Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1874-09-30
Children.

Children-the most freely discussed,
the least understood, the most injured
portion of humanity We have among
US by the score '1enlDles iRcomprises'
dear prosecuted. unappreciated
creatures, eloquent in complaint that
they will never be valued Alright by
their husbands and families until the
grave has closed over them and they
are lost to them forever-who bear for
| life the martyrs cross, consoled by q
certainty of the martyrs crown in the
| future. We have men of intellect who
comfort themselves under a sense OF
present failure with the complacent re-
Election that posterity will be wiser,
that they will in all events leave their
stamp on the coming race. But child
ren, unfortunate children-whO alas
is to stand forth and utter protest in
their favor? What is to make atone
ment to them for the forgetfulness of
their idiosyncrasies, the ignorance of
their motives, the insufferable airs of
superiority with which maturity con-
! tinually endeavors to force them into a
dead level of uniformity with some
preconceived model of its own ? Ma
turity deeI.s it his prerogative-nay,h his
''bounden duty" duty he owes him
self on all occaslons-to repress, to
snub, to keep down what he, in accents
of withering scorn, terms ''the rising
generation" With what delight does
he roll as sweet morsel under his
tongue the self-assumed axiom,
young folks think old folks to be
fools, but old folks knOw young
folks to be fools" and offer this as a
wholesome though bitter sedative to
all youthful aspirations All this
children suffer in silence; for where is
the representative child who can bold
ly arise, utter its wrongs and maintain
its originality? THE child is father
to the man''-we thank Mr.. Wordsworth
fo- thus tracing for us the pedigree of
these Jewellers of childhOod-thank him
heartily, for we are thus enabled to re-
buke the conceit, the ignorance, nay,
the ingratitule with which the mature
descendant treats his Juvenile an
cestor.
1t is grave mistake, and one who
thoroughly understands a child's na-
ture will see how grave it is, to SIM
plify things too much for them. Give
them rather few facts and leave them
to make their own deductions. To at
tempt to make them understand all
they learn or see is to strike at the
root of their faith, and by depriving
them of wholesome exercise, actually
cramps and dwarfs their intellect.
What should we think of the training
of an athlete If he was never required
to exert his muscles to their utmost
ability, to do naught but what was
readily within his power? And why
should We suppose that the mental re-
quires less expansion, less exercise than
the physical frame? To simplify every
thing until it comes within the compass
of childish intelligence, is to sap and
weaken that intelligence in vital
point.
Children have not only the power of
reasoning, comparison, casualty, all
the higher intellectual faculties, in en-
bryo it may be, but still developed en-
bryo, but they have also the lighter
characteristics of the human species
wit, Lumor, &c.-as well as they have
the vices and the blacker points of
mans disposition, seltishness and de-
ceit; and that selfishness and deceit
are over and often fostered and in
creased by the defects in their training
and education. Their originality is
smothered by the attempt to make men
and women of them, instead of allow
ing them to make men and women of
themselves. They are made overbear-
ing and even insolent by being con-
suited by their parents before they are
at an age to form a Judgment upon
their own conduct. One parent com
plains that her son twill not go to
school" Another that she "cannot
induce hers to come home at suitable
hour in the evening"" This one is al
lowed to choose whether he will go to
school, go into a store, or begin to
farm. This boy smokes at fourteen,
orders his own clothes with a sublime
indifference as to their cost, calls his
father ''the governor" and openly
maintains that the only use he has for
''the governor" is to draw on him for
money. Parents complain that in their
young days "children were children
now. a-days they are men and women. "
Whose fault is it Treat them as child
ren, and children they will be; treat
them as men and women, and the re-
suit will be q priggish, disagreeable
anomaly, neither child nor man.
What we say of boys applles with
perhaps greater force to girls. Little
girls are made women by their parents.
and consulted about their school and
their studies as though they were of
mature Judgment. The way in which
their dresses are to be made up and
trimmed is discussed before them as
though it was one of the greatest ques-
tions of their lives. What wonder that
in neighboring city short time since
a little girl, on being told by her mother
to go and put on certain alpaca dress
in her wardrobe, burst into flood of
tears and declared that she would "as
lief die as put on that dress, for that it
had neither overskirt nor panler
This seems ludicrous, but to a thinker
it is by no means so. Children are de-
prived of the natural enjoyments OF
their age, and in their place is substi-
tuted an artificial excitement, forced
and premature development. They are
wearied of life before they fairly enter
into it. They say in effect, if not in
words, with the unfortunate little
blasee, 81 have found out that my doll
is stuffed with saw-dus., and L want to
be a num-" An undue notice is taken
of things which should be left to time
and themselves, and like hot-house
fruits they pay for their early maturity
/ by loss of flavor.
Give us, We gardeners of the human
species, give US children like Wild
wood strawberries - little tart per
haps, but far preferable to the mon
strosities of the horticulturist, the in
sipid "Triomphe de Grand and 'Ju-
cunda."
Wives Coming Home.
l. z gFsgf.1