Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1894-04-20
oHILDREM,S RIGHTS.
A Phase of the Universal Problem
That CanfronIa aociefY.

A Phase OF the Unfversal Problem
That Cenfronts Society.
There is no substitute for q genuine,
free. serene, healthy, bread aud butter
childhood. A fine manhood or woman
hood can be built on no other foenda-
ton, and yet our American homes are SO
often filed with hurry and worry, our
manner of living is 80 keyed to concert
pitch, our plan of existence SO complics-
ted, that we drag the babies along in
our wake and force them to our artif-
cisl standards, forgetting that "swest
flowers are slow, and weeds make hsete." 1"
If we must, or fancy that We must,
lead this false, too feverish live, let us a.
least spare theml remarks Q writer In the
Jenness Miller Monthly. By keeping them
forever on tiptoe we are In danger of pro-
ducing an army of conventional little
prigs, who know much more than they
should about matters which are proftless
even to their elders.
As to keeping children too clean for any
mortal use. suppose nothing 10 more dis
sstrous. The divine right to be gloriously
dirty q large portion of the time, when
dirt is q necessary consequence of direct,
useful, friendly contact with all sorts of
Interesting helpful things. is too clear to
bs denied. The children who have to
think of their clothes before playing with
the dogs, digging In the sand, working In
the shed, building bridge or wedding the
garden. never get half their legitimate en-
joyment ont of life.
have good deal of sympathy for the
little people during their first eight or ten
years, when they are just beginning to
learn life's lessons, aud when the laws
which govern them must often seem go
strange and unjust.
The child has right to q place of his
Own, to things of his own, to surround
ings which have some relation TO his siI.,
his desires and his capabilities. How
should vs Ike to live half the time in Q
place where the piano was twelve feet tall,
the door knob at an impossible height,
and the msntel shelf In the sky; where
every mortal thing was out of reach eI-
cept collection of highly interesting OBJ
jsots on dressing tables and bureaus.
guarded, however, by giants three times
| as large and powerful as ourselves, for.
| ever saying, ''Musn't touch" and If we
| did touch we should be spanked, aud have
no other method of revenge save to spank
back symbolically on the inoffensive per.
| sons Of our dollsi
The child problem Is merely one phase
| of the universal problem that eonfronti
socisty. Let the history of domestic
rule typify in little the history of our DO
litical rule; at the outset autocrstic con
troll. where control is really nsedful; by
and by an inoipient oonstitutionsllsm, II
which the liberty of the subject gains re
cognition, sxtensions of this liberty of th,
subject gradually ending In psternsl abdi
cation"
We must not expect children to be tor
good. Intellectual and moral preoocitJ
produced by stimulation will be at the eK
pense of the future character. In thes.
matters the child has Q right to expect ex
amples. He lives In the senses; he car
only learn through object lessons, can only
pass from the concrete examples of good
i ness to q Yieion of abstract perfection.