Sharp County record., 1879-05-29
Keep Your Daughters Near You.

Mothers should not only be the guard
ians of their daughters, but their most
intimate companions and friends. we
have long felt that parents make great
and sometimes ruinous mistakes Oy
sending their daughters away from
home during the latter years OF thelr
education, delegating mothers watch,
full care to strangers or boarding-school
matrons and teachers, who, however
excellent, must of necessity lind 1t I'M
possible to give any special supervision
to each scholar among so many. 1Ils
idea, of course, presupposes that the
mother is what her Maker designed her
to be-the watchful guardian OF ner
daughters health and characters. There
are cases, 10 be sure, and alas 700
many of them, where the motnerS are
so thoroughly devotees of fashion that
their children are a secondary consider
alton. The only hope for the future
usefulness and stability of the daughters
of such mothers is to remove them as
far from maternal influence and exam
pie as possible, and that is indeed a for
lorn hope. ,,
But although "quite the style" to send
our oirls away from good homes and
GOOD mothers watchful care as soon as
they have mastered the rudimentary parts
of their education, it surely can not be
the wisest plan. To suffer our young and
as vet immature children to pass out
from under home care and its formative
influence just as they have reached that
critical period in their lives when they
are the most susceptible to all good or
evil teachings is a fearful experiment.
This is the time when they can be easily
built up into true and noble woman
hood or led into bye or forbidden paths.
Their quick impulses or unregulated
imaginations, at this age, tend to all
kinds of sentimental extravaganceS
which only a mothers watchtul love
and unslumbering care will detect and
iudiciously modify or dispel, =,
We do not mean that mothers should
themselves attempt the education OF
their daughters at home. Under the
wisest regulations, home is not the best
place in Whicn to study, or the mother,
with all her other cares and constant
Interruptions, the most successful teach
er as far as book teaching is concerned
But mothers can not afford to have their
girls far away from them. They should
be their loving companions when the
school hours are over for the day, and
ever ready to join with them in such
amusements as are necessary for health
full change and needful recreations. A
mother should know the habits and
characters of those who are their
daughters chosen companions, or who
may, at times, be desirable escorts on
certain occasions.
But, instead of this, our girls are taken
from home and all its best influences
and placed among strangers. No
mother can hope to secure such hold on
her girls, through their afectionate re,
mem brance of her, as will surely guard
them from many of the dangers that
beset the unwary and inexperienced, OF
save them from the snares that are toe
often concealed to entrap our loveliest
and our best. We surely should be able
to furnish schools of the highest order
so near us that our children can, attel
school hours, have the comforts Of home
and be shielded by paternal love.-NrS
| II ~ Ropcber in thc Christian IInIOn