Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1897-02-15
The Fathers Responsibility.
BY MRS JEssIE brown ujIyr(

BY MRS. JESSIE BROWN HILTON.
At Il convention of women recently held
Il clergyman asked permission to make Il
lew remarks. and in substance said as
follows: The women are responsible for
the low standard of morals among men
lfNou would teach your young girls not to
associate with young men who smoke or
chew: if girls would not marry men of
bad habits. and it was understood that
such men Were tabooed from society, The
young men would consider before they
contracted such habits. Raise the stan
dard OF morals for women. increase the
demand for young men of good aDits,
and the men of the future will be~better
fitted for husbands and fathers
The good brother is partly right and
very much in the wrong. How ar,
women TO know the habits of the young
men in their parlorS unless the fathers
and brothers advise them and protect
responsible for the evil habits of the
present young man? The time has gone
by when the masses We're offered tbs
social glass by woman's fair hand. The
time has gone by when mothers gave t.
their to<ldling little ones the last drop
from the glass on the sideboard. Womer
long ago 9awoke to the crimes which the
taste for liquor had committed. Womer
many years back, began to pray for theil
boys before the saloon and in the saloon
Women for quarter of century. a
band two hundred thousand strong in
this country alone have begged and
pleaded and prayed that the saloon
might be annihiiated. Women suffering
the untold agony of motherhood have de-
termined that white life for two j.
God : command.
Who, then, is responsible for the liquor
habit, for the tobacco ha bit sapping the
vitality of our boys and polilting the
pure atmosphere of our girls? Who is
responsible for the belief that man is an
animal and must live by proving upon
the vital life of anothero Who teaches
the boys on the street that it is manly to
smoke and drink and swear? 1t is the
men of the nation. Every father is di-
rCctly responsible for the habits OF his
son. The mother lives her pure Christian
lie, her influence is for Christianity and
Sobriety. but when the boy goes out into
the world it is the father who knows the
pitfalls and. dangers for his boy Does he
warn? No, he let's the boy drift. His
own life has been Il silent potent factor
in the common belief that every boy must
free agent: that the will is only to be
used in dominating the will of another,
not in governing his own action. ] nat
the boy must SOW his wild oats.
oh, brother will you let your boy go
through life his soul SCARED and his will
power weakened by excuses, from which
you; with your experience and example.
might save him? Women owe much to
Christ. and ceiling and knowing this are
striving by every means in their power
to educate themselves more thoroughly
in the care and development of their
children striving to make their sons like
unto Him who went about doing the will
of His Heavenly Father. Without the
aid of the fathers and brothers much of
their work falls to the ground.
We might cite many illustrious sons Of
consecrated mothers. but can also tell of
many more broken-hearted mothers. be
cause after all their effort. the boys
have followed in the footsteps of the
father. If only the father of those sons
by example and preccpt had added their
quota TO the result. what a vast differ
cDce there would be in the training of
the young today. We have some men
who live and believe that it requires TWO
to bring up family properly. but the
vast majority relcgate this entirely to
the women and by example teach object
lessons more powerful than the mothers
prayers, for boys want to be manly and
do as men do. Men excuse themselves
because they are in business and alb
sorbed in care, but it is the influence of
the life. the atmosphere of the person.
atty. the word in season which tells SO
much upon the character of the young
men. and children very soon discover if
The teaching of the mother is applcab bic
to the life of the father. The atmosphere
of the home which mother makes may
bring back the erring boy but the in
iuence and warning and example of the
father will keen that bow from ever GO
ing astray. Fathers and brothers. speak
IL word of caution, and show an interest
in the moral atmosphere of the young
men and lads you meet daily.