The Charlotte Democrat., 1893-08-25
A Mothers Influence.

IL Is scarcely possible TO eXaggerate the
influence q mother may have over her of.
spring. She is, or should be, with her
children almost continuously during the
formative period of their lives, when they
are most impressionable The fathers
influence is less direct. He furnishes, un.
consciously perhaps, an example to the
child-good or bad, as the case may be-
but the mother is q preceptor as we'll as
example. If she be q good mother, she
will have more control over her child
though the influence of love than the
father can gain through the influence of
fear; in fact, respect and love are the
only influences that can be relied upon to
guide a child Alright. The rod, once con
sidered essential, has long since passed in.
into disrepute, for it encourages deception.
But the mother who has won the heart of
her boy Furnishes him more severely than
by a rod when she manifests her grief
over his misconduct, and she keeps him
true to himself and to her through the be-
nign influence of love.
The boys when thrown out into the
world and subjected to temptations might
yield to them if they had only to tace q
fathers anger, but the thought of their
mothers grief makes them strong to re-
sist. Fortunately the maternal instinct
teaches most women how to be good
mothers, for it is impossible to teach the
art by precept except in the most general
way. The prime duty of the mother is
to care for the physical and moral we'll.
being of her offspring. If the child is to
be strong and healthy, he must have
plenty Of exercise,-and that means that
while he is young, at least, he must be
allowed plenty of opportunity to play and
noise he may make must be tolerated to
some extent that he may not be driven to
seek bis amusements away from home,
for home should be the place of highest
enjoy ment and greatest freedom. The
child who can be made to love his home is
surrounded by the best of moral infu-
ences. 1t is not merely that he escapes
temptations, but he avoids bad associates.
Both the girls and the boys should be
kept under home influences during all
their earlier years, and when the time
comes for them to 60 out into the world
they should still be under the watchful
care of father or mother until they have
learned by degrees how to care for them
selves. The mothers influence should
last through life, but there comes time
when the boys at least should be put
under the fathers care. He should be
able to set them a good example and be
their companion as they approach man.
hood. This is the ideal way of caring for
children, fully realized in many thousands
ofhappy homes. But in the two extremes
of society-the very poor and the very
rich-there are mothers who neglect their
children and fathers who are neither ex
amples nor companions for the young.
The poor may be driven to neglect of
their children by hard necessity or by the
vices that make them poor. The rich
have neither excuse. A selfish love of
pleasure Or the demands of fashion will
lead q mother to turn the cares of ber
child over to a nurse and then to tutor,
so the little one grows up with no know
ledge of a mothers love and care and
scarcely more than passing acquaintance
with the busy father. What the result
of such neglect of the rich and the poor
may be depends upon the accident Of cir
cumstance. The poor boy or girl is under
special temptations to wrongdoing aris-
ing from poverty, but the neglected child
of wealth is exposed to temptations of
another kind and is as weak morally as
bis poorer brother. Both might have
been saved by the influence and power of
a mothers love, exerted during the form
ative period, when the children's hearts
and minds. respond promptly to the inn.
pressions made upon them by their as.
sociations. Baltimore Sun.