St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1882-06-16
The Folly, Danger and Sin of
Frightening People.

All Olu llltll Sdlt llltSC NOluS W
to-day: "When was i'll college, one
night | was sitting up quite late in my
room: the great building was silent;
and it seemed to me as | sat reading
that nobody else was awake. | heard
steps i'll the hall, and presently Il knock
at my door. Instead of saying Come
in" | went to the door and opened it.
Before me stood il man with fright
full mask over his face. The sight was
so sudden and fearful that | fell to the
floor with IL shrek of terror that must
have gone through the halls. The man
who had thoughtlessly, foolishly and
wickedly put this joke upon me fled.
If he had stopped to see if | were in
.iured, he would have frightened me
out of my senses. After lying some
time | recovered my strength, but |
have never recovered from the impress
sion of that moment, though the thing
happened more than half century
ago. | never go into the dark without
seeing the mask, and rarely open
door in the night without thinking of
Il terrible object on the other side of it."
Only few months ago, some young
men determined to put to the test the
courage of a companion who bOasted
of not believing in ghosts. He kept
loaded revolver lying near his bed,
and in the evening they managed to
get it and draw the balls. After he
had gone to bed one of them dressed
like IA ghost entered the room. The
Young man fired at him. and again and
again till he had emptied all the cham
bers of the pistol, and finding that
- Il ..ff. .t l,a MN
overwhelmed with terror, and went
stark mad.
Only recently one of the young wOm-
ell employed as a weaver i'll cotton
mill took IL small snake with her, and
after frightening several of her com
panions threw the reptile upon Il girl
named Welsh. The latter was so
frightened that she fell down in con
vulsions and to the next day had not
regained consciousness.
| could multiply these examples to
any extent. Not week passes with
out the record of similar instances i'll
the newspapers. Many persons will
remember impressions made upon their
minds in childhood by frightful objects,
sometimes accidentally seen, and at
others put before them i'll mischief, just
for fun. There is great difference in
the nervous temperament OF IndlNldu-
ais, and some are far more easily dis
turbed than others. Many children
are very sensitive to sights and sounds.
They may have strength enough to con-
ceal their emotions when others are
present, and they are perhaps ashamed
to appear scared when others are only
amused, but they carry their impress
sion into their beds, sleep is driven
away from their pillows, or when it
comes, bad dreams come also, and the
| little sufferer tOsSeS all night in con
stant fear of what it has seen. The
child shuts its eyes, but the image is
there and is Us visible and terrible in
the dark and to its closed eyes as if the
sun were shining. And more so, be
cause with the return of light, more
than half the horror dies out. In my
childhood Il nurse shut me up i'll dark
closet by way of punishment. | re
member keeping close to the door in
awful horror of what might he i'll the
back part of it, every moment trem-
bling lest | should be seized by some
fearful being dwelling in the blackness
of darkness. There is no one thing
which parents should more carefully
guard against when they trust their
children to the care of IA nurse, than
this sin of frightening them. The
shock given by one fright, when the
system is delicate, frail and eXquisitely
sensitive, may be fatal i'll early life if
spared long misery.
Yet this cruelty is inflicted on chill
dren and young people, not by nurses
only, but by parents and teachers,
without a moments thought of the
dreadful consequences sure to result
Perhaps it is well that we do not un-
derstand the exceeding delicacy of the
human frame and especially those parts
of it which form the ineXplicable con-
nection of mind with matter, the body
and the soul. The fact of such con
nection we know. The nature and
manner of it are unknOwable. Why
sorrow should come i'll drops of watel
from the eye, or JOY cover the face witt
smiles, who can sayP The sense O1
fear, even when not sudden, is ofter
followed by great physical sutferings
| have seen convicts brought out to bt
tiogged, and the apprehension of an.
guish was attended with complete
resist the effect of fright. There is II,
time for argument. The shock comes
like stroke of lightning. The bloOC
seems to rush back on the heart, or
with increased violence, it presses OF
the brain. The normal revolution o
the wheel at the cistern is disturbed
do not know where the throne of rea
son is, but | know that it is deserted
and its empire made desOlate by sud
den fright. Among the ancient Greek
the utmost care was taken with chill
dren that they should not be excited
They were guarded against noise anC
stirring scenes, that in infancy thei
delicate brain work might not be sub
jected to any disturbance. This wa
part of a great system of physical ano
mental training. 1t was philosophical
We pursue no such plan i'll our day
. but reverse it. Children are stimu
r lated, reused, excited in their cradles
and all along the early days of child
dOod, at the very time when they ough
; to be kept quiet and suffered to grow
The nervous eXcitability of the mel
= and women of our time is largely du
to the incessant stimulus of the min,
in childhood. And the matter is get
ting worse and worse with each gen
Grafton. Children at parties, childre
= at balls, children out of bed and ava
, from home at midnight, must become
if they live, restless, fidgety, nervou
and unhealthy men and women. The
= cannot have sound mind in sOun