The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1897-05-05
BILL ARp'S WEEKLY LETTER.
His Opinion Is 10 low Children Should Be
Brought Up.
A LITTLE WHIPPING is NECESSARY.

O.
A LITTLE WHIPPING Is NECESSARY.
Unless Children Are Made to Fear Pa
rents They VIII Never Make Good
Men and Women-Punishment Of
Boys at School.
An esteemed friend requests that
write letter about how to raise a
family of children so that they will all
behave, the boys make good citizens,
good husbands, good fathers and the
girls make good wives and good moth
ers. lis it possible to do this?" he
asks.
When the lawyers determine that q
thing cannot be legally done they say
it is ULTRA vires," which means be-
You'd strength. In the first place, it
is not possible to devise any plan or
method by which all children can be
raised or trained to do right and be-
have. It is ultra wires" and even if
it were possible, it is "ultra wires"
with me to make it known. Ever since
the failure of Adam to raise Cain, this
thing of raising all the children to be
good has been an unsolved problem.
Whether the difference in children of
the same family is due to the laws of
heredity or the doctrine of election or
to different environments end associa-
tons or to the devil himself we can
not tell, but one or more of these
causes have been at work. My
wife and I were discoursing
about this last night and in all our ac-
quaintance of half century we could
not name a single family of six or
more children of whom were good.
Anxiety and grief and trouble because
of children is the common lot. It be-
gan with Adam and came on down to
Noah and Jacob and David and Solo
mon, and yet these men had the spe-
cial favor of God and were blessed by
Him in every way except in the conduct
of some of their children. Poor old Eli,
the high priest and judge of Israel for
forty years, was cursed with two bad
boys and God at the last cursed him
for not restraining them. "There
shall not be an old man in thy house
forever, and all the increase of thy
house shall die in the flower of their
age" Because his sons made them
selves vile and he restrained
them not. What an awful curse
was that These sons of Belial!
This word means worthless, bad, naugh-
ty, vile, and fits many a bad boy in
our day. It is a fact that reflects on
our sex that the sons of Belial are
more than a dozen times in
the scriptures, but there is no daugh-
ter of Relial. Gle restrained them
not" Well, the good old man did
talk to them and reprove them most
earnestly ''Why do ye such things.
1t is no good report that I hear Ye
make the Lords people to transgress.
If one man sin against another the
Judge shall Judge him. but if man
sin against the Lord who shall entreat
for him?"
] wonder what kind Of restraint the
Lord expected or required of Eli. 1t
was not talking OF pleading with
them, Of course. for he did that. I
wonder if the old man dident expert
ment on the modern Atlanta plan of
raising the boys on bis love and their
honor, for fear Of breaking their spir-,
its. 1t makes an old man very tired to
read the wise utterances of the mod
ern Solons against corporal punish
ment of bad boys in the public
schools. I had rather go and ask the
convicts in the changing for an opin-
ion. Njne-tenths Of them would say I
began in disobodience and was not re-.
strained. The lamentable fact is that at
least onc-fourth of the boys at these
schools have no restraint at home and
# they are not punished at school they
get it nowhere, and SO these sons, of
Belial go to the bad very early and
become victims to the rigor of the law
and the counts. There is many boy
in these schools who is right now on
his way to the cllaingang. These
solons say that corporal punishment
is brutal and barbarous and must give
away to the progress and refinement
Of the age. About what time did the
youths Of this generation become better
than those of half century ago? Read
The daily papers and answef. How
many houses in Atlanta are in mourn
ing because of the bad conduct Of
their boys? What good results cen
come from expulsion of bad boy
from school? He is net wanted any
where by decent people, and SO he
associates with his kind and becomes
worse and soon comes to grief and
and brings sorrow to his kindred.
Obedience to law, to government, to
parents is absolutely necessary for the
peace and welware of society. This
obedience is enforced arn:sng bad men
by the fear Of the law. 1t can,iot be
enforced among bad boys ,xacpt by
fear OF corporal punishment. Their
honor or their shame IS too feeble a fac
tor to be considered Obedience must
begin early, even in infancy. My lit
tie two-year-old grandehild loves to
play in the dirty coal boz. Caroline,
you must not do that her mother
SAYS. aud enforces her command by