PECK’S BAD BOY.

Western Star, Issue 930, 14 March 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

PECK’S BAD BOY.

1 Well, well! Don’t look so condemned solemn/ said the grocery man to to the bad boy, as be came in and leaned his head against the show case, put his hands in his pockets and looked down at the floor with his eyes ‘sot/ * What’s the matter with you P What are you thinking of ? ‘I was just thinking and wondering if it was right for parents tp encourage boys by telling them of the glorious future that is before any American boy—the prospect that he may one day be President of the United States. I think it would be better to encourage boys by pointing out to them how, by conducting themselves right, they escape the fate of running for presi-, dent. What glory is there in being President ? If a President amounts to anything he gets shot, and if a decent man runs for President be is abused worse than a pick-pocket. Washington was right enough, because his opponents never found out any of his oussedness, and if they did they dassen’t tell of it,, for fear he would take shot-gun and b’ow ’em full of buck-shot. But the. Presidents, since I can remember/ have been pretty tuff, and got murder, ed. No, Sir j when pa tells me to * brace up ’ and be a man, and some day I may be President 1,, say, ‘ Pa, I ain’t going to be that kind of ’man. Politics are demoralizing the boys worse than anything. Some of us boys don’t know whether we are Democrats or Republicans, because, both parties have hired us to carry torches. Say, what is best thing for a Prohibitionist’s headache ? 1 Cure a Prohibition’.st’sabeadche P asked the groceryman in astonishment. ‘ What does a Prohibitionist want with, a headache P Who baa got one ‘ 0, pa, I suppose he bad the worst headache in this country, add all from' prohibition. Pa has belonged to both parties during the campaign* and up to the election ho was pretty sober, for him* but all last week, when Blaine was elected one day and Oleveland was elected the next day, it was too much for pa, as he had to change paitios about twice a day, and he got so full that he stuttered. He shouted until he got hoarse, and came home o ne night with a rooster tied by or>e leg, and he tied it to the bed-post, I thought it was time pa was broken of politics, so I got a big rat which we had caught in a trap, and untied the rooster, and tied the string to the tat and left it there.. When pa woke up in the morning he woke ma up and said now ho would show her the rooster he carried around all the night and he took hold of the string and said : Come up here, chicky,’ and he pulled the rat right up on the bod Well you’d a dide to see pa look at that rat) and 1 know you would have dide to see ma get scarce. She made one jump and landed ou the bureau and yelled nine kinds of murder. Pa looked at the rat sort of dubious and rolled over and looked the other way, anil then he wanted to satisfy himself that it was not a rooster, so be pulled it up again, and the rat ran under the bed-clothes, and then pa had rest enough, and he jumped out of bed too, quick. Then you ought to have beard the temperence lecture ma gave pa. She told him if he had got so lar gone that he would carry a house rat around in a procession half the night, thinking it was a rooster, the was in good condition to go tc the lunatic asylum, andjunless he swore off driukiug from that miuute, she would make application to the authorities. Well, when ma gets excited she makes pa pay attention, and so pa took a solemn oath that he would join the Prohibition party, and he did, and he has not drank a dro • for three days, and he is offul nervous, and his head aches so every hair stands up straight. I have been putting pounded* ice on his head, so I think I can tell him with safety how the rat came to be there.’ ‘ Well I am glad your pa is going to be a man again,’ said the grocery man, * but you boys shouldn’t have anything to do with politics. You are too young and it might injure your reputa-, tioos.*

‘ fee, but we are taught that the higheet ambition of man is to be President, and that we may one day occupy that exalted office that Washington once held, but we can’t get there without being politicians, can we P Haven't we got) to le m to jads oaucusbi mi

ran in fellows that haven’t been natu£ alised and lie about fellows that helobg to the other party ? Why, in every school in town the boys are divided into Democrats and Republicans and we fight each other just like men, and find out mean things boys have done and tell of it, and we are growing up to be model politicians. The teacher* laugh about it, and I don’t see a* there is anything wrong. Wo have got all the boys that ever stole anything, or robbed orchards, spotted, and their records will come up against them if they run for office; Oh, us boys are learning pretty fast from the men; who think they are setting a good example before the risipg generation. But fince we have read now mean Blaine and Cleveland are in the papers, yoU can’t get any of us boys to have ambition io be President. I don’t think there is a boy in our school that is mean enough to run for President when, he gate old enough. ‘Well, you boys are on the high road to the devil/ said the grocery man. ‘ You are learning all the meapuei of politics; and will bring up in the penitentiary/ v ' * Yes,and ire are learning it all from Disrespected fathers, and brothers, and uncles, add neighbours, ’ said the boy. ‘As long as they countenance such de> moralizing devilry in politics what can you expect of the hoys ? And the had boy w.ent ogt to thmup a hoy that he« longed to the opposite pftrty, while the grocery man sat down on a barrelhead and began to wonder what the country would come to if thl boys growing up became as mean M the men who are running politic*, now.