Connecticut western news., 1881-10-26


 that unless the family be restored to it
 true patriarchal basis as the foundatiol
 of all rightful authority, the represents
 tive of order, the school of all the vir
 tues, this anarchy, corruption and crim
 will continue to increase till what ha'
 been personal and individual wrong shall have become universal and na 1 tional.
 It is true that parents have abused their trust, and teachers have been wan tonly cruel and despotic, but there art masses of unhappy children born inte the world, who can be curbed only bJ the rod, and that is 8 mawkish senti mentalism that totally forbids it's use Dr. Charles Anthon of Columbia college used to say, "a boy is coward who will not manfully submit to foggine as his atonement for misdemeanor ol dullness," and few men have been more successful educators than the doctor. In our day at the slightest blow the boy runs off, and the girl packs up her things and goes to the neighbors and a multitudinous scandal is the result, while the victim of folly and neighborly interference, ten to one, ends somewhat in the way hat Jennie Cramer did. 1 am no advocate for the rod, but the poor, little, disobedient brutes that best receive their culture through the cpl dermis, better have it betimes in that way, reasonably applied, than be left to a career utterly lawless and brutal.
 Once a wholesome conYentionalism pervaded social intercourse-girlsr rarely walked, never rode out with their lovers unattended by parent or guardian. Nor did they go to any places of amusement unless thus protected, and the girl who disregarded these conventions was sure to lose caste. The father and mother were sedulously at the head of the and kept watchful eye upon its doings. Night keys were unknown, and neither boy or girl could sneak out or in at unreasonable hours. The ex- penses of the family were regulated by the income of the parent, and every child was supposed to be content there with and to be loyally subordinate to the conditions required; but now the child casts about to see how affairs can be mended, and neglects culture for the sake of undue display. It is true that formerly the girl was exclusively trained for marriage, nothing feasible being seen for her outside of that relation :; hence, to be left an old maid was con- sidered derogatory, while to be good wife to respectable man was to reach the height of human happiness. Love was not much talked about, but duty was the end of all endeavor. A divorce was referred to under the breath, and always entailed disgrace upon family.
 All this is changed, the old land marks restricting intercourse between the sexes are swept away. The young woman of to-day confronts the man with an unabashed, defiant air, which has at least one element of good in it, as indi- eating the absence of sexual self-consci- ousness, but it none the less exposes her to the misconstruction of men of vulgar instincts or gross passions, who will regard this manner as challenging g his advances. He will suppose it to mean what it by no means does mean. She is audacious from her very inno- cence, and because she has less restraint than would be wholesome for her. American women are educated to be- ieve in the manliness and honor of the other sex, as part of their expected marriage, and this belief in manly integ- r1ty lays them still more open to the designs of bad men. The women of the country are as yet purer in mind than the men. As society has become, it would be better, far better, for girl to think all men are villains, if not devils, and guard herself accordingly, than start out upon the impression that they are chivalric and protective. The modesty and reverence of the old Pilgrim blood has been swamped by the influx of 8 population bred in camps, and accus- toned to outrage, who are incapable oi approaching the license of purity oi mind, and to such the freedom of oul women, so seemingly self-reliant and in. dependent, is an excuse for the coarsest construction, and they approach hel with insult without scruple or remorse
 Girls being formerly trained for mar riage exclusively, utilized all theil natural charms to fascinate men, bu they at the present time none the les. practice the same dangerous arts to en thrall them, while at the same time they are growing less and less inclined tt marriage, and we witness the anomal, of willingness to beguile without al honorable purpose, and exasperated me1 take their revenge by killing the woman who is willing to ensnare them but un willing to marry them. It is portent ous sign of the times.
 Is there any help for all this Wher, are we drifting? The whole social sys tenn is poisoned by moral malaria. Ohil dren to be trained to usefulness ant virtue must have more quiet, more seclu sion, more studious observances. I is not intellectual but moral cultur that we need. We know too much Children can give the boundary of ever, country under heaven, but the boundar, line between truth and falsehood, hon esty and fraud, virtue and vice the, know nothing about. Let us give up al the isms, and let girls and boys be pu down to the study of common honesty Honesty in its ultimate and entir meaning. Let us no longer pray tn good God for blessings. hnt stnaz ho,