The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1872-11-28
TEACH LITTLE BOYS TO BE
USEFUL.
BY MRS. H. w BEECHER.

"What an idea! Teach little
boys 10 be useful I wish YOU
would tell me how, for of all the rest
less, awkward, mischievous, trouble
some comforts on the face of the
earth, | do think boys are the most
trying. | am sure | love my boys
just as much as | do my girls but
it is so much harder to manage them,
to keep them out of mischief. to
know what to do with them. They
were vexatious enough when we
were boarding but now, when, with
four children on my hands, [ am
but just entering upon my novitiate
as housekeeper, feeling my way,
step by step, they fret me woefully.
They are under my feet all the line.
Too young to be sent to school more
than a few hours day. or to be turn
ed out TO play with chance compan-
ions, unattended, they hang about
me, uneasy, restless, fractions, teas
ing for something continually. [ of.
ten think it would be comfort
could we put them on a shelf to
sleep through the unquiet, turbulent
period of childhood, to wake up full
grown men, My little girls can
always find something to do; but
the boys-make boys useful, indeed!
1t would be true benefsctor who
could teach mothers how to accom-
plish such a marvellous thing!"
81 notice that you very wisely
and skillfully combine instruction
with amusement in your manage
ment of your little girl. [ watched
with much interest how pleasantly
you were teaching them to be useful,
while they felt the work to be only
amusement. L wonder which of
these little girls would like to run
and bring mamma a few apples :
and away, in great glee, trotted little
three-year-old Kitty, with her little
basket.
"Would Mary like to help NAM
ma pare this nice red apple.
Which think you can make the
largest pairing without breaking?"
How happy the little lady was to
leave her play end make the trial !!
Why rot make the same effort to
amuse and instruct your little boys?''
"Would you have me teach them
to set the table, wash dishes, sew OF
try to work ?"
do you not believe they can be
taught all this as easily as girls
We hold that in large family, each
one, boy or girl, should be taught tc
be useful; to help their mother in
doors and out, and, above all, lear n
to help themselves. This they can
not do if allowed to be idle.
In the city, and in families thai
depend entirely on hired help, it is
more difficult to train children to be
industrious and useful. 1t is moi
we'll to let the young, initiative little
ones be much with servants, Ger
tainly not unless the motheris there
also; and all instructions of prac-
teal nature should be given by her
and practiced under her eye. Wealth
is by no means to be despised; but
when it is so employed as to remove
all labor from us, or 80 free us from
care that we do not teach our chill
dren how to make themselves SER
viceable, it is no blessing, and may
become curse. Those who have
) begun life poor and worked their
way to wealth by real hard labor,
forget, when their children start UP
around them, how much true, solid
pleasure was in their struggle for
this well-earned prosperity, and as
they relax their exertions and begin
to teel the enervating effects OF
wealth, remember only the hard
ship forgetting the pleasure. Be-
, cause there is now no absolute nee
essity for it, they shrink Efrom their
! children following in their early
5 steps, and SO cheat them out of the
! strength and independence for which
: no amount Of gold can in any way
compensate.