The Washington herald., 1915-11-24

Practical joking is going out OF style
The grown person who does things
nowadays to take his friends by sur
prise and make them uncomfortable is
no longer looked upon as humorist,
as he used to be- He is considered.
and Justly, to be a nuisance-an under
bred person with a perverted sense OF
humur. Such horseplay as pulling the
chair out from under the person ABOUT
10 sit down on it, substituting salt Tor
sugar in the tea or coffee served 10
guests, strewing the bed sheets WIN
sand and the similar pleasantries Oh
the olden times are numbered EXHIBIT
No. %" on the walls of memory ana
sare seldom heard of today, except oy
those who are led by curiosity TO Visit
the museum Of the past.
Only the small boy remembers On
the theory that the human being in MS
development passes through every
phase of the previous life OF the race
there is a period in the life OF every
child when he is given over to the prac-
tical joke When he reaches a certain
age he begins TO make snakes OF cloth
stuffed with cotton wool, and ties them
to a string whereby they are dragged
across the sidewalk at dusk in front or
women and girls who pass that way.
He ties strings from the trees to the
front of the house at exactly the right
height to shave the hats on the heads
OF the men who walk under them. He
plays "tick-tack" on the windows OF
houses abutting on the street when ne
has reason to think the women OF tAe
family are at home alone. There is lit
tie limit to his ingenuity in devising
methods of tormenting innocent and
unsuspecting people. and he derives
untold pleasure from the success OF MS
efforts to brighten or inconvenience the
members OF the community In which ne
lives.
Mothers of sons will perhaps resent
my laying all this to the small boy
alone. I admit girls pass through the
same crisis. but as girls are less unre-
strained in the manifestion of the pro-
c1ivities than boys. as they have less
liberty to be out on the street after
dusk than the average boy enjoys, the
blame of most of the tricks falls upon
the boys instead of the girls, and so
we generally use the masculine pro-
noun in discussing this subject
am taking the practical joker for
the subject OF our club talk today in
response to a request from one of our
members who is struggling with the
problem of rearing an only son. Her
task is a hard one for her. because she
has never had any experience with
small boy. She was an only child her
self, and she seems to have had no
male cousins or even playmates in her
own childhood. Consequently she Is in
clined, tell her. to keep that boy in a
glass case. She had nearly made a
Miss Nancy out of him, when, fortu-
nately for the boy. che and her husband
bought a home in a neighborhood
where there was a number OF boys Of
all grades OF society I received the
following note from her the other day:
Dear Aunt Chatty: Il am so worried
about Ethebert that I have to trouble
YOU to advise me. You know I have
no mother or other friend to ask for
help in my perplexities. The boy Is
becoming a perfect hoodlum since we
moved out into this neighborhood. and
when ask his father to interfere he
Just laughs and says II is good for the
child-it Is giving him q chance to be a
boy. But do you think 1t is right to
allow a boy Of twelve to play on the