Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1871-05-11
parents and ChiIdren.

1t is one OF the imperative duties OF
journalism to point moral when op-
portunity offers. For the wretched muir
derer of Mr.. Putnam, oppressed, as he
must be, with remorse as he sits in his
solitary cell in the Tombs, we have no
immediate feeling save that of sorrow
that man can become a murderer, and
that one who has received Christian
nurture should be compelled to contem-
plate the possibility-nay, the probability
of the gallows as his only pathway to
future existence. But from the meager
history of his life, which his crime has
made public, the youth of great city
like New York may draw striking and
useful lesson.
Who and what was William Foster?
The son of wealthy and highly re-
spected gentleman who has been long
and worthily known to and associated
with business men of high standing, he,
at an early age, cast off with brutal in
difference those sweet maternal in
huences which are all powerful for good,
and insolently emancipated himself from
the paternal yoke.
He did only what thousands of the lads
in New York are doing at this very day.
In every phase of life, in every class of
society one hears the impatient cry of
the father and the patient ,cry of the
mother and sisters: What can be done
with him2 What answer do they receiver
Bills from extortionate tradesmen, in
suits from foul associates and lewd
women, misery and sorrow in their in
finite forms and shapes The father sees
the hope of his old age roue at sixteen
the mother sees that her favorite son
is no fit future protector for her daugh-
ters. And such are to be the husbands
of our sisters-the fathers of future citi-
zensl What, but luck, prevents them
from being what now William Foster is
the inmate of the murderer's cell2 AT
school they learn Euclid and construe
Virgil, but in their play-hours they chew
tobacco, swear like carman, and not
unfrequently drink the vilest whisky.
Why is this2 Why should the greatest
of Gods gifts to man-his children-be
the cause of so much tribulation?
This country boasts, and justly, of her
enlightenment, her progress, and, above
all, of her educational sytem; and yet in
no country which assumes to be her peer
in these respects, is the emancipation of
children from parental control permitted
at so early an age. Children from their
infancy are not sent to bed at proper
hour; in many cases fathers take their
morning drinks in the presence of boy
of five or six years old, and bring curse
on themselves and the boys in so doing.
Boys and girls are alike educated to
love of dress, fnery and extravaganza;
they are early indoctrinated with an ex-
travagant and injudicious love for the
theater and everything that is injurious
to their childish minds, and they grow
up to be, what?-the terror of their fam
lilies. The girls, at sixteen, are on the
lookout for an eligible marriage-not
one of love, they do not know what love
is; the boys, at eighteen, for a haisOn
which shall give them certain standing
in the world of fashionable crime. What
follows? Domestic misery and divorce
in one case; faro-banks, bar-rooms, debt,
dishonor and crime in the other.
This is.no fanciful picture; it is one,
and terrible one, of real life. Men
and women, no matter to what class of
society they belong, have the remedy
for this fearful evil in their own hands.
They can, they have right to, and they
must exercise greater and more last
ing control over their children. They
must be their parents and guardians till
they marry or settle in life. They have
the law on their side, and, if necessary,
they must invoke it. Better a little
worry, little more effort, or a little
more home detention than the powerless
contemplation of the gradual descent of
a child to perdition.