Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-01-07
Childish Children.

being always perfect. Still, In the face of this.
venture to assert that old maids alone can at
once fairly and frankly Judge the characters of
children To them only is any real independ-
ence even possible. Each father and mother is
too full of fondness tor their child to see its
blenlslIcs; while in tine children of other people
they fail to fad the beauties, through the action
fthat unconscious jealousy which is part of
the parental instinct. With old maids there are
no such drawbacks; and SO. whether their iudG-
ment be right or wrOng, it can not miss being
In some sort independent and unwarped by per-
sOnal feeling. Az an old maid then, l can ex-
pD'ss my love for childish children and my anx-
ious fear lest, in the quick pace of modern
progress, that sweet charm of chdishness
which was once the very life0f childhood should
vanish altogether
OF course these words will he laughed at. as
coming from one who believes in those ''GOGd
old times" at which it Is now the fashion to
sneer and scOH with as much sarcasm as may
chance to be natural or acquired. The young
folks OF all ages have ever done so from the be-
ginning of the world. II is, indeed. blessed
privilege of immortal youth that it can live and
act in the present and the future without even
thinking of the past. Yet. as years come on, all
this changes; the mind flies back TO the days Of
childhood, and life itself becomes merely a mat
ter ofmem0ry- 1t may well be that each sue
ceedin" generation has seemed less child-like
its growth. But all the same, | can not help
thinking, though perhaps with a womans want
of logic. that the present race of children are
peculiarly Drec0cIous, ard that the badge of age
Is upon all the tribe. What we call progress is
but pushing forward and it would seem as if
this power of push can not be acquired too
soon il a good place is to be secured i'm front of
the world. Even babies in the cradle are
affected by the rush of modern life. aud look
older than they were wont to do from the very
Ia of fhaie pth
les on the fair face of infancy? Can they be
caused by the sharp struggle for existence
through which their parents have had to pass?
1T is true that, physically speaking. the strain of
that struggle has been relaxed in these times;
but mentally and morally considered. it is
harder than ever, and it can not fail to make its
marx on succeeding generations.
Born. then. with the old WEAKNESS Of the
world stamped upon its baby brow what chance
has modern childhood of ever being chid-like
or childish? If it come of poor parents. then,
whether boy or girl, the fact that the population
was excessive without its being added is soon
pressed painfully upon the young idea. Work
1t must. almost rs soon as walk; nor is the edu-
cation through which it is often hurried by any
means a light or loving labor Very soon old
age. with all its care and cunning begins to set
tie upon the head and shoulders and such
children become, mentally and morally, men
and women before they have left off being boys
and girls in physical formation. What time
is given them of enjoying the sweet time of
childhood? The struggle for existence has be
come a hard fact i'm their lives long before they
have ceased growing. They may indeed often
regret that they were ever born, as bitterly as
did their parents, when they came to crowd the
wretcned dwelling and share the scanty food.
But in the ever grindinS mill of poverty there
Is no room for grace or beauty. All is ugly.
sordid. and old; childhood has to be scrambled
throu%h as If it were merely few years of ex-
lstence that must be got over as soon as posi-
bic, in order that the time of making money
may the more quickly come about.
To the poor there is thus an unanswerabla
excuse: for childhood and chldishness are far
from being profitable. But the well-to-do have
no such reason for their conduct. Yet. for the
sake OF fashion, they bring about Inuch the same
result. Vain mothers and foolish fathers will
not let their children be child-like, but persist
IN making them into little men and women
The modern girl baby is taught to feel how fine
she looks in a new irock almost as soon as she
IS born: When hardly able to toddle, and still
less able to talk, she is nstilled with vice and
vanity. and will coquettishly display her pretty
hltie dress and person to an admifing circle Of
silly friends and still sillier relatives As she
grows up this baby girl becomes very focus of
the fashions. Every passing phase Of folly in
the way OF Clothes is nowadays reproduced upon
tiny scale. and may be seen in the dress alike
OF dolls and little girls. 1t is ptifu and pitia-
bic sight, and one which to the philOsophc
eW ca not bSnt be saddening. Growing chill
dren need the 1uli play of their arms and legs;
yet they may be fOund painfully strutting the
streets, tied up in the last new skirt, or
trrsSed like a chicken in the very latest mantle
There Is nothing we laugh at so heartily as the
ugly old fashions of our ancestors; but when
orr turn comes to be rdcued by pOsterity,
there will asSurediy be ample food for mirth i'm
are dressed NOWADAYS
So the seeds of vanity and the love of dress
Tor the sake Of display are sOwn in girlish baby
hood, and certainly they b ar fruit hundred
loid- Inc Child IS never allowed to forget her
own Importance, and thus that unconScOusness
which Is the chiefest charm Of childhood is
dotted out by personal pride. She can not 90
to party of little children without getting agi-
taled Dy tnat great question of clothes which
appears to be the first and only thought of
many worthy women. The duties of dress and
display are impressed upon her as the two lead
M doctrines OF society, without believing in
which there is no chance of being distinguished
ms Is perhaps even worse among the middle
classes than the higher circles, but it is bad
enough everywhere. There is, however, one
comfort. Girls do often go to school, and anart
from their fond and foolish mothers they stand
good chance OF having some of their vain nom
sense shaken out of them or ridiculed aWay
But for these schools there would in too many
cases. be no time of childhood in the lives of
modern girls. With boys the case Is different
staying at home is the exception rather than the
rule. while the word 'prig'' has acquired sting
ing sound and sharpness of sarcasm that act
with good effect upon every bOye
lt would SEEM indeed as if the world were
getting old, and that every being born therein
comes under the influence of its age Yet is the
earth forever fresh and child-like at each recur-
ring spring So should it be with our babies
ana our children. 1t sounds strange to say that
there Is no youth in the young now adays. though
IL seems to many a fact, and one to cause sad
ness rather than to raise rejoicing. Why need
We hurry our little ones into the worry of the
WOrids Why must their very cradles conform
to fashion? Why should their infant intellects
be stuffed with scraps of science which can be
appreciated only 10y master minds? Why, in
short. do we strive to push every poor little
oany along the path of progress before it has
the least idea whittier it is going? Those who
are now past the prime of manhood or of wo-
m AMY beauty. lock back often with longing and
10 wing eyes to their happy. innocent, uncon-
sc lous Childhood. To me it seems as if the
Children now growing up will have no such re-
nrce in future years, for they have had no time
IN which they We're allowed to be childish &C.
cordn2 to their nature. They will never be
bic to remember period before the battle Of
HE began. before they lived but for show and
Tor society. Should this be So even the good
Old days may come to be regretted though now
they are only laughed at as is the fancy of an
oid maid. who is SO silly to lament the loss of
ciliidlshneSs In children.