The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-07-13
Handling Sunday School Boys

THE next time Sells circus comes
through here, or anybody elses Circus
for that matter, its going to find a new
recruit out of this here locality" suggest
ed the Baliff, shifting his hyphenated legs
into a comfortable position. There aint
nowhere a more useful citizen than Jim
Mivey, nor a buster. He is cashier of a
Bank, small Farmer. a Insurance
Agent. a real estate dealer, ushers at the
Church, tends door a. Ladies Aid Society
Suppers, swaps horses, plays baseball and
teaches Sunday School class of ten of
the worst boys that have ever been in
vented since the days of Esau.
For years Jim has been pol1ing the
Gospel in them ten outlaws, day in and
day out, herding them carefully and Civ
ing 'em prizes for good conduct and oc-
casionally sneaking off to some private
spot to pray for EN- on the sly. Many
time and oft he saved 'em from the
trunk-strap and the heart-pine shingle.
His constant watchfulness of these ter
rors had got 'em so that more than half
the class knowed the Golden tex every
other Sunday, and they quit sticking pins
In each other when the Teacher was
looking; they had got so good that they d
sock each other with pins only during
prayers.
About month ago Jim promised them
juvenile Heathens that If they'd be extra
good he would give them a class picnic
on the Fourth of July A once there was
marked Improvement in the manners of
that class The boy with stone-bruise
on his heel swapped off his rubber sling
shot for a red cravat. The three chaps
with sore toes quit crowding each other
in the class. Half of them showed up
with clean faces-fact is, they was regu-
lar boy cherubs
Jim procured big wagon, filed the
bottom with hay decorated the sides with
flags and bunting, and loaded them unre-
generate kids on the hay in company
with enough cooked grub for an Orphan
Asylum. then headed for the creek with
every kid yelling, flags flying and joy un-
confined. The first mile out one of the
darlings set the hay afire trying to ex-
plode fire-cracker, and Jim singed most
of his hair off putting it out. The next
mile there were two fights in one of
which Jim got severely kicked on the
shins. Arrived at the Creek one of the
chaps fell into water six feet deep, and
Jim got muddy and wet all over trying to
keep him from drowning. Following this
We're two more fights, because one of the
class had tied the shirts of two boys who
were in swimming. At 1920 a. M, the
brag boy of the outfit slipped off and
made raid on the grub baskets, eating
about wheelbarrow load of victuals be-
fore he was discovered. At / p. M an
other member threw some fire-crackers
under one of the horses, and that animal
skinned himself considerably in his
fright.
AN amateur game of ball was played
and in the third inning player knocked
the ball up against the bee-gums of a
Farmer causing the gum to fall over,
and the angry insects justly jabbed a few
of the interesting Sunday school scholars,
and Jim had to pay for the damage to the
gum. Something was doing every min
ute for that Sunday School Teacher. At
six p. m. Jim arrived home by a back
way tired and limp He had lost some
thing like twenty pounds of flesh, and he
appeared to be feverish. He says when
he wants real physical exercise of that
sort again he wont take out his Sunday
school class, but he will wait until Sells
Circus comes through, and he will hire
out to Sells for the job of curryng the
Tiger. He is a little afraid that he will
be a trife too rough for the Tiger al
first, but IL that animal can stand it the
job will be a snap as compared to treat
ing a Sunday School class of boy Angels
to Fourth of July outing