Mexico Missouri message., 1905-05-25

ly one OF the worst ana most energetic.
II simplicity Of heart is an essential
condition Of respect, simplicity Of life
is its best school. Whatever be the
state Of your fortune, avoid everything
which could make your children think
themselves more or better than others.
Though your wealth would permit you
TO dress them richly, remember the evil
you might do in exciting their vanity.
Preserve them from the evil Of be-
lieving that TO be elegantly dressed
sufiices for distinction, and, above all,
do not carelessly increase by their
clothes and their habits Of life the
distance which already separates them
from other children. Dress them sim
ply. And II, on the contrary, 1t should
be necessary for you TO economlze 30
give your children the pleasure of fine
clothes, / would that | might dispose
you to reserve your spirit of sacrifice
for a better cause. You risk seeing 1t
lily recompcnsed. You dissipatc your
money when it would much better
avail to save It for serious needs, and
you prepare for yourself, later on, a
harvest of ingrntltudc. How danger
Gus It is to nccustom your sons and
daughters TO style Of living beyond
your means and theirs! In the first
place, 1t is very bad for your purse. In
the second place, 1t develops a con-
temptuOus spirit in the very bosom Of
the family. II you dress your children
like little lords and give them to under
stand that they are superior 10 you,
is 1t astonishing If they end by dis
daining you? You will have nourished
at your table the declassed-a product
which costs dear and is worthless.
Any fashion of instructlng children
whose most evident result is to lead
them to despise their parents and the
customs and activities among which
they have grown up is n calamity. 1t
is effective for nothing but to produce
n legion of malContcnts, with hearts
totally estranged from their origin,
their race. their natural intcrcsts-cv-
erything, in short. that makes the fun
damental fabric OF n man. Once de-
tached from the vigorous stock which
produced them, the wind of their restless
ambition drives them over the earth
like dead leaves that will in the end be
heapcd up to fermcnt and rot together
Nature does not proceed by leaps and
bounds, but 10y an evolution slow and
certain. In preparing a career for our
children let us initiate her. Let us not
Confound progress and advancement
with those violent exercises called
somCrSaultS; let US not so bring up
our children that they will come to
despise work and the aspirations and
simple spirit of their fathers; let us not
expose them to the temptation of being
ashamed of our poverty If they them
selves come TO fortune. A society is
indeed diseased when the sons of peas
ants begin TO feel disgust for the fields,
when the sons of sailors desert the sea,
when the daughters Of wOrliingmen, in
the hope of being taken for heiresses,
prefer TO walk the streets alone rather
than beside their honest parents. \ So
ciety is healthy, on the contrary, when
each of its members applies himself to
doing very nearly what his parents
have done before him, but doing 1t
better, and, looking to future elevation,
is content first to fulfill conscientious
ly more modest duties.
Education should make independent
men. If you wish to train your chill
drcn for liberty, bring them up simply
and do not for a moment fear that in
so doing you are putting obstacles in
the way of their happiness. 1t will be
quite the contrary. The more costly toys
a child has, the more feasts and curious
entertainments, the less is he amused.
In this there is sure sign. Let US
be temperate in our methods of enter
tanning youth, and especially let us not
thoughtlcssly create for them artificial
needs. Food. dress. nursery, amuse-