The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1909-04-21
Those Effeminate Boys


Marshalltown metropolitan:
member of the board of education in
New York is bitterly opposed to
feminine educators in the schools on
account of the feminizing influence ex-
erted on the boys. He asserts that col
lege boys are effeminate. much more
so than they were twenty years ago,
complains that they wear openwork
socks, high-heeled shoes and little
hats. bright colors, ETC., and winds up
with the prediction that:
The influence of women educators
upon the youths of the United States
will ultimately result in beardless men
of soprano voices, weak lungs and
frail, small bodies.''
This wouldn't be worth while TAX
/ ing notice of if there were not so much
of this kind of assertion going on all
over the country. of which a small part
/ is true and nearly all false. The boys
do not fight like demons with their
! fists as they used when older men met
at public sales and county seats, feel
ing that the bully of one section must
meet and hammer him OF another
4 neighborhood or the day must be count
ed lost Men don't beat each other up
as they used to in the dear old black
eyed and bloody-nosed days the New
York man regrets. But the men OF
today are not effeminate or safe to
crowd to the wall If any one is con-
WINGED that they are, short trip about
town, offering serious insults indis-
criminately, will suffice to put the idea
out of his head for good, and put Jumps
and swelling all over him. Try it. And
incidently he might try it on the col
lege boy with the openwork socks and
the gaudy raiment, and report when
he gets able just what happened tc
him, If he can remember. Let some
investigator try it out. The expert
ment will be conclusive. Why, mar
alive Hawkins harried the Spanish
l main with wide ruche about his neck
! and brakes slashed and silken doub
: lets were slashed again. and thei1
brighter colors dimmed with the bioof
] of desperate sea fights.
: Our boys are not effeminate. The.
! are being taught kindness and cleal
habits as we'll as the woman teache
can do it. But scratch the veneer dec
/ enough and you tap the primitive NAL
t in every American, the bubbling. seeth
r ing brutal savage that lives under ev
d ery mans crust. What the complain
e ants complain Of is not effeminacy, blu
v tt e common sense and gentility tina
l. refuses to fight until there is some
r thing worth fighting for.
Go down to the prep school and Sc
them coming on; wander over to tn
i. college athletic field and get in tn
t. way q. football practice; follow Their
f. out into the business, political an
9 professional fields; go up against Their
. then come back and show US how yo
look.
The gay satin and plumed hats
X Ruperts cavalry flashed into the pa
4 talons of Cromwell's 'ironclads' tru
n and straight as a bright steel RI
4 pier. and Wellington's lispirg "pul
" les crushed Napoleon's househol
and the empire at Waterloo. Beneat
the corselets OF DeSo.o's indomitabl
adventures glittered the rags of IN
:, gayest dress of Europe when the
= buried him in the river he found at tn
end of his desperate trail.
When the ccwman of the west an
the college man with the white spa
=. and polished shoes matched one a
= other. the rough rider was create
= was there any place where the be
with the openwork socks Jagged D
hind during the last war. One mo-
g careful of his attire and mild OF ma
ner took the Merrimac into the mou'
y of Santiago harbor, along with DC
from an Iowa farm. 1t isn't what the
&c wear nor how they wear 1t; 1t ism
~ mildness of speech or bright crava
e that make or unmake real men.
isn't a school ma'ams influence in Il
school room. Why, man, we breed u
C. best that walks the earth, the mil
Sc est strongest. fiercest fighters OF u
OF world. and the little schoolma'm
ey which the New Yorker and his XII
If complain. retired from the active du
an of the school room, mothers as MAJ
st of them as any other woman on cart
podainq the Issue Language.