Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1891-08-26
Training Of Children.

1t is expected that the offspring of vi
cious parents encouraged in evil habits by
both precept and example W i'll grow up in.
to life of shame. And the children whose
parents do not belong to the criminal class,
but who are left to roam the streets with
out restraint and to form comprehensive
with the vile, will of necessity gravitate in
the same direction. One has only to watch
the ''hoodnms" in the thoroughfares of
great city, to listen to the themes of their
conversation, and to see how thorough is
their abandonment to evil desires and prac.
tioes. to wonder that any of them reach
maturity outside of prison walls. In the
rural districts the associations are not quite
as polluting, but the ministries of vice are
not wanting, and there is enough every.
where to supply the contamination if the
child is surrendered to them without care.
ful supervision.
There is very little to be said in praise of
human nature as it develops without watch
and ward. Its proneness to wrongdoing is
patent to the commOnest observation, and
the seeds of evil are native to the soil, re-
quiring no sowing Or huBbandry to insure a
persistent growth. & little neglect Of
garden will insure crop of weeds. Net
ties and thorns require for their thrift no
thought or skill OF the gardener, and only
by careful, patient culture can they be root
cd out, and their places filed with that
which will crafty the eye and reward the
taste. This is no new discovery, but it is
the lesson most difficult to impress on those
who have the care of the young and are re-
cponsible for their training. The neglect
of children in this country is absolutely ap-
pRlling. Not in the hsunts of vice nor the
city Sums alone are the young growing up
without proper care and restraint: the dis.
regard of parental obligation is go general
that it has become the rule instead of the
exception.
The saddest reading in the daily papers
are the stories Of the waywardnees of the
young. Boys are left 10 feel their imagin-
stions on the most unwholesome literature.
If they do not steal the necessary means,
purchase az outfit for o highwayman, a
burglar, or q freebooter's life on the prairie,
and creep away in the darkness to realize
the ideal that taken possession of them, they
are, none the less poisoned at the fountains
of thought, and untitled for the prosaio,
practical duties of life. In our boyhood no
young lad belonging to proper home was
allowed to be absent, or to roam at will
wherever his fancy or his grosser appetites
and passions might call him. If he was
not at school, or otherwise in some regular
employment his hours were to be account.
ed for, and he had no freedom of choice not
governed by parental authority. Ia these
days the boy, even of respectable parents,
is in COO many cases law unto himself.
He spends his time as he chooses; he selects
his companions; he reads whatever delights
his fancy, and he resents any dictation from
his Supporters as to his personal habits.
Is it any wonder that the soil of such a
heart presents rank growth Of noxious
~ I'll q
would be dangerous to leave the field un.
titled to the chances of improper vegeta-
ton. There should be no such risk in all
that goes to the forming Of character.
There is, however, no suoh thing as virgin
purity in any one born into the world in
which we live. There have been different
theories regarding the origin of evil, but
that every one comes into being tainted
with the common malady it ia impossible to
deny. Man does not become sinful owing
to his environment, but because of the pro.
pensity with which he was born. He is
not responsible, as some old theologiaus
claimed, for this tendency, nor guilty on
that account. He is innocent Of wrong IN.
til he yields to the clamor within him for
selfish Indulgence; but he will yield beyond
all peradventure ss soon rs the opportunity
offers, SO that there is no heart without its
consciousness of guilt. To leave a child
with this perilous bias to evil to choose for
himself according to his own Maynard
fancies is to render his ruin "a certain as
that the "wagoe of sin is death"
The girls in our day, if we may Judge
from the painful stories that greet us on
every side, are in the average home quite
as badly neglected as the boys. They are
not restricted in their reading, and there is
very little restraint on their choice of com
pauions. They are not kept at home and
under the mothers watohful eye. The
weather seems to be the only hindrance to
their going out. and they are turned loose
into streets and cars and parks full of
beasts Of prey. What are called 'tabduc.
tions" greet us by the dozen in the columns
OF each days paper. The wonder is NOS
that so many young maidens 90 wrong but
that any thus given up to freedom and
license escape the danger and live without
dishonor, to repent Of their waywardness
and folly. The one thing to be emphasiz-
ed Is the tendency to evil in every human
heart and the need of constant training and
watchtul care to insure virtuous life. The
father and mother look into what seem tn @
innocent eyes of their children and will not
believe that they can ever 60 astray. Alas
Tat there should be no exception to the
common Entertained None are EXEMPT.
and therefore the necessity of increasing
vigilance and persistent culture if the out
come OF the life is to be a character above
reproach.-N. z. Journal of Commerce.