446 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
and a twist just at the jolt, and then laughed and sneered when the cart bounded into the air, turned half over, and dropped the little boy on his head on the hard stones. This meanness they call fun, and I despise this fun that makes another cry.
If I were by and saw some bullies, some mean ones, trying this trick, do you know what I would do ? If I were big enough, or could get enough boys to help me, I would take their cart and give the little fellow the finest ride he ever had.
Perhaps it would be only fair, if there were a machine that would catch the bullies one by one, and gently knock their heads against the stones of the drive- way just a little harder than gravity did the head of the little boy whatook them for gentlemen. Thus they might learn how hard the stones are and how mean they are.
There is not a bully in this group — not a mean one. I am not sure that the boys take turns riding, but I think they do. At least I did not see any- one crying because he could not ride.
If I were a boy, do you know what I would do ? I would get a strong cart, and then I would be a fine enough fellow to have some splendid friends, and I would not have a fuss with any one of them. I would try never to get mad myself, and we should have the best of rides and take turns.
Get a cart, Down the bully,
Have some fun ; Run like mad ;
Be a boy, Keep your temper.
Learn to run. You 're my lad.
The handling of these episodes is a delicate matter. How shall we treat the evil of life ? The hothouse boy, reared in ignorance, is blighted by the first hot breath upon his cheek, and it is far better that the evils that are common and sure to be understood some time should be explained, when the children become curious, by those who hate evil rather than by those who like it. These lectures must show the ugliness of the evil they discuss, and they must avoid being a revelation of evil that is unknown and would prove strange and fascinating. The final impressions of each lecture must be of the positive beauties of life and of definite directions as to fine conduct.
There is nothing strikingly new in the positions of this article. In 1882, Princeton Review, article on the "Moral and Religious Training of Children," Dr. G. Stanley Hall said:'
During the first four or five years of school life the point of prime impor- tance in ethico-religious training is the education of conscience. A system
