The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1891-10-08
MANNERS OF CHILDREN.
Why the Little Ones Behave SO
Badly Nowadays.

eloquent of late upon this subject.
Faute de naeuC inthe dull season, we
have taken it up enthusiastically, and
answered and Unanswered each other,
and hurled lawful examples at n
anothor's heads, and ~foretold all sorts
of terrible fates for the naughty little
boys and girls of today, whose man
ners stand in need OF REFORM. In the
face of all that has been said upon the
subject, and the many examples that
have been given of the shocking be-
havior of the young people OF today,
it is, perhaps, hat daring 10
make the assertion that the children
of the present time are not a n worse
in their way than their fathers and
their mothers before them. Yet such
is my belief. That they are more pre-
cocious," or to use a slang expression,
wide awake" is undeniable. But
this is the result of progress. We nave
learned more about children than our
fathers and mothers know. Every
generation becomes o enlightened
-'the thoughts OF men are wldened
with the process of the suns"-and
we have, within the last quarter or a
century, learned a great deal about
feeding and clothing and managing
little folks, with the result that they
are certainly healthier and wiser than
those of a previous generation. Take
a modern child of three years old and
contrast it with those of the same
age whom you remember twenty or
thirty years ago. Ask he grand
mothers what they think OF the baby
of today as compared with the DaDy
OF the last generation. The result anu
the answer will be the same. me
three-year old of this @ is a think
ing, intelligent being, very will able
to take its W part, to act WITHIN
limits on it's own responsibility, to
talk more or less nationally, and to be
somewhat companionable to It's par
ents. Its forbears at the same age
were treated and expected to act IKE
helpless infants. They were fed,
clothed, talked to, played with, and
generally regarded as invertebrates,
or creatures with undeveloped facui-
ties and lenses. In consequence, the
little beings got no opportunity OF
using the intelligence. the strength.
and the gifts with which nature "a
endowed them.
We have now changed all that. Our
children are nationally treated, inc
the old-fashioned folk at once call
them precocious. They make smart"
remarks, that is to say, they repro
duce like monographs what they
have in some form and at some time
heard their elders say, and they are
dubbed impertinent. They do much
as we do, and WI call them rude"
and sill-mannered.o So while we
have advanced in one way, that is to
say in the management OF our chill
dren, we ourselves have progressed
backward with regard to u own
manners, and seeing them reproduced
by our offspring jump at once to the
conclusion that the fault is theirs.
The children Of previous generations
when allowed to use their fac
ulties, without doubt initiated
their elders faults and fail
ings and virtues in just the
same way, but courtesy was not out
of fashion then as it is now, and so
what with their "backwardness," as
the nurses say, and their more careful
exemplars, they lacked the opportu-
mites of the modern child for acQuir-
ing the tone which we are now la
menting at great length and with
much vehemence in the daily press.
Children, it has been very truly said,
have more need of models than OF
critics. They are purely. initiative,
these little creatures, and they are,
after all, what we make them. We
have happily learned wisdom, or some
wisdom, as regards their treatment,
but we have apparently yet to &C
uuire the art of behaving so that they
shall mirror our conduct with credit
to themselves and to the comfort OF
others.
To gravely criticise the manners OF
little children in an age when we
"grows-ups" give daily, even hourly
evidence that we are Ignorant and
careless of the commonest courtesies
of life. is very like strainipg at a gnat
and swallowing a camel. | do not see
why we should expect the manners OF
our children to be better than our
own, or young folks to know what
they are not taught. They certainly
have few opportunities OF acquiring
courtesy at home. and if they are
taken to public places they often only
witness the grOssest acts OF ~rudeness,
and the display of every variety OF
bad Take them into a we'll
dressed crowd, and in a quarter of an
hour they will be fully impressed with
the idea that the correct behaviour OF
well-bred men and woine is to push
and scramble and elbow and
glare at each other. Take them on a
railway journey and they will see
their parents man@uvering for the
best seats in the carriages, wrangling
with strangers over the open or closed
windows, and accepting small SER
vices for which they never utter a
word of thanks. Take them to the
theatre, they will see people pushing
by and constantly ~intercepting the
view of Others without a word of
apology. In the daily life within
doors a dozen examples will occur in
the conduct of guests, in the treat
ment of servants, in the course ofcon.
versation, in acts unnoticed by older
persons, but all of which the recep-
tive mind of a child is SO ready to
seize. 'Our manners are always
under examination" and especially
where there are children, and, remem-
bering what they are, it really seems
nothing short of ludicrous to grumble
at the wee folk for doing as we teach
them. When we have mended our
own manners we shall be better able
to Judge those of our children! Until
we do so l much fear the courtesy oil
the modern youth will not be other
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