Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1921-08-31
WHY BOYS AMI GIRLS GO
WRONG.
By Judge Ben D. Lindsay.

Of course boys and men are
largely responsible for the troubles
of girls. And in spite of the best
home training, you find, boys and
girls going wrong; but do not forget
that that is always the exceptional
case; and where one boy or girl from
a good home goes wrong, there are
more than a hundred who do not go
wrong.
In fact, the great majority of boys
and girls in this country are whole
some, pure and honest; and great
majority of homes are good American
homes producing the noblest citizen
ship the world ever saw.
1 am an optimist, and believe bet
ter things are better; but you can't
keep them better unless you keep
up the eternal fight that the right
must wage against the evil; and while
crime is increasing; it must be re-
membered at the same time that
good citizenship is increasing. Most
boys, like most men, are honest,
but I do say that there is a fearful
amount of ~depravity among the
children of the cities of this country;
and / don't blame the children at all;
I blame the parents, the men and
women of the city officials. There
ale many who are not to blame, but
there are many who are.
Of course I will not be misunder-
stood. The average boy and girl who
goes wrong deserves to be firmly
dealt with and l have sent many of
the older ones to Jail and many of
them to reformatories; and do not
hesitate to. do so in proper cases.
They must suffer for wrong doing,
and they must be able to know that
after all, they are themselves re-
sponsible for what they do.
The point l make is that they at
least deserve a square deal; for OPP
nortunity, environment, example, and
everything in the life of an individ-
ual, and the boy or girl who does
right may have been even worse than
the boy or girl who does wrong, if
these conditions had been revised in
their lives; and while character can
sometimes lift the individual above
environment, we cannot judge these
children with charity and justice un-
less we take all these things into con-
sideration.
One, of the chief causes of dis
honesfs among boys and immortality
girls is the fact that the news
papers TEEN with such stories. /
do not mean by this to blame the
newspapers, as some people do. The
newspapers publish what the people
do and what the people want to
know, and the fault, if there be a
fault, must be charged up to the peo-
pie themselves, to the public senti-
ment of the times, which must
change if other things change.
Boys and girls read about the
graft and dishonesty among people
in the supposedly higher walks of
life and the example is a powerful
thing for evil in their lives. Children
become calloused more or less to vice,
and get really false notions, because
what they read in the papers is after
all the exceptional or special condi-
ton.
I believe that the messenger SER
vice is one of the greatest corrupt
ers of boys.
There are many pure, honest girls
in the department stores, and we
dislike 10 speak of the dangers en-
countered here, because we have
such a high respect for the many
good, pure girls who courageously
lead a noble life under all kinds of
trials and temptations; but no one
knows better than these very girls
the temptations they endure, and
how many of their sisters fall.
There are certain young scoun-
drels in every community who go
about seeking whom they may devour
and who lead many girls astray; and
young rascals of this kind should be
hunted down and shown no mercy.
They have. no respect for virtue or