PLEASE DON'T TELL SUCH THINGS.
By Oscar
NEARLY all the papers and magazines are giving biographies of Admiral Dewey. And many of these biographies tell with much seeming pleasure of the various escapades of the admiral when he was a boy. They would try to have us believe that Mr. Dewey is all the greater hero because he did more or less mischief in his childhood. Telling such stories, and telling them in the way in which they are generally told, has a tendency to make boys think that if they would ever be great like Dewey they must learn how to do a lot of tantalizing and marauding mischief. Boys are very apt to do all the mischief they can think of without any special incentives. But when they have a hero placed before their minds, and they read that when he was a boy he did this, and that, and the other mischievous thing, they will be incited to the greatest possible lengths in mischief, much of which tends to degrade and pervert. We believe that boys should be boys, and that they should have all the opportunity that is best for them to use in true boyish plays and sports. But there is a vast difference between play that will make boys all the better for having engaged in it, and vicious and criminal mischief. Dewey's mischief may not have been of either the vicious or criminal order. We have not read of any that was, at least. But the boy who reads of the boyish mischief of the "great admiral" will of course think that he must outdo him, and so there is no telling what turn his youthful exuberance will give to his mischievous and possibly criminal waywardness. If Admiral Dewey has attained to greatness, it is not because he had some mischievous tendencies when he was a boy, but it has been in spite of that. Or perhaps, to state it more properly, Dewey had a restless, active disposition. Such a disposition, if not properly directed, will turn into mischief and cause the boy to do many things that are wrong. But if this disposition is taken hold of properly, and the boy given a careful and thorough training, so that he becomes interested in useful lines in which to direct his activities, he will become a man that may amount to something. But the boy that does not have such training, and who reads that great men did certain things when they were boys that were not right, and yet they came out heroes in the end, is encouraged to do a certain amount of mischief, thinking that he too may become great because of it. We are intimately acquainted with a number of boys that have heard their fathers tell of the mischief they did when they were young, and these boys seem possessed with the idea that they must do something of the kind, in order that they may have like things to boast of. It is quite natural for all boys to be full of life, and it is a very easy thing for them to get into mischief, and even to do things at times that will tend to exasperate their parents. But boys may be trained out of such things and become useful men in spite of their mischievous tendencies. So parents should not lose heart, but keep right on faithfully drilling their children in correct principles. And it can be stated as a matter of encouragement to parents that very rude and even desperately mischievous boys and girls may be so trained as to overcome these evils and make good men and women. And while it may possibly be right to make mention of the fact that some mischievous boys make good men in spite of their youthful waywardness, in order that parents who have similar boys in hand may be encouraged, yet these things should be spoken of in such a way that the children who hear them mentioned will look upon them as wrong, rather than virtues to be imitated. Anything that is wrong for a man is wrong for a child. The child may not know that it is wrong, and therefore would not have the moral guilt that the man would have, but the thing is wrong in itself anyway. Then the proper course to pursue is to hold forth the right, and the right only. And when some wrong thing that was done by a boy who afterwards became great is spoken of, it should be mentioned as a defect, as a blot, as a mar—something to blush at, and not to be proud of. There is no estimating the evil that is done among youth by older persons telling and laughing over what depredations they were guilty of when they were "youngsters." Certainly no Christian home could think of permitting such a thing. I am glad to be personally acquainted in several homes where such things are not allowed under any circumstances.