The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1886-09-11
Parents Of Poorly Bred Children.
Pittsburg Dispatch.


There must be some way to explain
the presence of SO many poorly raised
children. Somebody must bear the
blame. The children are not response
bic for their conduct before they come
to the years of discretion, yet the ma
jority of them are very far from what
they ought to be.
Those who profess to know wherefore
they speak say that children learn all
they know either by seeing or hearing.
The reasoning powers are so weak that
very few of their ideas are deduced from
distinct, separate propositions or prem
lseS. Ihls is probably true, therefore
it must be concluded that their exam
piles have been bad.
1t may not be out of place to call at
tention to the subject that was recently
under discussion-heredity. There it
was shown quite clearly that child
may inherit diathesiS; that is, a ten
diseases, mental disposition, or physical
characteristics of its parents. Indeed,
this is so well settled that it is unneces-
sary to more than call attention to it.
There is very important phase of this
subject, however, that has not been dis
cussed thoroughly, and one that COM
paratlvely few persons, otherwise well
informed, know anything about. Per-
fectly healthy parents, that is, parents
without any constitutional or inherited
diseases may have delicate, worthless
children. There are SO many instances
of this that no oDservant person will
question this statement for moment.
The sons of highly respectable man
turn out to be rakes or drunkards. The
daughters of mothers who are regarded
in the community as models, grow up
to be giddy, weak and worthless.
The law seems to be that a diatheSiS
may be inherited from a habit as well
as from a constitutional disease in the
parent. For instance: A child may
inherit the disposition to make money,
to trade, or to speculate from the habits
of its father, who driven by necessity
to speculating and trading. The father
may not have had natural taste for
these, and only resorted to them for
lack of opportunity to make living
in some more congenial way. The more
taste on the part of the mother for mu-
sic, or rather the enjoyment afforded by
the singing or playing of others, may
develop strongly marked taste for mu-
sic in her children. There are many
instances where the parents of musicians
of note could neither sing nor play, and
probably only one of them had an ear
tor music. Instances illustrative of this
phase of the law of heredity might be
multiplied until they filed the column,
but you are probably aware of great
many within your own circle of ac-
quaintances.
Of all the habits that may affect chill
dren permanently none are more potent
and more certain than the drinking
habit. A man need not be drunkard
/ nor an nanitnaI drlnKer IN order to trans
NIT to mis- posterity disposition to drink
and the inclination to seek stimulants.
The first manifestation of the disorder
is craving for excitement. The nature
of the excitement desired depends large
| ly on the tastes and surrounding of the
victim, for victim he is doomed to be.
When childish games cease to afford
the necessary excitement he naturally
turns to base ball, horse-races and pro-
badly gambling. Alcoholic stimulants
are found to answer the same purpose as
the exCitements he has been used to,
and he becomes drinker.
This craving excitement leads girls
to flirting, coquetting and fast ways.
All, or nearly all, abandoned women
despise the lives they lead, and only
continue in them because of the excite
ment afforded by their revels, the wine
and the gaudy tinsel with which they
are bedecked. They could readily have
inherited this disposition from fathers
who boasted that they could take a
drink or lst it aalq4}f; III nTg Tgiasas rthny
when they had the blues.
Did you ever think of this phase of
the question: or did it ever occur to
you that majority of the abandoned
men and women have come honestly by
their unfortunate tastes and dispositions
Do strong, healthy parents ever think
that their social or domestic habits have
given to their children delicate bodies
and depraved fastest These are not
merely possibilities, but probabilities:
Indeed, they have almost been lifted
from the plane of probability into the
realm of fact. The drunkard, the tip
pier, the sport, the profane, the vulgar
or the cruel parent need not be disap'
pointed if his sons and daughters develop
deep seated moral sores from his indul'
gences, which re may consider trifing
The flirt, the gossip, the tattler or the
lazy parent must not be surprised if he
children are permanently afflicted b!
reason of her habits.