The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-09-29

WORLD.


Orleans Picayune. that the occupation
of being a mother is a much harder job
nowadays than it used TO be. Time was
when the comfortable belief prevailed
that children were merely little ami
mails, and If they were kept reasonably
clean, fed when they were hungry,
kissed when they were good, and
spanked when they needed it, a won-
an felt that she had done her full duty,
and could leave the rest to Providence.
Sometimes the children were pretty
and healthy and strong. and then the
mother complacently took credit to
herself for them. Often they were
homely and sickly and delicate, and
when they died she wept bitter tars,
and spoke of mysterious Affections, but
it never occurred to her that she was
in any way responsible for the TRACE
dies she lamented.
We have gotten a long ways now
from those cheerful, happy-go- lucky
views of a mothers duties-so far, in
deed, that the intelligent mother who
tries to do her part by her family
stands good chance of being crushed
under her load of responsibility. The
present view of the child is not of the
little animal who will grow UP the way
he was born, but of something infin-
itely plastic that the mothers hand
may shape physically, mentally and
morally into whatever she chooses.
1t is a platitude to say that the mold
ing of character lies almost entirely
with ha Thara G
the way children turn out. The result
is always the ineXorable and ineScapa-
BILE logic of cause and effect. Men do
not sow tares and expect to reap
wheat, and no parent who lets child
grow up uncontrolled, disobedient, un-
dutiful has any right to look for his
teachings to bear any harvest but sor
row and anxiety. The days of miracles
are past, and nothing is going to hap
pen to change the selfish, headstrong
boy or girl into the loving and consid-
crate man or woman.
There is not a single silly girl who
brings shame and misery on herself;
there is not wild boy who breaks his
mothers heart by his dissipation;
there is not even an unsuccessful, no
account loafer who has not a right to
reproach their parents with their fate
and say, ''This is your work. II you
had controlled me while / was a child,
If you had taught me to bride my
passions and my appetite, if you had
instilled the habit of obedience in me,
and taught me persistence of purpose
and industry, I should not now be the
poor, ruined creature that you see. j
blame you with my wretched life and
ruined happiness"
A few years ago I was sitting on
hotel piazza with group of women,
and one of them kept calling to her
little daughter, a child Of 10, who had
been i'll, and telling her to come into
the house. The girl did not even pay
her mother the courtesy of reply, and
the mother turned to me and said, Il
can do nothing with her. She doesn't
obey a word l say, and have abso-
lutely no control over her."
Whether she comes in out of the
rain or not" 1 replied, doesn't matter
much, but what are you going to do
when she gets grown? You have estab-
lished no habit of obedience in her
she has no respect for your judgment
no care for your feelings. There will
be nothing to which you can appeal If
the day ever comes when you will
need to save her from making some
terrible mistake-when you will need to
save her from herself"
The other day 1 heard the sequel to
the story. The girl grew up, and by
anu Dy she Jldu6 the acquaintance on
the street of people her mother could
not know, and when her parents rous-
ed up to a sense OF their duty at Aast
attempted to control her, she laughed
at them and defied them and went hef
way, and there came a day when her
mother would have been glad TO have
looked upon her dead face and know
that she was safe.
This is an old view of an old subject
nd he nf lot hax
come to realize that the mother is as
much responsible for her children's
physical welfare as she is for their
mental and moral development. The
other day I had this subject forcibly
impressed upon me in curious way
I was talking to a beauty Doctor" a
man of deeply scientific attachments,
who devotes his great skill to making
people better looking, and he boldly
declared that mather who let a child
grow up ugly was a criminal.
"Of course" he said, II am not
speaking of those horrible deformities
that pass all human skill, but just the
little blemishes that mortify and annoy
people all their lives. Think, for in
stance, of booming man to go
through the world bow-legged or
knock kneed when the simplest of sur
gical operations will remedy the defect.
The same thing may be said about the
teeth. Nothing is uglier than tusk or
crooked teeth, and half the time the
whole matter could be remedied sim
ply by having a tooth drawn in time
and giving the other teeth room.
Then, there's the nose. It's just as
much a mothers duty to train up a
nose in the way il should go as II is
for her to cultivate proper manners In
her little ones. There's absolutely no
use in a mother submitting to the at
Fiction of permitting her child to have
a hideous nose because it was born
with one. The soft tissues can be mold
ed early in life. A thick nose can be
made thinner by regular treatment
such as COMPRISING II daily. either
with the fingers or with instruments
made with springs and padded ends
so as 10 clasp the nose. A clever wo-
man / once knew adjusted a clothes.
pin so 1t did the work perfectly. Many
noses are wrung and twisted out o.
shape to the too vigorous use of the
handkerchief. A pretty nose is one OF
the rarest and most important ele-
ments of good looks, and II is surely q
mothers duty to see that her child
gets one naturally, II she can, artif.
cially, If necessary.
"Fiopping ears can e trained TO grow
close to the head by being kept ban
daged back while the child is young
Pretty hair can, of course, be secured
by proper brushing and cultivation
while a good complexion, woman'i
GROWING charm and beauty. s SIMPLY
the result Of proper food. Ninety-nin'