Connecticut western news., 1893-08-03

provide for our children teachers of lar gest caliber, are themes on which every philanthropistg gsought to be congratu- lated. But this herding of great multi tudes of children in i'll ventilated school rooms and poorly equipped halls of in- struction is making many of the places of knowledge in this country huge holo- causts.
 Politics in many of the cities gets into educational affairs, and while the two political parties are scrabbling for the honors Jephthahs daughter perishes. It is so much so that there are many schools in the country today which are preparing tens of thousands of invalid men and women for the future, so that in many places by the time the child's education Is finished the child is fnishedl In many places, in many cities of the country, there are large appropriations for everything else and cheerful appro- priations, but as soon as the appropria- 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.
 In connection with this mention what I might call the cramming 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 req son, they say We cannot afford to al low our childrens health to be destroyed in order that they may gather the honors of an institution" ...r
 Tens of thousands of children educated into imbecility, so connected with many such literary establishments there ought to be asylums for the wrecked. It 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 chil- 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. It is one of the saddest sights O1l tdT LII, du Olu ulduulSu DOy UT du Olu womanish girl.
 Girls 10 years of age studying algebra! Boys 12 years of age racking their brains over trigonometry! Children unacquaint- ed with their mother tongue crying over their Latin, French and German lessonsi 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. I will 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 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 were 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 a 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 day from night. The parents and the teachers made him an idiot.
 THE RIGHTS OF CHILDHOOD.
 You may fatter your pride by forcing your children to know more than any other children, but you are making 8 sacrifice of that child if by the additions to it's intelligence you are making a sub traction from it's future. The child will go away from such maltreatment with no exuberance to fight the battle of life. Such children may get along very we'll 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 make the child's head ache or its heart futter.
 hear great deal about black men's rights and Chinamen's rights and h. dians 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 thrust forth it hand. The child was put 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 CTS to keep the children smiling and laughing until the moment they died. There may be fascination and hilari- ty about the styles of education of which ana speaking, but it is only laughter at 1 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 8 child that has never learned to mind l Such people become the botheration oi the church of God and the pest of the
 world. Children that do not learn to
 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 old
 man" ''the governor ''the squire,
 "the old chap" or their mother as "the
 old woman?" They are those who ir
 youth, in childhood, never learned to re-
 spect authority. Eli, having heard that
 his sons had died in their wickedness
 fell over backward and broke his nech
 and died. We'll he might. What is life
 to a father whose sons are debauchedi
 The dust of the valley is pleasant to his
 taste, and the driving rains that drir
 through the roof of the sepulcher are
 sweeter than the wines of Helbon.