Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-09-18
Fault-Finding.
A WRITER in the Rural Neac Yorker sa,

AwRIrER in the Rural Neo Yorker says:
Grown people are so apt to forget that
they were once young! 1t is a most la
mentable forgettuIness. There is no need
of the heart growing old, Gray hairs may
| be the glory of old age, but freshness of
| heart and soul are its beauties.
What a dear, precious old man is that
Father E. as you call him." exclaim-
ed lively young girl, after my dear,
precious" elderly friend had bid us good
night; che seems to know just how young
folks feel, and don't pooh" and look
nonsense at our ambitions and likes. I'd
ike to have him for my father, l would;
he isn't always finding fault about every
thing, know"
How many young men and women do
you suppose are annually driven from the
parental roof by the fault-finding of father
or mother, or both? We know of no sta
tlStlCS to resort to to ascertain the number,
but using our own personal observation as
a basis, the number is large. More boys
leave than girls, because they are boys. 1t
is not uncommon for girls to marry be-
cause they can have no peace at home.
That is one outlet to them. 1t may give
only CHANGE of cultivation, however.
Only few mornings ago, we had a young
girl committing suicide, because of the
eternal wranglng and fault-finding of her
parents.
If we wanted to make a child deceitful
or liar, we should find fault with him
about great as well as small things. If he
broke, or lost, or destroyed anything, we
should give him such lingual castiga-
ton that if a similar accident befel him
again, he would rather lie, steal or run
away, than to encounter the parental or
deal the second time.
When a child, we had great number
of very prominent traits" that were cata-
logued off as faults" AS we had a pro
pensity for climbing trees and scaling
fences, we naturally made considerable
havoc with our calico dresses. But being
deft with the needle, we usually managed
to make the rents keep mum" until iron
ing day came, when the quick eye of
mother or Bridget would ferret out the
mischief. So ironing day became sort
of Day of Judgment to us. We never
could get used to being found fault with,
and were often put to our wits end how
| to escape the wrath we knew would surely
| overtake us. 1t didn't make us bit more
careful, and all the fault-finding in the
| world never made any child more careful.
There are words that aoiW make them more
careful and thoughtful, but they are not
words Of "faultfinding"
Another one of our distinguishing
| traits was what seemed a propensity
| for breaking crOckery. We had to clear
away the table, and wash dishes when it
| took a stool to make us tall enough to get
our hands well into the dish pan; so we
received several castigatiOns both of a
| physical as well as spiritual nature for
| breaking dishes And until this day, the
CT rht of ri or IiCb
makes US actually nervous for fear she
will let them fall, and father or mother
will give her such a. "aw1ul scolding,"
when she feels badly enough about it al
ready
| No child, in a normal condition, feels
anything but sorrow at misfortune or loss
es which accrue from mishaps. But
| generous amount of tault-hnding will
| harden some young hearts into sort of
"don't-cale-Sm" Sensitive natures will
| be so overwhelmed with the dread of the
| eternal tault-finding, as to look out for an
escape-valve rather than how to avoid an
other similar occurrence in the future.
Fault-tinding never cured us Of tearing
our dresses or breaking dishes; for we do
both unto this day, when we have
chance. We haven't travelled so far into
womanhood as to forget how very, very
finding-so very miserable thatwe thought
even God was ugly for allowing us to suf-
fer so, and wishing, Oh, so earnestly, for
the time to come when we should be a
woman and would break whole store of
Dishes and not then be made to feel Just
as bad as if our little sister had died.
Why, people will say, "NOt of the least
consequence" if a guest breaks a dish or
spills gravies. But if our own little child
does the same thing, they consider 1t
matter Of great Consequences great
that the child is rendered as miserable as
it can be, which is very miserable indeed,
when we consider our own capacities for
misery.
Talking with a gentleman on this theme
few evenings ago, he remarked: II
thought my own childhood must have
been an exceptional one, in point of I'M
happiness, until | grew up and compared
notes with Others"
but what IS the cause for such re
DOrtS?" we asked.
IL don't know fully" he replied II
know anp boy shall never pass such boy
hood! l think perhaps much of it grows
out of the old theory that children ought
truth, it's more the reverse. Bringing
souls into this world is fearful response
bility, and all that parents can do for
their children, it is their bounden duty to
do. The most they can do for them will
not even compensate for the inheritance
of trouble and sorrow that is the birth
right Of every child born"
Oh fathers and mothers! We do not
plead for your salvation, although VIC
know full we'll that Heaven will not be
Heaven with fault-fnders in it. But for
the sake of your sons and daughters and
those around you, whose happiness should
mean more to you than the qualification
of your i'll feelings, we beseech you to
ALLURE the spirit of fault-fnding-a spirit
that has nothing of Christ, or of Love, or
of Noblcness in it,
Love Victorious.