Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-03-02
and influence of sdap and water. To do


clothes, and clean ones, Cultivate In your
son love for the Beautiful by making his
room as artistic as his sisters. I have seen
the rooms Of boys in twell-to-do families
that were as bare of ad6rnment as barn,
and were furnished with the CASTOR stun
from other parts of the house.
You can't expectT a boy to be se!f-re-
likes and dislikes Il he sees that you put
him off with things that nobody else will
have, it lowers you In his opinion and
gives his self-esteem blow. OF course,
boy d. esn't want lot Of girls knick
knacks in his room to torment him, any
more than his sister would want a lot Of
boys traps in hers. But you will find that
he likes pictures and pretty carpets, nice
toilet articles and easy chairs and couches
just as well as any girl. If he does not, there
Is something radically wrong in his rear
ing. You must teach him to like those
things; it should be part of his education.
Quite as much so as teaching your daugh-
ter housewifely accomplishments. The boy
who has not learned to appreciate a nice
home Is more inclined to leave it early, to
shift for himself, and soon drifts from bad
to worse.
Never laugh at the mistakes of your
children. either boys or girls. 1t makes
you mad as hornet to have people laugh
at your well-meant efforts, and you GER
tainly can't expect child to have any
more sense than yourself. If their opin-
ions are erroneous. point out their mis-
takes as gently and conservatively as pos
sibie, with just as much regard for their
feelings as though they were adults.
nave known children to be made secretive
and sullen because they dreaded to be
laughed at. OF course, this made them
awkward and self-conscious, and one
mother said in the presence of singularly
sensitive but backward child that he NOR
tilted her to death with his diffidence"
The little fellow shrank back as though
she had struck him. and the look in his
eyes was positively murderous.
influence Over Boys.
A mother with SO little tact ought to be
mortified daily and hourly. Her little son
is, in fact, only small edition of herself,
for she can say the most inapropos things
OF any one of my acquaintances; and wo-
man who does not know things herself
can't be expected to have well-behaved
children. Indeed, the common sentiment
expressed when children are particularly
atrociouS Is that they could have had no
training at home" The mother who has
the true motherly instinct likes to have
her sons by her, and to introduce them to
her friends and guests. No matter how
awkward and clumsy a boy is, if YOU can
interest him in helping you entertain your
ashamed of him, he will ACQUIRE a certain
amount of polish. and will gradually gain
self-possession and self-confidence
BE as careful in the selection of friends
for your boy as for your girl Bad friends
Will undo all your good work. Invite his
companions to meet him in his home, and
interest yourself in them as well as in
MIN: You can get great hold over him
In that way. Give them good books to
read, and supply them with plea
games and place to play them Keep
your boys off the streets, night and day
Ihey should 10 more be permitted to roam
about after night than your girls; and il
you have taught them to remain indoors
at night you have accomplished wonders
lou nave got to teach boys to do right
from ITO, principle, and not from policy. unless
you want them to learn deception. Teach
them to be champions of right under anv
ana al circumstances. and that the influ-
ence OF any act whether good or bad. will
nave its influence for all time.
Never get impatient or ugly with vour
restless noisy boys. Teach them to be as
gentle as possible, but do not nag them
continually about 1t or you will drive them
away from YOU A boy who is going to
make any noise in the world is most ant
to be noisy fellow at bone. It is simply
MS superabundance Of animal life. his
overcoming energy, and if you are wise
you VIII Try TO put lit to some good use
instead Of fretting and stewing over their
noise and disorder. till to get any peace
at all they are driven into the street to
nnd companionship among those who ap-
piecla,e tnem: The worlds greatest men
have left urdying testimony to the fact
that they owed their place and power to
the influence OF good mothers. Mothers
VINO taught them to distinguish right from
sponsive to the finer sentiments
Not Good to Their Sons,
There is a darker side to that picture CT
motherhood. too. Jails and penitentiaries
have had as inmates the sons of good
mothers. but mothers who were not good
to their sons. They were women who hated
noise and dirt and confusion, and who were
glad to get the children "out from under
foot, it mattered not where so that they
were not at home littering up the house
Women who never made any attempt to
study the likes and diSlikes of their chill
dren, who pampered their daughters and
put their sons Off with anything as boys
don't care" Mothers who didn't like to
have awkward boys around when they had
company. Whose parlorS were too fine for
the boy to sit in, and their own rooms too
cherries, so the street and saloon claimed
them. Mothers who wouldn't be bothered
with boys company, and who thought
boys a great nuisance anyhow. Mothers
who never tempered punishment with rea-
condolences, or severity with sense, but
who blindiy asserted that right was right
and wrong was wrong, and never found
any intermediate ground upon which to
meet repentant erring sons. A good mother
can sometimes be very cruel.
Mothers of boys have hard row to hoe,
because they can never relax their vigils
for an instant till the son has come to
mans estate and marks out a row for
himself. But If the start is made right and
the proper influences thrown around the
boy from his very birth, the earlier years
Will be the hardest ones. Henry Clay once
said that he never met a boy without
feeling like doffing his hat to him in def
erence to his probable future greatness.
The true mother will magnify her charge
and imagine she is rearing hero. Of whom
the world is to be proud.
SONORA SARA.
Friction In the Kitchen.
"You'se sassy Niger"
"You'se no good black trash.'
. The housemaid and the butler glared at
each other. The deadly insult had been
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