trusts them.
1t is indispensable that he have
concrete instance of what honor
means in the ones who make the at
mosphere and spirit of home. When
he breathes in an atmosphere of I'M
reality, self-seeking, false reason1ngs,
false treatment, he is dazed and stun
ned and usually loses the sense of dis
tinction between truth and falsehood,
honor and dishonor During the days
when he is mostly instincts and i'm
pulses, before his conscience is active
ly in command, his elders are his con
science, and when they are without
that rudder he is at sea. Injustice and
unfairness are fragrant in his eye and
he knows when his own honor is dis
honored. He can sometimes give
points to his pa in more things than
one.
Sometimes it is a sense of injury
that leads him to seek what he is en-
titled to, by dishonest means. When
the sense of honor which he has is ig-
nored and treated as If IL did not exist
at all, he often takes the first step in
lying, and many a mother is whiningly
wondering Il don't know why Tom
can't be trusted" when If she had only
grain of self-knowledge she would
know that she is doing her poor fool
ish best to make him a habitual liar
and thief, with brilliant prospects of
carrying the diabolizing process still