Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1879-09-25
Parents Wanted

For hive boys saw last week loung
ing in q fence corner not a dozen
rods from the school house, where
school was in session | stopped
and asked them why they were not
in school. eve amt going to that
(unwritable adjective) old maid
teacher ; she don't know nuthin,"
was the answer. Not one of those
boys was over dozen years old. If
they do not need parents with sense,
firmness and a good supply Of hick
DRY, do not know who does. Have
they no mother pure and good enough
to make all womanhood sacred in
their eyes? No father far. seeing
enough to discern what must be the
end of such street education as these
boys are receiving? Our people are
greatly afraid of their liberty's being
infringed upon by compulsory ed
Vocational law; so every man is left
free to send his children to school or
to let them run on the streets as
seems to bin good. This throws the
entire responsibility upon parents, so
to them | appeal Do you know
where your boys are at this hour?
Do you know what they are doing
while in the streets when they ought
to be in school? Those boys were
engaged in vile conversation. They
could not answer a civil question
from lady without an oath.
Ard this is symbolic of the employ
ments of truants. There are old
barns and other rendezvous where
such boys,-aye, and girls, too,--
sometimes congregate, that reek like
Sodom with iniquity. No parent
thinks his child is ever found there,
but no parent who allows him to run
the streets by day and by night un-
controlled, knows where he may be-
we'll remember when one such sink
of iniquity-an old barn--was sud.
denly overhauled, that the revela-
tions there made bowed many a
proud head in shame | tell you
what, parents, it is time for you to
wake up concerning this matter and
see and know what your children
are about. If you do not attend to
them yourselves, the State will soon
have to attend to your children for
you. | have met many young Grim.
inals in our Jail, but never yet one
who was regular in his attendance at
school. Our jails and our reform
schools are filled by the truants from
our public schools. This is not a
mere assertion. l speak of what
do know. And this is natural re.
suit. Truancy is at once an effect
and cause of disregard of rightful
authority. Truants have never
learned the grand law of obedience,
without which there is no solid
foundation for the family, the school
or the State, no safety for these in
stitutions. Then the associations IN.
to which truants rush are only evil,
and that continually. When / think
OF some OF the things / have seen
with my own eyes and heard with my
own ears, from children whose moth.
ers, perhaps "robed in purple and
fine linen," were sitting at ease in
their parlors; whose fathers, alb
sorbed in their "farms and their mer.
chandize," were all forge.fu of their
children, | grow sick at heart. You
call me fanatical because, in season
and out of season, l am harping up
on this one theme, "Take Care of
Your Children" and often think
myself that it is silly in me to be 30
much more concerned about them
than their own parents are It is
not that love them better; it is be
cause the circumstances of my life
make me know better the tempta.
tons which surround them. Know
ing, too, the value of every human
soul knowing the grand possibili-
ties wrapped up in every little child,
cannot bear the thought that "one
of these little ones should perish. y
Stray Paper.