Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1869-02-19

six, and the children were regularly sum-
moned-- not to partake of the meal-but
20 look on while their parents and gov
erness enjoyed It. AT eight o'clock the
children were each supplied with small
glass of cold milk and a smallpiece of rye
biscuit, and then went TO bed. What
aggravated the cruelty of this regimen
was. that their parents were particularly
fond of the pleasures of the table, and the
children were continually tormented with
the sight of delicious food, of which they
were sternly forbidden to partake. II is
the opinion of the survivors of the family
that this regimen stunted the growth and
| impaired the constitution Of Fredrika.
Then, again, these cruel, kind parents
were unrelenting rigorists in regard TO
the manners and demeanor of their
offspring At eight o'clock in the morn
inc, the children were required to be
dressed for the day, and to pay formal
visit 10 each of their parents first, TO their
mother in her boudoir, while she was tax
ing her morning coffee. When they
entered the room, instead of welcoming
them with smile and pleasant word, she
would look at them with sharp, critical
eye, and watch them closely during their
walk from the door to her chair If they
walked badly, she made them go back to
the door and walk the whole distance
again. When they had succeeded in
walking to her satisfaction, the next
thing was TO make courtesy 10 her,
which also had to be repeated until it was
correctly performed. Finally, they had
% Kiss their mothers hand, and do it with
the requisite grace,
Poor little Frcdrika, writes her siSs'r,
! could never walk. stand, sit or courtesy
/ 10 the satisfaction of my mother. and had
many bitter and wretched moments in
consequence
When they had accomplished the pain
full ceremony of saying Good Morning to
their mother, they had to 60 into another
room and salute their father, who at that
hour was always under the hands of the
hair-drcSser When they had courtcsied
To their father. then they were allowedto
go to their breakfast of cold milk and rye
biscuit
! Another whim OF their mothers added
greatly 10 the misery caused by the
scantincSs Of their fare. She had the
notion that children ought to be thinly
dressed, and 80 with bare necks and arms,
even when the ice, for days together, was
81 thick upon the window panes that the
shivcring children could not see out of
them.
All this seems strange TO Us and hardly
credible. Parents are now SO generally
indulgent 10 their children, that many of
Us find it difficult 10 believe that people
who could treat children thus were not
unfeelng and cruel. But elderly people
tell Us, that. fiity or sixty years age,
parents generally treated their children in
| some such way rs this, thinking TO harden
them against the inevitable evils of life.
Many parents, on principle, reirained
from caresSing their children, or express
ing their fondneSs for them in any way
which children could understand. We
now, perhaps, go to the opposite extreme.
1t is certain that this harsh treatmen;
did not answer well in the case of FTedrika
Bremcr, who, with the best possible
disposition and with splendid natural gifts,
became a remarkable mischieyous an d
disagreeable child When she was eight
or nine years OF age, her organ of destruc-
tiyeness was strangely developed. She
would throw into the fire such things as
handkerchiefs and stockings, giving IS
an excuse, when detected. that it was $50
delightful to see the flames" If she
found pair of scissors lying about when
nobody was present, she would cut piece
out of window curtain or large round
hole in the front other dress. She would
lock herself in a drawing-room, and cut
large hole in the middle of the costly
silk cover of an armchair. She used 10
cut open the legs and arms of her dolls,
and throw down porcelain figures upon
stone fireplace to see if they would
break.
when Fredrika," writes her sister
Charlotte, "had performed any cutting or
carving, and Lena, (the old seryanD was
ordered TO go and find it out, Fredriha
always used to follow her. silently and
calmly, as if she had done no wrong ;and
when Lena had found out what she had
cut and chopped to pieces, and begun to
moralize, Fredrika walked up TO Lena,
stared at her and at her own handiwork,
turned round and walked off without say
inc a word. IL the discovery took too
long, Fredrika lost her patience, and
pointed silently in the direction in which
Lena ought to 60"
She was, of all conceivable children, the
one whom severe or even ungenial treat
ment was most likely to sadden and
injure. 1t did sadden and iniure her.
Nevertheless, it seemed to stimulate her
talent, and made writer of her as early
as her eighth year. From that time
forward, she was in the habit of COM
posing verses, plays, tales and sketches.
1t was not, however, until she was twenty
seyap YEARS of ape that the thor, pbt came