The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-08-16
no AN INPATIENT LITTLE BOY.

MY son, you must be captain of your SOUL,
All things you know. will come to him
who waits.
You must not get so angry at your roll
Err skates.
For roller skating is art, alas!
That only can be mastered bit by bit.
BY patient practice only can you mas
Ter it.
Your lack of instant skill is not at all
cause for your sweet temper being
marred,
Nor should you feel discouraged at your fall
Ing hard.
Great heights were not attained UongfeIlow
By sudden fight, but all were hardly won;-
The point is you must use little hsad-
Work. son.
And son. want to make it very plain
With me your stock will take an awful
If you should quit because you get a pain
Some things I've said may be beyond your ken
And others it may please you to ignore,
But son, DON'T let catch you swearing an
more!
OUR country is calling for change"
Warren Harding (son of the famous DR.. George
Harding of Marion, Ohio, you know issquoted
saying t'other day. May suggest
Slight amendment? That portion of the coun-
for change. Our ability to meet the call is,
so to say, negligible.
How D'YOu Suppose They Do It?
LFrom the Orion QlI) Times
There are some over 1000 farmers in
Mercer county at the present time, As
per cent of them being operated by
tenants.
THE father of three boys writing to Hey
wood Broun in the New York Tribune, con-
corning books for children, sees fit to mention
some of the books, extremely interesting to
the small boy of thirty years ago, which
Broun has not recommended. Il can remem-
Der the title Of only one" he writes, the
justly celebrated Only a Boy" Crediting An
thony Comstock with destroying this base and
vile" part of our literature the writer con-
tinues: -. . a part SO base and vile that il
you should publish this letter l would be
obliged if you wourf~>withhold my name, be-
cause l am not yet old enough to admit in
public that have even seen these books.
Broun does not admire Comstock. I'm de-
stroying base and vile things he created more
destructive forces in their stead, he writes
=" . Filthy words don't begin to stick like
shame and Comstock was among the men who
helped to propagandiZe shame. He spread the
belief that words could be set into magic
formula potent enough to drag people to hell
We never read only Boy, but it was still
going in our day, and we heard other boys dis
GUESSING it in whispers. From what we heard
we were as terrified of that book as if it had
been a devil. 1t was forbidden and mysterious
and Comstock and all his helpers digRified the
little dirty book by the pretense that it was
menace to entire generation. Once a
candy butcher offered 70 sell it to us. Out
of cowardice we shook our head, but if We had
our life to live over again the choice would be
reversed. Even in those days to have read the
book would have gone some distance in con-
vincing that its reputed power for evil was
-
ITS power for evil WAS overrated. though |
when it came into our hands when we were
13 wears old we didn't know and weren't told |
the nature of its contents But We read it, !
Just as we read every other book could lay |
our hands on. We're we addicted to that sort
of literature today should be ashamed of
it. but for the of today to blush for the !
misguided beardless boy of twenty thirty |
years ago strikes a little worse than !
futile-not to say insincere. Besides the |
wicked thought comes that had Only Boy |
been builded by master carpenter of words
say Boccaccio-it might 1--WE say might advis-
edyI have lived to be called something else
than "a little old last years dirty book
his evening subject Good Bad Boys
and while he has no sons of his own he knows
how to capably advise Reynolds Press |
OF all the newspapers that come to our
desk the Reynolds Press is the last one in
which expected to find split ininitive