The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1880-05-20

pitiful! pitiful! say TO you, mothers,
that if there are any children for whom
my heart aches it is those innocent,
beautiful children who are being sac
rificed on the affairs of foolish fashion.
The children of the poor, thinly clad,
poorly fed, rudely taught, are not any
moro TO be pitied than are many of the
children of the rich; their bodies may
suffer more, but their souls are not any
more likely to be pampered and cor
rupted and destroyed.
suppose that many of US who are
parents yield, with many misgivings
and protests, to this bad custom, which
drags our children into social life and
its excitements at such an early age.
We give in to it because all the rest do,
and because it is hard to deny to our
children what all their companions are
allowed. And sometimes suspect you
might 60 into a company of girls and
boys who are keeping late hours, and
carrying their social diversions to an
injurious excess. and find there not q
single child whose parents did not
heartily disapprove of this excess. Yet
the thing is allowed. not so much be-
cause the parents lack authority over
their children, as because they lack the
firmness to resist bad social custom.
will mention only one more sad mis-
take which some, hope not many. of
our girls are making, and it shall be
described for you in the language of
one who has had the amplesr opportu-
mites of knowing whereof she speaks.
"The most common defect in the
training of girls is, in my judgment, the
ignoring of the command to honor and
obey parents. From the age of thir-
teen, girls and parents alike seem to re-
gard this commandment as dead let
ter. The girl of thirteen regards her.
self as her own mistress; she is already
woman in her own estimation, and
has a right to do rs she likes If she
prefers to go to parties, sociable and so
forth, three or four evenings in week,
rather than spend her evenings in
study, she does so. Both she and her
parents, however, expect and demand
that she is to be ranked at graduation
as high as the laborious, self-denying,
faithful worker in her class. -.
Again, in one congregation in this
city l know of four cases well worthy
of thoughtful consideration. The four
families all are respectable, such people
as form the majority of your own con-
gregation. In each of three of these
families is only one child. Each one
of these three girls left school when
she chose to do so, went into society
when she pleased, spent as much time
on the street as she liked. and all three,
still under twenty, have now become a
by-word and reproach among all who
know them. In the fourth family there
were three girls, two of whom cast of
all restraint, while father and mother
were regularly taking part in prayer
meetings. This father and mother ex-
cused themselves by saying they did
not know what their girls were doing,
yet the girls lived at home all the time
and their neighbors knew all about their
conduct"
This habit of running loose, of con-
stantly seeking the street for amuse-
ment, and even of making chance ac-
quaintances there, is practiced by some
Of the girls Of our good families, and
it is not at all pleasant to see them on
on the public thoroughfares, and to
witness their hoydenish ways. know
that they mean no harm by it. but it
often results in harm; the delicate
bloom of maiden modesty is soiled by
too much familiarity with the public
streets of a city, and kind of boidness
is acquired which is not becoming in a
woman.