Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1886-05-15
INSTITUTE PAPERS.
HOME TRAINING

ming, March %, 1886.
When asked, less than a week ago. to
prepare paper for the Farmers Insti-
tute, replied that 1 would like very
much to do so, the reason being that my
heart goes out in warmest sympathy to
welcome the home-seekers in the Far
West, for 1 have been and am still one
of your number. [ lived five years on
the ranch, and you could scarcely men
ton an experience in frontier life to
which we are strangers. L have helped
on the farm and in the garden, herded
the cattle, driven the oxen, and killed the
rattle-snakes. Each morning for months
I MIXED seventeen cows. i have helped
conduct Sunday school and a protract-
ed meeting in sod house, and have
taught school in prairie-schooner. 80,
If can lend a helping hand to those just
coming in, 1 am most. happy to do SO.
Privations and hardships seem to be
among the common experience, and yet
am glad we stayed by the claim. / be-
feve that the Lord has rewarded our
honest endeavor, and [ believe that
He will reward yours. In treating this
subject / can only touch few OF the
high points in short paper.
My work is with the children, and will
the farmers be interested in child-work?
You answer, Yes, we want our boys and
girls 50 reared that with willing hands
and happy hearts they will take up the
work where we leave it, and continue the
development of this beautiful land. It
will be sad day when there are no
longer those who will pillow and SOW and
reap and NOW, but if our boys and girls
are made slaUes on the farm, the cry will
still go forth, Our children are leaving
the farm and going to the city to be
caught In the delusions of vice, instead
of being the most free, heaithiest, hap
piest people on the face of the earth.
Fathers and mothers, know your hearts
well enough to say that it is more for
your children than for yourselves that
you are willing to forego the pleasure of
the society of those you have left in the
East, to endure the hardships of the I'M
developed West. / believe that most
parents love their children more than the
children realize. In our eagerness to Sc
cure for them property, we may neglect
to use the means at hand to bind them
to us SO that they will know that ne love
them more than any other earthly friends.
Then, SO far as possible, make home the
cheeriest, sunniest, happiest place In the
world.
Build your house with an east and
south front-a farmer can build where
he pleases plenty OF windows, with
out long, dark shades, SO that Heavens
sunlight may come streaming in, health
freighted and identifying. Select light
carpets that will not easily fade, and
cultivate a few choice flowers. Have
music, if possible, and plenty of the best
books and papers adapted to the age Of
the children. Read by turns, and dis
.cuss the prominent thoughts; it is Won
hearing mother read; here is the mothers
opportunity; what power is hers. She
can read those selections which set forth
the true and pure and good of life, and
can also embrace the opportunity OF uR-
covering that which is hideous and evil.
Cheerful words and words of commenda-
ton will, in most cases, correct the I'M
pleasant occurrences OF our home life; of
course, we can not commend the wrong,
but we can carefully observe and heartily
commend the right. Here I would ap-
peal to the father, for home training
does not all lie in the hands of the
mother. You, fathers, have by your law
obligated your teachers to prepare them
selves to instruct your children as to the
evil effects of narcotics and stimulants.
Now is it necessary to adduce argument
to convince you that you should help to
impress the lesson which you have by
law obligated them to teach? As to to-
bacco, the father says, 1 am very much
opposed to my boys using the weed; L
wash L did not, but the habit is formed
and can not be broken Off. Here argu-
nent ends, since the father is chained by
stronger links than his own Judgment.
We argue that we have no right to waste
the saliva that God has given us for the
purpose of digesting our food, for this is
robbing the stomach of its power, hence
the body of its nourishment. We have
no right to vitiate the air which all must
breathe; the lungs are very delicate or
gans, and demand pure air, whereas the
fumes of tobacco are SO poisonous that
they have been known to destroy life in
the infant, and two drops of the nicotine
obtained from an old pipe placed upon
the tongue of dog will destroy his life
But we appeal to slaves In vain. We in
sist that all things must be held up to
the light to test of what stuff they are
made, and then, as rational beings, we
must receive the good and reject the bad.
But the tobacco slave holds that every
thing ssnust be Submitted to this rule,
except the sweet morsel which he rolls
under his tongue-this is all bad, but
can not be rejected. Mothers If zve can,
by instruction to the young, lift this yoke
of bondage, we have laid the foundation
for the temperance cause, for we will
find that those who are above slavery in
one form will not be easy subjects for the
chains of the demon Alcohol, which
burns and sears the stomach and
passages with which it comes in contact
as with hot iron, paralyzes the nerves,
dethrones reason and makes beasts of
men. We can afford to Danish brandy
and wine from our cooking better than
we can afford to see our boy come reel
ing home and hear him say, ''Mother
taught me this. Those brandy peaches
were good, and found some more" We
must teach them to abhor the taste and
smell of anything that will intoxicate.
"Wine is mocker, strong drink is
raging, and whatsoever is deceived there
by is not WISE" "Who hath woe, who
hath sorrow, who hath contention, who
hath babblings, who hath redness of
eyes, who hath wounds without cause?
They that tarry long at the wine, they that |
90 to seek mixed wine. Look not upon |
the wine when it is red. when it giveth |
its color in the cup, when it showeth |
itself Alright At last it biteth like SER
pent and stingeth like an adder" But |
the temptations are SO great that If We
would save our dear ones we must en-
L l. L