Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1915-01-14
Boyo1ogy
BY H. W. GIBSON.

NO. II is the oldest as we'll as the new
est of the many varieties of ''ologies.' 1t
is boy analysis. II is not an accurate
science, for the subject-the boy is as
chsngeable as a chameleon or as tickle
the proverbial flea.
Analysis has revealed the fact that
healthy. normal specimen OF boy is
made up of 80 per cent noise and 80 per
cent dirt. The boy who is never noisy
and never gets dirty is abnormal and
should De taken to a physician at once.
From the moment of his entrance upon
the stage Of life until the final exit noise
is a part of mans normal makeup. OBJ
serve a group Of small boys playing base
balI--three-fourths of the time is spent
in noisy scrapplng The individualistic
instincts are in control Team work is a
dormant quality
The high school boy has organized his
noise into a school yell. which spurs his
team on TO victory. 1ndividualism is
being merged into the larger group OF
humans. What would the Harvard-Yale
foot ball game be without noise without
its cheering sections, without its battery
of cheer leaders? Noise is psychology
ically necessary 20 the success of the
game.
happens to come home i'm the evening.
and this small edition of noise has on
hand an unexpected surplus and happens
10 give even as much as Zip at once
there is an explosion on the part Of
father and the boy is suppressed.
Again. If the boy should happen to be
in ono OF his rare moods of quiet, mother
anxiously inquiries, What is the matter.
Charlie, you're so quiet? Don't YOU feel
well?'' II he is noisy he is called down;
if he is quiet, he causes anxiety What
is boy to do?
Well, he irnstinctively seeks the gang,
that coterie of sympathetic souls, who
have many secretly numerous codes Of
mysterious signs and calls, and whose
loyalty is the admiration all social SER
vice experts and church workers. More
opportunity at home for some expression
and less insane repression would save
many boys from the evil influence of
inisled gangs.
When the homecoming of father be-
comes an event TO be hailed with delight
instead of anticipated with fear. there
viii take place a wonderful change in
our rapidly deteriorating American home
life. Making q living has become so
problematie that many fathers are fail
ing to make file. either for themselves
or their boy,
life, today, is speeded to the six
cylinder capacity, whether the scene of
action be on upper Fifth avenue or the
lower East side. The noise OF the ex-
change of the rumble of irritabllity,
which, unfortunately for the small boy
is carried home,
xNra.V - 40 - u H
can close his office door at night and
say Good night, business, you can't sc
home with me- have boy there who
needs me more than you do. So long
until morning" Or the industrial worker
lay down his tools at the close of the
days work and say. Good night, old
pard. here's where we part. The kids at
home arc looking for their day, I'll sec
YOU in the morning?"
When that time comes, home, be IL
ever so humble, will become thu sweet
est place on earth, instead of a place of
Jars and contentious.
As goes the home so will go the ma.
tOn. for desertion of home ideals means
sooner or later desertion of national
and religious ideals. No city, state,
country or church will rise any higher
n its ideals than the ideals of the home
Not all homeless boys live in the
7lums. The most homeless boy in thu
world is the boy who, from the moment
OF his birth. is put into the hands of a
nurse. from there to a governess, from .
goveIness 10 a private tutor, from a pri
vate tutor to a private school, from
private school TO a private camp, Their
on to college; plenty of houses to live in
but no home. Money can buy him lux
uries and conveniences and a following
but not that genuine heart-love which
only a mother and father can supply.
Parental delinquency lis responsible 70
juvenile delinquency. Ninety per cent o
the babies who die in the founding asy
un die not from the want OF food an,
careful nursing. but from the lack o
mothering," that peculiar something
which mothers alone can furnish.
Boys and dirt have an affinity for eac
other. The short-trousered boy look
upon soap as an oppressor. He can neve
DC accused of wearing out doormats, 70
he Is an expert in dormat evasion Moth
ers worry over the dirt he brings into tn
house. and carpets show the effect of hi
hard usage.
Boys are more valuable than carpet. ]
the latter wears out e can be replaced Q
Hone away with. but a lost boy is a dill
terent proposition. Many a boy has bee
driven away from his home because c
The conunuai war waged with broom an
duster. When he enters into the Ions
trouser period the scene changes. II
difficult now to keep him away from ii
mirror: in fact, he carries a small one
bis pocket. How important becomes III
rrease in the trouser leg and the "turI
~ at the bottom.
Il is at this period that he confuse
manishness with manliness. He is II
ined toward the vices rather than II
virtues. Father should now be his chul
and deftly steer him clear of the shoa
OF life. Most all the crimes-not n
darkest or the deepest. but the most-al
committed during the years of adele!
oenee' from II TO % years II is signif
cant that conversion is greatest durin
this period.
To capture and harness these two 81,
ments, noise and dirt. and TO make I,
first serve as an active element In doir
good. and the second as a motive Z,
civic cleansing. for there Is dirty dirt
"A