River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1880-06-10
THE CARE OF THE CHILDREN.
MIR. Heecher ON Tenement Houses and
Five Year-0Id Genfuses.
Naxu VarL WorId.

Mr.. Beeeher ON Tenement Houses and
Five Sear-0ld Genfuses.
New York World.
In Plymouth church Mr.. Beecher
baptized sixteen babies, and then
preached sermon on the care and edu-
cation of children. After speaking of
the importance attached to the family
among the Jews in all ages, he said:
THE most powerful institution that
exists to-day is not the. state nor the
church, ii is the family The vast ma
jority of children in this world are
wIonged by being brought up by those
who are ignorant of the nature of So
ciety and life. The vast majority of
children born into this life are TO be
brought up by parents relatively incom-
petent to do IT. for this follows the law
that fruitfulness of offspring diminishes
in the ratio of cultivation of the brain.
The nearer the race exists to their
primitive animal condition, the more
productive they are; or IN other words,
the parents who seem the best fitted
to become schoolmasters III the family
are those that have the smallest fami-
lies, and that part of the population of
the globe that are the least adapted to
domestic legislation are those into
whose hands are put swarms of child
rem, and this makes the duty OF in
struction, especially i'll this land, far
more needful And when we remem-
Der that there are ten families where
relative ignorance prevails to one where
the family is accomplished we may
well be disturbed as to the future. We
are to remember that God vouchsafes
children to the poor and needy in far
greater numbers than to the rich and
cultivated, and that therefore, the ne
c6ssity Of instruction among high and
low ought to be radical and fundament-
al. In rearing children the first step
| is health, and for TINS the requirements
are simple, given healthy parents.
| The children that bear the sins
of their parents are not few, and miser-
able are they. But it being granted
that the children are born with q fair
chance of life, the first parental duty rs
TO secure them air, exercise and whole
some food, that they may grow up
healty. At two, three or four years of
age some ideas may be inculcated, but
after all the business of the father and
1 IlOuifti I'LL tllc CllIil tbihto W tCAi Nttib
is to secure to it good animalhOod. 1t
is no use to have head of genius or a
rye-straw body. 1t is unjust to have an
angel that cannot keep hold of the ami
NAL that has got to carry him all his
life, and the noblest piece of artillery is
of no use without the carriage to carry
it. There are n great many men that
have great gifts, but no body to
carry those gifts If there is one thing
that the commonwealth cannot afford
10 do, it is TO breed criminals. The
poorest business that even was is that.
No city is justified in tolerating neigh
borhoods where children perish by the
hundreds or thousands, or where tor
menhng summer or other morbid CON
ditions cause them to break out into
vice and from vice to crime. The
plough ought to go through every such
neighborhoOd without delay. The
streets, no matter what the cost, should
be widened. Broaden the streets, STAY,
if it be needful, the property owner that
insists upon tenement houses, which
are the pests of civilization, and give TO
.the poor light and air. Something of
the privileges of the heaven above and
the waters beneath belong TO every citi-
zen, and the state ought to provide it or
not to permit it to be blocked up OF
taken away. New York city to-day is
but little better than monstrous Herod
sanding forth TO slay more innocents in
one single night than Herod ever dream
ed of Staying in his whole reign. 1t is
a SANDER on Christianity, it is blotch
on civilization, it is an outrage on hu-
mainly. The care of children of the
poor should be one of the first cares OF
civilized society, The rich man, the
alderman and legislators it doesn't need
to take care Of; it is the poor. Where
the workmen live there should be the
broadest streets the most light, the
most air, the most convenient dwellings
l-if not on their own account on ac-
count of the welfare of the common
wealth Care should be taken not to
force children too rapidly. Blessed are
those that don't have premature angels
for their children; blessed is that family
that has children so fast that they don't
have time to pamper any of them; b!es-
sed is that family that does not have a
premature musical genius in it, a pre-
mature artist, q premature preacher.
One of those children that can pray as
if he was forty years old is a monster.
Early genius is thing not TO rejoice
over; see that four children are kept
down to animal conditions SO that the
brain shall not destroy them. The
bringing out upon the stage Of these
infant prodegies is all wrong-these FIVE
year-old musicians, these infant Mo
zarts, these boy preachers, all sorts of
monstrosities. They soon fail to excite
wonder or admiration; the child is soon
pumped dry and grows up fool, or else
he dies, which is the better alternative
by far.
Next to health in the family is ODE
dience; the child is born into world
of infinite subordination; liberty itself
is only obedience to law, and there is
no land in the world that needs to UNI
derstand this more than ours, where
children at five years know everything
and at ten years are our leaders.
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