The Newark journal. (Newark, Ark.) 1901-1959, 1910-01-14
THOUGHTS
ON BOYS
BY J. S. KIRTLEY, d. D.
Author of the sYouns
Man and HIMSELF" etc.
HIS HEROES
Copyright. by Joseph B. Bowles.)


is one way he earns his passage from |
little to much. Nature starts him out |
with a talent for admiring and initial |
ing The rest of the story tells it |
self He grows like that which he |
keeps his admiring gaze upon. The |
first thing he admires is physical pow
err, for the first thing he needs is phys
ical resources. The next thing is the
intellectual and the next the ethical |
and religious There are those three |
unmistakable stages, though he may
be partially in all three at once.
His principles are in the form OF
persons his rules are in his rulers. He
never cares for truth in the abstract; |
only in the concrete. He has his he
roes from the time he starts till he Is
old enough to be one himself; and he
is capable of it, Or he could not appre-
ciate heroism in others. Discovering
and worshiping his heroes is one of the
most fascinating and wholesome things
he ever does; wholesome, If they ara
of the right kind. He is furnishing
very interesting instruction to those
who have the oversight of his life.
His first heroes are always men
men of physical prowess-yet they
have an effect on him morally, and
every other way. They may be bad
for he seems almost as apt to find bad
heroes as good, unless he is given
some assistance The place Of homage
may be pre-empted by his worthy pa,
or IN older brother or a noble cousin
or uncle The one who holds that
place has to do something and keep
busy at 1t all the time He also finds
special fascination in the staggering,
bullying fellow, whose talk is bestial
and boastful, like the city boy VINO
was visiting his cousins In the
country and used to meet us
boys at the neighboring sawmill
and swagger and swear and spit
tobacco juice right and left How
we stooa around and Worshiped him!
Some boys, at that stage, will envy
me for having ride On the cars one
whole morning in the same coach with
John l.. Sullivan, years ago; when he
was at the zenith of his carer, and
| perhaps they will wonder how | es-
capped Discreet politeness goes a
long way, in such times of peril. And
! Capt Bates, the biggest man OF his
| day-how can | ever forget the time,
when l, a small boy at the country
| fair paid my precious quarter to go
! into his tent and gaze with wonder
| at him. Later | rode in the same
coach with him and his wife. who was
| the biggest giantess on earth; but the
| fascination of his bigness was largely
gone. The man who can deliver the
| hottest ball or stay at the bottom of
the toughest hog pile" or ride the
trickiest mule in the circus is his
hero One of the ecstatic moments of
my early life was one Sunday morning
down at old Bullittsburg church, as
was standing with a bunch OF boys
and men out under the trees waiting
for service to begin. | was only nine
years old. Tom Hogan and several
other young men came riding up. Tom
was on a gray horse. Just as that
gray horse got to the proper place he
began series of demonstrations that
raised me to a delirium of delight He
reared up on his hind legs and started
to walk off like man. Then he
descended, touched base, and repeated
the act This he did again and again.
Tom acted as if he had been brought
up on that horses back; in fact, there
seemed quiet understanding between
the two. When the horse at last de.
cided to take up permanent residence
on the ground and consented to be
hitched to tree, and the gallant rider
joined our group, | looked at him as
a prodigy and listened to him as to an
oracle.
But he admires noble proves and
chiyalrous knight errantry best of all,
unless his taste is perverted. He
comes to a time when he begins to
adore intellect especially as II takes
the form of shrewdness and skill and
enables physical weakness to triumph
over brute force as when brer babbit
outwits the larger and stronger ami.
mails. and the meek-looking stranger
suddenly overpowers the bully by his
superior intellect and art. 1t is some
little time before he can find hero in
the pure intellectual worker, who pre-
pares his precious manuscript on
reconcile subject, and when the dog
has torn it up and the maid mas thrown
the scraps in the fire, merely says
Tut, tut" in a falsetto voice! But
he likes the prowess of intellect, par
ticularly when it discovers radinm and
constructs steamships and writes
great stories and governs people. But
there must be personality behind the
intellect.
1t is always fortunate thing for
him and for his pa II the latter can
satisfy his hest ideals Of heroism II
he can he must begin with himself be-
fore the boy IS born For the same
reason, that pa must train his boy to
be a hero. A subtle process CT imita-
ton is going ON. The boy walks like
his hero. talks like him. wants TO go