Huntsville gazette., 1888-09-22
TRIALS or CHILDHOOD.
Or. Talmaeo EaPnestly Pleads for More
Sympathy and Loss Spank.

. Or. Talmaes Earnestly Pleads for More
Sympathy and Loss Spank.
In the long catalogue Of children's
woes leg-ache stands very prominent
After running, racing, climbing and
jumping all day long this is one 9th 9
worst troubles. We remember it now,
the rolling and tossing to get to sleep
and the half-cry Of distress of which no
one but ourselves seem ed to have any
appreciation. All active children have
their leg-ache at nightfall Blessed
the mother whose entertaining story
or the stroke of whose soft hand
silences and soothes and cures.
Hunger is another of the boyhood
and girlhood distresses. There may
be plenty in the pantry and yet the
| children are half the time starved.
Parents with capacity to swallow a
half-pound of beefsteak and the usual
accompaniments do not understand
why, midforenoon or midafternoon,
| children should be hungry. 1t is cruel
| to keep little ones faint and exhausted
hour has not come. All the doctors
and dietaries to the contrary notwith-
standing, whenever your children are
hungry, whether it be the hour of nine,
ten or eleven a. m, or two, three or
four p. m, give them something to eat.
One Of the worst of childhood griefs
is subsection to bullies. They are to
be found in every school and on every
street; the boys who knock your hat
| down over your eyes and chuck you
under the chin, calling you "bub, " and
steal your cap and trip you up for the
fun of seeing you fall down, and dare
you to tight-you ten years and they
| fourteen. We have vivid remembrance
| of one such bully and our sufferings at
his hands, and we now declare, minister
| or no minister, if ever we meet him
again he had better look QUIT There
is nothing more exasperating to US
than to see large boys imposing on
| small ones. Let schoOlmasters give
| such young Herods the rattan in lib
| eral measure. But alas for the lads who
have year after year to submit to the
ruffian impositions! To be chased and
pulled and mauled and be able to do
nothing in return but bite your lip and
| clinch your fist and wish you were
| foot taller.
Going to school is among the hard
ships of children. The pills of knowl-
| edge are now sugar-cOated, and school
houses are sometimes made attractive
with music and flowers and pictures
and teachers who understand and
practice the law Of kindness. In such
cases children are glad when the
school hour comes. Not so with many;
not so with us in boyhood. We shiver
to think of it. A mile and hall
through snOwbanks little crusted,
so that every step broke through.
our big sister pulling us along by
the tippet, ears tingling with cold,
feet half-frozen, and all of what we
could then see no use in-the learning
to read and write and cipher. No
cards with marks of good behavior, nc
| medals to hang around the neck, moth
ing on earth to encourage but going
up head occasionally, and box of the
ears if we missed, more frequently.
Our sympathies go out for all those
who, contrary to their wishes, are
obliged to go to school.
! But we can not enumerate the
troubles of children. We suspect that
| they need more rewards and fewer
punishments, more apples and less
switch, more sympathy and less spank.
While we console their mishaps they
would unconsciously relieve ours. If
instead of standing so much on our
dignity we would get down on all-fours
and let our children get astride of us,
imagining they were a-horseback,
probably some of our manhood troubles
would fall off at the moment the
youngsters got ONT. d. Talmage, d.
d., IN Chicago Times.
L