The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1869-06-22
THE ROD AND THE CHILD.

The rod and the heavy, brutal hand,
that will not pause even to seize that i'll
strument of infantile torture, have spoil
ed more children than they have spared.
How cowardly, as well as cruel, is the
man or woman who ruthlessly beats q
little, helpless child!'
In the humber walks of life, and-to
their shame be it spoken even among
the educated middle classes, childhood
and infancy are too often governed only
by the fierce objurgation that startles the
innocent ear, and the heavy, savage
blow that bruises the soft flesh.
1t is not reason that prompts an adult
to beat a child; it is exasperated tenn.
pert is to give vent to the passion OF
the man or woman whom the poor child
may have Willingly or unwittingly pro.
voked.
We were once told of a Catholic priest
whose wise rule it was to forbid for o
time that man or woman to approach
the sacrament who confessed to having
manually corrected child on the i'm,
pulse of their own anger
Nothing could be more admirable than
the restraint imposed on his penitents by
this priest He had babe them, if child
offended, not to administer corporal
punishment for an hour at least, when
their own anger would. be cooled.
Savage indeed as is the instinct which
prompts violence to little creature inca
pable of defending itself, we doubt
whether the number of young children
who shrink and shrek and cover under
the savage blows of father and mother
would not be greatly reduced if those IA
theirs and mothers could be brought to
observe the rule of this good priest.
In these vaunted days of progress,
when orphanages and reformatories are
being raised throughout the land, might
we not look for little reform in the old
blind and brutal rule of the domestic
circle?
How little of love, and how much of
fierce coercion has been known by the
wretchcd children for whom the reform
atories are erected!
Is it not fact we'll known as it is
horrible, that there are demons in human
form-men and women we will not call
them-who bring up their children to the
trade of beggars, and savagely beat them
| if they do not bring home money
enough, not to purchase food for their
own poor little stomachs, but to buy
strong drink for the miscreant parent?.
How much not only of material for the
the reformatory but of grownup wick
edness results from the blows showered
on little children!
Do you suppose that the heart of the
poor little bruised creature does not
swell with Indignation as the stick or
clenched fist OF the parent descends?
Rage, malice. cruelty, deceit-all are
taught by its swollen and lacerated flesh,
Smooth, well bred, well-to-do society
is by no means aware how large por-
ton of infant humanity is taught with
eyil words and fed with blows.
If the boy is father to the man, what
manner of man will grow out Of the un
mercifully beaten boy?
The child, brutalized by blows, will
avenge himself on yet younger and
more feeble child-not improbably, when
he is strong enough to rise up, against
the fierce parent
Hl-usage of animals, wife beating, mur-
der itself, are results Of the cruelty oi
which in the poorer localities the chill
dren are both the witnesses and the vic.
tins.
| We do not exaggerate; not only the
fathers but the mothers of the humber
classes seem, with only few praisewor
thy exceptions, to recognize no other
mode Of governing their children thar
blows and terror
We might fill q volume with instances
Of parental cruelty which we have our
selves witnessed. Any person Of com
mon observation might do the same
they are Of daily and hourly occurrence
A poor little creature, scarce three
years old, was seen but the other day
shrieking in agonies of terror at the dool
Of public house 1t had been sent tt
buy beer, and had fallen down and bro
ken the jug.
What manner of mother must thi
have been to send such mere infant OF
such an errand? and what must her Gus
tomary usage of it have been that i
should fear being terribly beaten becaus,
it had accidentally broken an earthen
ware jug?
Not fortnight since, woman keep
ing a chambers shop in tolerably re
spectacle street, beat boy of sever
years old so savagely that the neighbour
interfered, when she impudently tolt
them that she had a right to beat he
own son as much as she pleased.
A few nights afterwards she chastise'
an infant girl with equal severity, ant
the boy, hardened by his own sutferngs
was heard to exult in those of his littl
sister.
This woman is slatternly viragc
with scowling brow and unkempt locks
But, alas! such unmotherly and unwo
manly outrage is not confined to he
class. Through an open window IN
respectable street, the writer a few night
since heard mothers savage blows dc
scend and a child's piteous cries 70
mercy.
Oh that the humanitarians and teach
ers of the people would try and enforc
the laws of love, and show its potenc
in the domestic circle
Prevention is better than cure; if ther
were fewer brutal parents there would b
, fewer vicious children.
Filial obligation is no doubt very grea
, but it dwarfs beside the immense, th
awful responsibilities of a parent; an
E so much depends ON early impression
that body and soul the PARENTS account
able for the child
A child is sacred charge, for do "
not believe that those snatched in chile
y hood from this weary world are OF th
number Of Heavens own angels An
shall we, then, in our lntemperate ange
brulse and deface the caslieL that ma
contain an angel, and turn it into I'll
3 dwelling OF tiendt
Love and tenderness only should su
rOun1 the tiny hplnleSS creaturcS-klS