News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1893-08-03

men and women for the future, 50 that
in many places by the time the chllds
education is finished the child is finished!
In many places, in many cities Oh inc
country, there are large appropriations
for everything else and cheerful appro-
priations. but as soon as the appropr1a-
ton is to be made for the educational or
moral interest of the city we are struck
through with an economy that IS we'll
nigh the death of us.
SPARE THE DELICATE BRAIN.
Tn connection with this mention what
I might call the examining system OF the
common schools and many of the acade-
mies-children of delicate brain COM
pelled to tasks that might appall ma
ture intellect, children going down TO
school with strap of books half as high
as themselves. The fact is, in some OF
the cities parents do not allow their
children to graduate for the simple rea-
son, they say, 1--WE cannot afford to al
low our childrens health to be destroyed
in order that they may gather the honors
of an institution"
Tens of thousands of children educated
into imbecility, so connected with many
such literary establishments there ought
to be asylums for the wrecked. 1t is
push and crowd and cram and stuff
and jam until the child's intellect is be-
wildered, and the memory is wrecked,
and the health is gone. There are chill
dren turned out from the schools who
once were full of romping and laughter
and had cheeks crimson with health who
are now turned out in the afternoon pale
faced, irritated, asthmatic, old before
their time. 1t is one of the saddest sights
on earth, an old mannish boy or an old
womanish girl.
Girls 10 years of age studying algebra!
Boys - years of age racking their brains
over trigonometry! Children unacquaint-
ed with their mother tongue crying over
their Latin, French and German lessons!
All the vivacity of their nature beaten
out of them by the heavy beetle of
Greek lexicon! And you doctor them
for this. and you give them little med
icine for that, and you wonder what Is
the matter with them. Twill tell you
what is the matter with them; they are
finishing their education.
In my parish in Philadelphia a child
was so pushed at school that she was
thrown into a fever, and in her dying
delirium, all night long, she was trying
to recite the multiplication table. In
my boyhood I remember that in our
class at school there was one lad who
knew more than all of us put together.
If we We're fast in our arithmetic, he
extricated US. When we stood up for
the spelling class, he was almost always
the head of the class. Visitors came to
his fathers house, and he was almost
always brought in as prodigy. At IS
years of age he was an idiot. He lived
10 years an idiot and died an idiot, not
knowing his right hand from his left, or
LAY from night. The parents and the
teachers made him an idiot.
THE RIGHTS OF CHILDHOOD.
You may fatter your pride by forcing
-FOUR children to know more than any
Dther children, but you are making
sacrifice of that child if by the additions
to its intelligence you are making a sub
traction from its future. The child will
go away from such maltreatment with
no exuberance to fight the battle of life.
Such children may get along very well
while you take care of them, but when
you are old or dead, alas! for them if,
through the wrong system of education
which you adopted, they have no swarth-
mess or force of character to take
care of themselves. Be careful how you
LII L Il. l.
futter.
Ihear great deal about black mems
rights and Chinamen's rights and In
dams rights and women's rights. Would
God that somebody would rise to plead
for children's right The Carthaginians
used to sacrifice their children by put
ting them into the arms of an idol which
into the arms of the idol, and no sooner
touched the arms than it dropped into
the fire. But it was the art of the moth
ers to keep the children smiling and
laughing until the moment they died.
There may be fascination and a hilari-
ty about the styles Of education of which
am speaking, but it is only laughter at
the moment of sacrifice. Would God
there were only one Jephthah's daughter.
OBEDIENCE TO BE TAUGHT.
Again, there are many parents who
are sacrificing their children with wrong
systems of discipline-too great rigor or
too great leniency. There are children
in families who rule the household. They
come to the authority. The high chair
in which the infant sits is the throne,
and the rattle is the scepter, and the
other children make up the parliament
where father and mother have no vote!
Such children come up to be miscreants.
There is no chance in this world for a
child that has never learned to mind.
Such people become the botheration of
the church of God and the pest of the
world. Children that do not learn tc
obey human authority are unwilling to
learn to obey divine authority. Children
will not respect parents whose authority
they do not respect. Who are these
young men that swagger through the
street, with their thumbs in their vest
talking about their father as ''the ole
man." ''the governor" ''the squire,
''the old chap" or their mother as ''tht
old woman?' They are those who il
youth, i'll childhood, never learned to re
spect authority. Eli, having heard thai
his sons had died in their wickedness
fell over backward and broke his necl
and died. Well he might. What is life
to father whose sons are debauched
The dust of the valley is pleasant to his
taste, and the driving rains that driI
through the roof of the sepulcher are
sweeter than the wines of Helbon.
There must be harmony between the
fathers government and the mother:
government. The father will be tempt
ed to too great rigor. The mother will be
tempted to too great leniency. Her ten
derness will overcome her. Her voice i:
a little softer; her hand seems better fiji
to pull out thorn and soothe pang
Children wanting any thing from the
mother cry for it. They hope to dissolve
her will with tears. But the mother
must not interfere, must not coax off
must not beg for the child when the
hour comes for the assertion of parental
supremacy and the subjugation of 6
child's temper. There comes in the his
tory of every child an hour when it is
tested whether the parents shall rule OF
the child shall rule That is the crucial
hour. If the child triumphs in that hour
then he will some day make you crouch
1t is horrible scene. / have witnessed
it-a mother come to old age, shiverine
with terror in the presence of son who
cursed her gray hairs and Knocked he1
wrinkled face and begrudged her the
crust she munched with her toothlesi
gumsl
How sharper than serpent's tooth it is
To have thankless child!
CONTROL YOUR TEMPER.
But, on the other hand, too great rig
Or y,,r,c+ ha o1-OiJol