Through By Daylight: The Boys Are (Going to Be) Alright

Based Boys Books

It's not every day that we can introduce readers to a true unsung gem that checks all of the boxes we look for on the Based Boys shelf. But William Taylor Adams, or Oliver Optic as he was better known to legions of boys in the 19th century, was not an everyday sort of author. We've got a true rarity to uncover here. Tales of adventure and pluck? Check. Aspirational young heroes who are competent and decisive, while still human and believable? Got it. Moral lessons? You bet. Moral lessons without a smarmy tone or old-aunt-finger-wagging? Hey, we got you. Ready for the best bit?

Do you like trains?

Yeah, that's right. It's not subtitled “The Young Engineers” for nothing. Wolf Penniman (yeah, that's his name) sails boats, drives trains, and fights bullies like Waddie Wimpleton (yeah, that's HIS name). And by this we mean he fights bullies with his fists, the old-fashioned way. Then he learns Christian virtues like forgiveness and honor, while still opposing what's wrong and without letting himself become, to use a word we really ought to revive, "a milksop."

This right here is The Good Stuff.

Adams blasted over a hundred books into print during the mid-to-late 1800s, and his primary focus was "juveniles," including multiple novel series and a popular magazine all his own. Oliver Optic's works later influenced such well-known heroes of boy's fiction as Horatio Alger. In fact, Louisa May Alcott disparaged Adams publicly, saying she disliked his books for their “use of slang...cast of bootblacks and newsboys, and stories of police courts and saloons.” With respect to Miss Alcott, whose own work is renowned with good reason, this reads like a glowing recommendation to the editors of P3 Press.

The heros of the six-novel Lake Shore series get into and out of scrapes, save lives and reputations, and along with a large group of local teenagers operate their own joint-stock incorporated railroad. You read that right. These are stories by and for independent and trustworthy lads who want to be pushed. The characters are realistic, within the narrative confines of the era. Wolf's father struggles with alcoholism and his mother is a worrier, but they both support and guide him well. He respects them, heeds their instructions and still maintains a clear-headed agency that allows him to chart his own course through life. Imagine reading this in a modern novel:

“You must try to have a Christian spirit, Wolfert,” said the mother, mildly.

“I do try to have a Christian spirit, mother. I haven’t anything against Waddie or his father. If I could do a kindness to either one of them this minute, I would do it. But I don’t think a fellow must be a milksop in order to be a Christian. I don’t think the Gospel requires me to be a toady, or even to submit to injustice when I can help myself. I don’t ask to be revenged, or anything of that sort; I only desire to keep my head out of the dirt. I am going to try to be a man, whatever happens to me.”

“If you will only be a Christian, Wolfert, I can ask no more.”

“I will try to be; but do you think yourself, mother, that I ought to stand still and allow myself to be kicked?”

“You must not provoke your enemies.”

“I will not, if I can help it; but I think it is pretty hard to keep still when you are called a rascal and a villain.”

Oh yeah, and then in the next scene Wolf is trapped by Waddie and a small gang, and fends them off in a running battle in which they are all armed with clubs. This after apologizing for calling the bully names previously, and then stanchly refusing to kiss Waddie’s boots in apology. Built, as they say, different. For the reviewer's money, this is why the series is the most criminally unknown of the genre. Adams balances different Christian virtues with impressive wisdom and his characters never get to take the easy way out. He forces you to learn alongside the characters how to navigate the real world with self-sacrificial humility as well as stubborn bravery. Wolf learns to fight his own battles, but also keep his word at personal expense and make peace with his enemies even when he would rather seek revenge. All while demonstrating how to conduct a meeting according to Robert's Parliamentary Rules and prevent a runaway engine from jumping the tracks.

It's rare to find an author who so perfectly embodies the Based Boys ethos. Here's fiction that fires the imagination of a young man desiring to test himself, prove his mettle, and fight his own battles against his own enemies. Many bemoan a culture of safetyism and the results for young men. The key missing element needed to find our way out is imagination. Men need models and patterns to embrace, believable paths to walk where measured risk is rewarded and tangible dangers are overcome. It's not enough to tell boys to get off the couch, if you don't give them a fight to get into.

If the past few months of inspiring hard-tech achievements and cultural turmoil have taught us anything, it's that the young men still yearn for speed, strength and the open skies. Adams knew this in his day and made a world for boys inside his works, liberally salted with realistic details from his own life and travels. This world was the opposite of escapist, although daydreams also have a vital role to play in forming the young mind. This was a preparatory world, one to give young men an introduction to the mature milieu they were expected to step into from a relatively early age. By identifying with plucky young heroes, they were able to recognize themselves as they might become and orient themselves to their future.

Instead of telling rising generations that the world we gave them is too broken for hope, it’s time to fill them with the imagination to remake it. Young men in every generation have faced their own set of impossible odds, and triumphed when told by their elders that they could. We are in desperate need, yes, of young men with the imagination to see that a good life and a good world is possible, if they will trust God and get to work.

Keep a sharp eye on your throttle, son. We’re behind time. But we’ll put ‘er through.