The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1897-05-05
ALEXANDRIA, La, WEDNESDAY,. MAY s. 1897
higher strung when in n fit of passion
they kill SomehodY. The nnet SheileY

they kill somebody. The poet shelleJ
said obedience is the bane Of genius,
virtue, freedom and truth; makes
slaves OF men and Of the human franc
q mechanical automaton. He was one
of these highstrung sublimated Great.
ures whose rule of life was to do as he
pleased, to follow his own sweet will.
What a miserable life he lived, and was
drowned when only thirty years old.
He alarmed his schoolmates by his
storms of passion. Was expelled from
Oxford when nineteen. The same yeal
he eloped with hotel keepers daugh.
ter and married her at Gretna Green.
Three years later he abandoned her
and she drowned herself from grief.
Soon after this he married another wo-
man. with whom he had been living
previous to his first wife's death. He
was the intimate friend of Lord Byron
and Leigh Hunt, and they Witnessed
the cremation Of his body and depos-
tied the ashes near the grave of Keats,
Ill the Protestant cemetery at Rome.
No, / cannot tell anybody how to
raise their children. It is a fearful
responsibility. have known preach
ers to undertake the task and fail, and
the congregation smiled inwardly al
the preachers failure to raise his own
in an exemplary and orthodox way.
| said something about the laws Of
heredity coming in as factor in the
rearing of children. I knew two good
men in Rome before the war who had
g like number of boys growing up,
and these two families were close
neighbors, and their boys mingled to-
gether and went to the same school
and Sunday school and church. One
set of these boys was good, manly,
industrious and a comfort and an
honor to their parents. The other set
was bad, mischieyous and untruthful.
In fact, they were several times caught
stealing or with stolen goods in
their possession. And yet the
parents in both families were
always exemplary in their conduct
and conversation; I asked DR.. Miller
how he accounted for that. "Heredi-
ty, said he. zone set of these boys
have bred after their grandfather, who
was very bad man. knew him
we'll, and he was a terror to the com
munity. these grandsons have started
out on his line. Bad blood in horses
will some times skip generation and
then crop out. Just SO it is with hui
man blood. "Can it not be eradi-
cated?'' said 1. ooh, yes he replied.
These boys should have had more re-
straint in infancy and youth. 1t takes
more for that sort. The whippings
they are getting now come too late,
and I fear will not reform them. But
most any disposition to vice can be
reformed ii begun III time. 1t is the
same in animal and vegetable crea-
tons. You can cut off a kittens tail
from one litter to another until they
will ultimately be born without tails.
You can dwarf peachtree OF enlarge
q tomato. +"
Now, while I have my settled con-
victions on these things, [ do not wish
anybodyto suspect that there has been
any brutality at our house. Some of
our boys received corporal punishment
at rare intervals. Others had none
not stroke, except spank or two
from their mother. Like most parents,
we thought that other peoples chill
dren needed more than ours. But
even the punishment they did get they
have not forgotten and still talk of it
as big thing.
Now, as 10 the girls, of course they
should not suffer corporal punishment
in the schools. In the first place, they
do not need it. Secondly, if they did,
there is no natural and suitable place
to receive it, and il there was, it cannot
be found with propriety.-B1LL ARP,
in Atlanta Constitution.