San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1891-02-19
A SHORT CHAPTER ON MORALS.

into his novel of VANITY Fair" say!
that Becky Sharp was "reared annie
shift, self and poverty" and it mus
be admitted this was not the bes
possible school of training and roofing
the moral principles, which are to
men and women, making the voyage
of life, what ballast is to ship.
Unquestionably "Shift, self and
povertyn are not to be relied upon as
teachers of moral principles and q
nice sense of honor. They are apt 10
foster loose ideas of morality ana
often to obliterate the boundary line
between right and wrong, and to
beget the notion that whatever 10 eX-
Incident is right and proper, than
which there can be no more immoral
doctrine devised.
| Reader. did you ever reflect what it
means to have to "shift" tor q liveli-
hood? 1t means more than having to
live from hand TO mouth-which is
| certainly hard fate. 1t means living
by ones wits-living by borrowing
and by taking advantage of all those
who will trust US. This mode of life
is inconsistent with the lowest
standard of morality, as it supports
life by violating all the rules of
morality.
Poverty alone is frightful school
to educate children in, yet poverty is
not lncosistent with the strlctest
honesty and the most rigid morality.
But an existence eked out, not by he
nest toll, but by shift, trickery, artifiCe
deception, imposture and swindling,
is directly at war with honesty, and
corrupts both the mind and the heart
long before children have attained
manhood and womanhOod.
When we censure and condemn,
with unsparing severity, the conduct
of vicious and immoral people, as
most of us are very apt to do, on the
spur of the moment, how many of us
ever consider whether those we con-
denim, received the right training
in childhood from parents capable of
properly training them, or grew up in
neglect, and were lett to sniff for
themselves? Did they see their
parents living by artifice, deception,
imposture and trickery, and were they
made to aid in these dishonest
schemes?
1t is not pretended that this
want of moral training and education
in childhood, exonorates rogues from
crime and absolves them from guilt.
Such doctrine would lay the axe to
the root of the social fabric.
The early moral training of children
makes an awful difference with their
conduct in adult life; for say what we
may in ridicule and disparagement of
morality, it 10 the only safe compass
to steer by in our voyage over the
stormy ocean of life. Honesty, truth
fulness and sincerity are essen tial
parts of morality, and without these,
what is any man worth? What de-
pendence can we place IN such q
one? None at all. He is unworthy
of confidence and respect. He
is unworthy of credence. If chill
dren are reared in homes where
honesty, truthfulness and sincerity
are daily trampled upon and violated
by their parents, how are they to
learn to revere and practice them? 1t
is sheer impossibility to overesti-
mate the Importance of moral train
ing in childhood-of fixing in the
mind of child the principles OF NOR
atty so deeply that nothing can up
root them. Putting aside the truth of
the doctrine of the heredity of vices
and crimes, / think the position is in
disputable, that proper moral train
ing in childhood is Indispensable to
success in life. By success in life l
do not mean the accumulation of
property alone, but the standing and
character for honesty, truthfulness,
sincerity and justice, which men build
up in the battle of life. If parents are
dishonest and and untruthtul, will be
waste of breath for them to preach
up honesty to their children. If a
mother be strumpet, it is miracle
if her daughter does not follow in her
foot steps from the sheer force of evil
example. She will give no heed to
the admOnitions of strumpet
mother in regard to virtue and chas-
tity, because the conduct of her
mother is at open war with her NOR
al admonitiOns. So with rogue
preaching honesty.
The atmosphere of home must be
morally healthful-hOnesty, truth
fulness, sincerity and justice must be
practiced as we'll as inculCated. Pre-
cept must be fortified by example. /
do not think there is the least Puri-
tanism in asserting, that all should
be honest, truthful, sincere
and just in the sacred
precincts of the home circle amongst
their children, as we'll as in their
business dealings and social inter-
course. Nor is this requirement OBJ
noxious to the charge of raising the
standard of morality to a romantic
and unattainable pitch. Every man,
who claims to be a gentleman, ought
to be honest, truthful, sincere and
lust, otherwise he is not entitled to
rank gentleman. Every woman,