Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-05-14
CHILDREN RAVf THEIR RIGHTS

CHILDREN HIVE THEIR RIGHTS
Too, Don't Treat Your Child UnciVilly
and Expect Him to be Polite.
FATHERS WHO ONCE DID THE
SAME THING FOR WHICH THEY
NOW PUNISH THEIR CHILD
Rem = MOTHERS WHO PLAY
CARDS TO AID THE POOR
HEATHEN.
(Copyrighted 1899 for Charlz Nox Press
Bureau)
New York, May 13.-Reader, which
do you think is the greater danger,
that the children will not honor the
rights of their parents, or that the par
ents will not honor the rights of their
children? 1t is true enough that many
children do not honor their parents,
but | wonder how much this is due to
the fact that fathers and mothers do
not always honor their children.
No persons are defrauded of their
rights more than some children. Poor
little creatures! With no choice on the
child's part, he is launched into a home
IN which the first ray of refinement can
not be found. Father and mother,
coarse and ignorant, perhaps hardly
welcoming a child at all, counting it as
an extra burden to carry, and looking
forward to the time when its physical
strength can be used toward the sup
port of the family.
In some homes the child's awaken
ing sense of language is greeted by
oaths from the fathers lips. Or per-
haps he breathes an atmosphere made
foul by intoxicating liquors, or at least
by lack of such sanitary conditions
as contribute to ones physical and
moral health. Father and mother, not
having been trained in the way the
child should go, can be of little help to
1t. True, the mission kindergarten.
that most worthy charity, takes the
child from the street and does some
thing towards refining it, thus Offset
ting to some extent the lack of culture
in the home life.
True, the public school, that mighty
ciyilizer, begins it's work with the child
and does much for it, but alas. such a
childs school years are too few, for it
is put to work as soon as the law of
the State will allow. He is sent out
into busy world, and fortunate is he
if he can overcome this handicap upon
his childhood and finally obtain fair
amount of education and a reputable
place among men.
HE MAY TAKE ANOTHER VIEW.
There may be some reasons why this
boy should honor his father and his
mother, that his days may be long in
the land in which he is struggling for
his daily bread, and into which he was
cast with no desire of his own. But |
think we could find a few reasons why
he should feel like blaming his father
and his mother for the lack of any
training which would make for success
in his life, and it would not he sur
prising if he did not feel grateful for
the privilege of living in a land which
to him is a scene of bitter struggle,
having entered that land handicapped.
This boy had much due him which he
hasn't received. Rightfully, more edu-
cation belonged to him, and there is
enough wealth in this country so that
every child could be Kept in school
until he or she has sufficient amount
of education to go out into this world
without the handicap of ignorance, and
when the good sense of the people is as
boy or girl will be allowed to grow up
without a good education.
CHILDREN HAVE THEIR RIGHTS,
TOO.
Children have their rights, and these
rights are as important as those of
parent. There is as much justice in
the claims which a child has upon its
parents as in any which the parents
have upon child. 1t, perhaps, would
be well for parents to shift their
thoughts for while from what the
children owe them to what they owe
the children. A child has the right
to be well born. There is not condi-
ton favorable to its start in the high
way of life which should not be given
it, if it be possible to do so.
1t has right to be brought I'D amid
surroundings which contribute to the
development of the best within it, and
which will help it to accumulate a
sufficient amount of moral character to
enable it to withstand the strain which
it will undergo in it's contact with the
world.
1t should have as much education as
1t is possible for the parents to give it,
for not year passes but that the need
OF an education is becoming greater,
and other things being equal the person