IES L. HILL Hi II Pi ill II I i;illlll:ill i sip! ii i iili 1!!HS SJHBii;} H * i 1 !;;;!> ; i ;; 1 iHUiuiili-h i GIFT THE WORST BOYS IN TOWN And Other Addresses TO YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN, BOYS AND GIRLS BY REV. JAMES L. HILL, D. D. AUTHOR OF FAVORITES OF HISTORY, THE CENTURY'S CAPSTONE, MEMORY COMFORTING SORROW, A CROWNING ACHIEVEMENT, THE IMMORTAL SEVEN, THE SCHOLAR'S LARGER LIFE, ETC. 1919 THE STRATFORD COMPANY, Publishers BOSTON Copyright 1920 The STRATFORD CO., Publishers Boston, Mass. The Alpine Press, Boston, Mass., U. 3. A. Contents CHAPTER PAGE I. The Worst Boys In Town ... 1 And Sarah saw the son of Hagar mock- ing. Gen. 21: 23. And as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him; Go up, thou bald-head; go up thou bald-head. II Kings 2 : 23. II. The Clean Sporting Spirit ... 14 If a man strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully. II Tim. 2 : 5. III. Having A Flag and Flying It . . 21 Thou hast given a banner that it may be displayed. Ps. 60 : 4. IV. A Kindergarten for Colts ... 29 Go ye into the village. At your entering ye shall find a colt. Luke 19 : 30. V. The Morals of Money .... 38 He will prosper us : therefore Neh. 2 : 20. VI. Team Work 47 Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth: for he hath not another to help him up. Eccl. 4 : 9, 10. VII. If I Were A Boy Again ... 59 He shall return to the days of his youth. Job 33: 25. VIII. The Stick Girls of Venice ... 67 Take my yoke. Matt. 11:29. 436193 CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE IX. Speaking Well 77 And the Lord said, I know that he can speak well. Ex. 4: 14. X. Boy Lost 89 They found him not. Luke 2: 45. XI. The First Who Cheered .... 97 Immediately received strength. Acts 3: 7. XII. Fares, Please 106 So he paid the fare thereof. Jonah 1:3. XIII. The Ever Present Boy .... 116 There is a lad here. John 6:9. XIV. Little Touches 127 Say now, Shibboleth : and he said Sibboleth for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Judges 12 : 6. XV. "Please Slow Down." .... 136 According to the pace of the children. Gen. 33 : 14. Rev. Version. XVI. Paul Jr 147 And when Paul's sister's son heard of their lying in wait, he went and entered into the castle and told Paul. Acts 23 : 16. XVII. The Sound and Robust Have No Monopoly 156 The Lame take the Prey. Isa. 23: 33. XVIII. Becoming A Lady 166 And thou saidst, I shall be a lady. Isa. 47: 7. XIX. An Inventory of What We Have . . 179 Tell me, what hast thou in the house '! II Kings 4: 2. XX. A Difference In Cradles ... 192 She laid him in a manger. Luke 2 : 7. XXI. Why People Cannot .... 197 They could not because of unbelief. Heb. 3: 19. CONTENTS CHAPTER XXII. Little Coats for Little Men . His mother made him a little coat and brought it to him. I Sam. 2 : 19. XXIII. Providence Opens the Gate . A little Maid. 2 Kings 5:2. XXIV. Ready, Waiting To Be Heroes Hast thou seen all this great multitude? I will deliver it into thine hand. By whom? By the young men of the princes of the prov- inces. Then he said, Who shall order the battle? And he answered, Thou. I Kings 20: 13, 14. XXV. Something About Debts and Debtors I am debtor. Rom. 1: 14. XXVI. Gates That Open Toward the East And the glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the East. Ezekiel 43 : 4. XXVII. "Get A Specialty." .... The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire and the women knead their dough Jer. 7: 18. XXVIII. Traveling Incog Thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window. Joshua 2 : 18. XXIX. XXX. XXXI. XXXII. That Alarming If . If I had not come. John 15:22. Doing the Handsome Thing . Go with him twain. Matt. 5 : 41. Eagles Adopt Industrial Education An eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings. Deut. 32: 11, 12. Some of My Mottoes .... The preacher set in order many proverbs. Ecclesiastes 12 : 9. PAGE 205 213 223 233 246 256 271 277 284 292 302 CONTENTS CHAPTER XXXIII. The Story of A Book and An Island . The Isles shall wait for his law. Isa. 42 : 4. I have found a book of the law. II Chron. 24: 15. He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. Ps. 107:20. XXXIV. Modern Methods of Christian Nurture . You young men, because ye are strong. I John 2 : 14. XXXV. Fine Words In the church I had words. I Cor. 14: 19. rather speak five PAGE 317 329 341 THE WORST BOYS IN TOWN CHAPTER I THE WORST BOYS IN TOWN And Sarah saw the son of Hagar mocking. Gen. 21 : 9 And as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go Up, thou bald-head; go up thou bald- head. II Kings 2: 23. These are the worst boys in town. They are reg- ularly ordained rowdies. They are, as you see, a turbulent, insolent, indecent, shameless set. They are all together become abominable. They are the very image of what we do not want the boys in our neigh- borhood to become. They aimed at a state of fright- fulness and with their deep depravity they are a dan- gerous element in the community. Bushing into ways that are broad that lead to destruction, they are swift witnesses against themselves, for the godly man against whom they direct their Billingsgate, has done nothing to provoke such scurrilous treatment. The ragged gamins mark him as a lawful victim for their jests and ribaldry. Something in their nature antag- onizes against the good. We find the most clubs and stones under the best apple-trees. Like Absalom, who raised a rebellion against his own indulgent, kingly father, they are preparing themselves for their awful end. As every brick of the wall of Babylon was [1] THE 'WORST BOYS IN TOWN stamped with the letter N standing for Nebuchad- nezzar so every one of these guilty, rude, unhallowed youths is stamped with the letter T which stands for trouble. We are not left in any doubt touching the displeasure of Heaven at the rakish manners, the odious, ill-bred conduct of these young scoffers as a frightful, condign punishment fell upon forty-two of them. There are different degrees of good boys, but bad boys who have become Beelzebub's tools, busy with his work, receive it seems their penalty together. When a boy is ill the doctor will say, Let me see your tongue. It is not the seat of the disease, but the tongue is sensitive and for purposes of taste has a very delicate covering, and so while the difficulty is in the system it will be shown on the tongue. When the doctor treats him, he does not prescribe for his tongue but for his deeper malady, and the tongue is Boon clean. Something is the matter with a boy that makes him so foulmouthed. You are sick, sick all over. We can tell just what kind of a boy you are by looking at your tongue. The thermometer does not make the temperature, it records it. A bad tongue does not oc- casion the evil, it only reveals conditions. It is a symptom and shows that something ought to be done for the boy. A teacher took in hand one of the worst boys in town, who was corrupting the school, by using filthy words, and employing a small brush with soap and water she washed out his mouth, and made him [2] THE WORST BOYS IN TOWN rinse it thoroughly. This did no good. His trouble was a bad heart. As Mr. Shakespeare says " Reform it altogether. " What is needed is a complete moral cleansing. There is a way revealed of thoroughly ren- ovating a boy. His impure language is like a sample hung up in a shop window to tell you what they have to sell inside. So a boy using wicked words has more inside of him just like that. This son of perdition certainly needs attention. His language is bad be- cause he is bad. The rushes never grow without mire. If, conspicuously, there is one who should be banished from our land for our country's good it is the dis- respectful young man. It is sometimes nearly im- possible for him to learn deference to young women simply as such. It generally takes an untamed, ill- mannered, rude, pert street gamin a good while to find out what ails him. Mistakes appear in pairs. These sons of Belial, are first profane. They are lower than the North American Indians who, it is said, have no words for cursing one another, or for insulting the Great Spirit. Profanity is believed to be more common in the United States than in any other country in the world. It is certainly more prevalent than in England. A second form of misbehavior usually follows. A girl is a sacred thing. These degenerates do not know it and hence do not respect her for what she is. A man was smitten, we find in the Inspired Volume, because he rather too familiarly handled the sacred ark which contained [3] THE WORST BOYS IN TOWN the books of the law and Aaron's rod that budded. These unrestrained, vicious miscreants, as we see in the text, have no scruples about niching from any- one 's good name. How strange it is that the first boy born into the world should have been a bad one. He could not at- tribute it to example. He dwelt in the land of Nod, which is the Scriptural way of saying that he was a vagabond. The first city that ever appeared on the round earth was builded by the worst boy ever. He makes us think of Noah's carpenters who constructed an ark for other folks to sail in, and yet were drowned themselves. No peace or comfort could be found by Cain in his city, for he had treasured up wrath against himself and had taken great pains to be wretched. The city was reared probably for defense, and eur- rounded, like Jericho, with a thorny hedge that neither men nor cattle conld break down. His mother named him Cain, indicating her anticipation that he would be good and great and even remarkable. Being disappointed, so grievously, in a boy, that worried the life out of her, she named her next son vanity, proving that she expected no good from boys. But Abel proved much better than she now supposed any boy would become, as Cain had been much worse. Abel was one of those mild lads with taking ways, while Cain was surly, walking pitward with his eyes open, for, as St. John says, he was of the wicked one. There were no courts. Adam would not know what to do with him. And [4] THE WORST BOYS IN TOWN so the Deity himself cited him for trial, when it is probable that Cain inquired, Is my iniquity too great for forgiveness and atonement? Is there no fine, no suffering that can be accepted? Is there no future for me except to hide myself like a wild beast, instead of living like a human being? In literature, the imprint worn, his life long, prob- ably on his brow, it is assumed, was placed there to distinctly identify him with the world 's first enormous crime. This misses the whole lesson. Here we find the heart of our theme. On account of his atrocious character, Cain became so universally disliked, that a mark or sign had to be mercifully set upon his fore- head, and this on his own piteous statement of the need of protection, to keep folks from killing him. It is a real misfortune for the worst boys in town, sowing their wild oats, that business men whose good opinion it would be well for them to gain, look upon them with aversion, and find them such a disgrace, a nui- sance, a menace that their whole thought is one of riddance. A boy will find himself at a great disad- vantage if he starts out to get a position in town where he is met with an all around suspicion and revulsion. Friendship is a great aid to business. A position is sometimes created to give employment to a worthy person that has everybody's confidence and good wishes. In a certain sense we know a man by his friends. Our life depends chiefly upon the individuals with whom we live familiarly. Where [5] THE WORST BOYS IN TOWN for good reasons, people are down on a boy, and will not tolerate him, he, having lost favor, must almost of necessity, slide along the line of the least resistance into the slums. Ishmael felt that he had every man's hand against him. There was also against him the determined face of one woman, "And Sarah saw the son of Hagar mocking." This is the way we feel toward you in our tent, Aunt Sarah. He was a splendid, well-made little animal, pulsing with life, the darling of his doting father's heart, but an independent, unafraid, defiant little rascal. She caught him mocking. He was vigorous, saucy, and very expressive with both his hands and face. His mother disliked Sarah, and he expressed it with signs that are more derisive than words. When bad feeling exists between neighbors the fathers and mothers may attempt to conceal it, and to be very guarded in all their utterances, but a boy feels no such hesitation. He is out and out with it. You wonder how the neighbors feel. Look to the chil- dren. They will let you know. They feel no intimi- dation. How do you know that no love is lost between two families? The boys will show it, and emphasize their expression of it with picturesque gestures. Boys at play make themselves look like Indians. But that is a frame-up by paint and feathers to give themselves a certain appearance. But without the use of ingenuity Nature attends to the features of the profligate, the [6] THE WORST BOYS IN TOWN intemperate, and abandoned. When one of the worst boys in town makes faces there is one face in partic- ular that he makes, and that is his own. The charac- ter he makes and comes to wear will show in his face which is like the dial plate of a clock that tells the state and position of the machinery behind. He can give himself a hangdog, guilty look, or he can come to wear an honest, intelligent, unashamed appearance that speaks for itself. The angel said, the son of Hagar would be a wildman. He became the father of the Arabs. The worst boys in town are named after him, Street Arabs. In France they are called Bohemians. You know what we mean when we say of a young man, He is intelligent enough, but is inclined to be wild. The Arabs are courteous, polite and hospitable to a pro- verb, but their character is founded upon that of Ishmael. He is impatient of any curb. He is like a kite that feels that the string holds it down. He antagonizes restraint. He breaks the string that holds the kite. It rocks and flops and falls flat. The string, that held it, helped it to mount to the skies, and was exactly what it needed. The value of the horse con- sists simply in the fact of your being able to put a bridle on him. Soldiering is a school in which a youngster not only gets on the harness for the work of life, but also learns deference to someone appointed to command. This, often, does for boys, more than could ever have been done for them, in their home [7] THE WORST BOYS IN TOWN town. This is a new lesson to young America, whose spirit is recognized early in life. A canvasser called and asked if the master of the house was at home. The child's father spoke up promptly and said, "He is, but he is sleeping just at present." At Andover, attendants upon the South Church used to line up along the front walk with uncovered heads as Parson French passed into church. There is now a reaction from reverence, which Shakespeare calls, That angel of the world. In the catechism we are taught to order ourselves lowly toward all our betters. "Betters! Betters!" Young America has not known of any betters. "I was born in an unlucky time/' said a lady. "When I was young, I was obliged to respect and obey my parents, and now I am obliged to respect and obey my children. " Their malady is acute Americanitis. It is as hard to get this infection out of a boy's heart as it is to get a fox out of his hole. You may dig and dig, but as fast as you are digging away at one end of the burrow he is digging away at the other. In a parlor of a hotel a child became BO ungovernable that a guest sought to quiet him and the boy struck an attitude and began to mock. The mother said, "How smart." The guests said, "How saucy." She would rather have her boy seem smart than to be commended as good. A man feels no in- sult if the statement is made, "You are no saint," while it would breed disturbance to say, "You are no gentleman." [8] THE WORST BOYS IN TOWN Fifty-one policemen, assigned to the Chicago juvenile court, received their instructions, from Judge Victor P. Arnold, to "pick out the worst boy in each neighborhood, and hold him responsible for the rest of the bunch. " " The worst boy is usually the leader, ' ' Judge Arnold said. "The other boys admire his courage and will follow him, so we must get him to turn his energies to upholding the law." Judge Arnold recognized just what we find in the text, which for the lack of name we call "The gang." Calamities thus come in groups. Of all the wiles of Satan this wears the crown. It is the working of this spirit that gives us Sodom. The boy is spoiled, by too much friendship. He has the defects of his qualities, like the spots on the sun. His friendly nature, one of the finest of his traits, is his undoing. The best thing perverted becomes the worst. Once, when like the worst boys in town, Bishop Haven was mocking, he was caught with the goods. As he was playing with a party of his comrades old "Aunty" Knight, the col- ored washerwoman of the village went by. Catching a glimpse of her he cried out, "Hullo, boys, guess it's going to rain. Black cloud has just gone along." The old woman looked at him kindly and said, "Why Gilbert, I didn't think that of you." Nothing can take the place of native, instinctive tact. Do not use a sledgehammer to drive a tack. This mild reproof, implying also a compliment to his good-nature, sunk deeply into the boy's heart, and he at once replied, [9] THE WORST BOYS IN TOWN ' ' You never shall hear it from me again. ' ' Afterwards he called on the old woman and made due apology for his rudeness. "That," said he, "was my conversion from caste." "My rogue always becomes," said Sir Walter Scott, "in spite of me, my hero. A good authentic biography states that Judge Hoar of Massa- chusetts, and his two brothers, the senator, and an- other, used to be the three worst rascals in Concord. ' ' According to Bollin, the historian, Alexander the Great, having obtained The gold casket in which Darius had kept his rare perfume, used that aromatic casket for the favorite volume he was read- ing. Into the "edition of the casket" many young, growing scholars, as an expression of admiration and obligation, would place Todd's Student's Manual, a priceless book whose value yet "shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it. ' ' When his father was fa- tally ill, as related in a remarkable biography of him,* the suffering, dying man said to his little son, aged six, "Take that paper on the stand and run down to Mr. Carter's, the apothecary, and get the medicine prepared." It was a half a mile away. The store was shut, it being Sunday, which meant a further jaunt of a quarter of a mile and the boy, being indisposed toward it, turned short about, con- triving what statement he would give his father in place of the medicine, and so said at once, "Mr. Carter says he has none." His father placed his keen eye upon the boy, whose head hung down and who went * Page 29. [10] THE WORST BOYS IN TOWN out and cried. This was his last utterance to his father. A little later, being ushered into his father's room, the doctors were all about, his father placed his hand on his head to give him the parental blessing and said, among other last words, " Always speak the truth. " Boys are not angels nor professors. Sometimes they get started wrong. Truth-telling, a virtue taught with the alphabet, gets sadly misplaced. The hope is, that the boy will come back, with a good recovery. While we have known boys, according to some plumb lines, to get out of true, yet such is the day star to them that sit in darkness, so like a North Star to any wanderer is a mother's memory, such is the all-conquering power of the spirit, and such are the angel forces of the world, that not one who was responsible, that we have ever known was irredeem- ably bad. Mr. Earey, who won both fortune and re- nown by giving lessons in the art of persuading the minds of horses, believes it possible to always per- suade their minds to good conduct. In our community the wickedest boy was a living horror and was pronounced incorrigible. His spe- cialties were the most appalling blasphemy and ex- treme cruelty to his horses. Someone asked him where he learned such infamous language. He said it was not learned. It was a gift. In a religious awakening he found a new heart. Both his nature and his speech were changed. He had all [11] THE WORST BOYS IN TOWN the old time force and aptness of expression, but every- thing was different. Probably alive today and likely to read these words, he is a popular, very forcible preacher, of the first quality, and is assigned to the best appointments in the Methodist Church. He bears the impress of resolution and decision, and a holy in- fluence is bridling the strong passions, which are the impelling forces of life. His former turbulence is in subjection. It is a whirlwind imprisoned, which dis- poses him to take things by storm, for touching the kingdom of Heaven we are taught, that the violent take it by force. From the Boy's Brotherhood Repub- lic in Chicago, Joe Wilkins and Manford Haskel vis- ited ten states to find the worst boy in the whole coun- try, the boy 100% bad. When found, he is to be in- vited to come to Chicago, transportation paid, and live at the Boy's Republic, whose citizens are bent upon proving to fathers and mothers, policemen and judges, that the difference between a bad boy and a good boy is the way they spend their surplus energy. In nurseries they have, with shrubs and trees, what they call their wild stock. It is vigorous and thrifty, having great stores of vitality. It is remarkable only for its robust, luxurious growth. They use this wild stock to graft upon. In trimming a rose bush we once cut it in so close that we got below the graft. Then we had to retire it into the shade that it might hide its diminished head. The wild stock was back again, at the bottom of the scale with its inferior, low lifed ex- hibit. It is unfit for a garden until it is grafted. [12] THE WORST BOYS IN TOWN 1 'I have just purchased a new painting," said a friend to Paul Morphy, the world's champion. It is entitled "The Chess Player." It represents a young man on one side of the board and Satan on the other, and according to the repre- sentation and intention of the painter, the young man was hopelessly checkmated. By the references to this painting, in literature, it is assumed, he is beaten for good and all. But no, there is ground for hope. De- spair, however, is written on the young man's face, while his Satanic majesty laughs in glee. Morphy studied the picture a few moments, then called for a chess board and when he had arranged the men as given in the picture he remarked, "I will take the young man 's place and set him free. Often the young man finds himself checkmated in life's game and his face shows distress. But as it is written There shall come out of Sion, a Deliverer. [13] CHAPTER II THE CLEAN SPORTING SPIRIT If a man strive for masteries, yet he is not crowned except he strive lawfully. 2 Tim. 2:5. In the new Delaware and Hudson Station at Cooperstown, New York hangs an oil painting with an inscription which states that there the first base- ball diamond was laid out. This fact was verified by a commission of two United States Senators, and of other high officials who investigated all the facts and united in this decision. There Major-General Abner Doubleday, who was then twenty, blocked out the scheme, and with a crooked stick marked off the grounds and placed the bases and players virtually as they continue to this day. Taking the early trail to Alaska, following the sun, and keeping company with the hours, the national game reached Japan and China, and has been formally adopted by them. It has proved just the thing for Australia, also a favor- able diversion, during the world war, for the soldiers Somewhere in France. Twelve thousand men earn their living by it in this country. There are no words to tell its story as a civilizer. A superintendent of schools in the Philippines has said that it has done more to elevate and fashion the natives than the com- [14] THE CLEAN SPORTING SPIRIT bined offices of the army and navy, commerce, and the schools. In a tribe of Indians, or among the South African savages there is no assignment of parts or distribution of activities. Every man is a hunter and fighter, like any other creature. No one has a distinctive fitness or gift peculiar to himself, or a form of work which others cannot perform as well. Hence, savage society does not cohere, nor co-operate, nor succeed. In the national game many an islander, on the other hand, has found himself. He was put into a situation where the highest factors in him were in full play. There was one place on the diamond adapted to him personally. Here he could outshine others and give them points almost instinctive to him. In other positions his associates could outplay him. He learns to take this fact with good grace. The first thing to be eliminated, as his civilization proceeds was the old-time tendency to retaliate. The savage has a mean, lurking disposition to get even with any oppo- nent. Vindictiveness is discountenanced by the clean sporting spirit. Revenge is unworthy. Be a good loser. Be tolerant of your victors and learn how to do it. Engage in more diligent practice and ask them to come again. Thus the great lessons are patience, the value of training, respect for the rights of others, never to take an unjust advantage of anybody, and absolute fairness. It seems that a foreign missionary now uses play as one of his benign agencies. An [15] THE WORST BOYS IN TOWN American college advertises that its athletics are now on a high plane and minister to intellectual and spir- itual, as well as to physical development. A professor in the University of Chicago has stated that a game of baseball is better for the youth of a community than lessons in morals out of a book. One expert on the necessity of play claims that man has to be young to be civilized, that if he had no youth and no play he would be perpetually a savage. Ten years or more ago George Dunlap, a catcher on the Boone base-ball nine of the Iowa State League, became a Presbyterian Foreign Missionary to Cebu in the southern part of the Philippines. He organized a base-ball nine and coached it. "Don't swear on the diamond, you!" ran an expression on the Cebu field. They have stopped swearing and fifty-four classes of voluntary Bible Study were organized, among the brown skinned Filipino lads in four months. It is obvious to those who reside near any play- ground that the children storm and scold, and even quarrel a good deal during their play, but it is best to allow them to settle their disputes with no outside interference. It is an important part of education. They gradually learn to subdue their passions and to be careful of their speech, for if a child becomes dis- agreeable or violent and unreasonable, the others re- fuse to play with him, and the game proceeds without him. And this lesson he takes home with him, and the force of it ought not to be broken by the parents, [16] THE CLEAN SPORTING SPIRIT but they should let him reflect upon it as he sits in the house and walks by the way, and when he lies down, and when he rises up. It is his education. Play is the best mixer, at the best time of life, for the descendants of the people of four continents that have come to us from over the seas. It is the chosen avenue for the introduction of moral and social virtues. Our national game has performed its greatest office in re- placing the earlier rowdyism and destructiveness. It has created a new atmosphere in the nation. Success in the trades and professions carry certain great re- wards. Once we shrank from offering prizes because of heartburning and jealousy. But boyhood is now openly taught to engage in good natured rivalry and contest, and if a man strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully. By that is meant, he must play according to the rules of the game. Here is a stubborn youth. Not to play re- veals to him his unfitness for this world. To play operates in just the right method to correct his dis- position. Such an individual will later stand up in the town meeting or in the common council and plead for fair play. Indeed, Where did he learn that ex- pression ? It is carried from the playground into the political forum, and he carries something beside the words, the principle, the practice. A fair chance for all, Equity in the game of life, or on the field in the game of life, or on the field of life [17] THE WORST BOYS IN TOWN are taught. In his sports it was obvious that dishonesty leads nowhere, that unless a game is played fairly it will not last. It will not for a fact be played long. Each one must play according to the rules of the game simply for its preservation. For any continuance of the sport, even for the sake of interest in it, there must be rules and respect for these laws. What better educa- tion is there at a time when we were exposed to the American hazard of becoming lawless and destructive ? There is a code, it is a code of honor. No outside tri- bunal sets up the penalties. The life of the game de- pends on the exact maintenance of the code. As the author of our text expresses it, every man who strives in the game, is temperate in all things, or, as the new version has it, is self -controlled in all things. It would be most beneficial to this country if our government were to officially give support to the rebirth of the athletic spirit that once dominated Grecian life and activity. A young athlete, known to be in need of this moral quality, attributed to the ideal of the clean sporting spirit, his ability to control his temper, to exercise judgment, to think quickly and act decisively. He learned the meaning of discipline, to take orders, and carry them out to the best of his ability, without asking why. Men being in the same boat must pull together. Some one, agreed upon, must act as " stroke. " This is a great training for the awkward and the odd. It is discipline for the self- willed and opinionated, to stick by the ship. It has been worth all that sports have cost to [18] THE CLEAN SPORTING SPIRIT have purged the mind of youth, of its oldtime habit of making excuses. Years ago when a boy did not meet the general expectation he would be- come quite Eloquent in excuses. What he lost on the field he would try to make up in diplomacy. If a man misses a ball he does not now be- gin a long address, having fabricated an excuse. Like the man, not having the wedding garment, speechless- ness is in order. Defeated players are silent. Ex- planations are of no account. Play cannot in any wise, or by anyone, be made the main business of life, else he simply gives an exhibition ; and like Gideon 's ten thousand who knelt by the stream, he will not be wanted. He who drinks of the brook by the way, as he presses on, and he only will lift up the head. It is the true idea of recrea- tion, a sipping of the brook by the way, and its effect is not better expressed than as a lifting up of the head. The clean sporting spirit maintains a standard, that is now adopted, in traveling exhibitions. Their owners today are likeliest to have been country boys. They emphasize sobriety. It is useless, for a dissipated person, to attempt to stand in public relations. In our new national attitude toward temperance, we are more deeply indebted than many know, to the Medo- Persic laws, that are insisted upon by the ball teams and boating crews, that have also taught the moral value of the victorious spirit. They have taught candidates for honors, no matter what others do, they [19] THE WORST BOYS IN TOWN must practice some self-denial. They have made it evident that loafing is not recreation. We can name localities and classes of young men that have a perish- ing need of learning this lesson. "That is the best country," Senator Hoar said, "where the boys are manly, and the men have a good deal of the boy in them." St. Carlo Borromeo was asked, what he would do, if the last trumpet should sound, when he was playing at billiards. "Try to make a good hit, ' ' he replied. If it be innocent recrea- tion, do it as well as possible and enjoy it, without shame or fear. Some one described civilization as the process of womanizing man. We do not so apprehend the Bible spirit. When the door of the sepulchre was opened for David, and his grave clothes were ready, when at his desire the crown had already been placed upon the head of the wisest of men, the sweet singer of Israel exhorted Solomon, not to show himself a proverb maker, not a king, not a law-giver, not a warrior, not a statesman, but the precept is, Show thyself a man, displaying the fine qualities of a man, living up to the manly standards in all the acts of life. So Solomon understood him and he sat on the throne of the Lord, and prospered and exceeded, all the kings of the earth, for riches, and for wisdom. And all the earth sought to Solomon to hear his wis- dom which God had put in his heart. [20] CHAPTER III HAVING A FLAG AND FLYING IT Thou hast given a banner that it may be displayed. Ps. 60 : 4. When Commodore Perry entered the harbor of Yeddo in Japan he placed the American flag upon the capstan of the ship, gathered his sailors about him and sang the Old Hundredth Psalm. What flag is this ? It is the glorious ensign, whose broad stripes and bright stars were seen, by the dawn's early light on Thursday morning, September 15, 1814, so gal- lantly streaming, with fourteen stars over the ram- parts of Fort McHenry. For every present star in all its ample folds 5,500 soldiers of the Republic have died; for each star 6,000 brave men have been wounded; for every distinct star four generals have yielded their lives. With every passing day 150 valorous men who once swung into line under its starry spell and marched away to the music of the union are now, at the river of death " mustered out" of the grand army and ' ' mustered in " to the grander, greater army of the redeemed in heaven. What flag is this? It is the symbol of 2261 battles in the Civil War, which it entered with 34 [21] THE WORST BOYS IN TOWN stars. It is the most graceful, beautiful banner in all the world. It represents the greatest sacrifices, the most striking providences ever exhibited in any country. Carried in 1777 by Washington's army, it flung its matchless beauty to the breezes when he repulsed Cornwallis on the banks of the Assumpsic, it floated in the smoke and roar of the battle of Brandywine, fluttered in the breeze when Burgoyne surrendered at Saratoga, witnessed the unparalleled suffering at Valley Forge, the capitulation of Corn- wallis at Yorktown, the ebb of the tide of rebellion at Vicksburg, the beginning of the end at Gettysburg, and the capitulation at Appomattox where, by the terms offered, we did something more and better than conquer our enemies. We won them. What flag is this? It is a standard not found, on exhibition, in any war museum of the old world, as a trophy captured in battle. It is not the red flag of anarchy, nor the black flag that fights to a death and which gives no quarter, least of all do we show a white flag, with its loss of spirit, absence of principle, peace at any terms, sur- render. It is "Old Glory, " being first so named by a man from Salem, Capt. William Driver, and meeting with such popular favor that the name has followed the flag into every port of the civilized world. * * Show the flag," was Dewey's admonition to Capt. C. L. Hopper. "Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee that it may be displayed because of the truth," [22] HAVING A FLAG AND FLYING IT