The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-06-16
ideas fnr QWn1nen.

DO not the children of the average
American mother have rather too many
of the good things of life lavished upon
their little persons to satisfy sudden
cravings and fleeing whims?
OF course you could never persuade
their grandmothers so to think and from
them no one would expect such a senti-
ment. But there are mothers in this age
of child study who are awakening
to this fact in all its force. Not that
If seventeen dolls, two hundred picture
books, five doh houses. twelve china tea
sets will render E~vangeline completely
happy they should be kept from her.
But only will they render her content.
Would she not have more real enjoy
ment out of one doll and one tea set
which she had been taught to appreciate
and to prize?
A blase child is an awful thing to
most mortals and unfortunately they are
becoming more and more frequently met
with. This results not because the moth
err of the present day is a bit more in
different han the mothers of thirty
years back; because the mothers of all
ages are more or less the same with
the same passionate interest in the well
fare of their little ones. But it arises
unquestionably in the fact that too much
is given to the youngsters of today;
more than they really appreciate.
A new coat is purchased for Edmund
or a new gown for Ethelberta. : They
are often made even by the busy mother
hands and yet Edmund and Ethelberta
are allowed or encouraged to don them
without so much as a thought about
their arrival. They miss the real pleas
ure which every child ought to derive
from a gift prompted by love and which
every child would derive if taught in
the proper way TO appreciate it.
I know a very young married woman
who has three little ones and who in
order to lay up a nest egg at the ank
makes each season the simple but taste
full wardrobe of her little daughters. II
is really refreshing after looking at the
over-dressea and of course -unappprecia-
-se young scions to note the intense
interest and pleasure and pride of these
unspoiled little damsels in the three new
coats which mother made, in the hats
which she trimmed in spare hours and
in the minute pairs of gloves which were
added to the costume by way of a SUI
preme surprise.
Children's books and periodicals have
become so very cheap and plentiful DUR
ing these last few years that it is rare
very rare to find a mother who thinks
even of the necessity of teaching the use
and appreciation of these powerful func-
tons. When a book is given to a child,
a little fuss, to use a common but very
expressive phrase. should be made
over it.
The child should be taught to care for
the volume and to love it and too many
should not come into his hands at once.
| lately heard a well known German
professor who was paying a temporary
visit OF inspection to American schools
exclaim against the ruthless and bar
barous way in which American boys and
girls are allowed to maui and DESTROY
the books used in classes.
In the German schools, he said. this
frightful ruthlessness with regard to
stuoy manuals is entirely unknown. The
boys md girls not only are taught the
value of their books and the care of them
Dat hley really receive marks for the condi-
ton of them. Whereas, the average
American on his return from school de-
posits the contents of his satchel in some
corner of the room with pages crumbled
and covers bent and broken to add to the
generous destruction which they receive
in the class room.
Then. too, it is a charming thing to find
a really enthusiastic child. And this.
although in some degree 1t Is the result
of disposition. comes also, and in its best
variety. from home training and in
fiuence. 81
A child who has been brought up with
the rights sentiments concerning this will
feel strongly that natural bond of family
ties The beauty of hospitality with all
its attendant obligations. In fact, one
sometimes comes across a child whom
fifteen or twenty years before such a
thing is possible one instinctively knows
is destined tor a good little host or
hostess.
The chief objection concerning over
loading children with gifts as it is now
practiced lies in the fact that their at
tention is attracted to a new acquisition
long before they have. metaphorically
speaking. digested the last. Before they
have had time to enjoy it thoroughly, to
learn its properties and possibilities. and.
secondly, that such profusion weariss
them and robs their natural pleasure.
Don't you think that American women
overload their children IN more ways tina
enc? was the question recently put to a
Philadelphia who has raised six sons
ard daughters, all of whom, men or wom-
en-, have rendered themselves well known
in high places.
In some ways American mothers do,''
she answered, Civ too much. In Others
they give too little. I think the way in
which some women make slaves of them
selves for their family is unnecessary and
extreme. Why shouldn't a mother stick
a bright flower in her bonnet and trot
of to the theatre with her fsther7 Why
should she dress like a fright in order that
the tots. shall have a big wardrobe which
they don't need? The r~espIendent style in
which hundreds of women clothe their
small men and women is absurd and I'M
suitable, to say the least.
But. on the other hand. / always found
that the French plan with regard to
mothers and children as it was handed
down to me from my grandmother, who
was Of that nation, is most excellent and
effective.
Namely, that while the mother is the
counsellor ard the refuge of her little
ones her dignity must never lessen in
her tenderness. The child who sees his