El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-11-04

For the Better Half
Written for the HERALD.

to know him. My prayers are plenty
long enough and too long now" the
boy replied. 1t seems the little fellow
had to finish up his Nov I lay me, !"
every night with q petition to God to
bless each separate individual of his
family and each Of his playmates and
he was setting about to vigorously cur
tail the list so he could 20 to sleep
sooner of nights.
1t lie difficult for grOwnups to realize
how different Is the child's world, un-
less they remember we'll their own
child hood or set about systematically
to watch the child mind develop and
exert all OF their sympathy to under
stand as some mothers do. The child
is not only absolutely lacking in hun
dreds of little experiences that have
gone to make up the mental cOloring
of the grown up intelligence, but every
word is almost new and unfamiliar
tool for their busy thoughts to try.
Children can never ask enough Ques-
tions to satisfy their eager curiosity
and the half com plete and only half
comprehended answers that they get
have to be eked out by lively imagiu-
ings. They are always wanting to get
not answered patiently and even when
they are, they fill out the meagre
replies of Information that grown ups
give them, with pictures and compari
sons familiar in their own little world.
A child may ask where the Fl lures go
when they are washed off the slate and
If answered with an ST don't know"
he i'm ediately sets abou: to imagine
q series of events taken from what he
happens to know .of bugs crawling
down holes, or birds flying away, rain
soaking in the ground, aunties 60
ing away on the trains or fairies put
ting on invisible caps, and satisfies
himself that it must be by some such
way that the figures make their ex-
it.
They go somewhere in some way
and the child probes about until he
finds an explanation that agrees with
his understanding of things
Grownups will say God to child and
try to give him some hint of the GJd
idea but as it is difficult for the older
mind to understand and explain
Gods omnipotence to itself, it ia no won
der children have fantastic notions of
deity. One mother who tries to think
with her little ones, says that her baby
girl confuses the ideas of God, grandpa,
and Santa Claus. The little one l. just
emerging from swaddling clothes and
helplessness and ia on the threshold Of
her individual life, beginning to make
sentences out CT her few words and to
think little short thoughts. To her,
God, grandpa and Santa Claus are all
tn zee, big, powerful beings,unseen Civ
ers of good things and kind and low
ing to little girls. She has had
to take her mothers word for
all three. Her grandfather visits her
home once q year and che cannot
stretch her baby memory over the
time that intervenes between the Wis
Its, so he is clsssed with God a. 90
unseen power of whom her mother so
often spesks. At Christmas, Santa
Claus emerged from the haze that
hitherto enveloped the great three.
Her mother took her down town to q
big shop and she saw Santa Claus own
big, fat, white-bearded, jolly self.
Probably in another year che will be
able to remember her grandfather and
then God only will be the unseen.