Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1909-09-18
MEN, BOYS AND waTERMELoNs.

theft, when you read the story. sitting
smugly in Your slippers se,late with
your forty odd years and patriarchilly
surrounded by your own growing and
grown family, You grinned. You know
you did And when Your l2-year- old
asked what You We're smiling about
You lodged and evaded the query. Ex-
PLANTATION might have been emharrass-
ing. Il IS not always best that 12-year-
olds with considerable vinegar and
ginger in their make up should know
al labout Pas" early career. There
are by-gones hat should remain by
cones between q father and a boy just
coming . the watermelon age"
These Des Moines boys had caught
the spiri, of the present and held
somewhat - the mystery Of the past.
They organized modern corporation
for the purpose Of facilitating business
and they evolved ritual and devised
medieval obligation % be taken un-
der circumstances intended % crea .e
a sense Of its inviolabilicy. Then they
swore IN about twenty other boys and
had as pretty a plan u organized
piracy as one might desire 20 observe.
Like most pirates they came to grief.
An irate farmer held them up a. the
:auzzle OF shot gun and captured a
number of the buccaneers red handed
and with watermelon seeds in their
mouths L was the same old story.
The captives turned states evidence.
the leaders were apprehended and are
now swinging from the yard arms of
the enraged and violated laws Of their
country
Now you. old as you are. afflicted
with rheumatism and convinced that
the law is 10 be obeyed and upheld,
had a sneaking vision of that gang of
outlaws and went off wandering into
the past. You slipped thru corn fields
that long ago went back into the dust
whence they sprung 10 fertilize the
| soil for the cornffelds that have sue
caeded them, 10 these many recurrent
( seasons. In the dusk Of nights which
have vanished with the dews that wet
the bare feet of another and departed
generation, you wormed your
way giggling in subdued
chorus Of boyish voices along
the old rail fence and crawled
across the potato patch under the dim
starlight. You recalled an occasion
when YOU and your associates coursed
wildly across the meadow and dived
ike quail into the sheltering corn be-
fore Farmer Jones dog, a noted and
notorious animal @half bull and half
shepherd and combining the bold
I savagery of the one breed with the I'M
canny shrewdness Of the other You
were no. particularly afraid Of the
law. in fact you didn't think of legal
( consequences, but Bull was a fearsome
and hold fast dog and discovery and
/ consequent Indictment before the
1 paternal seat Of Justice was a con-
4 tingency over which you and yours
might we'll eremble. As You sat smil-
ingly threading your way along the
half forgotten byways of boyish mem
Dry You saw the past possibilities of an
Organization. with a ritual and an obli-
CATION modelled ON the popular old time
conception of secret society oaths, had
you and Bill Thompson and two OF
three other virile and leading spirits
conceived and executed something OF
the sort in those old days when you
had hair on your head and wore bare
feet. And it was with pang of some
what near regret that you turned away
from contemplation to tell your 10.
year-old interrogation 80, was JUS
thinking about something"
Now watermelons are property
There is no mistake about that. The
boy who steals watermelons falls IN.
der the frown of the law. 1t is a sir
to steal pin. Let us not forget that
There is no excuse to be offered fo)
, the gang of organized robbers, bound
together by blood oath in a shameful
combination Of outlawry. Soon or lat,
justice comes to its own. Crime ma,
flourish for the passing moment blu
. thu wages crime is punishment. An,
; however. calculating and cunning ma,
, be the buccaneers, no matter VIVA
oaths they may subscribe to, wha
{ heights of criminal leadership NAV b.
; attained by individuals, or how suc
cessful they may be for a time, Grim,
speeds to disaster. Obligations are for
gotten when the erstwhile bold pirat
!, stands shrinking and naked in hi
, shame before the world, the folks a
. home and mayhap the justice of th
) peace.
} You remember how It was; you ca,
still feel that indescribable sensatio,
along your spine that came with tn
t temperance Of Old Webster-when h