Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-09-21
A THEORY on SPANKING.
Ey Bill Nye.

An Eastern exchange, edited by an
old maid, says:
''Never whip children just before they
retire to rest. Let the fathers caress,
the mothers kiss be the last link be-
tween the days pain or pleasure and the
nights sleep. Send the children to bed
happy. Ii there is sorrow, punishment
or disgrace, let them meet it in the day
time, and have hours of play and thought
In which to recover happiness. Let the
weary feet, the busy brain, rest ia bed
happy" .....-....., ,..a
That's all right, Of course, to some OK
tent. We used to talk that way before
we were q parent. We knew a good
deal more about children anyhow before
we had to grapple with them th;e1 we
do now. We used to be greater stick
Ter for moral suasion and love and par
entail gush than we are now.
Our theory now in relation to children
is changed from what it was formerly.
We maintain now, after several years
study OF the primary biped, that there
is style of child that cannot go 20
sleep at night unless spanked. ran
We have In our mind little child of
the masculine style of architecture, who
will lie and sob, and kick the clothes off
and be mean and restless for two hours
1t you forget about him, but if you go
and turn down the coverlid and fan his
person with an overshoe he will quiet
down and be asleep in five minutes.
He is not to blame for being the VIC
tim to this habit, but he is that way,
and he can't help it. He is tied to his
spank just as you, gentle reader, are tied
to your maturer habits.
Strange freaks do often grow into
confirmed habits that are almost impos-
sible to shake off. Children are often
the victims of strange and unnatural Gus
toms like other people.
This child, for instance, did not at
first apparently care whether he had his
spanking at 8 p. m. or earlier, but later
he was so regular in his demand for cor
poral punishment that you could set
your watch by him. He was also so at
tached to certain style of Arctic over
shoe that you couldn't accomplish any
thing by padding him with any other
style Of chastisement. Love is good
thing, and we often wish that more of
it had been lavished on us during our
past life, but after all there are children
who do not yearn for affection half as
much as they do for armed aggression.
Of course your conscience smites you
at intervals when you go past the little
bed after the conflict is over and peace.
and slumber are the victors. Something
may come up in your throat when you
see the little rebel lying with his feet on
the pillow and his head down at the
foot of his cot, and q little tear on his
eye-lashes. You feel, perhaps, as though
it looked like taking an undue advant-
age for 20O-pound man to catch g.
year-old boy when he is unprepared and
paddle him with an overshoe, and yet
sometimes it has to be done.
We know that in our own case cor
poral punishment was resorted to while
all the other boys in the family escaped
with moral suasion. The result is just
what might have been expected. We
are the only one of all that promising
collection of boys whose promissory
notes have gained worldwide circula,
ton to-day. While the other boys were
contented to plod along and run up little
petty accounts at the store, we struck
out boldly toward fame and insolvency.
You can encourage a child with
press board sometimes and thus give
him an impetus which viii aid him all
through his life. 40