Milford chronicle., 1893-08-04
MILFORD, DEL, FRIDAY, AUGUST 4, 1898.

time the child's education is finished tia
child is finishedl In many places in man.
cities of the country there are large appro
priations for everything else and cheerful
appropriations, but as soon as the appro
priation is to be made for the educationa
or the moral interest Of the city we ar,
struck through with an economy that i
well nigh the death Of u.s.
In connection with this I mention whai
I might call the cramming system of tn,
common schools and many Of the acade
mics Children Of delicate brain compelled
to tasks that might appall mature intel
lect; children going down to school with
strap of books half as high as themselves
/ The fact is, in some of the cities parents dc
/ not allow their children to graduate, for
/ the simple reason, they say, I'VE cannot
/ afford to allow our children's health to bg
| destroyed in order that they may gather
1 the honors Of an institution"
1 Tens Of thousands Of children educated
4 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 ehild's intellect is bewildered,
and the memory is wrecked, and the health
is gone. There are children 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 on earth-an old man
nish boy or an old womanish girl.
LITTLE BRAINS ovERDoNE.
Girls 10 years Of age studying algebral
Boys IL years Of age racking their brain
over trigonometryl Children unacquainted
with their mother tongue crying over their
Latin, French and German lessonsl All
the vivacity of their nature beaten out of
them by the heavy beetle Of a Greek lex
icon And you doctor them for this, and
you give them little medicine for that,
and you wonder what is the matter with
them. will tell you what is the matter
with them. They are finishing their edu
cationl
In my parish in Philadelphia a little
child was so pushed at school that she was
thrown into a fever. and in her dying de
lirium all night long she was trying to re-
cite the multiplication table. In my boy
hood I remember that in our class at school
there was one lad who knew more than all
the rest Of us put together. If we were
fast in our arithmetic, he extricated us.
When we stood up for the spelling class, he
WAS dAAAUob always Aut uttAl VI Lut 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 day from night. The parents and the
teachers made him an idiot.
You may hatter your pride by forcing
your children to know more than any other
children, but you are making a sacrifice Of
that child if by the additions to its intelli
gence you are making subtraction 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
swarthiness OF force of character to take
care of themselves. Be careful how you
make the child's head ache or its heart
futter. I hear great deal about black
mems rights and Chinamens rights and
Indians rights and womcn's rights. Would 1
God that somebody would rise to plead for /
children's rightsl
The Carthaginians used to sacrifice their (
children by putting them into the arms of /
an idol which thrust forth its hand The 4
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
mothers to keep the children smiling and
laughing until the moment they died
There may be fascination and a hilarity
about the styles of education ofwhich l am
speaking, but it is only laughter at the
moment Of sacrifice, Would God there
were only one Jephthah's daughterl
EXTREMES IN FAMILY GOVERNMENT.
Again, there are many parents who are
sacrificing their children with wrong sys-
TENS of discipline-too great rigor or too
great leniency. There are children in fam
lilies who rule the household. They come
to the authority. The high chair in which
the intent sits is the throne, and the rattle
is the scepter and the other children make
up the parliament where father and moth.
er have no vote. Such children come mp to
be miscreants.
There is no chance in this world for
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 to obey human
are unwilling to learn to obey di-
vine authority. Children will not respect
parents whose authority they do not re-
spect. Who are these young men that
swagger through the street, with Their
thumbs in their vest, talking about theiI
iather as "the old man" THE governor
the squire" ''the old chap" or theiI
mother as ''the old womanf" They are
hose who in youth, in childhood, never
earned to respect authority. Ell, having
heard that his sons had died in their wick
sdness, fell over backward and broke his
leck and died. Wen be might What is
ife to a father whose sons are debauchedi
The dust of the valley is pleasant to his
,aste, and the driving rains that drip
through the roof of the sepuleher are sweet
II than the wines Of Helbon.
There must be harmony between the
ather's government and the mothers gov ,
,rnment. The father will be tempted &c
oo great rigor. The mother will be tempt
d to too great leniency. Her tenderness ,
will overcome her. Her voice is little ,
otter; her hand seems better fit to pull out
thorn and soothe a pang. Children ,
wanting anything from the mother cry fol I
t. They hope to dissolve her viii with ,
ears. But the mother must not interfere,
must not coax of must not beg for the ,
hild when the hour comes for the assertion ,
I parental supremacy and the subjugation
f abild's teraner
There coDea in the history Of every child
n hour when it Is tested whether the par ,
nts shall rule or the child shall rule,
hat is the crucial hour If the child tri-
mphs in that hour, then be will some day
lake you crouch. 1t is a horrible scene.
have witnessed tia mother come to old
ge, shivering with terror in the presence
f a son who cursed her gray hairs and
rocked her wrinl1led face and begrudged i
er the crust she munched with her tooth
sss gums
How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
To have a thankless child .
PARENTAL TYRANNY REBUKED.
But, on the other hand, too great rigor
lust be avoided. 1t is a sad thing when i
omestic government becomes cold mill j
iry despotism Trappers on the prairie
ght fire with fire, but you cannot success
lilly fight your child's bad temper with !
our own bad temper. We must not be too
linute in our inspection. We cannot ex- :
ect our children to be perfect. We must
OF see everything Since we have two OF
4r,1