The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1899-05-25

years of age he was an idiot. lie lived
ten years an idiot and died an idiot,
not knowing his right hand from his
left or day from night. The parents and
the teachers made him an idiot.
You may hutter your pride by forcing
your child to know more than any other
| children. but you are making sacri-
fee of that child if by the additions to
/ its intelligence you are making ii sub
traction from it's future. The child will
go away from such maltreatment with
no exuberance to fight the battle of
life. Such children may get along very
well while you take care of them, hut,
when you are old or dead, alas for
them if through the wrong system OF
education which you adopted they
have no swarthiness or force of charac-
| ter to take care of themselves! Be care
full how you make the child's head ache
or it's heart futter. Ihear great deal
about black mans rights, and China
mans rights, and Indians rights, and
| woman's rights. Would to God that
somebody would rise to plead for chill
dren's rights! The Carthagians used
to sacrifice their children by putting
| them into the arms of an idol which
| thrust forth its hand. The child was
| put into the arms of the idol, and no
sooner touched the arms than it dropped
into the fire. But it was the art of the
mothers to keep the children smiling
and laughing until the moment they
| died. There may be fascination and
a hilarity about the styles of education
of which / am speaking, but it is only
laughter at the moment of sacrifice.
Would to God there were only one
Jephthah's daughter!
Again, there are many parents who
are sacrificing their children with
wrong system of discipline--too great
rigor or too great leniency. There are
children in families who rule the house.
hold. The high chair in which the in
FAINT sits is the throne, and the rattle is
the scepter, and the other children
make up the parliament where father
and mother have no vote! Such chill
dren come up to be miscreants. There
is no chance in this world for child
that has never learned to mind. Such
people become the botheration of the
church of God and the pest of the world.
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." ''the governor" ''the squire,
''the old chap" or their mother as ''the
old 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
lsepulcher are sweeter than the wines OF
Helbon.
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 a
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 ol
a chiid's temper. There comes in the
history of every child an hour when j;
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. 1t is a,horrible scene
have witnessed it-a mother come to old
age, shivering with terror in the pres
ence of a son who cursed her gray hairs
and Knocked her wrinkled face and be-
grudged her the crust she munche6
with her toothless gums!
How sharper than serpent's tooth 1t is
To have thankless child!
But, on the other hand, too great
i rigor must be avoided. 1t is sad thing
when domestic government becomes
cold military despotism. Trappers or
J the prairie fight fire with fire, but yo,
cannot successfully fight your ehild''
bad temper with your own bad temper
We must not be too minute in our in
spection. We cannot expect our children
to be perfect. We must not see every
thing. Since we fave two or three fault!
of our own, we ought not to be too rougl
when we discover that our children
have as many. If tradition be true
when we were children we were not al
! little Samuels, and our parents wer'
not fearful lest they could not raise u
because ofour premature goodness. Yol
cannot scold or pound your children in
| to nobility of character. The bloom o
a child's heart can never be seen unde
cold drizzle. Above all, fretting ant