Griggs courier. (Cooperstown, Griggs Co., Dak. [N.D.]) 1885-1902, 1901-12-12
The Detection of
Danny's M0l77l77er.
By William Mac Leod Raine.
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ll heve in spanking. She had ably
maintained in a paper before the
North Side Mothers club that to in.
ftict physical pain on a helpless child
was barbaric, cruel, unnecessary and
utterly subyersive of those finer feel
ings of comradeship which should ex-
list between parent and child. The
club was enthusiastic in its indorse-
ment of s'The Passing of Corporal
Punishment" and voted almost unan-
imously for the publication and wide
distribution of the paper. Mrs. OAR
row felt it to be a striking instance of
the strength of the foolish conven-
tions which had so long bound wo-
men that Mrs. Wentworth, genial
mother of six children though she
was, remained unconvinced as to the
practical working of the new scien-
stific substitutes for the old-fashioned
rod.
Certainly Mrs. barrow had in Dam
iel, Jr., SPLENDID material upon which
to test her theories to the utmost.
He was what Mrs. Barry, washlady
for sundry families in the neighbor-
hood, called "a limb" Sometimes she
varied her form of expression, pro-
souncing him to be s.a little divvle .
but in either case she meant the same
thing.
He appeared as cherubic q child as
one would want to meet. His big, blue
eyes, his engaging smile, his charm
ing lisp were eloquent of innocence,
but in his four-year-old heart lurked
suggestions Of depravity to be ac-
counted for only on the basis of
original sin. There were times when
the maternal happiness in the possess
sion of her darling was so keen that
a painful fear filled her mind lest he
should be found too good for this
world. This was usually when the
cherub lay asleep, with his beautiful,
golden curls falling across his pink
and white cheeks. At other times she
rarely had to combat this anxiety, ex-
cept when he sat in denure silence
plotting further mischief. 81 IL was
characteristic of her attitude toward
him that if this experimentation ma
chine was quiet for an instant she at
once suspected him of being sick.
Divers were here methods of pun
ishment. She would take him on her
knee and reason with him till tender
hearted Dannie burst into sudden
gushs of tears at the pain he was
cansing his ssMommer.'' She would
make him say his prayers and ask for
giveness, would deny him some ex-
pected pleasure, or in extreme cases
would lock him up in the coal cellar,
from whence Master Daniel usually
emerged gaily with black hands ana
face, having put in his period Of en-
forced confinement in playing train
engineer. In any case he always had
the happy faculty of forgetting imme-
diately that he was under punishment
and beamed upon his mother so conf
IDENTIFY that sometimes she too forgot
it. If she heartlessly reminded him
of his disgrace he made Of it a fasci-
mating play, in which he alternately
chided himself for his naughtiness
and made penitent promises of amend
ment in voices suited to the different
parts. s*
The morning after the reading Of
his mothers paper Daniel was unus-
ually active. It almost seemed as if
the formal announcement of the
passing Of the rod had stirred him to
celebration of the event. At any
rate he exerted himself to make his
presence felt in his little world.
you're tryin' yourself, Dannie, me
bye" Bridget told him wrathfully, as
she drove him from the kitchen at
last.
He lured the pup into the woodshed
and painted him deep, rich green
varied with occasional stripes of red,
after which he transferred his atten-
tions to the cat and laboriously
worked three umbrella rings on its
tail. Later he ventured back into
the kitchen on visit of Precipitation,
and in the cooks absence, while en-
dcaYoring to help himself to dough
from the pan to make play bread,
eaptied the sticky mass upon his
head.
Daniel explained to his mother that