The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1899-05-25
BENTON. LOUISIANA, THURSDAY, MAY rs, 1899

BEL
warrior have gone into the dust, but
all ages are twisting this girls chaplet.
1t is well that her name came not to
us. for no one can wear it. They may
take the name of Deborah or Abigail or
Miriam, but no one in all the ages shall
have the title of this daughter of sacri-
flee.
Of course this Offering was not pleas
ing to the Lord, especially as pro-
vision was made in the law for such
contingency, and Jephthah might have
redeemed his daughter by the payment
Of 30 sheckles of silver. But before you
hurl your denunciations at Jephthah's
cruelty remember that in olden times,
when vows were made, men thought
they must execute them, perform them,
whether they were wicked or good.
There were two wrong things about
.Jephthah's vow. First, he ought never
to have made it. Next, having made it,
it were better broken than kept. But
do not take on pretentious airs and say:
II could not have done as Jephthah
did" If in former days you had been
standing on the banks of the Ganges
and you had been born in India, you
might have thrown your children to
the crocodiles. 1t is not because we are
naturally any better. but because we
have more Gospel light.
T of 100 1f
this question when / tell you that the
sacrifice of Jephthah's daughter was a
type of the physical, mental and spirit
ual sacrifice of 10000 children in this
day. There are parents all unwitting-
ly bringing to bear upon their children
class of influences which will as cer-
tainly ruin them as knife and torch de-
stroyed Jephthah's daughter. While I
speak, the whole nation, without emo
ton and without shame, looks upon the
stupendous sacrifice.
In the first place, remark that much
of the system of education in our day
is system of sacrifice. When children
spend six or seven hours in school and
then must spend two or three hours in
preparation for school the next day,
will you tell me how much time they
| will have for sunshine and fresh air
and the obtaining of that exuberance
| which is necessary for the duties of
coming life? No one can feel more
thankful than do for the advancement
of common school education. The
printing of books appropriate for
| schools, the multiplication of philo-
sophical apparatus, the establishment
of normal schools, which provide for
our children teachers of largest caliber,
are themes on which every philanthro-
pist ought to be congratulated. But
this herding of great multitudes of
children in ill-ventilated schoolrooms
and poorly equipped halls of instruction
is making many of the places of knowi-
edge in this country huge holocaust.
Politics in many of the cities gets into
educational affairs and while the two
political parties are scrabbling for the
honors Jephthah's daughter perishes.
1t is so much SO that there are many
schools in the country to-day which are
men and women for the future: SO that,
in many places, by the time the child's
education is finished the child is fin
ishetl! In many places, in many cities
of the country, there are large appro-
priations for everything else and cheer
full appropriations. but as soon as the
appropriation is to be made for the edu-
cational or moral interests of the city
we are struck through with an economy
that is well-nigh the death of us.
In connection with this I mention
what might call the cramming system
of the common schools and many of the
academies; children of delicate brain
compelled to tasks that might appall a
mature intellect; children going down
to school with a strap of books half as
high as themselves. The fact is, in some
of the cities parents do not allow their
children to graduate for the simple
reason, they say: I'VE cannot afford te
allow our children's health to be de
stroyed in order that they may gather
the honors of an institutions" Tens o1
thousands of children educated into i'm.
becility, SO that connected with many
such literary establishments there ough,
to be asylums for the wrecked. 1t is
push and crowd and cram and stuff
and jam until the child's intellect is be
wildered and the memory is ruined and
the health is gone. There are children
who once were full of rcmping and
laughter and had cheeks crimson will
health who are now turned out in the
afternoon pale faced. irritated, asth
matte, old before their time. 1t is ONT
of the saddest sights on earth, an ole
mannish boy or an old womanish girl
Girls ten years of age studying algebra!
Boys 12 years of age racking their brair
over trigonometry! Children unac
quaintcd with their mother tongue cry
ing over their Latin, French and Ger
man lessons! All the yivacity of theil
nature beaten out of them by the heavy
beetle of Greek lexicon! And you doc
| sc,. thar, fnr this and Won uiya h er .