The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1875-02-27
Neglected Children.

volition of its own, surely has right
to claim the care and protection of its
father and mother. They are not re-
leased from this claim by any exterior
circumstance. Whether they live in
Rag Fair or Fifth avenue. they are
equally bound to take the best care
they can of their own offspring. To do
Rag Fair Justice, it is not half SO anx-
ious to shirk the responsibility in the
matter as Fifth avenue often is.
No matter how many subordinates
your purse can employ, you are your
self, being parent, your child's first
and best guardian. But society bust
ness and the church make many de-
mands upon your time. Even SO.
Meet them if you can but if you must
choose which to give your second-best
to. and which to let go by the board, let
home and children have the freshness,
the first of the day, and the closest
brooding of the heart.
I have known a family of dear
little children, clothed in purple and
fine linen, and faring, like the man in
the parable, sumptuously every day,
who were almost as badly off as Lazarus
in the same. They were wholly under
the care and influence of illiterate,
vulgar and unprinciplied servants, their
mother being too much engaged with
company, friends and benevolent enter
prises to do more than give them kiss
once or twice a day, and sometimes
when they vexed her scolding or a
slap. The mother, a brilliant and edu-
Gated and most fascinating lady. By
and by she is ashamed of her children,
who are Doors, unpublished, unmannerly
and upgrammatical. What wonder
They were neglected, and nothing else
could have been expected. Seven times
one are seven. You cannot make it
nine, to save your life.
Some mothers neglect their children
through the care they take of their out
ward appearance. Come what will, they
must have so many little frocks, and so
many little aprons, SO many pies and
cakes too. on the table, and SO much
luxury in the furnishing and adoring of
their homes. Somebody and something
must be put of and turned aside, aud
it is very likely to be the little Kitty or
Johnny, who is, after all, the occasion
of the parents greatest pride and anx-
iety 1t is terrible thing, though,
when you really sit down and think
about it, that child, living, breathing,
sentiment and immortal, should ever be
as merely clothes-pole, or
a center-piece for vain display!
The class who upon the whole get the
least notice taken of them, and are Of
tenest snubbed and hurt, are the boys.
The ordinary, commonplace ones, I
mean, who are especially brilliant in
and who are at the awkward,
obtrusive age, when their feet and hands
are big, and they seem to have talent
for forever being in the way. Their
very faces have lost the beauty of
and have not gained the
of manhood. Nobody has
much patience with them, and the house
is SO much stiller when they are out of |
It that even mother does not ask |
where they are when they stink out of |
tight, perhaps, after supper, God help
hem! Many a boy might be saved
rom a period of wild and reckless dis |
'ipation if only there was somebody
who could see the better part of him,
md care enough for him to endure the
.ougher outside and help him along.
There are plenty of neglected boys who
wear good warm clothes and have shoes
IN their feet. Is there one that we
now? If SO, let us take compassion
N him.