The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1885-08-07
CHILDREN'S RIGHTS.
FAIR TREATMENT FOR THE YOUNG
STEERS AT SUMNER RESORTS.
Problems for LandIortls-Boys and Girls
Should Have q Chance to Enjoy
Themselves-Chrildr Parties
The American Small Boy.
MAY Forney in Philadelphia Times.l

may FOrney IN Phfladelph1a TlmeSl
1t Is really astonishing at the average
hotel how little the pleasure. or oven the
actual comfort, Of children is considered.
They seem, poor little folks, simply to be
tolerated, not welcomed. The moro strange
Is this since the majority of the people go
out of town in the hot weather more for
the sakes of their children than their own.
Observe the notices that hang conspicu-
ously in the corridors of the leading resort
houses. Nurses and children are warned
not TO loiter there. The same forbidding
placards are placed in the entrances to the
parlors and reception rooms. Go outside:
view from tho broad piazzas the stretch of
smooth lawn. No, little feet must not stay
there. They would soon tread down the
even grass. Their youthful spirits must be
suppressed else rules and regulations are
broken at every turn. Positively there
seems to be very few privileges, few &C
ccmnIodations for children at fashionable
summer hotel, unless we except the spots
thai are beyond the reach of "Boniface" and
his code OF laws
AT the seaside there Is the beach, but
there ara hours through the day when the
sun tears down with terrible fervor on the
sands. There are a few pavilions, perhaps,
but they are apt to be taken possession of
by excursionists with their lunch baskets
and about the only shelter left for the little
ones is under the beams Of those portions of
the piers which extend up the beach. In the
country there are the woods and in the
mountains there are innumerable cosy hooks
sheltered under the rocks. What would the
children do II nature was not their friendl
Anyone who has been in the habit of
spending the hot months at one of the popu-
lar resorts will, think, agree with me when
say that 1t is most exceptional for the chill
dren to be thought of at all by the hotel pro-
prietor, except SO far as to enforce certain
regulations which will make them the least
expense to him. am not quite sure, but
have vague idea that if the proprietor
could, without reaping the whrlwind. refuse
unreservedly to take children into his house
just as in many instances he does refuse to
take pet dogs, he would do it.
Very rarely Is anything gotten up for the
amusement of the children other than the
so called juvenile balls, and they are equally
for the pleasure Of the grown folks who
joy seeing the fancy figures danced by the
little sprites in their dainty costumes. Co
incide slightly with those stern moralists
who look upon these dances as unwholesome
I'm many ways. There Is to me something
really pitable in the spectacle of child
dancing a "pass-seur' in crowded, ill-ven-
tilated ball room; her shapely little limbs
fully displayed beneath her short skirts of
silk and lace; her baby face flushed with ex-
element; her whole form quivering with
delight at the notice she Is attracting The
atmosphere Of the public ball room Is not n
healthy one for childre Of either sex.
In making my plea for the children am
aware that the strongest argument in the
premises is that if some place were set apart
for their frolics and games the adult que sts
would find their pleasures wonderfully
HANGED. 1t is well, perhaps, that youthful
spirits are not easily controlled. 1t would
be a cruel wrong to crush out the natural
gaiety which belongs alone to happy, care
less childhood, to make of the little ones de-
mure mon and women years before they
need shoulder the responsibilities Of the
estates The term "old-fashioneI" ia ap-
piled to those small morsels Of deport ment
seen summer after summer at the hotels
and it is not in the least correctly
used 1t Is not an old fashion; it Is
an entirely modern freak that dresses
children like their elders and makes
them their counterpart in manners and con-
versation. There are no moro little girls
they are all misses, and they have all the
formalities of grown people in polite society,
even to the extent of an introduction being
necessary to make them mutually nc
quainted. They are SO well dressed that
they move about cautiously, fearful of dis
arranging their draperies and furbelows.
Their speech is studied, their voices modu-
lated and a genuine, hearty childs laugh
Is something have not heard in it's spOn-
taneity for some time. "Don't be bolster
Gus" Is the chiding. As have said, it is
not easy to crush a child's spirit, but it can
be done to this extent. The hotel man is
not entirely responsible for the metamor-
phose, but it Is to meet many of his views
that 1t has been accomplished.
With the American small boy, however, |
it is quite another matter. Up to the |
cigarette and cane period little effort is |
made to restrain him. He is noisy, he Is |
obtrusfve, he Is rough; yes, he is all that |
but he is delightfully."- natural at the same |
time up to certain point, and that point |
comes with strange suddenness. We pat
the bOisterous youth on the head one sum-
the next he appears before us altered, sub |
dued, dressed to nicely, tiny cane in hand, |
cigarette In mouth. All, me, the folly boy |
has changed in a brief month into the bur-
lesque OF man. Short-skirted little girls |
are altogether beneath his notice He is an |
extremist. The woman who possesses I'M |
told fascination for him now IS old enough |
to be his mother. and he lavishes his funny
little attentions upon her, blind to the smiles
no Is provoking. Before he reaches this
to- be-pitied stage l admire while yet have
u horror of the small boy. l know very !
we'll that while he is yelling like an indian,
would be preferable to ona hour in his So
ciety, that it is all an evidence of sturdy
health, and that there Is the making Of a
man in him even in these dude days When
1 contrast him-all rough and noisy he is
with his smaller sister, moving about Sc
datsly in her stiffened skirts cannot but
note the difference, cannot but condemn the
rigid school in which she is being educated
She, too, ought to be running around shout
ing and giving us all bad headaches, in
stead of sitting and anticipating days of
dignity that come all too soon; and there
comes to me certain little prayer that the
man of jewish faith offers daily, thanking
God that he was born q man.
There are two sides to every question. of
course. and it is. l grant you, terrible when
you go up stairs for your after ath nap for
the small boy to make the corridor outside
your room a race-course. 1t is almost be-
yOnd endurance, too, that in the alleged writ
ing and reading room he makes his circus:
and we likewise may be excused for object
ins, tn his MIA vine, 9horsa.car v toonopolixinx