, 1888-04-12
CHILDREN OF THE RICH.
THE SOURCE OF ALL TRUE HAP
PINESS UNKNOWN TO THEM.

Facts Concerning the Most Neglected
Glass in Any Communicable Re-
straints Which Wealth Imposes-Soth-
ing to Wish and Plan For-Contrasts.
There is apparently nothing more need
ed at this time than 'SOciety for the
Gmelioraton of the condition of the chill
dren of the rich" The poor children ap-
peal to the sympathies of every one; we
have them with US, on our hearts and con-
sciences always, but the children of the
rich are the most neglected class i'll any
community.
First, they are neglected by their own
parents What with the summer months
at u gay watering place, and the winter
spent in the giddy whirl of society, it is
fortunate child of the rich who knows its
own mother. The fathers business occu-
pies his time and thoughts; from 20
70 GO years of age he finds that all of
his faculties are required to repair the
damages of one panic and provide in ad-
vance for another If the child is well
clothed and has his or her school bills sent
in regularly, the man of business cares
believes lie has fulfilled all the obligations
of an indulgent father, conscious that he
has done more for his child than was done
for him.
Thus the child is driven back on his
nurse, or the groom, or the butler-ac-
eofding to age or condition-fOr sympathy
and fellowship. Here, if not his manners,
his morals and his views of life are
formed.
DELIGHTS THAT ARE DENIED.
But of these disadvantages the child Is
not himself conscious until, later in life,
he reviews his beginnings. What most
troubles him is the restraint which the
wealth Of his parents imposes on his
action. He is cut off from the associates
Of his own age, if we except few Gagged
animals like unto himself. OF the free
dom of youth he knows little or nothing.
The delight of anticipation is denied by
the qualification i'll advance of all wishes
for balls, bats, kites, and the thousand
and one things which the happy boy Of
tie poor makes for himself. No rich boy
ever felt the thrill of delight, of conscious
power which comes to the boy who has
constructed out of nothing q kite that Is
sailing TO the stars and almost drawing
him after it. The boy of the rich has
bought for him those Iopsided. fantastic
Japanese abortious which do not take
naturally TO the varying waves of our up
per atmosphere.
For the child of the rich there is moth.
ing to wish for. TO plan for, to deny ones
self for; everything is at his command,
and his boyish nature is smothered by his
unusual privileges. If he is permitted TO
60 TO the circus at all, it is only with some
DID fellow whose memory of his youth has
faded and TO whom the smell of the saw
dust has no suggestion of past delight,
and as he paid at the door for reserved
sect the poor child of destiny has no thrill
of fear and terror when the boy with tho
lemonade whispers to the man at the door
anu points significantly in his direction.
IN HIS NATURAL STATE.
4 bog in his naturol state is an animal
who revels in the freedom of disorder, and
under the system of doing for himself
learns TO do for others. Every faculty he
has is quickened by exercise and hidden
strength developed under necessity But
she son of the rich is, as we have said, a
Gagged and pampered animal. Before he
reaches years of conscious intelligence he
is the victim of ennui, and all ambition
has died within him. He is not spurred
on by the thought that one day he may be
president; he does not understand why
one should want to be president, and, be-
sides, he learns from school books that il
Is q position reserved for the SONS of pool
but honest parents.
The contrasts, as they suggest them.
selves, are innumerable-they are suff.
cient for volume Enough have been
noted to convince the reasonable man
who has in his mind any recollection of
his youth, that the children of the rich
have as yet an unrecognized claim on our
sympathies; that they live without fear or
hope; that they are denied alike the pains
and pleasures Of carly years; that they
are imprisoned from the beginning, and so
hedged in by conyentionalism that the
source of all true happiness is ever un-
known to them. 1t is strange that in this
period of the world, with phiIanthropicaI
societies innumerable, we should not have
organized q Society for the Amelioration
of the Condition of the Children of the
fIich--i "'r:sviue Courier-JourQal.