Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1899-04-22

CuuICu VI S1Ou anu 1iic pest VI uHc W VI 1T
Children that do not learn to obey hui
man authority are unwilling to learn
to obey divine authority. Children will
not respect parents whose authority
they do not respect Who are these
Young men that swagger through the
street with their thumbs in their vest
talking about their father as ''the old
man, - 1.-the governor. the squire. :
.'the old chap" or their mother as ''the
cid woman?" They are those who in
youth, in childhood, never learned to
respect authority. Eli. having heard
that his sons had died in their wicked
ness, fell over backward and broke his
neck and died. Well he might What
is life to father whose sons are de-
bauched? The dust of the valley is
pleasant to his taste and the driving
rains that drip through the roof of the
sepulcher are sweeter than the wines Of
Helbon.
Harmony In the Home.
There must be harmony between the
fathers government and the mother
government. The father will be tempt.
ed to too great rigor. The mother will
be tempted to too great leniency. Her
tenderness will overcome her. Her voice
is little softer; her hand seems better
fitted to pull out thorn and soothe Il
pang. Children wanting anything from
the mother cry for it. They-hope to
dissolve her with tears But the mother
must not interfere. must not coax off,
must not beg for the child when the
hour comes for the assertion of parental
supremacy and the subjugation of
a childs temper. There comes in the
history of every child an hour when it
is tested whether the parents shall rule
or the child shall rule. That is the
crucial hour. If the child triumphs in
that hour, then he will some day make
you crouch It is a horrible scene. l
have witnessed it-a mother come to old
age, shivering with terror in the pres
ence of son who cursed her gray hairs
and Knocked her wrinkled face and be-
grudged her the crust she munched
with her toothless gumsl
How sharper than serpent's tooth it is
To have thanlSless child
But, on the other hand. too great
rigor must be avoided. 1t is sad thing
when domestic government becomes cold
military despotsm. Trappers on the
prairie fight fire with fire, but you can
not successfully fight your child's bad
temper with your own bad temper. We
must not be too minute in our inspec-
ton. We cannot expect onr children to
be perfect We must not see everything.
Since we have two or three faults OF
our own, we ought not to be too rough
when we discover that our children
have as many If tradition be true,
when we were children we were not all
little Samuels, and our parents were
not fearful lest they could not raise us
because of cur premature goodness. You
cannot scold or pound your children in
to nobility of character. The bloom of
n child's heart can never be seen under
cold drizzle. Above all, avoid fretting
and scolding in the household: Better
than ten years of fretting at Your chill
dren is one good round, old fashioned
application of the slipper That minis
ter of the gospel of whom we read in
the newspapers that he whipped his
child to death because he would not say
his prayers will never come to canon
ization. The arithmetics cannot calcu'
late how many thousands of children
have been ruined forever either through
too great rigor or too great leniency.
The heavens and the earth are filled
with the groan of the sacrificed. In this
important matter, seek divine direc-
ton, o father, O mother
Some one asked the mother of Lord
Chief Justice Mansfield if she was not
proud to have three such eminent sons,
and all of them so good. "No, she
said; cit is nothing to be proud of. but
something for which to be very CRATE
full. z"
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