The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1875-04-22
Danger OF Maternal deception.

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are the effects of a disorderly waste of
time me.-PArenolo0icas Journal
Danger OF Maternal deception.
EVER since Rebecca, the prime actor
in maternal deception, played off her
! successful plot upon her blind and aged
| husband, the patriarch Isaac, the world
| has not been destitute of mothers who
intrigue with their sons against the hus-
band and the father. Sometimes the plot
is to secure greater portion of the pa
| ternal estate for favorite son; but more
| frequently in matters of smaller amounts.
The son wants more money to spend than
the father is willing to furnish, and the
mother plots to obtain it. She may hon
estly think the father is too close-fisted
with the boy, and does not give him the
amount which true paternal regard
would dictate; and so, impelled by her
maternal love, she seeks to make up the
deficiency by some scheme which will
outwit the father and get the money out
of him by deception.
| Such a course is detrimental in the
greatest degree. 1t tends directly to in
jure the object of her maternal love by
breaking down all nice distinctions of
honor and honesty. If . boy may de-
ceive father for selfish ends-that
father whom he is bound to respect,
love, reverence and obey above all other
men-and does this with the appreciation
and assistance of his own mother, how
can that boy be expected to have any
| fine sense of honor ana honesty toward
other meng The inevitable result of all
| such practice of deception will be to
| destroy, in the mind of that boy, all
| high respect for the truth, and lead him
| to seek to obtain his end by any means,
| however justifable, which seem to
! promise success. And thus he grows to
| manhood, with a character noticeable
| for being tricky, dishonest and dishonor-
| able.
But it is not necessary to wait until he
| arrives at manhood to see the fruit. Hav-
| ing learned, by maternal assistance, to
deceive his father, he contrives like plots
against his mother. After time she is
| greatly surprised to find that boy play
| ing off the grossest deceptions upon her.
| self. At first she is astonished above
measure and grieved beyond expression.
She cannot conceive it possible that the
son for whom she has done so much
| should turn against her with such ingrati-
tude. She does not stop to think that
he is only practicing on her the very les
sons she has taught him: that she herself
| has been one of the chief means of de-
stroying with in himail nice sense of hon
or and all true parental respect. And
| yet, such are the exact facts in the case
nor is it anything uncommon to hear
boys justify the receptions they practice
upon their mothers by saying, "Oh!
pshaw! she cheats the old man, and /
| cheat her-it's all on the square,"
hn Oh in,
| maintaining the strictest honor and hon.
| esty in all home transactions. Every
thing done and said should be the very
| soul of truth. More boys-and girls too
are morally ruined in their homes, and
| by home influence and example, than
| anywhere else, or in any other way. 1t
| is done by the false lessons there taught
| them; by the loose ideas there engen-
dered in their minds; by the deceptions
there practiced; and by the white lies"
there spoken and enacted. Under the
influence of these they grow up with no
high sense of honor; with no staunch ad-
herence of integrity; with no firm prin-
ciple sufficient to bind them to the right
and to barricade them against the as
saults of temptation. And this must be
the case when home-iife is not the soul
of honor in all its ways-the correct prac-
tice of truth and of integrity in all it's
acts.
If the father deals by trickery, and
seeks gain by fraud, and wins by Fin
trigue, how can the son reasonably be
| expected to do any better: If the
mother deceives neighbors; is glad be-
yond expression to see visitors when
| speaking to their faces, but berates them
| scandalously as soon as they have de-
| parted from the doorstep, and thus prac-
| tices the thousand and one enacted lies
| of social and domestic life, how can it
| be expected that her daughters will be
guileless and truthful?
| In view of these facts we feel that it
is of the greatest importance that moth
ers should be brought to consider the
danger to their children which grows
out of those maternal deceptions which
are too prevalent in many homes.
There is another point on which we
should like to say few words in warn
| ing and caution to mothers. 1t is to
enioin them to check any tendency
which they may observe on the part of
their children toward cruelty.
Children are not born with an instinct
of cruelty. They are gentle as angels,
and 1t is the fault of their parents if
| they become monsters when men. From
1
begin to reflect, it is common for them
to do many cruel things-to tear off the
wings of insects or to transfix them with
a pin; when little older, to kill small
birds for pleasure or to put small ami
mails to grief. These short steps toward
habit lead on to great strides. Nero
had the mild and philosophic Seneca for
the instructor of his intellect, but Agrip-
| pima for his mother. The records of our
own times, from day to day, are stained
with deeds of blood and violence equal
/ in enormity to those which marked the
worst periods of declining Rome. Hea
thenism, ia its most gloomy phase, could
exhibit instances of no more glaring
depravity than those an account of
which is to be found in every newspaper
we take up. All will have their small
beginnings; the child who tortures dumb
things grows up to be wife-beater and
| a ruffian. Humane Journal