is always intensely
popular as a side issue. Some of the boys never fail to wrap a piece up in
paper, or put it in the pocket without wrapping, to take home to the baby
sister or brother. Only one, to Mr. Wendell's knowledge, ever refused
ice-cream at an entertainment, and he explained, by way of apology, that
he had had the colic all day and his mother had told him "she'd lick him
if he took any." For a dignified missionary, who in telling the boys about
the spread of the Gospel in the Far East, proposed to illustrate heathen
customs by arraying himself in native costumes, brought along for the
purpose, it must have been embarrassing to a degree to be cautioned by the
audience to "keep his shirt on." But his mishap was as nothing to what
befell a young lady, the daughter of a wealthy and distinguished
financier, who with infinite trouble had persuaded her father to assist at
a certain festive occasion in her favorite club. He was an amateur with
the magic lantern, the boys' dear delight, and took it down to amuse them.
Mr. Wendell tells what followed:

The show was progressing famously, and the daughter was beaming with
pride, when one of the boys suddenly beckoned to her, and pointing to the
distinguished financier remarked:

"What der yer call dat bloke?"

"Whom do you mean?" asked the proud daughter, in a tone of much surprise,
being quite unaccustomed to hearing the distinguished financier described
as a "bloke."

"I mean dat bloke over dere, settin' off dem picturs!" replied the boy.

"What do you desire to know about him?" inquired the proud daughter, with
freezing dignity.

"I want ter know what yer call one of them fellers dat sets off picturs?"
persisted the boy.

"That gentleman," said the proud daughter, in her most impressive tone,
"is my father."

"Well!" said the boy, surveying her with supreme contempt, "don't yer know
yer own father's trade?"

The Boys' Club has had many followers. Some aim at teaching the lads
trades; others content themselves with trying to mend their manners, while
weaning them from the street and its coarse ways. Still others keep the
moral improvement in view as the immediate object, as it is the ultimate
end. Some follow the precedent of the Boys' Club in charging nothing for
admission; other club-organizers, like the managers of the College
Settlement, have found the weekly fee as necessary as home rule to
encourage self-help and self-respect in the boy, and to bring