The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1906-05-15
q g 3 Is 9 q 8 9
g RAISING BOYS. s
g (By NParson's Puckett) 9
3 3 3 s NC g 9 3 9 g g SIS

| ence. He recently heard a minister
state in a public address that he had
a son twenty-five years old who had
never talked back" to him. The
| Parson at once lost interest in that
young man, ana thought of a boy
only five years old who would start
a revolution in that preachers fam
lily within fifteen minutes.
OF conformity this boy knows lit
tie, INT his reply to the Injunction
"Don't' is ever ready, Why" We
sometimes rather sharply say, BE
cause papa doesn't want you to-"
Then those big brown eyes look at
| us with an expression of injured in
-nocence-and too often the boy is
| right. We have been irritable, and
| owe him an apology, but for the pres
| ent there is nothing to do but divert
his mind-and wnen he Shyly comes
up to the chair to inquire further,
the paper drops, the boy is on his
papa's knee, and we talk about some
thing else. He is a little afraid of
daddy" at times, but he knows how
mamma smooths down his bristles,
and the contest between man and
boy is nearly always a compromise,
and just as often surrender on one
side as the other. Why shouldn't it
be? However, it is more often mann
ma than magnanimity that acts as
p~eacemaker. Mamma represents love
even loves him Then he is Dad
and sometimes has to wipe tears
from her own eyes as well as his
before kneeling at the bedside to
heal his "Now | Lay Me Down to
Sleep" What if he does pray mor
to his mother than to God? Her pray
er carries it up, and God has com
missioned ner to answer the child's
| petition by placing his soul in her
care for the present. Love is enough
now. and as love is the very essence
of the true woman's being, it would
be profaning heaven itself for the
man to intrude OF question the jus
tice of a mothers forgiveness or the
depth of a child's repentance. But
the pOy HAS dill MS
mind, and some day he is going to
ask questions which mamma will re-
fer to his father.
Then is when we are going to for
get all the advice we yer heard or
read and begin to learn as much
from the boy as he learns from us.
The possibilities of this boys de-
velopment we know not. He ma
live to teach other men better meth
DDS of training children than We
nave ever known. Yea, all the history
of the human race is embodied in
something of the mother in him that
the father will understand, and
from remote ancestors in him re-
wives traits and tendencies dormant
in the parents. We can restrain him
to some extent and teach wnat little
we know, but most of the problems
of life he must solve for himself
and this he has a right to do. We
can direct him to some extent, and
in school he will be taught things
which everybody else knows, and the
contests with other children will
teach MIN to hoe his w row-but
we do MOI want to mould him into a
wax-model, a parrot nor a machine.
He will absorb from the soil and the
atmosphere, the sunshine and the
rain of life the elements of growth
The most that we can do is to pro-
tect him for awhile from known bad
influences let him grow. We can
not, and should not if we could, rob
him of freedom of thought. He has
a right to ask questions, n wnen
we no longer can answer them, let
us hope he will be prepared to an
Swer some of his own questions and
that he may become a better auth-
GRITTY than his parents.
The "Parson" has also an older
boy, who is able to read, and who
is even bold enough to question any
Inconsistency there may be between
his fathers preaching and practice.
He has already propounded questions
too knotty for us. and on the other
hand has told us with a great deal
of enthusiasm about things we used
to know nearly as well as he doesJ
His ideas on raising boys do not
always agree with ours-especialIy
when it seems necessary occasionally |
to raise him with a hame-strap. He
sometimes talks back" and we
must admit that ne often gets the
best of the argument. The cigarette
question has already been settled,
but it was not settled by arbitration,