The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1893-11-29
Theself.DeniaI Of Parents.

Inat parents SlOulU Oeuy tueueet'
yes superfuities for the sake of their
children, is not in the least to their
credit; it Is meet, right and ther boun.
den duty. That they should give
their children better advantages than
they have had themselves, is equally,
In the nature Of things, their proper
line of conduct, Each generation
owes TO the one In advance all that 1t
can bestow of preparation, Of culture
of opportunity and Of privilege. The
self-denial Of parents is the tribute
the race demands; it Is not especially
notable nor particually praisworthy,
because 1t Is the appointed and expect
ed role which is given to people when
they take upon them the obligation
of parenthood.
But self-denial.on the part Of parents
is Que thing, and sell. .efacement quite
another. The plain man aud the
plain woman who have scrimped and
stinted and saved, contrived managed,
risen early and sat up late, to send
their sons and daughters to college, TO
educate them literally, to place them
we'll in the world, are not 10 be set
aside as OF small account when their
children arriveat maturity.
They are wrong to allow themselves
to be pushed to the wall, set In the
background, as they sometimes are
The mother may not know Euclid; or
have the faintest acquaintance with
the Greek poets; the music her daugh-
ter plays may he Chinese puzzle TO
her comprehension; bat she does know
a whole world of science, not neces-
sarily In books, to which her daughter
can gain no clew jn the CLASSROOM,
since life must be the teacher. The
father may speak less ornate yer.
nacular than his boys vocabulary; but
he has the shrewdness, the acquatn-
tance with men, which comes only
by intercourse with ones fellows, by
Joy and sorrow, and the different
phases through which all pass who live
long enough. It should not be.a part of
the self.denial of parents to do With
out the Difference, the tenderness, the
regard, of those whom they have
brought up.
One findS It oftener in o compara-
lively new country than In the more
conventional life Of our cities, q state
of things In which parents seem 10
have been outgrown by their children.
There are farm houses In our frontier
States where women, not yet middle.
aged, have put on gray hairs and
wrinkles, lost the beauty aud elasti-
city of youth years before their time,
resignedly accepting priyation ana
toll and loneliness to give their girls q
chance. If the girls are noble, sweet
natured and true, they will hold the
dear mother In the greatest esteem be-
cnuse of all that she has done for them:
Far from entertaining q feeling OF
pride or of complacency, they will re-
pay the beautiful self.deDial of their
parents by a devotion with never
shade of diminutiOn. 1t is an
ignobIe nature alone which Is capable
Of feeling ashamed Of those who be.
long to ones kith and kin on account
of any simplicity of manner or plain
ness Of speech. Self-aenial must not
become self-efacement.
A few years ago 1t was not uncom'
mon to find the parents OF young peo-
pie rather crowded cut Of the way,
The drawing-rooms given up to the
youthful daughters and their friends,
while the mother and father sat by
themselves in q basement dining room,
or their own chamber. A better state
of things obtains now, and young peo-
pie have learned that society is crude
aud unsatisfactory In which parents
have not their fitting place.