The Deadly Consequences of 'Just for Fun'
A sobering editorial on how boys' thoughtless pranks—like stretching ropes across sidewalks or lighting dogs on fire—result in lifelong tragedy.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Four boys were full of fun; they wanted to see the people get a tumble as they came out of church, so they stretched a rope across the sidewalk and hid behind the hedge to have a good laugh. Little Alice came running down the street with a basket of fruit and flowers for an invalid aunt. The night was dark, the street lamps dim. The little girl fell. She would never skip about any more, but must lie on her sick couch all the years of her life. Just for fun! Five or six idle boys wanted a 'jolly time,' so they caught a little homeless dog, saturated its hair with kerosene, then applied a lighted match! In a moment, the creature was in a blaze. It ran into an open barn under a pile of hay. In a moment all was ablaze, and house and contents were destroyed. The boys had their fun, but a mother and her little ones were left homeless.
“The boys had their fun, but a mother and her little ones were left homeless.”
While framed as a moralizing editorial typical of the era, the text reflects the dangerous intersection of boredom and cruelty, themes that remain relevant in discussions of youth violence and consequences.
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