The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1877-02-15
KEN0SHA, WISCONSIN, THURSDAY FEBRUARY IS, 1877


she hears it not. They fight and use
bad language, but she has no time to
throw oil upon the troubled waters.
Her little boy comes in with torn
pants, and tells an incredible story OF
how it happened 1t is evidently a
falsehood, but the mother has 10 time
to investigate, and if she pnnishes at
all it is for tearing his pants and not
for telling the lie. [ have said in my
heart that this mother had better drop
everything tie punish the falsehood,
even if the rent goes unmended and
Johnny is sent to school with flag Of
truce flying in the rear.
A superficial glance does not reveal
the near approach Of pride in dress to
actual vice. Parents, be not deceived,
an hundred gates open from one to the
other. Who, for amoment doubts that
the foolish vanity of Mrs. Belknap was
the ruin Of the Secretary Of War?
How many thousands in humber life
are battling with the same demon, pride
in dress, [ do not pretend to say. It
is found in every grade of society and
is one of the first causes OF hard times,
and so long as we persist in dressing
beyond our means to Guido our neigh
bors it is folly to expect soft times.
The seeds of pride in dress are often
est sown in youth and are as certain to
mature as crop Of burdocks, and when
matured about as bad to get rid of. A
little girl wants a finger ring; it is CIV
en-; she wants ear rings, mother says
yes she wants ribbons, it is granted !;
she wants silk dresses, and SO On dis
satisfied to the very end Of her life
even then I fear a great want will be
unsupplied.
With such dicipline as this can we
wonder that the crying need Of some
mothers is a new kind Of soap to get
their daughters off their hands? Are
we so blind that we cannot see why the
most sensible young men hesitate be-
fore putting their necks under the mat
rimonial yoke?
Surely there are higher aims in life
than the satisfaction of seeing ones
wife wear the heaviest earrings, the
largest hustle and the tightest pull-back
in society. The husband who labOrs
for this end bears q heavy burden,
and the wife who imposes it, forgets
that it was the last ostrich feather
which broke the husbands back.
But, to return to youth. We send
our children to school, with all the
faults learned at home; the weeds we
have neglected to pull, growing in their
natures. Woe unto the teacher who
receives them. The faults Of childhood
are ten-fold multiplied out Of the pa
rents sight, and if the whole school is
not corrupted, evidently vigorous and
determined teacher is at the head Of af-
fairs. [ say determined, because a
faithful and honest teacher must, in
such cases fight both parents and chill
dren. Children who break the rules Of
a school and wilfully do that which
they know to be wrong, will not hest
tate to misrepresent the doings Of a
teacher to their parents, and strange as
/ it may seem, though they are known
to be untruthful at home, all they say
against a teacher is usually set down
as Gospel. This is one of the widest
chaSmS which teacher must bridge.
| venture to say that nine-tenths of the
trouble between teachers and parents
results from falSehOods carried home
by vicious children, and nine-tenths of
the labor to reform them is caused by
the foolish credulity and misplaced
sympathy of their parents.
Therefore, the problem now before us
is, how shall we make our children
more truthful and honest? Or, to take
a wider field, how shall we cultivate
their moral faculties? It's solution is
one of the most imperative duties of
every parent, and made doubly so by
the prevalence of dishonesty and spec
ulation at the present time.
To punish offenders is good and
wholesome, but it does not reach the
root Of the evil. We must so educate
our children that they will abhor a
~. 4 * ocv