The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1864-07-21
From EIGHT 10 Sixteen.

There is some virtue in the science of sta
tistics. Lord Salisbury was enabled to de-
clare it at public meeting, as an ascertained
fact, that forty-nine out Of fifty Of all Grim.
inaIs in England, convicted in after life, com
menced their career of crime between the
ages of eight and sixteen, so that he who has
passed through his sixteenth year without
having commenced life of crime against
the laws of the country, in some particular
or other is almost or quite certain never TO
do so. - -
This probably shows to what an extent
crime is the result of bad paternal govern
ment and training. When we see youth
under sixteen committing not only faults
and indulging in vices, but already SO lar
gone &c to become a violator of the laws of
| the country we instinctiyely blame his pa
rents more than himself, for it, and in the
nine cases out Of ten we are JUSTIFIED in SO
doing. His crime may not have been the
direct result Of any counsel and training of
his parents leading him into evil courses by
their intention;but it is generally some prin-
ciple which the youth had seen sanctioned at
home, or by those he has been taught to re-
spect, pushed out practically to the legitl-
mate consequence Of such principles.
Where this is not the case, there has, IN
almost all instances, been an absence OF
that sort of restraint which might easily
have kept a lad clear of criminal associates.
The Asiatic laws, which holds mans fam
ily guilty in part for his crimes, are therefore
not so far out of the way. Certainly IT
would seem as if the parents of criminals
are at the beginning more culpable than the
criminals themselves.
1t is not merely in regard to crime, but to
every species of moral delinquency, lnclu-
ding all the vices which sap industry, integ-
rity, truth, honor and positive virtue OF
every sort, that the same principle may be
applied.
it is probable that between eight and six
teen the characters of most youths for good
or for evil are sufficiently developed to af-
ford an almost infallible prospectus to theil
future course If a lad is going to prove q
smoker or a drinker, a gambler, swearer
or cheat, he will generally have begun be-
fore he is sixteen.
No doubt many who have begun in g
thousand evil ways, or ways that NIGH
have portended evil in youth of no ordinary
degree, having sown their wild oats, have
reformed and become the most exemplary O
mankind, but those who between eight ant
sixteen are exemplary, are almost certain
to become honorable, and distinguishes
linen.
Many parents, on this account, fall int,
the sad mistake of trying to keep their chill
dren as childish as possible, hoping thus by
retarding the natural course of trial ant
temptation with them. to preserve them in
nocent, and. render them virtuous through
life. Yet this course more often fails thai
succeeds, because it is essentially artificial
untrue and unnatural 1t is a less evi
unusually to push plants forward artificial
than to keep them back, and so it is wit
men.
Those thuh retarded too often never ripe
into men at all, but are always imma
ture, even where they do not reach into tn
worse vices. An innocent man is nothin
but an overgrown baby. No one admire
peach blossoms in December TO kee
back youth artifciaIIy in ignorance tina
he may be Innocent, will never prepare hin
to be strong in virtue and overcome tn
world.
DIR. Arnold one of the best educators c
youth the world has yet seen, has severa
admirable remarks on the subject, while h
complains that many merry innocent DO.
is often ruined by life in public school,
He says that where lad has had principle
of positive virtue, instilled into him in earl
life-where the love of right, justice, honor
and integrity has been distinctly fostered
the trials of school life make youth strong
er and more manly and vigorous in all goot
ways.
Let parents only occupy the years from
eight to sixteen in seeking to push home t
their children's hearts principles of earnes
moral self culture, and it will save them no
only from criminal, but all those evi
courses that are the chief drawbacks fror
the youths surrounding them. To do thi
there must be much more confidence AM
frankness between parents and children tina
there usually is-a letting down of the will
that hides the hearts and knowledge of pa
rents and children from each other-Phita
dolphin Ledger.