try newspaper, seems to
me to tell the story of why boys go astray. They are not understood at
home and so naturally go where someone seems to understand and want
them.

In a great many homes the boy's room is a very unattractive place,
merely a place in which to sleep. He is not allowed in the "parlor." He
always seems to be in the way. No one seems to take any interest in the
things that are closest to his heart. It is only natural that he should
gradually drift to the saloon, the billiard room, the questionable
houses, because he is made to feel that he is welcome there. Indeed his
tastes and desires are consulted there.

A boy always is interested in sex problems. The vulgar delight in
feeding his fancy, in giving him exaggerated ideas of these much abused
subjects. He is lead on from one step to another. Often many of the
things he does are performed in a spirit of bravado, simply because he
does not wish to appear "green."

From one of the reliable magazines comes this information: "Forty-one
families--'nice families,' as we call them--were last May thrown into
consternation and humiliation by being privately notified by the head
master of a boys' school that their boys would not be reentered for
another term at his school. 'A fearful condition of immorality,' wrote
the head master, 'has been unearthed at the school, and in order to set
an example to the rest of the boys, every boy concerned will be denied
reentrance to this school.'

"The 'fearful condition of immorality' discovered in the school was, as
the head master privately explained, traceable, as it generally is, 'to
one boy, the son of a family of unquestioned standing in its
community,' and he has involved the other boys.

"The boy in question was not a vicious lad: on the contrary, he was a
boy possessed of more than ordinary good characteristics. When he was
brought up before the head master and the full result of his baneful
influence was explained to him the boy was panic stricken.

"'Didn't you realize what you were doing?' asked the head master.

"'No,' replied the boy, who was nineteen and really a young man: 'I knew
it was wrong, yes, but I didn't realize how wrong. As a matter of fact,'
said the boy, 'I didn't know what I was doing, and how I was getting the
boys into a thing that I now see is more serious than I had any idea
of.'

"'Didn't your father and mother ever explain these things to you?' asked
the head master.

"'Not a wor