The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1876-04-09
Iuty to Children.


Though marriage is the source Of many
mi very great advantages and euIoyments.
it is also productive Of cares and anxieties.
It would, indeed, be unreasonable to expect
the contrary; for it has been ordained. for
wise purposes, that while every human i'll
his its attendant consolation, so every
human benefit has its greater orless attend
ant evil. Children are among the greatest
and most Desirable blessings produced by
marriage; but if children be productive of
pleasure, they also create duties, anxietios.
and cares. Among all the duties Of a wife.
none are more imperative, noue can be nog-
lected with less IMMUNITY, than her duty to
her children. This duty she yves not only
to her children, but to her husband, to her.
self, and TO society, The very brute erea-
ton, with no o,her guide than instinct. are
tender to their young and this is us obsorv-
able in the mcekcst and iamcst of our do
woman, endowed with reason and tutored
by Holy Writ, must be the neglect Of duty
which even savagcs do not fail TO perform !
Rsre rlesl are the instances Of women
being positively cruel to their offspring;
and the very few instances which do occl.r
nre Witnessed only in outeas.s from decent
society. Bat in morals. as in religion. there
aie sins of omission rs well us commission /;
and though. as regards the improper treat
ment of children, the latter are rare indeed
among us, the former are of frequent, if
not general, occur; nee.
In the hi her ranks of life especially, it
is unhappily a very common practice to
commit to hiroI substitutes that important
duty which nature at once commands and
enables the mother to perform-that of sue
coring her infant. For this departure
from nature none have any apology; least
of all nave they. who though the almost ex-
elusive v~o,aries of this practice. are, by for
tune. released from the necessity of toiling
for a subsistence, and who consequently
and experimenting the care of their OF
spring. Fashion has been called omnipotent,
and it would limos appear that 1t is so,
when we find 1t powerful enough to stiie, in
some Of the most gifted of our sex. the feel
ings Of nature, and to induce them to cx-
pose, not only their offspring. but themselves
also, to the vagaries of careless hired aids.
1t is no apology to say that. though thcy do
not themselves perform this duty, they pro-
vide a substitute; for if the calls of nature
are insufficient to induce them 10 nourish
their offspring and attend to its comforts.
how can they hope that merely pecuniary
considerations will induce strangers con-
scientiously, constantly. carefully, and aTcc-
tionatcly, 20 do 90 How can they wonder
that strangers are careless when they are
themselves unnatural? And what is the in
ducement to this neglect? Fashion. amuse.
ments, and company! Even mere Incidence
frequently leads to the partial indifference
to children's wants by those who would
shrink from an actual ncgation of maternal
care. Every such breach of duty is a n In
jury TO the husband as well as to his children.
Remember it is in early childhood that the
future man is formed any neglect, any
erroneous treatment. is dangerous, and may
be even fatal to him.