St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-03-13
FAMILY DISCIPLINE.
Theory as. Practice in the Natter of MaiT-
tanning Proper Amount of Parental
authority.
Bill Nye in the Ingleside.

authority.
Bill Nye in the Ingleside.
I have just brought to the surface brief
essay, written by myself at the age of 19, a nd
which shows that Twas good deal smarter
then than l am now. Now, I am a little
bothered about what to do with children, but
at that time valuable information oozed out
of my elastic yet massive skull at all times.
The essay goes on to say that "just as the
twig is bent the tree is inclined" / do not
remember whether this is original or not.
am inclined to think it is not. Several other
startling theories are enunciated in this pa
per, among others that the child is father to
the man. This may be true generally, and
yet there are exceptions. The child may be
father to the woman, or, in rare cases per-
haps, the child may be mother to the man or
even mother to the woman.
When the right kind of man wakes up to
find himself a parent, all his dazzling smart
ness goes away and he stands there in the
presence of that extremely aorid chunk of
squirm, abashed and anxious, solicitous and
ratified. He finds that he knows less about
this genesis business than he supposed. He
cannot conceal the fact that he is green. All
the Family Physicians and Every Man
His Own Doctor, books that he has been
pick up his own child without making the
most common plug of a parent laugh himself
to death.
Later on the work of discipline comes in.
He looks forward anxiously to the day when
the child will be large enough, so that he can
exercise the great prerogative of spanking.
Finally the time comes. He has rasserted
himself in his own house, and has spanked
his own flesh and blood. How proud he
feels How he wishes that he could 90 and
drown himself somewhere. All day long he
knows that his wife will meet him at the door
with the dead child in her arms. He sees the
little fat hands, resting so still and so white
on the baby's breast, that they seem TO clutch
his own heart-strings and rest cold and heavy
on his heart.
II the baby is dead when he gets home he
will be a murderer. People will point him
out as he goes along the street and say,
''There is the man who spanked his little
child into an early grave"
He goes home early from his bootless days
work, trembling to know the worst His
wife tells him that the baby has poured
gallon of kerosene into the sugar barrel and
sailed the hens, and the poor man SAYS
THANK Godl'' and his wife says, George,
have you lost that cunning little mind that
you used to amuse yourself with?n
Her sarcasm falls harmlessly on his happy
heart. He then resolves that discipline may
go to grass; he will not have the sightless
eyes of his dead baby haunting him during
business hours; he prefers live Apache saw
age 10 pale, silent aud well-behaved ghost
looking over his shoulder while he is trying
to think of hard word.
The proud and defiant young mugwump of 10
at last becomes the quiet gentle, loyal serf with
the pink and chubby foot of baby across his
neck. There is still discipline in the family,
but it is not the kind he had advertised to
make feature in his home life.
An old friend said to me not long ago, 81
thought when you became parent you in
tended to have discipline in your family. In
stead of that you have to play horse or make
a jackass ofyoursef every time your children
want you to. Seems to me if / had an nounced
for years that l was going to have discipline
in my family I'd have it now or bust.''
james" said l to him, in musical tone,
81 don't believe you recognize discipline
when you see it, The fact is, we have more
discipline in our family than we know what
to do with. / am getting grown PERSONS
dose twenty-seven times per day, and thirteen
times a night, and / feel that it is making
me better man. We have a large amount
of discipline at our house. There IL is, where
any of the family can use 1t. The children do
not seem to crave it, so / am using it myself
don't like to see anything wasted"