Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1875-05-30
HOUSEHOLD.
Nagging.

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Nagging.
This term, according to one of our
leading literary authorities, means "not
scolding, reproof, or outright punishment,
but being always at child"-fnding
continual fault with him about little
things. Though the gentleman to whom
we are indebted for this definition adj
dresses his admonition with respect to
''nagging" to teachers, it occurs to us that
parents might without injury take the
matter to heart.
1t is not always easy for us to distin-
guish between what is essential and what
is an accident of development in our chill
dren. For the former we must have long,
patient, and judicious training, reaching
from infancy to maturity, slowly weed
ing out elements that are noxious, and as
slowly Incorporating those that are want
ing, just as we graft pears upon ounce
roots or apples on the thorn tree. For
the accidental qualities, s~e have only to
wait their outgrowth. Yet these quail
ties, mainly, and not the essential ones,
provoke "nagging," of which mothers
far more than fathers are apt to be guilty
At one time in the life of boy, and
this applies to girls as we'll, he delights
to get into the ink. Look out, then, for
stains on the carpet, scribblings in your
choicest books, and blotches on handker-
chiefs, aprons, dresses, and table-covers
they are as certain to come as March
winds, and almost as trying; but they go
of themselves, and "nagging" neither
hastens nor delays their departure. Dan
cling chair about on one leg while sitting,
is another stage that nervous children have
to go through, and it lasts till they grow
into easy self-confdence. Though excrr
ciating to the susceptible looker-on, pa
tience is the only true remedy. Mild ex-
postulation and pleasant ridicuie may has
ten the progress of the disorder to happy
termination, but it will cure itself in time.
Slamming doors and leaving them open,
mark another regular stage in the growth
of every boy. Life is too short in the
juvenile estimation to shut them quietly,
perhaps to shut them at all and about
this time, all along before and after, he
has too much on hand to stop to wipe his
shoes when he comes in from the muddy
street. What matters little mud2 As
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leaving traces Of their presence, what more
natural than that he should whistle or
sing comic song or psalm-tune conf
cally9 He doesn't mean anything wrong
by it. The boy nature, exuberant, effer-
vescent, overlooking, must work itself OIL
in some manner or dangerous conse-
quences will ensue, the very worst of
which would be ill nature resulting from
suppression. "Nagging" does no good
at all; it only makes matters worse.
Coeval with muddy feet and slamming
doors are images in pencil on the house,
| finger marks on the windows, especially
of frosty morning when they are so
tempting as tablets, trials of the new
jack knife on the dining table or the pill
lars of the front porch, marginal readings
on spoilers and arithmetics in hieroglyph-
les that not even Champollion could have
deciphered the boys name in Uniformed
cbirography scrawled in chalk or pencil
everywhere-on the coal bin, the barn
door, the parlor window-sill, the walls Of
his sleeping-room all these testify to the
presence of the boy in the house. Can
he help it! Are such things to be al
lowedl BY no means; they are to be
borne with, kindly rebuked, perhaps, and
the activity that engenders them turned
into channel large enough and attrac'
tive enough to absorb it all. A damp
cloth will remove the chalk and finger
marks; erasivc soap will take off the plum.
bago, tartaric acid will obliterate the ink
spot; but what can eradicate from the
child's character the effects of perpetual
"nagging?'
The time comes fast enough when there
will be no little careless hand to make s
''muss" on the clean table-cloth, no tiny
fingers to scatter things round, no CHATTER
of childish feet on the stairway. Fresh
paper may cover all the marks on the
hard-fnish, paint may conceal the ambi
tious handwriting on the woodwork, ant
those traces of boyish pranks that still
remain, the mothers eye and heart may
cherish as sacred to the memory of thu
dead or the absent, as something sh'
would not willingly be without.
In genial, wholesome, tolerant, loving
atmosphere, the boy and girl will g
through the various stages ofgrowth from
childhood to adult life, dropping what
ever is in its nature juvenile, little b.
little, as naturally as the bean-vine drop
its seminal leaves; but the forbearanc'
and loving patience of the wise fathe
and judicious mother, who under innu
merable provocations refrained from mag
ging," will not be forgotten.-1ribune.
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