The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-02-01
LIKE A SCHOOL READER.
Some Yarns About Bad Boys You May
Have Known.

Henry II. johnson began to hate cats
when he was years old He could get
along with all other animals, but when
| it came down to cats he thirsted for
their blood They talked to him at
home. at Sunday school and at his
grandmother's funeral about his wicked
way. but they couldn't change him. He
would shed tears if Il dog got a tack
in his foot, or d wOodchuck got an ear
chewed off. but the cat that appealed to
him for sympathy lost her tail in short
order, or had eye put out.
At the age of u Henry could figure
up that he had made it hot for $40 cats.
and they began to get so scarce in the
state that a public meeting was called.
and the people demanded that some
thing must be done, just as they did
in 1915 They were about to pass reso-
lutions when a minister arose and said ::
Let us leave Henry to the care of
Providence. The angels have had their
eyes on him for some time and they
will not stand it much longer
1t was agreed to take this course. and
thus the bad boy escaped having his
neck twisted around over his shoulder
by some desperate cat-owner. and for Il
time he went around Dragging of the
slaughter he was making. but a sur
prise party was due to him and the
angels fixed it up as soon as they could
take a little time from the Harvester
Trust.
One dark and rainy night Henry H.
was sent to the grocery after kerosene.
He took his cat-kiIler in one hand and
started out bravely. Little did he sus-
pect the job the angels had put up on
him. As he turned the corner of the
dense jungle he heard someone shout:
Now, cats. he's your meat
The next moment he was down and
yelling for help. but help there was
61Nbre9l npXt rnOr11jno fhaD
found his bones in Il nice heap. and
beside the heap of a sign reading:
He tasted fairly good! NeXt"'
James Schermerhorn at IL years old
was a bad boy. He wore his cap on the
back of his head: he whistled Yankee
Doodle on Sundays; he threw axes and
crowbars at stray dogs, and if his
mother sent him to the grocery to get
quart of molasses in a jug he would
swing the jug around his head until
the handle broke off. Mrs. Schermer-
horn, who was a widow, talked with
James many times about his wicked
ness, and assured him, with tears, that
if he did not mend his ways he would
come to some sudden and awful end.
He would promise her to become an
angel. but an hour later he would be
found getting up a fight between a
dog and Il goat, and betting two to
one the dog.
No boy can keep on being bad and
making his widowed mother weep tears
of sorrow without a climax coming
About the time he begins to think he's
the worst boy in town and is proud of
the fact a trap is laid for him. 1t was
so in the case of James Schermerhorn.
One~day. after he had taken two steps
out of the cellar stairs, so that his
Uncle Thomas would have a fall when
he went to carry a bag of potatoes
down the cellar, he ran out into the
street and hitched on to the back end
of a wagon. The driver was d deter
mined man with wooden leg. He had
fought in the Spanish war and was
afraid of no boy.
Young man. [ allow no hitching
on he said as he turned and saw