The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1886-09-25
The Care of Children.


fessor Felix Adler, in recent lecture,
lis one of the burning questions of the
day. Upon it depends in greater de-
gree than people imagine the welfare OF
the State, the family, society and the
ethical development of humanity itself.
We should be the physicians of our
enemies; we should profit by their hos
tility and lead them to better mind by
gentleness and firmness combined, and
even chastise them when their own good
and social advancement required it.
How many parents know how to punish
children?
A child will grow up, in nine cases
out of ten, the embodiment of the in
fluences that surround him. Never chas-
tise child in anger. Socrates, the
great pagan philosopher, refrained from
Furnishing slave until his passions had
cooled. An angry father sets perilous
example to his offspring. He exhibits
his weakness when he should be firm
and contained. The child drinks in the
lesson, and his moral nature is lacerated
and warped.
How many children are spoiled by
encouragement! Parents grumble and
chide the live-long day, and never
praise. 1t is wrong. Nothing will so
ehectually crush child's ambition to
be good and noble. The sweet appro-
baton of a good mother is enough to
make young man face fire and death
in worthy cause.
In this short extract lies whole vol
ume of wise counsel which if followed
would make the world ten fold better
and more comfortable than it is. But
to follow it is not an easy matter. In
the first place, parents have themselves
often lacked in childhood the sort Of
training which would teach them self
control. Children are very annoying
at times, and when the odd Adam
crops out in their dispositions it is a
well-balanced mind that can hold its
own and act wisely and coolly. Besides,
the temperament of children differs so
widely that it is often an enigma to
know how best to deal with each one,
no matter how self contained the parent
may be. Where good sound fogging
may answer for one child and subdue it
into implicit obedience, it would prac-
tically ruin the disposition of another
in the same family who requires some
milder form of treatment.
In training children it is SO easy to
p,ce o,,ar an oc+ &c 1icohadiepce and CO
hard to insist on submission. But every
instance of neglect to require obedience
to an express command, especially in
the case of a child of strong will, fosters
habit of disobeying which is almost
certain to gain in force until it is beyond
restraint. This is why children are con-
stantly met over whom parents seem to
have lost all moral control. Ifthey obey
at all it is only on physical compulsion.
Such children are perpetual worry to
| their parents and source of annoyance
to every one else, and, young as they
arc, they are on the high road to ruin.
Now, don't believe in whipping chill
dren. Except in extremely isolated
cases, there are other forms of punish
ment that will enforce the moral quite
as well, or better, than to descend to
the brutality of beating.
Neither is it needful to perpetually
scold children in order to bend them to
the will, and the habit of continually
saying don't is almost as reprehensi-
Bile. ReprimandS and monitions after
while fall upon needless ears and are
a waste of breath. Children should be
hedged about with as few rules and bur-
dened with as few commands as possible
and only with those that are necessary,
but command deliberately made should
be adhered to except when found to be
wrong-in which case the child should
be made to understand why it is not
enforced. Children are neither such
unreasonable nor unreaSoning creatures
as many people suppose. They have
their fair share of common sense, and if
this be appealed to in the right way there
are nine chances out of ten that they
advice rather rndn "; inc loilia-a- hss-.ee
their parents or guardians. 1t may be
argued that if controlled in this way
child misses the discipline that he needs
when he leaves the paternal root ana
comes to iostle with the world. have
verv hereto ideas on this subject, and
# is nv opinion, backed up by observa-
ton and experience, that a child who
has been shown the difference between
right and wrong doing, and has been
taught to reason it out for himself, Is IN
a much better state of discipline than II
in possession of that which is born OF
compulsion only. Chameleon-llke, lit
tie ones are very apt to take on the col
ors about them, and if surrounded by
the proper sort of influences they Will
grow ND with gentle manners, selt-con'
trolled tempers and habits of obedience
More than that, they will look DacF
upon their childish years as having peer
one long sunny day. To send chic
forth into the world with sucn Drlgn
recollections is to send him forth with
an anchor which shall be to him secu
,ity and help in weathering the tierces
storms that may befall him in later life
Obedience, which is, of course, neces
sary to the well being of any child,
much better when begotten of inclina
ton than of compulsion, and may a
easily be enforced by gentle means a
bv the martinez method, which robs thu
home of half its restraining power. Ih
influence of happy home, where low
and gentleness were the twin rulers, will
live long after the home itself has crum
bled into dust and will bear its weigh
with future generations. Is not such
result worth striving for at any cost
earnest thought and endeavor?
| @ Banker-What a very illeglb
signature old Moneybags has ha
: one of his checks to-day, and the nan
was scarcely decipherable.
E Baker, never saw his signature D'
t once. Then it was almost plain enoug