The Grenada sentinel., 1906-01-13

er has had her engagements at home
the father and brothers have beer
| away at work, and on each side tnert
is sure to be something to relate
| which shall be suitable peg on which
to fang discussion.
OF course, the family table is 1ot
lecture platform, nor a pedagOgue's
desk, nor an arena for heated argu-
ment. There are homes in which the
law of self preservation has induced
The reigning sovereign, who is til.
lazy of the house, to lay down as al
infieXible rule, never bring politics to
The table. They provoke anger and
bitterness. Where any subject eX-
cites strongly contrasting opinions
that may be intemperately maintained,
it is wise to prohibit it, at an hour
sacred to domestic peace.
Whatever We do, we should not
quarrel at the table. Dyspepsia is
one Of the enemies that we as a peO-
pie need to fight, and it's presence is
invoked by disputes over food. Table
talk should be light, CHEEKY, bright
ana entertaining. If anybody hears
a gCoG story during the day, he should
save it to tell at dinner. If there
is in the newspaper a report of some
great discovery, some new invention,
some heroic deed, that is fit topic
for talk when the family are assem-
bleo around the board.
In some houses the old motto: Chill
dren should be seen, and not heard.
still holds sway, and combined with it
is another equally harmful to the eff
feet that little pitchers have big ears
The plain truth of the matter is that
nothing should ever be said in the
family circle which the little pitch
ers" ought not to hear, that every sort
CT gossip, censure, criticism, and bit
Of doubtful information not intended
for them should be reserved for places
and times when and from which they
are absent, and that well-bred chill
dren should be allowed their proper
share in family talk.
This does not mean that a forward
child should monopolize the attention
Of everybody; a precocious one make
speeches at which the family smile
appTOvingly, nor an obstinate one
Lound on the table till he gets an
answer to his question. Well-brei
children are taught not to interrupt,
and to wait until there is an inter-
val in the conversation of older peO-
pie before they press their claims. A
family is not a penitentiary nor a re-
formatory. 1t is republic, in which
the rights of every member are, or
ought to be, guaranteed. One right
Of childhood is to learn, and much of
the practical knowledge which chill
dren may learn is acquired outside OF
The schoolroom and in the home.
If there is one person more than
another to be regarded with dismay,
IL is, however, the one who may DC
defined as the educational parent. He
is SO imbued with a sense of his re-
spohsibility to the rising generation
that he side-tracks everything that
does not have direct bearing on
the instruction of his children. With
a pedantry that would be amusing il
1T were not so great a bore, he takes
at the table, as well as ON the
ferlybcatS or in the street car, or on
the walk home from church, to ex-
plain to his boys and girls the exact
meaning of every word they do not
understand, to tell them where Man
churia is, and all about the island OF
Sagbalien. to give them an insight
into political economy, and to convince
lhcn of the ethical distiA.tions tha.
obtain in the civilized world. All this