The Forrest City times., 1901-05-10

/ PLEDGE.
~ will try to be kind 10 all living Great
ures, aud try to protect them from cruel
usage.
He prayeth well, who loveth well
| Both man and bird and beast.
| lie prayeth best. who loveth best
| All things both great and small;
| For the dear God who loyeth us,
+ lie made and loveth all. "
Extract from speech by Geo. T. Angel
"NearIy all the criminals of the future.
the thieves, burglars, incendiaries and
murderers, are now in our public schools,
aud with them the greatest criminals who
commit national crimes. They are in our
them. We can mould them now If we
will.
To illustrate the power of education !:
We know that we can make tke same boy
Protestant, Roman Catholic or Mohamme-
dan. Ii is simply a question OF education.
We may put into his little hands as
first toys, whips, guns and swords. or
may teach him, as the Quakers do, that
war and cruelty are crimes. We may
teach him to shoot the little song bird in
the Spring time, with its nest full OF young,
or WE may teach him to feed the bird and
spare the nest. We may 20 into the
schools now with books pictures. song and
story and make neglected BOYS merciful.
or We may let them drift, until as men.
they become sufficiently lawless aud cruel
to throw our railway trains off the track
place dynamite under our dwelling houses
or public buildings. assassinate our Pres
ident, barn half our city, or involve the
nation in war.
- Is it not largely. if not wholly, a
question of educat ?
u ain sometimes asked "Why do
you spend so much OF your time and
money in talking about kindness to ami
mails and answer, " | ain working at
the roots.n Every humane publication.
every lecture, every step in dol or
teaching kindness TO them, is step to
prevent crime--a step in promoting the
growth of those qualities OF heart which
will elevate human souls. even in the
dens of sin and shame, and prepare the
way OF the coming of peace on earth and
good will toward men.
There are hundreds of thousands OF
parents among the depraved aud criminal
classes of this country whom no child can
be taught to love or ought to be- There
are hundreds Of thousands of homes
where the name of the Almighty is never
heard. except in words of blasphemy.
But there is not child in one of those
homes that may not be taught In our pub
lie schools to feed the birds and pat the
horses, and enjoy making happy all harm
less creatures met upon the streets, and so
be doing acts of Kindness forty times
day which will make the children happier,
better and more merclful in all the rea-
tons OF life.
standing before you as the advocate
of the lower races, l declare what believe
| cannot be gansaid-that just so soon and
so far as we pour into all our schools the
| songs, foems and literature of mercy to-
wards these lower creatures, just so soon
and so far shall we reach the roots not
only OF cruelty but OF crime.
SYMPATHY.
sympathy is the softener OF hearts,
which without it were as hard as flint
the warmer OF hearts, without 1t were
cold as Ice. 1t is the bearer of the Good
Samaritan oil to the wounded and strick-
EN- wayfarer. 1t brings sorrow TO the
soul and the tears of Mary, the sister of
| Dead Lazarus. By its power it relieved
Othello's bitterness of grief. the desola-
ton of iorsakrn King Lear, aud the silent
sadness OF Enoch Arden, is borne to
thousands upon thousands of tender hui
man hearts. As sympathy is far-reach-
ing, so Is 1t all embracing. The man who
steps over a crawling worm with a pass
ing thought that he will cause no needless
pain to any creature, is better man than
he who takes shorter easier STEP aud
thereby blos out a harmless, aud may be
happy life
- have much faith in the religion of
tender-hearted men. | believe that low.
ing kindness is a truer yard>tick than
wordy professions of piety, wherewith to
measure a mans character.