Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1884-02-19
The Little Folks.
LITTLE PLAIN TALK IN BEHALF OF THE
RISING GENERATION.

| Parents and teachers ought to be mighty
patient with children. Some have more
capacity and some more memory. Some
are slow and some are quick. 1t is not the
| smartest child that makes the smartest man
or woman. 1t is a powerful strain on some
of 'em to keep up, and the dull ones onghtn't
to be crowded until they hate books and
dread the time of going to school. Some
FOLKS send their children to school to get rid
of 'em, but my opinion is the parent ought
to help the teacher every night. 1t shows
the children how much interest they feel in
their education. 1t is sign of a good
teacher when the children get ambitious to
keep up and get head marks, and bring
their books home at night and want to go
to school if it is raining little. Wrap 'em
up and let 'em go. There is nothing that
demoralizes school boy like staying at
home every few days and getting behind
the class. We used to walk three miles to
school and never minded it at all. 1t was
q frolic all the way there and all the way
back, and we did have the best dinners in
the world. Delmonico never had as good
things as our mother used to fix up for us.
1t seems to me so now. A child's life is
full of romance and fun-the best sort of
fun. A chld's dreams are splendid, but
we don't dream now, hardly ever. used |
to read Robinson Crusoe and dream it all |
over again. How did long to be ship
wrecked on an island and raise monkeys and |
goats and parrots. Slow children are gen.
orally sure children, but they don't show off |
much. Daniel Webster was almost always /
foot in his class, but when he learned any
thing he never forgot it. Some boys are wild
and restless and have no love for books, but
hfs,,f h1 1I1cI
abused continually. If they have good par
ents they will come to themselves after
awhile. They will SOW their wild oats and
gather the crop and get tired of that sort of
farming. | was reading the other day a.
bout Oliver Goldsmith, who reckon was
the worst vagabond in all England, and was
kicked about and abused by everybody, and
got in Jail, and sometimes slept in the corn
er of the fence and liked to have perished
to death, but he came to himself at last and
made one of England's best and greatest
men. The three worst boys that ever lived
III Rome are now good men, splendid men;
are honored and respected. They had good
parents. Give dog bad name and every
body wants to kick him. Good men ought
to notice the bad boys specially and speak
kindly to 'em and offer to help 'em and
make 'em feel that they are not Ishmael-
ties. Some boys get SO much abuse at home {;
and abroad that they are astonished when
decent man speaks to 'em. Some folks
give 'em no consideration, but want to see
'em go to Jail or to the calaboose, which is
the worst thing that can be done for a boy,
for he never gets over it and grows desperate.
1t is astonishing how long "a little sin OR a
lii tie humiliation will follow boy. One
time " stole quarter Of dollar from
another boy at school, and that followed
him to his grave. He got to be great man
and was thirty years in Congress and was a
Senator, and one day, when lie made bit-
ter speech against the corruption of the op-
posite party and denounced their stealing and
plundering by wholesale, one Of his oppo-
nents replied by saying he wonld remind
the gentleman that preachers of morality
should come into the pulnt, with clean
hands-that Ben Franklin said, '"Hs what
would steal pin, would steal bigger
thin:," and he asked no quarters from the
gentleman on that score.
So, boys, remember and keep your hands
clean. Folks will forgive mischief and
heap of other things, but they won't for
give meanness. BILL ARP.