-one thousand dollars. Some boys go wrong. When a boy goes wrong, we not only lose our thousand dollars, but we have to spend another thousand to protect ourselves against him." Responsibility inspires a boy to measure up to his best and naturally prevents wrong doing. Standards of right doing are established also by a knowledge of evil, just as the value of fresh air is taught by being told something of the evil of the lack of it. Ignorance of the dark and seamy side of life is not always a help to boys who are on the edge of a world in which good and evil are mixed. If boys are to be equipped with permanent standards of productiveness and to measure up to their potentialities, they must be given hard things to do, they must be saved from the sin of selfishness through service for others, and the parent or friend who can guide them into paths of right doing will ever be remembered. Memory never forgets the "I had a friend" is the

friends of boyhood.

secret of the manly, virile character of many

men.

"Earth's future glory and its hopes and joys
Lie in the hearts and hands of growing boys.
The world is theirs, to do with as they will;
The world is theirs, for the good results or ill.
We soon must give into their outstretched hands
The mighty issues of our changing lands.

In Earth's large house they soon shall take their place, A menace or a glory to the race.

Tremendous issues on Time's threshold wait;

We need strong men to guide the Ship of State

Into the harbor of the next decade.

Look to the boys from whom strong men are made."

CHAPTER IX

THE LANGUAGE OF THE FENCE

"There was a child went forth every day and the first object he looked upon, that object he became, and that object became part of him for the day or a certain part of the day, or for many years or stretching cycles of years."-WHITMAN.

The language of the fence speaks more effectively in the molding of sentiment and morals among boys than does the eloquence of the pulpit. A piece of chalk in the hands of an evil-minded boy will cause the fence, side wall of a house, and even the pavement to blossom forth in pictures and language which the law forbids tongue to utter or artist to paint. This language is but the reflection of the thought life of the boy. As the boy grows older these thoughts become actions and society receives a shock. Frequently a school house may be located by the language chalked on nearby fences, and walks. It is appalling how thoroughly even immature boys and girls understand this language. It is a language not printed in books

but passed on from community to community in about the same way as marble playing, and the games of youth. The only difference in each community is the degree of vileness. Country villages frequently exhibit more shocking drawings and sentences of filthy verse than the congested sections of the city. A traveler from Maine to California will not find a community where "the language of the fence" cannot be seen and read.

The preponderance of its influence is evidenced by the records of the Juvenile Courts. The crimes of manhood begin during the habit-making period of youth. A mental photograph of the fence language was made through the lens of the eye, thought was stimulated, and action determined. Through a succession of uncontrolled thoughts, habits were strengthened and hardened, until the mature criminal was produced. Why are parents so blind and communities so self-centered upon material progress and success that they cannot read the language of the fence, or see its effect upon these citizens of tomorrow? Why are boys and girls permitted to be taught by others the vile names given to parts of their body before first learning their real names from their God appointed teachers-Mother and Father?

With a view to verifying these statements I

interviewed 288 boys, all of whom were fifteen years of age and over and who represented good homes-homes of culture and education-in about forty different cities and towns. The answers to my first question, "How old were you when you were first told by anyone about sex matters?" is shown in the following tabulation and chart.

Age 4 567 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
No.

boys 2 10 5 1 25 13 40 26 56 29 37 21 7 2 2

My second question, "From whom did you first receive such information?" revealed the following:

My third question, "What was the character of the information, pure or impure?" brought out the fact that whenever the parent was the first teacher in the boy's school of life, the information was naturally pure, but when the "other boy" was the instructor the information was of the vilest sort. It was only after twelve years of age, when older boys of the right sort