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Show VICIOUS SIDE OF CITY STREET LIFE Most Boys Get First Acquaintance During Vacation Time, Says Kansas City Star. Nenrly every boy Rets his first nc-qunintanco nc-qunintanco with the vicious side of city street life, with the "neighborhood," "neighbor-hood," during his summer vacation from school. These boys learn the cigarette lmbit and the profanity habit. hab-it. There they are at first shocked and then lured by the vulgar "funny story.". There, on the Corner, with a gang of vicious boys of older age thnt infects every neighborhood, they come in contact with the outer fringe of the city's underworld; and often, too in Qvc'ry city they aro sucked into in-to tho whirlpool of vice and aro lost. Thcro is no good reason why this should be so. It is not true that every ev-ery boy should have his "wild oats" period, But it Is truo 'that nearly every boy will have it unloffifhc is carefully mnnagcd(. Every heallhy boy must play, but thcro is"puch a thing as directing the manner of his playing so the vicious side of the city life will bo avoided. It is tho duty of parents to givo special caro to his vacntion time. Not all the boy's time should be given up to mere play. He should be encouraged to do something worth while in vacation time, just as during the school term. The school gardens are good things to interest tho boy in. He should bo given a certain cer-tain nmount of work to do each day about the house and lot. He should be encouraged to play ball near at hand so ho will not be too long a time beyond parental oversight. Plan'ibr his playing. See that he has access to a croquet ground and, if possible, to a tennis court. Go w'.h him en jaunts into the country. A lawyer in this city who reared n family of boys successfully used to go out in the evenings and pitch horseshoes with them nnd two afternoons of each week ho went with them to the country coun-try and taught them the names of the different kinds of trees here nbouts, nnd tho different species of birds. This broadened out so that ho had to study botany to keep up with them, nnd from that thoy branched out together to-gether in geology and spent hours in studying rock nnd earth formations. His boys enjoyed that more than any play and looked ahead to those afternoons after-noons with keenest pleasure. You'll have to work hard to keep a hearty boy interested in only wholesome forms of play but the result will re-, pay all the trouble and work. And whntovcr you do, don't nag him. Don't scold and forever find fault. That has driven many a boy to rebellion. Study him; learn his likes and dislikes, dis-likes, and enthusiasms. Let him see thnt you arc his earnest friend nnd you will soon have a hold on him that will bo his salvation. Kansas City Sjtar. |