The record-union., 1897-03-07
some RAMBLING THOUGHTS
Copyrighted by Memo,


BILE legs, as a consequence of almost
constant padding in canoes; visit the
Esquimaux and they will be found able
to stand almost unclothed in the most
rigorous weather, because OF a layer
of fat evenly spread under the skin by
nature as a protection against their cl-
mate. In Africa vast regions too ut
terly malaral for Europeans to live ln
support natives in most lively and
thriving fashion. To close our proofs
| regarding the influence of the dwelling
place go now to the tropical Islands
where all things grow in profusion and
almost without labor on the part of
man, and you find-what? Men and
women tCo lazy to exert themselves
and therefore amounting to almost
nothing as an influence in the world.
But all this refers to the bodies of men,
AS to the mind tell me what molds the
| stolid, plodding, stupid ways of the
Russian Moujik? His surroundings.
The self-reliance of the Englishman?
| SURROUNDINGS
Come another stepi Though you are
neither Fuegans nor South Sea Island
| ers, Moujiks nor Britishers but just
plain Americans you cannot escape the
! influence of environment any more
| than a clam can escape from the sea.
| These laws are at work here as well
| as everywhere else and you admit it in
| your general conversation. You will
say, What a poor chance Tom has; he
is being raised among dirt and neg
| lect!" You think of surroundings being
| of inf n
of death; something that is absolutely
| certain for everybody else, but only
dreamily centain for you. Herein are
we slow of heart; we fail to recognize
that we are in the world as a genuine
actual part of it, and that the laws in
f1uencing it are the laws influencing US.
1t is in this direction 1 ramble this
| week, still continuing the thoughts on
education that have gone before.
BY natures kind arrangement we are
not brought forth hundreds at a time
in hive from one common queen bee
but in small, very small, groups where
by each individual in the family may
secure the care necessary for a creature
so feeble at birth and yet SO potent in
possibilities. To bring before your Wis
ion the lamentable results where the
personal touch is lacking it is only nee
essary to mention the spiritlesS and
monotonous lives of asylum children.
a few children Of varying ages under
one authority is the normal condition
of things. We must therefore even
look upon the teacher of forty or fifty
children as occupying an unnatural po-
siton that should call for our best SYM
pathy and wisest cooperation. 1t is
absolutely unfair to expect her to coun-
teract all influences, home and street,
that work against high motives and
moral attempts.
am not deluding myself with the idea
that these words are to enter only the
homes of ease and refinement They are
to go into thousands where it is not al
ways easy to make both ends meet;
where life has possibly rasping infIu-
ence upon the overburdened mother and
the overworked father; where the
"quiverful' of children is a blessing
very thoroughly disguised. And be-
cause such homes are after all the re
cruiting place of American life and fu-
ture American progress, ! must be very
plain here. l dare to say from a knowl-
edge of both ends of society that it is
quite as possible if not more 50 to find
III such homes the virtues of patience
and perseverance, of self-forgetfulness
and tenderness, Of love and unity de-
velpoing under hard conditions, rather
than under the influence Of boundless
wealth and opportunity. So the pow
3
dispensed with SO as to save expense is
not left out in these suggestions.
The main thing is the spirit of the
home. Even Of illiterate and hampered
by vices, a parents real love for the
things that are pure and right will out
weigh all things else. If unwholesome
thoughts and purposes are merely COW
cred with a veneer of book knowledge
and department, the parent can never by
mere instruction outweigh the uncon-
scious evil pull of his character upon the
children summering and wintering with
him. | cannot do better than include a
portion of letter just received from a
very pure minded and noble young
doctor. He says in substance: LAS l
look back at my home life in early child
hood, l remember my grandmother al
ways appealed to me by her gentleness
and kindness and personal cleanliness
and attractiveness. Still / knew quite
well that she was lacking in firmness
letting her desire that everybody should
be happy for the moment overcome her
best judgment. Ny grandfather I re-
spected for his exact integrity and pre-
ciseness. / knew he was lacking in ge-
niality, but it was the former quality
that influenced me-not the latter. We
had a faithful old black cook who had
been a slave. / loved her for her happy
songs mad good cooking, though / dis
liked her shiftlessness and extrava-
gance In brief, with each member of
the family, 1t was the good qualities and
not the bad which has chief influence in
molding my character. AS | have been
thinking over it to know why it was
so, have become convinced that it was
due to the fact that each member of the
family was actuated by desire TO do
the best he could for all the rest. This
was the fashion, if you WILL in my
little world, and with the spirit of i'm
itation strong within me, as it is in every
child, l adopted the rule of the house
hold as my own
BY reason of the memories of child
hood religiously overtrained ana moral
ly starved, with its errors corrected only
by the most drastic sufferings, let me
cry out to you parents OF the burden
bearers of the next century: Home in
fiuence, more pure, more gentle, more
tender, so that the child may ever, look