"Quad's odds"; . his sass ! It requires nerve and courage to be a hood-lum. The boy has got to have the heart ofa man, the courage of a lion, and the consti-tution of an Arab. Only one in a hundred gives himcredit for half his worth. No one cares whether he growsfat or starves; whether Fortune lifts him up or casts himdown; whether night finds him quarters in a box or acomfortable bed. Hes a hoodlum, and hoodlums are gen-erally supposed capable of getting along somehow, thesame as a horse turned out to graze. Not one boy in ten can be a hoodlum. Nature neveroverstocks the market. If left an or
"Quad's odds"; . his sass ! It requires nerve and courage to be a hood-lum. The boy has got to have the heart ofa man, the courage of a lion, and the consti-tution of an Arab. Only one in a hundred gives himcredit for half his worth. No one cares whether he growsfat or starves; whether Fortune lifts him up or casts himdown; whether night finds him quarters in a box or acomfortable bed. Hes a hoodlum, and hoodlums are gen-erally supposed capable of getting along somehow, thesame as a horse turned out to graze. Not one boy in ten can be a hoodlum. Nature neveroverstocks the market. If left an orphan the average boydies, or has relatives to care for him, or falls in the way ofa philanthropist and comes up a straight-haired young manwith a sanctimonious look. The true hoodlum is born tothe business. He swallows marbles and thimbles as soonas he can creep, begins to fall down stairs when a year old,and is found in the alley as soon as he can walk. Hereceives numerous maulings from the boys, gets a semi- 48. THE FUTURE PRESIDENTS. SOME MORE OF HIM. 49 daily licking at home, and when able to talk plain is anaccomplished swearer and ready to enter upon his combatwith the world. About this time his father dies or runs away, or hismother dies or elopes, and the hoodlum is free to go andcome. The neighbors hate the boy because he has brokentheir windows and knocked pickets off the fence, and theyhave no care for his future. Once in a great while someone may halt him and ask him if he ever heard of theBible, or Heaven, or the angels, and hands go up in aston-ishment to find that he never has. Something ought to bedone with him, but who shall take him and train him?Every pedestrian will assert that the boy is a heathen, buthe is left to run his career, as before. Its no ones dutyin particular to wash him up, give him a square meal, putdecent garments on his back and then seek to make a manof him, and so the boy becomes further initiated into thehoodlum business. He knows that pe
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