Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-03

ing to use a rule as stern, as enduring, as
unyielding as they require" Taken with
the grain of salt of intelligent. understand
ing, this does not mean q harsh, tyrannical
government of nervous children; simply
that they need ~stricter observance of the
conditions OF health and good manners.
II you can take an impudent, willful, out
rageous boy, eaten up by school and social
rivalries, and by making him go to bed
regularly at 9 o'clock, battle three times a
week, eat right and study moderately, see
him transformed into a sunny-tempered,
docile boy, eager to be of use-the ill-temper
must be set down as nervousness, and the
responsibility for it lies largely with those
who control his physical hanits. Such q
miracle l have seen over and over again,
while at the same time, the muddy, rough
complexion cleared, the eye lost its red and
angry spark, the bearing grew confident and
free. The frantic ill-humors Of girls coincide
with certain states of health. I know
one who from most placid humor regular
" changed to an incipient demon
in certain states of body, threw and smashed
things for 9 few hours, and seemed to hate
her best friends. The crisis reached, ten
minutes would see her transformed from the
sneering fury to the loving, lovable creature
she usually was Now moral force does not
WUIh III ouSh VdoSS 40 VIC IT uScd W CAptCL
it. The only thing proper was to keep her
shut up in her room, or to send her off by
herself for a change or some little outing, a
long walk or drive. When a woman grown
she learned when these fits of depression
and temper were pending to keep to herself
a good deal, finishing a store of work in her.
own room which accumulated for such
seasons. So that her retreats" as the
Catholics call them, were profitable in every
way. Not everyone has insight to turn in
digestion to such good account.
HEALTH MORE AFFECTED THAN TEMPER.
wish to say that in 20 years of rather
close observation on this point I have never
seen a ~singularly trying child whose health
was not more affected than his temper, and
it is a pity that all teachers are not physi-
clans as we'll. All cases of exceptional will
fulness and depravity should not only be
promptly examined by a medical man, but
watched by one for symptoms of i~ncipient
diseases. The State would be gamers by
this course, losing the expense of trials and
sentences of epileptic or lunatic criminals
who should be under medical surveillance
from the cradle to the grave. The family
would be the gamer in credit, in peace, in
safety from the crimes of varying degrees |
which are hushed up within sanctuary or
NOME, anu OiLeHtT Stlll III seeing some III
cipient, nervous, insane or hypnotic child
brought by wise treatment to firm, sound
health of body and mind.
All things are possible to nature, and the
hand which nature obeys. There is not the
frmness, the 'matured and educated i~ntelli-
gence" to train children wisely in one out
of a hundred who undertake the task, or we
should not talk Of "hopeless cases." There
are none: Moral means seem to fail be-
cause the physical part has been neglected.
You can't convert a man or a boy with a
clot of blood on his brain if all the emf
nent clergy should undertake the task.
This boy is stupid. because he overfeeds, or
has never eaten enough; that boy is malign-
ant, from an ill-digested crude diet; the
other is ftful and rebellious because the
over-worked, over-stimulated nerves OF his
are visited upon the children. The
physician, who should at least be
on the school committee, should be intel
ligent enough to recognize these facts, and
enough to pursue these chill
dren with all the renovating influences
known to-day. No study becomes so in
fascinating as that of saving a life
in this way. No work is so fatally neg
lected. SHIRLEY DARE.