The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1897-03-11
ABOUT THE HOME.
ENVIRONMENTS MOULD CHAR
ACTER.
IT IS NATURES LAW.
Some Rambling Thoughts.
BY "NEMO."
1T Is NATURES LAW.
Some Rambling Thoughts.
BY "NEMo."
(Copyrighted.)


! Among the many things proved by
latter-day science, Is the effect of sur
roundings upon living creatures. &C
among the TERRA del Fuegans and you
will find enormous chests and very
feeble legs, as consequence of almost
constant padding in canoes; visit the
Esauimaux and you will find them able
to stand almost unclothed in the most
rigorous weather, because of layer o1
fat evenly spread under the skin by na
ture as protection against their eli.
mate. In Africa vast regions too utter.
ly malarial for Europeans to live in,
support natives in most lively and
| thrlying 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 o1
man, and you fnd-what? Men and
women too 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 moulds
the stolid, plodding, stupid ways of the
Russian Mou]lk? His surroundings.
The self-reliance of the Eng1ishman
Surroundings.
Come another step! Though you
are neither Fuegans nor South Sea Is
landers. Moujiks nor Britishers, but
just plain Americans, you can not es-
cape the influence of surroundings any
more than clam can escape the sea.
These laws are at work here as we'll as
everywhere else and you admit 1t in
your general conversation. You will
say "What poor chance Tom has he
is being raised among dirt and neglect y
You think of surroundings being in
luence, just as you probably think OF
death something that is absolutely
certain for everybody else, but only
dreamily certain for you. Herein we
are slow of heart we fail to recognize
that we are in the world as a genu-
inc, actual part of it, and that the laws
influencing 1t are the laws influencing
us. It is in this direction I 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 a 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 creature
so feeble at birth and yet so potent in
possibilities. To bring before your
vision the lamentable results where the
personal touch is lacking it is only nee
essary to mention the spiritless and mo-
notonous 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 child
rem as occupying an unnatural position
that should call for our best sympathy
and wisest cooperation. It is absolute
Iy unfair to expect her to counteract
all influences, of home and street, that
work against high motives and moral
attempts.
am not deludlng myself with the
idea that these words are to enter only
the homes of ease and refinement. They
are to 20 into thousands where it is not
always easy to make both ends meet !;
where life has possibly a rasping lnfiu-
ence upon the overburdened mother
and the overworked father; where the
"quiver-full" of children is blessing
very thoroughly disguised. And be-
cause such homes are after all the re-
cruiting place OF American life and fu-
ture American progress, 1 must be
very plain here. I dare to say from a
knowledge of both ends of society, that
it is quite as possible If not more so to
find in such homes the virtues of pa
tience and perseverance, of self-forget-
fulness and tenderness, of love and
unity developing under hard conditions
rather than under the influence of
boundless wealth and opportunity. So
the poverty of the bone where even
the lamp Is dispensed with so as to save
expense is not left out in these suggest
ions.
The main thing is the SPIRIT of the
home. Even of illiterate and hamper
ed by vices, 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 nero instruction outweigh the un-
conscious evil pull of his character upon
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