The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1897-10-30


ditions Of thy youth" said the wise man.
Good counsel and full OF insight into the
effect which attrition with the world
works upon the sharply defined convic'
lions of our earlier years. When middle
age has taught US the impossibihty OF
finding perfection, we are inclined to
compromise and cease to combat with
what we disapprove. We cease to de-
mand the absolute sincerity and truth
fulness and purity which were impera-
tive In our associates while the heart and
mind were fresh and unsullied, The con-
vexity OF the mental eye grows less,
But there Is another very practical
holding fast OF what we thought admii'd-
BILE and charming. and indeed unques-
tionable, that Is a constant sourse OF frlc-
ton In many families; something which
II is wiser that we should relax. This Is
n settled belief that what my mother
taught me" is the only standard, and
contains the whole truth for all time,
which, II 1t was yielded to as obediently
as many parents desire, would make ex-
perience an obstacle, not brake, and
put an end TO progress and individual de-
velopment. To each generation is COM
mttted its own share of the worlds en-
richment, and we must let II work out
Its destiny, unclogged by our endeavors
to hold It's young people within the llmi-
tations of a former time.
1t Is hard work; there is no denying
that. 1t requires the wisdom of the SER
pent for a mother to discriminate be-
tween what 10 really evil and what in her
childhood and youth was forbidden TO
her. 1t takes the gentleness OF the dove
to put restraint which shall be obeyed
from the heart and not establish q check
| which IS merely a disturbance and
evaded whenever opportunity permits.
I II so used, the experience OF the aged
does no more than enlarge youthful Wis
ions and act as wholesome guide-pbst
against precipltate changes and ill-ad-
vised advance"
Within broad lines what has been a.
all times believed everywhere by all
men," to be needfull TO the maintenance
OF noble and elevated standard of socie-
ty cannot change nor be controverted.
But the details which appertain simply
to custom and not to what Ia right and
wrong; the questions OF what Is cor
rect" or even what Is delightful must
take shape from the new life of the new
| years and the elders must not tremble
and fret, The principles, for instance. of
what is correct and tends to the better
and more ennobling Intercourse between
| young men and women can never
change; the elementary qualities of these
laws are eternal. But these principles
being implanted, their development must
be shaped by the age we live In,
| After certain time, " we would be In
any degree happy, we must no longer live
for our children, but In our children, and
make their interests ours. If to-day wa
would not be forced to sit apart, listening
| with weary and irrltated ears to the
eager talk of the young, we must besur
ourselves toknow what constitutes good
| game OF golf and learn TO understand
victories by strokes and victories by
holes. and Undue ourselves with some
| thing OF the Highland fury OF the alb
| sorbinE game, which makes athletes OF
our boys and ihfuses the endurance and
combatatlve force of an Amozon into our
| young girls. 1t Is no use to try and stem
| the current and say that In our young
| days the violence Of the exercise or the
| mannlshness of the dress would have
| been condemned; 1t is here, It is in con-
| troll: and n heatthfui interest and under
standing sympathy in triumph or defeat,
| and power to comprehend what has
brought either about, will make n new
| bond between you and your children,and
| incline them to listen and obey your SEN
| sible suggestions as to modification.
So with the discussion of modern books.
| Who, even of the wisest. can now say
what Is good reading for the young PEG.
| pie? We who were brought up on Mrs
Hemans and Upper for poets, and Miss
| Young and Miss Sewell and Grace Agui-
las for fiction. how are we to decide for
| those whom every newsstand. every
hook-shop, every discriminating literary
| critic holds out Tess and The ManX-
man and their congeners? We have to
| fall back on bedrock" principles of
what is pure and holy and clean implant-
ed in the hearts Of our children, and
| nerve our astonlshed minds not to stand
| aside when undergraduates of universI-
| ties and colleges discuss these wonderful
stories, but enter freely into the argu-
ments so easy to them and so difficult to
us, and lend what aid we can to their in
experienced fervor. The father and
mother of the end of this century have to
act as a constant equipoise, and let their
establishments and doubts be made sub
| ordinate to their obligation to enter
where the children SO forward and clear
the atmosphere for them as they climb
these extraordinary ascents. They
must not rest on "the traditions Of their
youth" but keep pace with their chill
| dren's time, which Is indeed strange,
| icunoclastlc era.
| Fathers and sons come more freely into
contact on common grounds, II they are
at all congeuial and companlonahle: hut
the mother of to-day Is frequently much
withdrawn from the lives Of both her
sons and daughters, and is generally sup
| -
| enthusiastic about. Respect and affec-
ton may make them listen attentively
to circumstances, but they do so with the
settled conviction that the points uf
view are irrevocably different. The
mother must by some discipline to her
self nj least reach the position from
which they look before she can fairly
| Judge Of the value OF the lens through
which they sec their pleasures and
| duties.
In speaking OF children and young PEG.
| pie of course / mean young men and
women; infancy, though extended to the
leEal'limlt, cannot even hold n field-glass
steady long enough TO see plainly what
| Hes In It's path. Nor do mean for an In
| slant to express that youth Is wiser than
age; I only mean that age is not wise
simply because It In old, and that the al
| tered circumstances ana surroundings
which the lapse Of forty or fifty years
makes In the conditions OF life require
that mothers and fathers shall readlust
| themselves for their chlldren's snkcs-
nay, for the continuance of their own
happincss-and In 1897 bring eternal
| principles to bear on life ne II now Is.
| and without abatement Of zeal for what
must overlastlngly be true. cease to de-
mand that customs should be followed
| which were In force In 1850,
| Whore are mnhN Sad hnfisehniha finn