Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 188, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 August 1911 — the Boy Puzzle [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

the Boy Puzzle

By DR.J.S.KIRTLEY

Hi* Failings

£ ~ ■ Kte teffing* ar* exclusively hl*. He own* ? them but seldom own* up to them. Some are du* to hl* immaturity and will disappear with the passing of mumps and measles and warts and freckles and gosling feather* — unless they are detained by some foolish older person who insists that passing phases of his development are permanent forms of devilment and succeed In turning the changing hue* into fast colors, all red. That boy showed his quality who defined a hypocrite as "a boy wot comes to school wld a smile on his face.” When the nervous Sunday school teacher •aid to the mischievous lad, "Tommie, I’m afraid I won’t see you in heaven,” ft was due entirely to hl* sense of humor, that had not yet gained its social perspective and propriety, that he naked, without hesitation, “why, what have you been doing?" Some are due to hl* being an immature human, some due to his being an Immature man and. In the latter ease, will not slough off at all. We will have to classify them a* among his unavoidable limitations not to be outlawed, but to be harnessed up and put to work, drawing his personality through bogs and over mountains. We are not to look on them a* hopeless liabilities but as productive endowment*. And yet they will always b* idiosyncrasies, if not faults. Some of his faults are imaginary, exist only in the mind of those who look upon these ebullition* of his boyish nature as stream* of vice and as indication of hopeless depravity. The best things in him may come out just that way. That effervescence Is designed to be a relief to him and a recreation to the family. The only alternative of effervescence is fermentation. Imagine him bad and you are sure to tell him so. And there is a very accommodating suggestibility In a boy. He is usually alow to accept the rating he Is given, when he Is well berated, yet he often unconsciously lives down to the reputation he is given in his home. But many of his failings are real, whether due to inheritance or bad general ■ environment or bad treatment In almost every case it is not hi* fault at first Dr. Merrtl is almost exactly right in saying that the boy I* all right and that the problem of the bad boy 1* th* problem of those who have him in charge. The parents ought to confess the handicap they put on him in giving him their dispositions and then get to work to save him from the natural conse-

quences of it, till he can be led to chooae something higher and bettor for himself. And if his inherited disposition is not so hopelessly bad. he may be tempted into badness by the public. The city life is in an environment created for business purposes and not with a view to his Interests. Every fault of a boy seems to be appealed to in the average city, with its crowded homes and poor playgrounds, and the appeals to both his love of unwholesome pleasure and of money with which to pay for them. Sometimes he is suddenly overwhelmed in the results of some blunder that he never meant to be a crime which is construed as a crime and he is made a criminal There are crime ages, when every boy finds It easier to do wrong, and a surprising amount of outside assistance in doing it The running away age is from six to eight the lawless age from eight to twelve, and then the sense of law begins to awaken in response to the laws of the gang. During those critical days, it is criminal and often fatal to be irritable with him. His boyhood weaknesses aid the temptations—gluttony, vanity and often laziness. All the crudities and contradictions make him more open to evil. Imitation and imagination and, later, the development of the sex instincts all seem on the side of temptation; and they are, unless he is well cared for. And yet nature has made provision for his protection and a special providence aids those who are responsible for him. He has no reinforcing memories of former victories, though he Is accumulating them, yet his father has them and holds them for his benefit He has a yearning for companionship and his father has been elected to supply him with all he needs. Sometimes the sense of being injured Is so acute and so just, he is borne beyond all self-control and eventually becomes a hardened man. If not a criminal. When some evil deed sweeps him off his feet, he only needs some one to help him back to self-respecting, ' yet self-distrusting, purity. He needs to be told of his virtues and supported by an admirable and contagious example. If the home were half way right, also the schools, also the public in its provisions for the physical and mental and artistic and ethical welfare of children, there would be no bad boys, for heredity would soon become as correct as environment.