American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1881-11-12

The day on which your boy with his
"shining morning face" steps out of
the door with first reader under hi;
arm, and is transformed from a baby
and pet into a schoolboy, your relations
! with the world are changed rs in the
twinkling of an eye. A new class of
problems are thenceforward to be pre-
scented for your solution. | confess that
l have found nothing in life so puzzling
as the complications which grow out of
the association of one small boy with
others. What is mother to do when
her six-year-old boy comes in with n
torn hat and flushed face, and explains
by saying, g have been fighting, MAN.
ma. A boy hit me, and | hit backp'
Your theory may be that if Il boy hits
him unjust1y, he ought to hit back; but,
like some other theories, it does not
work exactly as it ought to in practice,
for it usually ends in the smaller boy
being severely worsted, whether he is
in the wrong or right. You are afraid
of developing a cowardly spirit if you
tell him he must never hit back, and the
policy of turning the other cheek when
one has been smitten would never do
to be applied in the world the small boy
lives in. This question of belligerence,
it seems to Inc, can not wisely and sue
cessfully be generalized upon. There
is no one maxim you can lay down for
child's guidance; each case may need
to be dealt with in a peculiar way. l
was interested in observing the effect of
laying down maxim, not long ago, upon
aboy of seven years. He is the son
of a minister, one of those who still find
in Jonathan Edwards the true expound-
er of their views. The child had been
taught never, in any circumstances, to
retaliate if a boy was unkind or ugly;
he was to bear it without word of re-
proach. He was sent to a private
school, and one day, not being entirely
devoid of human nature, he called two
of the other boys "names," and when
school was out at noon they ran after
him with evil intent. He, being older
and larger, ran faster, and they turned
back. They did the same thing next
day, and in the. afternoon the father
called upon the teacher and fold her
that his son had been chased from
school and had burst into the house out
of breath and with a red face, and if it
occurred again he should remove him
from the school. He said it was rather
bard upon his child, as he was not al
lowed to retaliate in any way. The boy
had with great forethought concealed
HUH Ills Gilftb Ac IfalA SlhCu buC
children any occasion to run after him,
and also said that he had reported them
to the teacher, a statement which she
characterized as untrue. The question
naturally arose in her mind whether that
boy would not stand better chance to
grow into manly man if he had been
allowed to act upon impulses little
more and to turn on those boys and say
''I'm not afraid of you, and if you hit
me shall very likely hit you real hard"
rather than to be counseled to run like
coward, and then retaliate in the most
forcible way possible by telling his
father, and have him make so serious
and important matter of it. q pur-
posely leave out of the question the fact
that the punishment would really fall
upon the teacher.) AS our most en-
lightened physicians now give great OPP
portunity for nature to effect cures, so
in endeavoring to help our children to
health of mind, and what we will call
health of heart, it would be well many
times for us to lessen our doses of max
inns and precepts, and let nature have
chance to do her work. A healthy, act
i've boy will do great many things he
ought not to before he arrives at mans
estate, and what ought to concern us
most, think, is not so much the act in
itself, but the disposition of which it is
the outcome.-C0r. N. Y. Post.