American boy

“ There are brighter pictures. Those who have intimate relation with hundreds of boys learn to admire the American boy for his earnest desire to be clean and strong and for his attitude toward the sacred things of life. ”

“ The modern American small boy is a vastly different being from either of these transatlantic worthies; at all events his most prominent characteristics, as they strike a stranger, are not illustrated in the earlier period of their career.
The peculiarities of young America would, indeed, matter but little to the stranger if young America stayed at home. But young America does not stay at home. It is not necessary to track the American small boy to his native haunts in order to see what he is like. ”

“ The American small boy is possessed, moreover, of a well-nigh invincible aplomb. He is not impertinent, for it never enters into his head to take up the position of protesting inferiority which impertinence implies. He merely takes things as they come, and does not hesitate to express his opinion of them. An American young gentleman of the mature age of ten was one day overtaken by a fault. ”

“ These three alone lead life to sovereign power.” AMERICAN BOYS. Never in the history of any people did boys have so much in their favor to assist them in reaching the pinnacle of success as American boys. Back of them is an ancestry of the best blood of the leading nations of the world, an ancestry noted for persistence, reverence, piety and patriotism. ”

“ The author has no desire to make his young heroes either preternaturally brilliant or possessed of too precocious brains. They are normal, healthy American boys fond of travel and adventure and naturally are meeting experiences such as come to men doing what they were doing in certain parts of our country. ”

“ With five chances on each hand and one unwavering aim, no boy, however poor, need despair. There is bread and success for every youth under the American flag who has energy and ability to seize his opportunity. ”

“ The Kid Has Gone to the Colors
The Kid has gone to the Colors And we don't know what to say; The Kid we have loved and cuddled Stepped out for the Flag to-day. We thought him a child, a baby With never a care at all, But his country called him man-size And the Kid has heard the call. He paused to watch the recruiting, Where, fired by the fife and drum, He bowed his head to Old Glory And thought that it whispered: "Come!" The Kid, not being a slacker, Stood forth with patriot-joy To add his name to the roster— And God, we're proud of the boy! The Kid has gone to the Colors ”

“ It seems odd that a strapping, pimple-faced, freckled, red-headed boy, loudmouthed and husky-voiced, more or less turbulent and generally in trouble for his insistent defense of his weaker playmates–it seems odd that such a boy could be the center of such grand dreams as they dreamed for their boy. ”

“ The tenderness toward little children which the war has shown forth so vividly has been a revelation of an inherent sweetness in the boys’ natures; this fondness for children other than their own, being, I believe a distinctive characteristic of our American men. Any number of companies have mascots, little French boys, orphans usually, whom they dress in miniature uniforms, take about from place to place with them, and, of course, spoil quite shamelessly. And in every unit that possesses a mascot you find boys whose dearest wish is to adopt the little fellow as his own and take him back home ”

“ Now and then there is the ambitious boy, and then again there is your studious boy; there is your bookish boy; there is your shy boy who does not get into the games. He is the boy you should watch all the time. There is the boy who has become delicate and finicky, because he has been doddled at home. I hope you haven't got so many of them here as we have in the East, but he is here and you must watch him, because his parents are doing everything in the world to spoil him. ”

“ True to his inverted comprehension, the country boy, and our boy especially, sees and feels all his surroundings and all the voices of nature from a boy's standpoint. He feels that his hours of work are long and hard, and that the countless chores are interspersed through his daily life on the farm for the sole purpose of preventing him from having a moment he can call his own. ”

“ BOY-PROBLEMS, like boys, are always with us. Wherever there is a boy there are problems to be solved. The perfect boy may live somewhere—but not in my immediate neighborhood. Even though he possesses many of the attributes of perfection, he will be found wanting in industry, or thrift, or orderliness, or courtesy, or studiousness. He may even show such [2] traits as disobedience, untruthfulness, selfishness, truancy, thievery, or immorality. The complete boy does not just grow—he is builded and the parent is both architect and builder. ”

“ It is said that one boy is a boy; two boys a half boy and three boys no boy at all. That may be true of the boy running loose, unbridled like a colt, but gather up these boys and train them, harness and hitch them and they will move the world or break a trace. It is the boy who decides the fate of nations. I don't know the average age of our soldiers in times of peace, but when wars come and there is a call for soldiers, it is mainly the boy in his teens who responds ”

“ THE BOY CHUMS IN THE FLORIDA JUNGLE;
or, Charlie West and Walter Hazard with the Seminole Indians.
The Broncho Rider Boys Series
By FRANK FOWLER
Price, 40 Cents per Volume, Postpaid A series of stirring stories for boys, breathing the adventurous spirit that lives in the wide plains and lofty mountain ranges of the great West. These tales will delight every lad who loves to read of pleasing adventure in the open; yet at the same time the most careful parent need not hesitate to place them in the hands of the boy. ”

“ You are a human boy, my young friend. A human boy. O glorious to be a human boy! ”

“ German. He say this man use the baby to save himself from arrest. Very smart—he say.
American. I judge you do him an injustice. [Showing off the Little Man with a sweep of his arm.] This is a vurry white man. He's got a black baby, and he won't leave it in the lurch. Guess we would all act noble, that way, give us the chance. [The Little Man rises, holding out the Baby, and advances a step or two. The half-moon at once gives, increasing its size; the American climbs onto a higher trunk. The Little Man retires and again sits down.] ”

“ How much swaggering do we see around everywhere? No matter where you go you see little boys growing up full of pride, impudence and impertinence. They are called "Young America." Beautiful specimens, and fine men they will make when they are full grown! ”

“ That afternoon the whole world seemed to devote itself to being perfect and radiantly beautiful and kind to one boy. ”

“ A third says it is not fair to count the children of foreign-born parents as foreign; that they are in fact much stronger Americans in general than the native children of native parentage; and instances the flag-drills in the schools, in which the foreign children take the keenest delight, as they do in the study of American history. ”

“ I can conceive of nothing more typical of the exuberant joie-de-vivre of youth than the sight of Ducker on a warm summer evening when the place is ringing with the shouts and laughter of some four hundred boys, all naked as when they were born, swimming, diving, ducking each other, splashing and rollicking in the water, whilst others stretched out on the grass, puris naturalibus, are basking in the sun, or regaling themselves on buns and cocoa. The whole place is vibrant with the intense zest the young feel in life, and with the whole-hearted powers of enjoyment of boyhood. ”

“ In this world of human affairs there is no worse nuisance than a boy at the age of fourteen. ”

“ Youth has nothing to do with birthdays, only with ALIVEDNESS of spirit, so even if your hair is grey, Daddy, you can still be a boy. ”

“ Not only was he ignorant, but he had not even those conditions within himself which made knowledge possible. All that there was developed of him, at present, was a fund of energy, self-esteem, hope, courage, and daring, the love of action, life, and adventure; his life was in the outward and present, not in the inward and reflective; he was a true ten-year old boy, in its healthiest and most animal perfection. ”

“ and even at this day I still stand somewhat bewildered, like the boy. ”

“ One of the benefits of a college education is, to show the boy its little avail. ”

“ For my part, I do not much believe in the predilections of boyhood. ”

“ Let us end with the Boy’s story, Major, for the Boy’s story is the best that is ever told!” ”

“ There is a time in the life of every boy when he for the first time takes the backward view of life. Perhaps that is the moment when he crosses the line into manhood. The boy is walking through the street of his town. He is thinking of the future and of the figure he will cut in the world. Ambitions and regrets awake within him. Suddenly something happens; he stops under a tree and waits as for a voice calling his name. Ghosts of old things creep into his consciousness; the voices outside of himself whisper a message concerning the limitations of life. ”

“ "When I get to be a man!" Being human, though boys, they considered their present estate too commonplace to be dwelt upon. So, when the old men gather, they say: "When I was a boy!" It really is the land of nowadays that we never discover. ”

“ How is the schoolmaster, the nation, to know which boy needs the whipping? ”

“ BOYHOOD is the longest time in life for a boy. The last term of the school-year is made of decades, not of weeks, and living through them is like waiting for the millennium. ”

“ The boy should enclose and keep, as his life, the old child at the heart of him, and never let it go. He must still, to be a right man, be his mother's darling, and more, his father's pride, and more. The child is not meant to die, but to be forever fresh born. ”

“ When I was a little boy I did not, of course, trouble much about my appearance. ”

“ The school-boy doesn’t force himself to learn his vocabularies and rules altogether at night, but knows that he must impress them again in the morning. ”

“ Oh, when I was a tiny boy,
My days and nights were full of joy,
My mates were blithe and kind!—
No wonder that I sometimes sigh,
And dash the tear-drop from my eye,
To cast a look behind! ”

“ He was ignorant, unwashed, insufficiently fed; but he had as good a heart as ever any boy had. ”

“ With astonishment Aschenbach noted that the boy was absolutely beautiful. ”

“ BEING A BOY ON HORSEBACK BEING A BOY One of the best things in the world to be is a boy; it requires no experience, though it needs some practice to be a good one. ”

“ HERE comes a time in every rightly constructed boy's life when he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure. ”

“ Ah, happy years! once more who would not be a boy? ”

“ The world should not pass judgment upon the Negro, and especially the Negro youth, too quickly or too harshly. The Negro boy has obstacles, discouragements, and temptations to battle with that are little known to those not situated as he is. ”

“ Would it be possible to find a more ungrateful boy, or one with less heart than I have! ”

“ "A boy's will is the wind's will, And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts." ”

“ I'll teach my boy the sweetest things;
I'll teach him how the owlet sings. ”

“ If you should have a boy, do not christen him John, and persuade George not to let his partiality for me come across. ”

“ But, good gracious, you've got to educate him first. You can't expect a boy to be vicious till he's been to a good school. ”

“ for there is just this difference between the making of a girl’s character and a boy’s—you may chisel a boy into shape, as you would a rock, or hammer him into it, if he be of a better kind, as you would a piece of bronze. But you cannot hammer a girl into anything. ”