The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1881-11-06
CHILD CULTURE.

almost over, the mseksrsl have come |
up the bay and are biting like poison. |
the ferns are rowing old, and the |
boy is learning to talk 20 that other
people can understand him.
eff yon would let me have him
about one MONTH" said the pleasant
voiced and pleassnt-factd school-mis.
tress who came down here from up
river last week, "I could break him
of that careless habit of speaking
Just because the boy had ssked his
stern dark-bEowed father.
'.Populs, whurs is mine fffin pole
you peskin mama UNI day?"
Which BY Interpretation is, 90 the
plensant-voieed seheol-mistress would
have taught him to say it: hJ.d" (
"Fsther, where Is my fishinR-rod
of which you wers speaking to my
mother, with reference to purchasing
it for meat some time In Ehe indef-
mite future?' ..- ~ 5, '',- - -
And her little serene highness
shook her head and said no; he
was losing his baby talk, and learn
ing to speak English toe rapidly ss it
was. The pleasant face of the
scbool-mlstress wrinkled up into an
interrogation point. ) sTa.I tig1
"School-mistress," the Jester said,
son all matters of education, your
shapely head is no! hilly; il is as
level as q new-nown lawn. But you
don't want TO teach the baby grammer,
and you don't want him to speak
good Eoglish. You want hin to be q
baby and you want to encourage him
to indulge ia baby talk. In the years
to come, when the pudgy little fists
will dig great tears out OF the blue
eyes because the boy can't remember
in just what points there should and
must be exact harmony between the
verb and the subject; when he is con.
fident that be will die before he can
remember how maey fellows besides
lad. ante. con, in or inter-" are FOL
lowed by the accusative; when he
knows the world will stand for just
two hours after school if he can't
recall that all examinations in some
tnlng or other take the what you
may call it after some kind of things;
when be is so trusting and has so
much confidence In Mr.. Davies that
be is only but anxious to accept
his statement that the cum of the
three angles of q triangle is equal to
two right angles, without going to the
board 10 prove his truthfalness BY
strtion; along IN those days the
memory OF his baby talk will come
back 60 us like sweet music. He will
have trouble enough with the English
language. and all the sppurtenances
thereunto appertsining. by and by.
mo-" he resonded, in answer to =
silent inquiry Of the pleasant faced
school-mistresd, che does not know
his alphabet, thank Heaven, and he
shall not be bothered With it. Yes.
be has alphabet blocks and knows all
the pictures on them and many pre-
posterous stories about the pictures.
Oh, yes, he can count; hear him now
counting the pebbles be has brought
home from the besca: one, free.
seven, free, seven, tea, Free five,
seven. free; certainly be CAL count,
by a system of his own, too, which lie
more than most people have. Don't
make q prig OF the baby, school
mistress. From the day on which
they are six years old they must,
under the school system OF the States,
begin TO study. and sit up straight.
and behave properly and speak GER
rectly, and from that time until the
grave hides them, they live and speak
and act, verbally speaking, they be,
and do, and suffer, under social and
educational surveillance. And
claim that ct least six years of the
life of man and woman should be
free; free as the air; free to talk as
the brock runs, with untfammeled
musical Erattle and babble. Why
here, q few weeks ago, came q mel.
anoholy-looking child, about four
years old, and in my presence and
hearing, pointed to me, and said TO
his mother:
MAMA, of whom is that gentle
man spesking?"
Poor little prigl My heart bled
for him. That afternoon I took that
boy down by the target, and taught
him 10 say: MAMA. what is dat man
speakin' you about~ and reconstruc-
ted his grammar on the same sasy
basis, and-look me in the sye-ii
that boy didn't tan up like a young
Indian in two days, and be gained
seven pounds in three weeks.
"You see," the Jester concluded,
in an apologetic tone, for he had
done an unusual amount OF preach
ing that 'dsy, "you see. we haven't
q very broad experience in training
children; We have only one chick TO
cluck over and scratch for, but we're
bound he shsn't 60 to school until
he's through being q baby. and We
know: school-mistress, that be's the
happiest baby that ever mangled
|grammer.-Burdette, in The HasOkeye.