Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1888-11-01
TIED TO APRON STRINGS.
Boys Whose Training Does Not Fit Them
to Fight the Battle of Life.

Boys Whose Training Does Not Fit Them
to Fight the Battle of Life.
Perhaps the greatest misfortune that
can befall man is to have been an only
son, brought up by tender and timid
widow mother. 1t is easy to see at a
glance, among crowd of boys, who has
been educated under exclusively femi-
nine influence. The long, curled, shin
ing hair, the fantastic tunic-generally
a kind of hybrid between a tunic and a
frock-the lavish use of embroidery,
the soft, pretty behaved manner, the
clean, thoroughbred hands, all mark the
boy of whom his mother so often wished
that he had been a girl, and whom she
had made as like girl as possible. His
intellectual education has been as un-
boylike as his daily breeding.
Mothers boys are taught to play the
piano, to amuse themselves with paint
ing or netting, or perhaps a little wool
work in the evening anything to keep
them quietly seated around the family
table, without an outbreak of boyish
restlessness or inconvenient energy;
but they are never taught to ride, to
hunt, to shoot, to swim, to play at
cricket, football or billiards, unless
there is a stalwart uncle about who
times, and insists on having a word to
say about his nephews education.
There is danger in all, and evil in
some OF the things; and women can not
bear that those they love should run
the risk of either. Wherefore their
boys are modest and virtuous, truly, but
they are not manly; and when they go
out into the world, as they must, sooner
or later, they are laughed at for their
priggishness or they go to the bad by
the very force of reaction. The mother
has allowed them TO learn nothing that
will be OF any use to them, and they
enter the great arena wholly unpre-
pared either to fight or TO resist, to push
their own way, or to take their own
part. They have been kept tied to the
apron string until the last moment, and
only when absolutely forced by the
necessity of events, will she cut the
knot and let them go free.
Even when the time comes for coll
lege life, she often goes with her dar-
ling and takes lodgings in town, that
she may be near at hand to watch over
his health and morals, and continue
her careful labors for his destruction. The
chances are that youth so brought up
never becomes a real man, or worth his
salt anyhow. He is a prig if he is good, |
a debauchee OF the worst kind, If he |
kicks over the traces at all; he is es-
sentially a domestic man, at ease only
in the society of women; fussy man,
delicate in health, and with dread of
strong measures, physical, political or
mental; "A crotchety man, but not man |
fit for mans society, or for mans
work.
When there are many boys, instead
OF only one. in a widows family, the
opposite of this is the case. As soon as
they escape from the nursery, they es-
cape from all control, whatsoever; and
If one wants to realize puerile pam
demonium OF dirt. discomfort, noise
and general disorganization the best
place in the world is the household of a
feeble spirited mother of many sons.
where there is no controlling masculine
nfuence.-London Saturday ReUiew.
.