Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-02-09

NtNW> Navajo war CHIEF.
y never carry it except
on special occasions, but Dorothy thinks 1t
looks 'empirey' because 1t Is so httie' ana
1t Just matches her red crepe, SO she
sneaked 1t out of my box to carry tonight
thinking 1 would not find 1t OUT II Is
downright mean of her! She lost my silver
bracelet. carving it off that way, without
asking me for it, I'll get even with her.
though I'll show her that l have some
rights in the world. If am only child'
as she is so fond Of telling me-"
must confess that my sympath1es were
all with Rose-in-bioom. Older sisters nave
no right to impose on the younger 'heHi-
bers of the family any more than on the
older ones. The disposition to do so IS
relic of the old theory that might makes
right, and, as Dick graphically states IT,
that won't hold water always. But II
would have been neither wise nor KIND 10
tell Rose that children have not many
rights that are respected, and that the peo-
pie who have any IDEA of those rights are
few and far between, In this age OF showing
tine weakest to the wall.
Children have right to be we'll born.
But how many of them are? went, only
a few days ago, to the pretty new home
of friend, and found the door hung with
white ribbons and white crepe, ana INSIDE
the house a white-faced, new-made mother
bending above the fiower-bordered bed of
her dead first-born. l suppose the world
would have called the child well born. be-
cause its ancestors have family tree with
branches reaching far enough back to
shelter William the Conqueror. Blood isn't
much account, though, after 1t has filtered
through the veins of moral leperS for gen.
Grafton after generation, sowing the seeds
of disease sapping the strength Of chill
dren. and lowering them with unsound
lungs. weak hearts. shattered nerves, and
bodies far too frail to endure the length
an, hrrrd nf lot hon 7 1o0ly bod
at the child. whose thin. wee face showed
it's heritage Of ills, 1 thought to myself:
THAT baby's death lies at the door of it's
mother and father"
Hereditary Taints.
Only the slightest knowledge of the
physical laws of heredity would have told
man who was born with CONSUMPTION.
and who had coughed away one lung by
the time he was grown, that it was
crime for him to marry a woman whose
kin had contributed half cemetery full
of consumption epitaphs. You cannot
juggle with the laws of nature. No human
law was ever made so strong but that there
was way provided to escape it, some
times but natures laws are memorable, and
the quicker men and women recognize that
fact the better 1t will be for the perpetual
ton of the human race in the godlike tyre
One OF the questions that ought to enter
into the consideration Of the setting I'D of
new hearthstone Is whether on either
side of the proposed union there are hered-
itary taints which might entail disease
and suffering upon posterity, which would
deprive children of their right to be born
with full complement of sound faculties
and the ability to care for themselves in
stead of becoming burden upon the state
for their maintenance in maturer years.
1t must be admitted. however, that the
present troubles US a great deal more than
posterity, and that We are inclined to let
the future take care of itself, which shows
that what seems wise in one instance is
most unwiSe in another.
Since the child is denied its first right,
nine times out of ten its next right, that
of proper rearing, should most certainly
be granted it. Too often, alas, 1t is cheat
ed in that also! A beautiful picture is
only a blot of black to the blind. A wild
horse. though full of speed and giant of
strength, is less valuable than the plodding
hack until he is br oxen and trained. Steam,
unfettered, is simply MIST in subsection, it
Is one of the greatest of human benefac-
tors. A little child may be never go we'll
born, and have latent within it's soul all
the arts and virtues, yet it will be no bet
ter than the veriest vagrant that walks
if it's talents are suffered to lie dormant
and it's undisciplined will left to it's own
devices. True nobility of character de-
velops rapidly in the right atmosphere,
but it is like good bread; left too long in
the dark undisturbed, it gets musty and
foul. The Kohinoor didn't make a pretty
door prop even till after it was polished.
You can't begin the polishing process with
children too young, nor can you keep it
up too long.
The Small Tyrant.
The baby in the cradle soon learns that
If 1t shreks long enough you will take it
up that is, If you have been so unwise as
to yield to its first faint demands 1t will
learn it's lesson in two days, and you may
labor for a month to undo the damage
of that first concession to small tyrant
If child is perfectly healthy, and is not
in pain-and II you have sense enough to
be given the care of an infant, you can tell
the cry of pain from the cry of temper
you will calmly let the small creature ex-
haust it's temper in solitude. 1t will soon
perceive that it's yells are not productive
Of results, and quit. l do not know whether
a baby reasons or not, bat do know that
it reaches logical conclusions in some kind
Of a way. for l have seen 1t put to the
test. When you have taught a baby that
you are not subject to its petulant whims
you have won great victory. But the
endless chain in life's discipline is but
just started, and from that time on you
will struggle against odds in rearing the
Child properly.
Too many mothers err weakly in the rear
ing of their children, through their great
love for their offspring, or their own in
decision, either of which deters them from
inllictng punishment. Hundreds Of others
punish iamely, and then pardon the offense
with tears and rewards, both methods be-
Ing utterly destructive of good government
in the home. Children, good, bad and in
different, have to be controlled with a
firm hand, but not necessarily an iron one.
1t is right that parentage entails, and
Civilizations demands should be enforced,
so that children may grow up into law
abiding, morality-loving citizens. Parental
laxness coupled with hereditary weakness
of will in the children, is responsible for
half the crime in the world beyond shad-
ow of doubt.
The child who Is not disciplined at home
Is not prepared to submit to 1T when he
goes out into the world. 1t was his right as
a child to be shown that every spendthrift
to passion is debtor to thought" and that
the man whose "whimS are his guides,
whose will is his god, and pastime his pur-
pose" is poorly equipped to wrestle with a
hustlirg, unheedful world. If mothers-I
say mothers, because the fathers of the
land pay very little attention to their off
spring until it brings either diScredit or
distinction upon the family patronymic-if
mothers would only remember that their
own weakness in that time of trial when
their children are growing up about them
is NEST surely entailing upon their unfor-
tunate offspring, upon their own declining
years and upon the public possible dis
grace through the unrestrained passions
Cf unrestricted youth, it would certainly
nerve them to some degree of frmness In
dealing with their children. "A child tina,
ia uilIf,,I should he curhed at the start.