Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1869-06-09
Tied to Apron Strings.
BY AN ESdLrsnMAN.

Perhaps the greatest misfortune that can
belall man is to have been an onlS' son,
brought up by tender and timid widow
mother. 1t is easy to sec at glance, among
a crowd Of boys, who has been educated un-
der exclusively feminine influence. The long
curled shining hair, the fantastic tunic -gen-
orally kind of hybrid between tunic and
a frock-the lavish use of embroidery, the
soft pretty behaved manner, the clean un-
roughened hands, all mark the boy of'whom
his mother has so often wished that he had
been girl, and whom she has made as like
girl as possible His intellectual education
has been as unboylike as his daily breeding.
Mothers boys are taught to play the piano,
to amuse themselves with painting, or netting.
or perhaps little woodwork in the evenings
anything to keep them quietly seated by
the family table, without an outbreak OF boy
is restIessness or inconvenient energy but
they are never taught to ride, to hunt, to
shoot to swim, to play at cricket football or
| billiards, unless there is stalwart uncle about
who takes the reins in his own hand at times,
and insists on having word to say about his
nephews education. There is danger in ALL
and evil in some, of these things; and women
cannot bear that those they love should run
the risk Of either. Wherefore their boys
are modest and virtuous truly, but they are
not manly and when they 60 out into the
world, as they must sooner or later, they are
either laughed at for their priggishness, or
they 20 to the bad by the very force of re-
action. The mother has allowed them TO
learn nothing that viii be of any use to them,
and they enter the great arena wholly unpre-
pared either to fight or to resist to push their
own way or to take their own part. They
have been kept tied up to the apron-string to
the last moment, and only when absolutely
forced by the necessity of events will she cut
the knot and let them 60 free. But she holds
ON TO the last moment. Even when the time
comes for college life and learning, she often
goes with her darling, and takes lodgings IN
the town, that she may be near at hand 10
watch over his health and morals, and con-
tinue her careful labors for his destruction.-
The chances are that youth so brought up
never becomes real man or worth his salt
ANYHOW. He is prig If no is good, de
baucheo of the worst kind il he kicks over
the traces at all. He is more likely the fist
carving the mark Of the apron-string round
his wrist for life. Like tame falcvi. used
to the hood and the perch and the lure home,
no matter what the temptation Of the quarry
aReld, he is essentially domestic man, at
ease only in the society of women iussy
man, small man, delicate in health, and
with dread of strong measures, physical,
political, or mental crotchety man, end
given to passing quackeries, but not a man tit
for mans society, or for mans work. When
there are many boys, instead of only one, in
widows family, the opposite Of all this Is
the case. As soon as they have escaped from
the nursery, they have escaped from all con-
troll whatsoever and II one wants to realize
puerile pandemonium of dirt, discomfort,
noise, and general disorganization, the best
place in the world is the household of fee
ble-spirited mother of many sons, where there
is no controlling masculine influence
1t is estimated that forty-fye thousand