The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1885-02-12
CHARACTER BUILDING.
SOME Suggestions Relating to Subject In
Which Ali Mothers Are Interested.


Which Ali Mothers Are Interested.
The true aim of education is the
building up of noble character. George
Washington had not very much
schooling" He was not even per-
feet speller. He knew little or nothing
of Greek and Latin, little of science OF
art, but was he uneducated? Abraham
Lincoln had fewer opportunities to
acquire book learning than Washington
had, but his name will 60 down with
Washington's to remotest ages. Neither
Benjamin Franklin nor Horace Greeley
e, er went to college, but what two men
have done mere for their times than
these two?
The first settlers in any country ffittst
build their houses of the materials
nearest at hand and most read ly ap-
propriated. Our forefathers, whose
virtues are our boast, lived and died in
log houses plastered with mud, but
they were good, honest, substantial log
houses, well made and proof against
weather. Many Mexican grandee
| lives in an adobe house and thinks as
much of himself as though his habita-
ton were of marble. And why should
he not? In sight, as we write, is pala-
tial house building, the materials of
which are boulders gathered from the
adjacent pastures, broken and chiselled
into shape and faced with brick. What
a sermon that house breaches!
In>building character as in building
| I, ~, IS or,
must take materials nearest at hand and
make the best of them. There is al
ways enough of good material about us
to make noble character. We may take
the stern, homely unpromising facts oi
our lives and transform them into step
ping-stones of progress, into edifices o.
utility if not beauty. Now these boys thai
this mother is so anxious about; if they
are learning to be honest, self-reliant,
patient, industrious, thorough, just, en-
terprising; if they are using all the op.
portunities they can command to ac
quire the information most useful tc
them in their work, and applying the
information so acquired to the further
ance of their work, they are getting il
so far a very valuable education.
mans wits can be sharpened on a grea
many different kinds of whetstones. A
mans mind may be stored with grea
many kinds of useful information. How
to make the ends meet, how to accom-
plish certain desired results are Otter
problems more difficult than any tina
college students puzzle over in algebra o
calculus. They stimulate and sharper
the intellectual faculties and give fin
practical results beside. Patient con
tinuance" in the humble, monotonous
apparently inconsequent routine of dali
life appointed to the majority of me-
and women may be inspired by aspira
ton for s'glory and honor and immor
tality," and have as its reward ''eterns
life.'' What greater reward than thi
can mortal man receive?
Because these boys can not go t
school they need not be ignorant of tn
knowledge that may be gained fror
,, books. We know youth who is en-
ployed from early morning till dark i
helping support his fathers family, bu
who in fragments of leisure has mastere
the principles of chemistry, read a
Shakespeare's plays, Bacon's Essay:
text books in several of the science.
, and is well advanced in algebra. Hi
|
of apprehension and comprehension ia
greater than those of youths of his ag
who have been always at school. HI
mother studies with him, and contrive
to keep in advance of him SO she ca
help him over hard places and discus
with him the books he reads. Th
enables her to give high tone to tt
family life, to create an atmosphere I
intellectually at the fireside in whie
the love of literature and science ms
> flourish. Of course doing this she mu
' omit doing great many things col
> sidered necessary by many mother
She has little time for embroideries an
fancy cooking and the superfiucus mic
f ties of housekeeping.
: Among the pyramids Of Egypt
a least one has been found that is built
r bricks made from Nile mud fastent
d together with ':stubble instead
= straw" and doubtless the work of Il
v Israelites when compelled to '.get stra
where they could find it." For ov
4 5000 years that structure has stood,
monument of patient, faithful toll, al
;. it will doubtless stand as long as
elder brother Cheops, and in its mea
i. ure as praiseworthy structure as tha
1T Some years ago man with brai
d and some money bought rock,
swampy farm, with an unmanageb
/, stream flowing through it from ;
IL owner whose father had starved on
/. and who himself had done likewis
N The new purchaser with the rock bu
substantial fences, bridges over t
N stream and buildings, drained t
lie swamps, using the muck from them
enrich the barren land, on which
IS planted fruit trees, and in few yea
t. transformed the waste place into
ar beautiful and fruitful Eden and sold
r. for double all it had cost him.
is We might go on this vein indefinitel
but it is unnecessary. To be faithi
e, over the few things, to build well of t
id materials furnished lis and which '
IL can command by diligent labor is
that is required of us. '1t is accepted
'b a man according to that he hath a
not according to that he hath not. "
+, N. Y. Tribune.
as How Honeycomb is Filled.
DIR. C.. Spencer has been prying in