The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1883-07-13

i rainy u3ys uOt uoildN was ylFe0
in charity, except through the church
organizations. On the Sabbath no jokes
or laughter were permitted. The chill
dren were made to attend to every serv-
ice of the church, and at home were ex-
pected to read the Bible during their
spare minutes
As MAJ of course, to such eco
nomic natures, music, pictures, any of
the smaller pleasures or ameliorations of
life, which would cost money, were re-
garded at first as foolish and then as
sinful. tks
This course of training bore no per-
ceptible fruit until the children reached
the age of fifteen and sixteen. Then
the news came to the parents, with a
shock like death, that their girls had
been seen at a dance in E,w country
tavern, and that the Ford and Black
boys were in the habit of playing cards
with some disreputable characters in
barns and stables.
The two fathers met and discussed
the situation in great distress. They
differed as to the course to be pursued,
and then parted, each to follow his own
plan.
Mr.. Black called his children about
him. lectured, prayed with them, as I'M
regenerate sinners on the brink of eter-
nal ruin, and then made free use of
the rawhide on the boys-which in those
days hung over every kitchen mantel-
shetland locked the girls up for sew
eral days and fed them on bread and
water.
Mr.. Ford summoned his children and
told them what he had heard. "Thc
fault" he said, with a broken voice.
sis mine as well as yours. 1t seems to
me, have made home gloomy and
hateful to you. You will help me to set
this thing right"
He, too, asked for Gods help, but he
kissed his children before he didit. That
very day some of his hardly-earned saw
ings were taken to hire piano, on
which Mary was to take lessons. Joe
was given some money for which he had
been begging for two years, to buy q gun
and fishing-tackle.
The next week the Fords, for the first
time, gave little party, to which the
young people of their own class were in.
vited. When Sunday came, Mr.. Ford
said:
There are two or three lads in town,
and strangers, who have no place but
in their boarding houses or the taverns
in which to spend their Sabbath after
Moons. If my sons were in strange
place, 1 should pray that some home
might be opened to them. Instead OF
catechism this afternoon, mother, sup
pose we ask the boys to dinner, and
make it pleasant for them?''
These are but hints of the change OF
his course. Not only home, but re
ligion, was made pleasant and attractive
to his own family and to all who cam
within his influence. MIR. Ford was his
own first convert. He began to see the
beauty and consolation, as well as the
terror, in religion; and as they grew
older, his children became not only
God-fearing, but God-loving, people.
The Black boys burst from all re-.
straint as they reached manhood. They
left home and never cared to return.
The sisters married to escape from it.
They are a hard, defiant, vindictive
race, and if they have abstained from
crime, it is quite as much due to pride
as to the religion which was so early
made hateful to them. Some of the
worst wounds that Christ receives are
those which are given to Him in the
house of His friends. Youths COmpall-
ion