Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-04-09
CCopyright-)
CRUELTY

Is " L. NG&N9AxD SNsO A~@> =
t / can imagine see my readers shrue
fheir shoulders with disgust. and raise
their delicate eyebrows in amazemeni
e the harsh coarseness of the title
Licensed cruelty! Just as if, in these
days OF education and refinement, any
thing like cruelty could be licensed!
Preposterous! But l mean cruelty that
IS never heard of, that there is no re-
dress for, and yet that is torture to
many. We will start with the cruelty
practiced to children. No, I am. not
going to say anything about fogging
or thrashing, or physical torture, for
there is a society which, when it hears
Of it, prevents that sort of thing. But
L am going to speak of the cruelty that
IS carried on every day, and which is
the very refinement of cruelty, and
which Injuries the child more morally
than the grosser method Of blows can
possibly do. Children are left to the
tender mercies of ignorant, vulgar
nursemaids-and, by the bye, you must
pardon me if digress little, but the
way in which mothers engage nurses
seems to me to be framed upon most
extraordinary laws. For instance, if
one wants a cook, one is most rigid in
the examination as to her capabilities
of sending in dinner on to the table,
and her skill in concocting of savouries
and the manufacturing entrees. She
is given most rigid instructions as to
what is expected for the table, and her
mistress doesn't mind paying her a
very substantial and comfortable wage,
because, as she truly says, there are
very, very few good cooks about, and if
s&dcar John" is not we'll fed ne is very
angry, he is apt to
GRUMBLE ABOUT PIN MONEY.
and to look askance at milliners' bills,
and altogether to assert his pecuniary
authority in a highly disagreeable man
ner. But, mark you! the same lady
who is so fastidiously particular about
her cook will take any dirty, vicious,
Ignorant little slut as a nursemaid for
her children. You see, her husband S
stomach is of more Importance than
the moral and physical well-being of
her children. Oh, the licensed cruelty
that is daily and hourly practised in
every city and town of the country by
coarse, illiterate women to the poor
little children that are put under their
protection! Go into any park and
watch the nursemaids congregate.
How they chat whilst their poor little
charges are shivering with the cold, or
perhaps leeping-sleeping with their
heads hanging over the sides of the
mail-carts or perambulators, with the
sun beating on their unprotected heads,
sfie1, if they wake up and cry, just
mark how they will be shaken; and
then, when the last moment for gossip
ing has arrived, the nurse suddenly
Rwakens to the fact that she is late;
and the poor little legs of the children
are tired out, and if they cry with ia
tigue they are slapped, and they are
forbidden to tell mother anything
about it under dire threat of punish
ment. But even when the nurses are
kind to the youngsters I think that it
would shock any mother if she could
but hear the horrible talk that goes on,
the coarseness of innuendo, the indie
cency of language. l would rather
cook my own dinner and have an edu-
Gated, refined woman as nurse to- my
children than have a professional cook
and have the ordinary servant to be
with my youngsters constantly. You
know what the Jesuits say Let us
have the training of a child till he is
six years old. We do not mind who
has him after, but he will be with US"
So it is. The first few years of life
mould the child's character. Give him
. happy childhood, surrounded with re-