Albuquerque evening citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1905-1907, 1905-10-13
VIGOROUSLY BAD
MANNERS OF
AMERICAN CHILDREN
(By Ella Wheeler Wilcox,

American children who travel
abroad with their parents are objects
of much u~nfavorable criticism.
h simple statement will arouse
the ire of all American parents wne
read it, but before you, fond father
or mother, express your indignation
toward your foreign critics let me ask
you a few questions:
what are you doing to prevent your
children from making themselves
nuisances in their association with
their elders?
The fact that they do not annoy
you is not sufficient; the fact that
you find them the most interesting
and remarkable children in the world
is not convincing, and the fact that
they are exceptionally bright and in
telligent or astonishingly intellectual
even has nothing to do with the dis.
cussion.
In truth, intellectually and agree
ableness are often strangers in adults
as well as in children.
Have you taught your boys that they
are to wait for all women and all older
people to pass though a door or into
a public conveyance? Or do you per.
NIT them to push and jostle their way
through a company or crowd and mon.
opolize the most desirable places in
vehicles?
Ii is so seldom one finds an Ameri-
a lad of any class VINO steps aside
to let a woman precede him in public
places that he attracts immediate at
tention when he is encountered.
The average boy thrusts his elbows
against the ribs of the man or woman
beside him and dives forward into
car or omnibus al the risk of tripping
b unwary or topping over the weak
n then if this occurs no word of
apology is ever heard from the lips
OF Master Stars and Stripes.
Nor have | yet to hear an Ameri-
a parent reprove a child for a per
manc of this kind. But when
othres have administered reproof he
has met with fond parents" defense:
He Is only a boy. He didn't mean
It, of course. One can't expect child
rem to be as thoughtful as their ED
ers," and so on.
But n can expect their elders to
teach them the rudiments of behav-
Tor.
Have you told your children that the
toothpick should no more be employ
ed in public than the toothbrush. or
do you allow your representatives to
parade through public halls and sit on
verandas and in drawing rooms. or
even at table, and WELD this disgust.
ing weapon?
III you have neglected this very i'm
portant Item in their education, let
me beg OF you TO instruct them from
this hour forward to attend 10 their
toilet matters in private and without
compulsory witnesses.
If your children say that well dress.
ed men and ome commit this same
offense against decency and good taste
assure them that they are unfoItu-
nate in having no well bred parents to
teach them better me and that
they are not TO be emulated, but
pitied.
Have you spoken to your daughters
regarding their high pitched voices
or do you hear them Shrek through
the house, hotel and street like the
steamboat whistle or the trolley gong
with no word of protest?
And do you smilingly say, "Mollie
is so full of life, you can always tel.
when she is around"
Do you train your boys and girls
When at taDle 10 wait until the process
OF m~astication is finished before in
dulging in active conversation?
Are your children allowed to stand
upon the seats of public c~Onyeyances
with dusty and muddy feet?
Do they interrupt the conversation
of older people, with no apology, and
enter rooms with the whoop Of wild
Indians on the warpath?
On, yes, / know children are full
OF vitality and irrepressible life, but
have seen splendid specimens of
childhood who eXudede health and vi
tally as a sponge eXudes water, yet
who had been taught good manner
n consideration Of others by parents
and who did not commit these Of
lenses.
There is no amount Of education
you can bestow upon your boys and
girls which will make them cultured
or well bred members Of society unless
you build this ground work of, decent
manners and habits in their early
youth.
PLAYING AUTHORS.