The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-02-04
FREE KINpERGARrEN.
Its Claims Set Forth by an Enthusiastl
 Worker,


 owe someth,ng-of love for his kindness of forbearance with his faults; of en- deavor to keep him from evil.
 Every Christian admits it to be his duty to do good as he has opportunity, to love his neighbor, to suffer even little children to come into the presence or all goodness. He must admit also that since crime exists this cannot be done unless he seeks the prevention and cure of evil.
 How shall this be accomplished? The laborlng man says, by habits of indus try; the man of intelligence says, by educating rightly; the refined and es- thetic say, iby intoxicating love for the pure and beautiful; the moralist says, by cultivating the spirit; and industry, intelligence, refinement and morality unite in the opinion that habits of life begin in the cradle; that none too soon can the child be taught to be cleanly, careful, obedient, truthful and self helpful; and they demand that the child's training at school supplement home care
 However reluctantly or deprecating- ly it may be admitted, yet plain fact in- slsts that there are places of shelter where children abide that are in no sense homes; that in such places culture and refinement are unknown, modestly and decency sometimes not to be found; that there are mothers in no way fitted to implant right habits, or awaken high purposes, or show true ways of living.
 Children who are born to such inheri- tance are in no wise responsible for their environment They are out little their environment, They are our little tie brothers whom we should keep. That they are children who should be suffered and forbidden not to enter into better things no one can deny; but is this done?
 A minister of much personal power once virtually said, q believe in taking legally that cannot be done, shall they be left to fate?
 Many by indifference, or from want of thought, deny their own admission of the need of early and faithful train ing of very young people in order to produce the upright man by saying, q give to reformatory schools, to asylums to the support of public claims as jails and prisons, to hospitals, to bethels and Doors of Hope, to all organized chari- ties. I cannot do more"
 Such persons have spent many a pound of cure, but have they tried the ounce of prevention where earliest it might be applied? The pounds of cure hot ,l,1,t to 10 Ia ,ri or by philanthropy freely given, mainly are expended upon adults whose habits of life require far more effort to change and amend than do those of children.
 It is conceded that comparatively lit tie can be done to change the nature, habits and tastes of middle age, while the young child may be easily inclined to the right direction, and by continu- ance therein, lasting inclination to live an honest, honorable life be gained.
 Has any one estimated what is lost In the years never to be made good by time or eternity, the years of childhood and possibly maturity which men and women pass in sin; those years lost be- fore the reformatory claims the boy, or the prison doors shut in the man, from further contaminating the world?
 What might have been gained during this time if the individual as child or young man had influenced for good, in- stead of evil, those with whom he came in contact? Would there not have been more prevention of crime, less harm to the world at large, at less expense to taxpayers, and greater spread of good with less need of reformatory meas ures?
 It is easy to imagine if every criminal had been prevented in childhood from becoming a criminal what better state of things would prevail. It might be easy to see that were now a beginning made to prevent children from growing up to bear the sins of the fathers first, and later on their own damnation; if some small beginning were made to pre- vent such life which is not living, that we should be better keeps of our broth CTS and have better neighbors to love than are now to be found
 The schools of our cities are filled to overflowing. Annually, for want of &C., commodations, admittance is refused. Therefore hundreds of little children stay in alleys and byways, learning to curse, to steal, to lie, to use vile lan- guage and do nameless wrongs before the door of school rooms open to them. Shame that this should be!
 Said once emphatically. a noble man whose life's work was for charity: "If only you will take little girls under five years of age from the street."
 Gan all this evil be unlearned and forgotten? Can the overworked teacher whose overcrowded school room holds children under six years of age that have come to her with traits of evil firmly fixed, children that are honest when watched truthful when it is for self-interest, industrious when under compulsion, can she correct all wrong mental and moral habits, instruct and rapidly advance intellects besotted by tobacco and dring through heredity. and make good the harm of three or four years of street influences?
 She will do much; she is no coward or laggard. The primary teacher is preacher by precept and example, in structor in manners, morals, and intel lectual things by word and deed, mother in patience, kindness and forbearance. Unthanks and unappreciated she often is, yet when more is due than to many one who gives literally or lectures long to adults for their amending and redemption.
 How may these matters of such vital importance to society be remedied? By opening more schools for young gest chill