The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-06-07
SELF-RELIANCE.
One of the Best Lessons to Teach the cAiI-

dren.
It is task demanding time, patience,
perseverance, steadiness and gentle
ness to teach baby to walk, but the
necessity for such knowledge is appar-
ent to every individual. 1t is also nee
eSsary to teach it the use of its hands,
and how to help itself to food and the
other needs of its physical existence.
The majority of parents think it
obligatory upon them to teach it ways
in which to provide for its everyday
wants; but it is rare, indeed to find
those who make a study of instructing
the little ones in things that pertain
to accidents and the unusual affairs of
everyday life. There are persons of
whom it may truthfully be said that
they are never at a loss in emergen-
cies. They have self-reliance, execu-
tive ability, and that quickness of COM
prehension that makes them invalu-
able in sudden need, or when disaster
or calamity o7ertakes a community.
We are wont to look upon this fac
ulty as inherent, or, as we express it.
natural gift. 1t might be interesting
to note the results of careful training
on these lines, and see whether mental
alertness, the ability to weigh and
dispatch, is not as acquirable as the
power to stand on ones feet, use the
beanshooter with unerring aim, bring
down the small bird from the bough
with pebble, or impale an unoffend-
ing bull-frog with a stick whitfield to
point
The great trouble in matters of this
sort is that children are not developed
in this direction. Once in a while a
parent thinks it of sufficient impor-
lance to teach his child course of
conduct proper in times of danger or
when there is an imperative demand
for action and no time to work out the
problem.
When public and private schools be-
gan the tire-drill, the training that en-
abled the teachers to clear a school
room in an incredibly short time with
out panic, the idea was ridiculed by
great many persons, but there are num-
bers of instances when this sort of
drill has unquestionably saved life and,
prevented those horrible casualties
that shock communities and leave
heart-breaking vacancies in families.
Some years ago man who lived on
the shore of a large body of water
made up his mind that there should be
no deaths by drowning in his family.
So gradually he accustomed the chill
dren to the water, and, after some
practice, was able to throw the little
ones over his head into the surf He
taught them to change position in
somewhat the same way as does the
cat, in order that they might fall in
such shape as to receive no in
jury. Timid at first, yet confident
of the rescuing power of the fathers
hand, they gained courage, until
their feats of somersaulting from his
shoulders were the wonder of the COM
munity. Before the children were ten
years old there was scarcely an acct
dent or emergency along the coast that
they were not able to understand and
meet with the quickness and compre-
hensiveness of veterans. On more than
one occasion they were the means of
saving life, and once, in a driving
storm, twelve-year-old boy in a cork
jacket organized a life-saving brigade
that brought a disabled yacht into
safe harbor, which otherwise would
have broken to pieces on a projecting
ledge of rocks 1t is claimed by many
that it is entirely possible to teach
children to meet all emergencies; in
deed, that they are much more easily
taught than when they have grown up
and formed the habit of inactivity and
| the dumb terror that strikes unreason-
| ing human beings and many animals.
To stand paralyzed with fear is the
| least desirable of the many dreadful
situations in life. 1t often means per-
sonal peril and the destruction of all
| that is near and dear.
| 1t is a wise parent who teaches men
| talalertness along with the first lessons
in setting the little feet in safe places.
IN. Y. Ledger.
Everybody takes the JOURNAL.