The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-04-28
vow OF JEPHTHAH
Cited by DIR. Ialmage as a Warning Against Pa
ternal Heedlessness--Protest Against Sac
r1ficing the Young on the Altar of Pride.

Willingly bringing to Dear upon their
children a class Of influences which will
as certainly ruin them as knife and
torch destroyed Jephthah's daughter.
While l speak, the whole nation, with
out emotion and without shame, looks
upon the ~stupendcus sacrifice.
In the first place, l remark that much
of the system of education in our day
is a system Of sacrifice. When children
spend six or sever hours in school and
then must spend w 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 I do for the advancement
of common school education. The
printing of books appropriate for
schools, the multiplication Of philo-
sophlcal apparatus, he establishment
of normal schools, which provide for
our children teachers of largest calfber,
are themes On which every philanthro-
pist ought to be congratulated. But
this herding of great multitudes of
children in i'll ventilated schoolrooms
and poorly equipped halls of instruc-
ton is making many of the places Of
knowledge N this country a huge holo-
caust. Politics in many of the cities
gets into educational affairs and while
the two political parties are ScrabbllnS
for the honors Jephthah's daughter
p~erishes. 1t is SO much so that there
art many schools in the country today
which are preparing tens Of thousands
of invalid men and women for the flu
ture; so that, in many places, by the
time the child's education is finished
the child is finished! In many places,
in many cities of the country, there are
large appropriations for everything else
and cheerful appropriations, but as
son as the appropriation is ITO be made
for the educational or moral interests
of the city we are struck through with
an economy that is we'll nigh the death
of US.
DANGER OF OVERSTUDY.
In connection with this 1 mention
what | might call the examining system
of the common schools and many Of the
academies; children of delicate brain
compelled to tasks that might appall O.
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 to
allow our children's health to be de-
strOyed in order that they may gather
the honOrS of an institution" Tens of
thousands of children educated into i'm
becility, so that connected with many
such literary establishments there
ought to be asylums for the wrecked.
1t is push and crowd and cram and
stuff and jam until the child's intellect
is beWildered and the m is ruin
ed and the health is gone. There are
children who once were full of romping
and laughter n had cheeks crimson
with health who are now turned out
in the afternoon pale faced, Initiated,
asthmatic, old before their time. 1t is
one of the saduest sights on earth, an
old mannish boy or an old WOmanish
girl. Girls 10 years of age studying
algebra! Boys II years of age racking
their brain over trigOnOmetry! Chill
dren unacquainted with their mother
tongue crying over their Latin, French
and German lessons! All the ~vivacity
of their nature beaten out of them by
the heavy beetle of a Greek lexicon!
And you doctor them for this, and you
give them a little medicine for that,
n you wonder what is the matter Of
them. l will tell you what is the mat
ter of them. They are finishing their
education!
In my parish in Philadelphia a little
child was so pushed at school that she
was thrown into a fever, and in her
dying deIirium, all night long, she was
trying to recite the multiplication ia
bile. In my boyhOod I remember that in
our class at school there was one lad
who knew more than all of US put to-
gether. If we were fast in our arith-
metic, he eXtricated us. When we stood
up for the spelling class, he was almost
always the head of the class. Visitors
came to his fathers house, and he was
always brought in as a prodigy. AT is
years of age he was an idiot He lived
ten years an idiot and died an idiot,
not knowing his right ham from his
left or day from night. The parents
and the teachers made him an idiot.
WRONG SYSTEM OF EDUCATION.
You may flatter your pride by forcing
your child to know more than any other
children, but you are making a sacri-
flee of that child if by the additions tt
it's intelligence you are making a sub
traction from it's future. The child will
go away from such maltreatment will
no eXuberance to fight the battle OF
life. Sue children may get along very
we'll while you take care of them, but
when you are old or dead, alas fol
them if through the wrong system OF
education which you adopted they hav<
no SwarthineSS or force of character tC
lake care of themselves! Be careful
how you make the child's head ache
or its heart futter. I hear a great dea
about black mans rights, and China
mans rights. and Indians rights, anC
w ALA - ONA N
somebody would rise to plead fer chill
dren's rights! The Carthagenians USED
to sacrifice their children by putting
them into the arms of an idol which
thrust forth it's "a The child was
put into the arms of the idol, and NJ
sooner touched the arms than it drop
ped into the fire. But it was the art O
the mothers to keep the children smil
ing and laughing until the momen they
died. There may be a fascination anC
a hilarity about the styles of education
of which 1 am speaking, but it is only
laughter at the moment of sacrifice
| Would Goo there were only one Jeph
abs daughter!
Again, there are many parents WIZ
are sacrificing their children will
wrong system of discipline-too grea
rigor or too great leniency. There ar
children in families who rule the house
hold. The high chair in which the in
FAINT sits is the throne, and the rattle i
the scepter, and the other children
make up the parliament where fathe
and mother have no vote! Such hi
dren come up to be miscreants. Their
is no chance in this world for a chilli
that has never learned to mind. Sucl