The Savannah morning news., 1902-03-16
WOMAN'S
WORLD.

only 20. also. In many ways, says
rorothy Dix in the New Orleans Plea
,,,ne. the case has hardly a parallel in
criminal annals. but sad and tragic
os if is. the most appalling feature is
,ba searchlight it has thrown on the
nav in which the average child is
drought UP in this country, and the
utter lack of discipline that prevails
in the average American home.
For these two unfortunate children
do not belong in any sense to the Grim
inal classes. They came from respec-
table people and good homes, and
chu-rn-going parents, yet it has been
shown that they We're left absolutely
70 follow their own desires and ca
rrices. without guidance or hindrance,
and to go the road that led them to
min. The girl made friends of whom
bar parents knew nothing. She would
ahsent herself from home without their
knowing where she was, and they ac-
cepted her excuse that she had been
at "Maud's" or "Sallie's" without in
vestigation, and when at last the worst
befell her that could befall a girl, they
turned neT from NOME dIiu SHuI the
door in her face.
No thinking person can hear the
story of this girls life without feeling
that it is her mother and father who
ought to stand arraigned before the
har of Justice to answer for the crime
instead of her; but. criminally careless
as they were, they do not stand alone.
All over the country there are thou
sands and tens of thousands of other
mothers and fathers equally reckless
of their daughters safety, and that
the tragedy of this poor girls life is
not oftener repeated is the mercy of
God, and not the fault of the parents.
There is no other thing on earth that
begins to compare in it's Importance
with the responsibility a man and a
woman assume when they bring
child into the world, and there is moth
ing else they regard with such light
hearted, devil-may-c indifference.
The little life is theirs absolutely to
dispose of as they please, to fashion
into beauty, or warp into hideous de-
formity. Nowhere else is the mex
orable law of cause and effect so re-
lentlessly worked out as in the way
children are brought up, and yet every
day we hear parents cowardly taking
refuge from their own duty behind the
excuse Of saying that they had bad
luck" or good luck" with their chill
dren, according to the way their off
spring turned out.
The luck theory was a comfortable
one, and it let the parents off easy,
but the trouble is that it won't hold
water. There is no luck in the mat
ter. II is all logic Last summer I
SAW an ignorant mother give a teeth
ing baby cucumber pickle to eat, and
= doctor 70
WHY" said the woman, 81 have had
thirteen children, and l raised 'em all
that way" How many have you
alive now?" asked the doctor Well"
replied the woman, her eyes filling up
with tears, Il had awful bad luck with
my children. Every one of them died
while they were babies"
We may smile at a story like that,
but in our way we are just as purblind
and ignorant. and are taking just as
many chances with our children. on
the hope that the calamity that we are
inviting won't overtake them, and it is
time that parents wake up and face
the fact that they are responsible for
the physical, the mental and the moral
welfare of their children.
Many people, says the Chicago Rec
ord-Herald will be surprised to learn
that Mary and her little lamb, cele-
brated in verse, were realities.
The original was Mary E. Sawyer,
afterward Mrs. Columbus Tyler. She
was born and brought up near Worces-
ter, Mass, where the lamb episode
really happened. From the fleece
sheared from her pet two pairs of
stockings were knit.
One pair, treasured by the old lady
until she was about so years old, was
contributed by her ten years ago to
fund which was being raised for the
preservation of the old South Church.
Boston. The yarn of the stocking was
raveled out and small pieces were at
tached to cards bearing her autograph.
From the sale of these cards the sum
Of 500 was realized.
The pet of Mrs. Tylers childhood
was the little newborn lamb, found
almost dead, which she had carefully
nursed back to life, sitting up all one
night to care for it. Daily she combed
It's fleece and tied the wool with
onght ribbons. It became devotedly
attached to her and followed her about
everywhere. One day her brother
Nat suggested that they take the
lamb to school. 1t followed willingly
enough and Mary secreted it beneath
her seat high boaTded-up, old-fash-
Toned seat. 1t lay there very quietly
covered up with her shawl. BY and by
Mary had to leave her seat to recite.
A moment later there was clatter and
patter on the floor and the lamb came
following after.
Inc teacher, a Miss Polly KimbaH,
VINO was afterward the mother of Mr..
Lorlng, of Boston, did not reprimand
Mary, but laughed heartily with all of
aer pupils. Mary, very much morti-
neg. led the lamb out of doors, and
put 1t in shed, where it remained I'M
III she went home at noon.
There happened to be visiting the
Scnool that morning a young man
gohn Roulstone, the son of Mary
uahclng master. He was greatly
creased at the incident, and the next
Jay came again to the schoolhouse,
!DIIhglng Mary slip of paper contain
lug three stanzas which he had COM
P0sed. Two stanzas were afterward
'Uqed by Mrs. Townsend.
Wnen she had grown to young wo-
manhood Mary taught school at Fitch
purg. After her marriage she held the
posltlon of matron of the Mclean In
zane Asylum, at Somerville, Mass, for
ulIrty-hve years.
me ne society girl, says the Pittsburg
iDlspatch, no longer makes her debut
al modest home gathering dressed in
pam white frock. She comes out"
W 1ne accompaniment of the costliest
iiuuSlc that money can engage; wear
.Is uhe most magnificent gown that
eHe modiste can design, and amid
zines OF splendor that must be paid
eor by the signing of numerous four
"1 lure checks by the doting father.