The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1900-03-30


Let him off this time"
A father says; Il have seen so many
that make mistake by too great,sever-
ity in the rearing Of their children.
Now, will let my boy do as he pleases'
He shall have full swing. Here. my
son, are tickets to the theater and OPP
era. If you want to play cards. do so,
If you don't want to play cards, you
need not play them. Go when you want
and come back when you want to. Have
a good time. Go it," Give a boy
plenty of money and ask him not what
he does with it, and you pay his way
straight to perdition. But after awhile
the lad thinks he ought to have a still
larger supply. He has been treated,
and he must treat. He must have wine
suppers. There are larger and larger
expenses.
Result of Lax Discipline.
After awhile one day a messenger
from the bank over the way calls in
and says to the father of the household
of which | am speaking: THE officers
of the bank would like to have you
step over a minute" The father steps
over, and a bank officer says, is that
your check?" NO" he says, that is
not my check. | never make an H in
that way. | never put curl to the 'Y'
in that way. That is not my writing;
that is not my signature; that is a
fntt hO
Stop" says the bank officer, your son
wrote that"
Now the father and mother are wait
ing for the son to come home at night.
1t is ~ o'clock, it is half-past II o'clock,
it is l o'clock. The son comes through
the hallway. The father says: MY son,
what does all this mean? | gave you
every opportunity. | gave you all the
money you wanted, and here in my old
days | find that you have become a
apendthrift, libertine and a sot." The
son says: Now, father, what is the use
of your talking that way? You told
me to go it, and just took your sug-
gestion." And so to strike the medium
between severity and too great leni-
ency, to strike the happy medium be-
tween the two and to train our children
for God and for heaven is the anxiety
of every intelligent parent.
Another great solicitude is in the fact
that so early is developed childish sin
fulness. Morning glories put out their
bloom in the early part of the day, but
as the hot sun comes on they close up.
While there are other flowers that
blaze their beauty along the Amazon
for week at time without closing,
yet the morning glory does it's work as
certainly as Victoria regia, so there are
some children that just put forth their
bloom, and they close, and they are
gone There is something supernatural
about them while they tarry, and there
is an ethereal appearance about them.
There is wonderful depth to their eye,
and they are gone. They are too deli
cate plant for this world. The Heav-
emily Gardener sees them, and he takes
them in.
But for the most part the children
that live sometimes get cross and pick
up bad words in the street or are dis
posed to quarrel with brother or sister
and show that they are wicked. You
see them in the Sabbath school class.
They are so sunshiny and bright you
would think they were always so, but
the mother looking over at them re-
yf,,1 81, 1oI
to get them ready. Time passes on.
They get considerably older, and the
son comes in from the street from a
pugilistic encounter, bearing on his ap-
pearance the marks of defeat, or the
daughter practices some little decep-
ton in the household. The mother
says: II can't always be scolding and
fretting and finding fault. but this must
be stopped" So in many household
there is the sign of sin, the sign of the
truthfulness of what the Bible says
when it declares: They go astray as
soon as they be born, speaking lies"
Picking at Boys.
Some go to work and try to correct
all lulS, anu Tic UOy 10 piChcu al anu
picked at and picked at. That always
is ruinous. There is more help in one
good thunderstorm than in five days of
cold drzzle Better the old-fashioned
style of chastisement if that be neces-
sary than the fretting and the scolding
which have destroyed SO many.
There is also cause of great solicit
tude sometimes because our young peo-
pie are surrounded by so many tempta-
lions. A castle may not be taken by
siege, but suppose there
be inside the castle an enemy, and in
the night he shoves back the bolt and
swings open the door. Our young folks
have foes without, and they have foes
within. Who does not understand it?
Who is the man here who is not aware
of the fact that the young people of
this day have tremendous temptations?
Some man will come to the young
people and try to persuade them that
purity and honesty and uprightness are
a sign of weakness. Some man will
take a dramatic attitude. and he will
talk to the young man. and he will say:
You must break away from your
mothers apron strings. You must get
out of that puritanical straitjacket. 1t
is time you were your own master. You