The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1910-08-06
PRIDE IN IGNORANCE.

!. "a small boy who had succeeded in one morn
ing in making bag consisting of q chipping
sparrow and female catbrd was surprised in
the moment of prideful exhibition of his prowess
By reproach in which was included the state
ment that the killing was against the Law and a
fine was possible, if not imminent
Whereupon he looked into the face Of the
grownup with honestly anarchistic eyes and re-
piled:
.Oh well, we boys don't care much about the
law. And, afterthought, he added: II
don't know nothing about itr
We trust that we love song birds as we'll as
most, but this no Audubon lecture, however en-
ticing may be the temptation to become com
fortably sentimental Let us, therefore, forget
memories of the thrushes that meet the sun, of
the knocking bird that sings to the moon, and
Of all the little gently warbling creatures that
gave to nearby woods and parks an undertone of
melody. Let us ask, "Why don't we boys care
much about the law and how does it happen
that this younster and his fellows by the thousand,
sDon't know nothing about itl'
Is it not, in the first place, that we from whom
he should learn know little primarily, and care
less secondarilys Are not these frank state
ments but the reflection of sentiment that in
the grownup is more or less carefully concealed
Grant, if you say SO, that there entirely too
many laws; that many of them arc impractical,
and many others are foolish--how do you com
port yourself in the presence of law that you
realize is good law, when it momentarily at
fects your own comfort, or momentarily denies
your own indulgeneel Do you so to speak, take
off your hat to the law and surrender personal
. convenience to the common good Or do YOU as
( ep atJa ata fa~ x,o,4~sol{ yiIcescd
class in law breaking.
This is matter that is bad and it is
getting worse. We know only such laws as we
make. We obey only such laws as we like We
make them without reflection, and break them
with the same facility. We trouble not at all
ID know what the laws are until, now and again,
one trips lis up. Then we make outcry against the
law, and virtue of our criminal ignorance con
eerning it. How many people, think you, know
even how and why the City of Richmond is
run. Who and what are its officers What are
their duties. When they elected, what they
are paid, and by whom How many city or
dinances of all the hundreds that are in existence
affecting most of them, his every day life, is the
average citizen even able to hint att What re-
gard, save hasty sweep of the landscape for a
possible policeman, does the best of us have for
any one of them of which we happen to know
Il not the relationship between the law and the
citizen somthing like that of the old-tilne
school-master and his pupil-natural and dead
III enemies, playing at hide and seek
What then, should one expect of the boys 7
But, unless we expect something of them, and
unless they learn something of the law, and get
iato their minds some respect for the law, the
condition of to-day will not compare in evil
with the condition Of tomorrow. How many
schools carry course Of simple civics =! What
do the teachers themselves know of the law The
answer to such questions-possible only in, such
great, queer, careless and easy going country
al this,-is, as the hoy remarked while gazing
with pride upon the chipping sparrow and the
catbird: ''rbey-(we)-don't know nothin'
at all.