Bismarck weekly tribune., 1889-11-29


me: FR1DA Az. NOV. %, /
TRAINING \ IN CHILDREN,
a SOUTHERN LApY,s METHOD OF
BRINGING UP THE YOUNG.
She Easily Explained What ras So Brys-
terious to All Her OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
ley Was a Good Boy Simply Because
He Wasn't Preached To.
Mankind is rendered more or less misera-i A
bio by the enfant terrible. Bad children
swarm all over the land. and It is an open
secret that persons In search Of peace and
harmony refuse to buy homes on blocks in
habited by little people, and make their alb
sence positive consideration in fat and
hotel lite. Something Is radically wrong,
and after meeting Charley Brown and his
clever mamma at the seashore, one house.
hold at least became convinced the trouble
all lies in faulty maternal management.
Charley was just turning 6 years old,
with the brightest baby face and manifest
figure in white fannels one could find in
riding from the southern end Of Mississippi
all the way up to its far northeast corner: He
had never brother or sister to share dominion
in the hearts of a group Of adoring relatives.
and by the canons Of infantile spoilation,
ought to have been an insufferable nuisance
before cutting his pretty white teeth. But
when fortune placed the young man at such
q sad moral disadvantage she made things
,tolerably even by giving him by all odds the
wisest Of mothers
WATCHING THE BOY.
Mrs. Brown never posed as the ideal
mamma. Indeed, of all the people she would
have been most surprised had any one told
her of her differences from the ordinary run
Of mankind. Rather shy than otherwise,
with no professed mission in life, she was ut
terly unconscious of illustrating the lost art
Of combining sugary goodness with unalloyed
happiness in the career Of one small, healthy
boy
At first, when strangers met him, they
simply believed Charley had been better
coached than the majority in maintaining
his company manners Never for moment
did they credit his uniform gayety, sweet
ness and good breeding az every day facts.
Such q thing was too far out Of the common
to be true. As rule, weeks intimate In
tercourse was necessary to convince doubters
that the child had, as regards his behavior,
no recognition of time or personages. He
was an agreeable surprise in the morning, q
pleasant reality at noon, and when evening
came turned in like blue eyed seraph to
sleep fast as dormouse all night long. Be-
tween daylight and dark he was good. better
and best.
The mystery Of this angelic union Of phys
ical, mental and moral perfection remained
unsolved, until one Of the guests, more enter
prising than the rest, determined to watch
the handsome little enigma one whole day,
and see where he differed from the balance Of
his kind. Her attention was rewarded, for
pretty soon Charley's plump legs were dang
ling over the arm of chair, while he sucked
peppermint drops and whistled at intervals
as the candy allowed NOR did he hold to one
attitude, but wriggled about in orthodox
child fashion, squirming all over the seat as
his active young body prompted, with never
correction to trouble his peaceful MINI
Exhausting this amusement he announce
his desire to fish, and ran OFF to get the short
pole and small hook provided for his special
USE 80
A chorus of voices on the gallery rose in
wonder that Mrs. Brown could permit him
to have q genuine steel hook, and dozen
prophesied Of horrors to follow an accident.
She had explained all its dangers, she said,
very quietly, and he must take the risks
Yes. be could go barefooted; yes, climb the
gate If he preferred; certainly GO in the
shallow water, where it was safe; none of
these irritating useless injunctions, whereby
mothers think they are fulfilling duty, and
in reality rendering their children wretched.
When the pretty baby was fast asleep some
one observed how rarely fortunate Mrs.
Brown was in having SO seldom to correct
the young master .No," the judicious lit
tie mother replied. sit is not that, but, you
see, have raised my boy not to need It" J"
Begged, for the sake Of couple Of anxious
hearted young matrons sitting near, to ex-
press her views on the perplexing question,
she continued:
"a long time ago, when girl growing
up, noticed how constantly parents fretted
their children by that utterly hateful Of all
nursery words, DON'T You are all kind
enough to call my Charley paragon Of
goodness, end he is dear little monkey,
but, believe me, the principal cause OF his
anniability and obedience Is that he is never
corrected by word or look save under ex-
treme circumstances. For my part doubt
babies being born in sin and the children Of
wrath. We are the ones, then, who make
them So Look at q, baby; its tiny fingers
just as naturally reach out for a futtering
ribbon or convenient lock of hair as the
dew falls from heaven, and yet right there
the little hand is slapped and it first hears
that odious DON'T Now child in proper
environments does not do three things day
for which it should be reprimanded. If you
don't give useless orders, it will never dis
obey,
I'm fact, one-half Of it's misdemeanors are
suggested by the maternal commands, like
the proverbial children who put beans up
their noses simply because their too prudent
mother had issued hitherto undreamed of
orders to the contrary
81 remember one day when Charley was
scrap Of child, this truth being borne in
upon my mind by comparing the difference
in wisdom, human and divine. There were
over 100, 900 of the chosen people in that will
derness recently out Of the bondage Of slavery,
and yet when Moses went up in the mountain
to receive Jehovah's laws, he was given just