The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1880-12-05
AN INTERESTING ESSAY.
BY MRS. NJ. 7. EARLE, OF Golden,


DISTRICT, AT ANNA, HIS, NOVEMBER
10TH AND 1lTH, 1880.
There is one unhappy thought connected
with all our labors for temperance reform,
The severe efforts we are obliged to make
before we can mitigate any Of the suffering
and sin which follow in the train Of evil
habits, might SO easily have been avoided
by little care in the first place. Will il
be necessary for other workers to rescue
many Of the innocent little boys growing
up around us from the same sad fate
which seems impending over many of the
youths of to-day How can character be
SO formed that it will need no reformiag9
This ought we to do, and not to leave the
other undone!
Where woman seeks to find some lever
by which to lift the world into purer at
mosphere, she must never forget that great
opportunity is given to her by the fact that
she is the custodian of childhood.
| particularly want to talk to the good,
everyday sort of women-the women of
laborious lives, who fill our country homes
and with their own hands make life COM
Portable for their families. | want to ad.
dress you, my sisters, not because you need
the homely suggestions I have to offer
more than others, but because you usually
deal directly with your children without
the intervention of servants. Your oppor-
tunities for influencing their minds aud
hearts are unusually good, and being so
large class, the future well being of our
country is largely 10 your hands.
If 90 beyond the duties of one parent
in this great matter and suggest enough to
occupy both father and mother, it will be
because ii is difficult to portray family life
and duty in any one sided manner, and |
cannot but hope that those homes are few
where woman, conscientiously living a
life OF consecrated affection, which flows
out in earnest work for the best good of her
family, will not find cordial help and sym
patty in the husband and father.
We cannot have too deep sense of res
possibility in the matter of our relations to
and influence over our children. A man
may urge in defence of his own wrong
deings, that without any will of his own
he has come into world,
which besets him with tempta-
tons too strong for HIM to resist But when
society calls him to account for the sins of
his children he has no such plea to offer.
He Is responsible for their very existence,
and for this reason when two persons have
incurred the responsibility of the family
relation, and see the children growing up
around them. duty to these little ones
should be the first consideration. 1t Is
usually felt to be so, but fear this mistake
often occurs. We bend every effort toward
something, which shall benefit them by and
by We toll early and late and eat the
bread of carefulness that we may leave
them something when we are gone, instead
of seeing how much of good we can bestow
upon them day by day, while they are ours
to mould and influence. The little child
I will say the little boy, (for although there
are many things to say about the training
Of our daughters, we will consider them
another time) the little boy is very DEEPEN
dent upon his mother during the first years
Of his existence, and If she knows what a
little boy needs, and keeps him very near
to her heart by entering into these needs
she can establish an influence over him.
which will probably endure through life
There is little danger that she will neglect
his physical wants. We know that she
will rise early to prepare his food, and keep
her lamp burning late into the night to
fashion the garments which shall protect
him from the cold, because she sees and
feels these needs so plainly.
Poor, weary mothers, with SO many mouths
to feed, with SO many stitches to take, must
it be said that when their duties are we'll
done the most vital ones still remain9
The little child is social being. He
must have companionship, and happy it is
if he early learns to rely upon his mother
for his very best company. If he can 60
to her for story, 60 to her for answers to
his many questions, and can find in her
an attentive ear when he tells his little
thoughts and wishes, he will learn to APP
preciate and rely upon her for instruction
and entertainment. The influence CON-
panionable mother can WELD upon her son
is tenfold as much as can be exercised by
one whose chief cGSrxis for food and
raiment. The little Boy is framed for &C.
tivity, and very eager and restless, while
learning to use his powers, while trying to
test this strange, new world with eye, ear
4 \ 80.