Year: 1876

sphynxes, but the most Incompetent
sible of them all is boy. 1 remember
when | was beginning to learn the sig
MITIGATION of words, and came across
didbOltcdl, with its direful meaning,
the idea occurred to me that boy was
the best definition one could give. l
have often since wondered what this
world would be if it had no other ge-
nus homo in its ranks, out the very
queer animal called boy. What splen-
didly consistent people they are-so
truly democratic in their tastes and in
clinations. They have as much con-
tempt for knowledge as an Esquimaux I;
have no gallantry for the fair sex, and
the most Opprobrious epithet they can
bestOw on one of their numebr, as en-
bodying more disgrace than another Is
"girl"i A boy knows at once in what
estimation he is held by his compan-
ions if told by them he is like girl.
They henceforth despise their yellow
rings of hair, of which mamma Is so
proud, if they have been sneered at as
having "hair like girl" The huge
boy is a marvel OF grandeur and cou-
rage to his retinue, and living dread
to the small and weak. l never saw a
boy without looking for rock in his
hand. The cats are thin and splritless
in his locality, worried into this sad
state by the expressions of said boy,
who amuses himself by sight of the
little animals torture, under a heavy
load of tin cans. What a wonderful
spectacle is boys schoolrOOmi The
desks are Ornamented by divers cuts
and diagrams, made by the jack knives,
in the hands of the tyrO engravers.
They abound with letters great and
small-big AS little as and bouncing
BIS. Some of the larger boys mayhaps
have drawn artistlcally in ink, and then
cut with a knife, some very irregular
capitals that stand for their sweet
hearts name, and hard by are fly traps,
into which snares full many an unwary
fly was beguiled by the morsel of sugar
placed there for a bait. Not whole
desk in the room, not one hut has
marks of ink, made In the long, lazy
writing hours of the sultry afternoons,
while their thoughts were far away
with the swaying boats that lay where
they were moored in the quiet shade of
the willow grove. | have often Won
dered how a boy ever became a poet.
How can he ever emerge from the
state of depravity, into the dreamhOOd
of pOetism How can he so change his
inclinatioDs, that he can hear the twit-
ter of red-breast and not long for
missile by which to subdue his song!
How could Byron write an epitaph on
a Newfoundland dog For. doubtless,
when he was boy, he would only have
enjoyed seeing the poor brute in mis-
cry. The goOd-natured, hearty boys
are always noted for their brusquerie,
and only time, with its morbid patience,
can eradicate their crudIty, and give
room for the termination of their bet


ter selves. Good boys are all in the
Sunday school books, but the jim,
Tom and Dick of our acquaintance are
not very civilized. But | believe In
regeneration, and we Oftenest find the
most beautiful butterfly, from the
most unlovely ehrysalis. Your dainty,
effeminate boys generally Outgrow
their deeency, and become unbearable
in manhood. At ten or twelve, the
rude boy sneers at and despises the
girl that at eighteen or twenty he
adores as the queen of Seraphinas.


Boys are dreadful beings and all of
them are gamins, in the different con-
ditioDs under which they thrive. All
the slang known to ehristendOm Is
their pet language. and up town but


cher boys know it no better than the
pampered son of luxury and wealth.


Albert Pike, as many other poets
have done, laments in several pathetic
songs, that he is no longer boy, but |
fancy the world has gained something
by the loss they so moGrnfully deplOre.


The thistles have bloomed into
beautiful flowers, and no burr remains
to tell the story of its cruelty and
homely face. After all We can say OF
boys, the world admires and loves
them, for their originality and indie
pendence, and for the bright eyes and
CHEEKY voices that are so wholly free
from care, while life is to them no gra-
yer thing than sail on the lake in
summer, or a coast in the hOary winter.