The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-05-13

ind the children tiresome and dis
agreeable, but in the eyes of doting
parents they are without peer, and
Hheir sayings and doings are related
with infinite relish whenever anybody
can be found who has leisure and pa
Sience to listen.
Precocious children fortunately for
themselves and for the race, are the
exception rather than the rule. "A
normal child, healthy and sturdy. is
i seldom precocious. OF course, there
are on record notable instances of
children who manifested remarkable
traits and extraordinary Intelligence
at a very early age, and some of them
did not belle their infant promise.
Lord Macauiey is a case in point.
When he was somewhere near the
milestone OF his fourth birthday, he
read necessarily and lying on the
hearth rug, at full length. with face
Intent on a book. he heard little that
was goin- on around him. On one oc-
casion, having the misfortune TO be
badly burned, this unchild-like child
Remarked. 20 a sympathizing friend
that the agony was extreme. Yet
9dacauley grew I'D to be not merely
an eminent historian and man Of let
edge, Of profound public spirit, and
of notable loyalty 10 kith and kin.
Though a prig in childhood, he was
not a pedant in maturity.
OF Robert Murray McCheyne, a IA
NOUS Scotch clergyman, it is graveIy
set down by his bographer, that he
had mastered the Greek alphabet at
the age Of three. l myself have
Friend. woman of brilliant powers
and varied scholarship, who was
taught to read Hebrew by a very
learned father before she was allowed
TO learn English so that as a little
thing OF six she read the Hebrew
Scriptures. while she did not yet know
The English alphabet Her early pre-
Cocity did her no harm.
Generally speaking. considering the
importance of q sound mind in a
sound body it is not worth while TO
push children forward intellectually at
the possible expense of future health
and NigOr. The brain If unfairly
treated may develop so rapidly that
Its power of assimilation will be early
exhausted and the wonderfully bril-
liant child become in later life medf-
OGRE, duh and commonplace The bow
end girl who makes a clean sweep of
al the prizes in sight during school
DAYS, are often never heard of again.
Some Of our most conspicuous states
men, authors and commanders, on sea
and land, made no show whatever
during the days of their training, and
We're graduated in the lowest ranks Of
their class.
y beSetting sin Of American parents
Is an almost insane ambition in be-
halt OF children and a desire to push
ne children as fast as they can out Of
chldhood's quiet round into the tur-
mon or the arena. Little people are
hurried from the cradle to the kinder |
G2Tten. from the kindergarten to the
primary and so on through the sew
n Cr On =
advantage of the children heard |
the other day of young doctor who
natriculated at the medical school
when he was just Is. an age at which |
no youth is fit to undertake the seri- |
Gus study of medicine, and indeed at
which few boys are sufficiently ma
tured to enter college.
We are in frantic haste to get our
boys ana girls where they may either
earn their own livelihood, or in some
way compete with others who are
breadwfnners in the crowded market
places OF the land.
\ preeocious child is very likely to
hear so much about his talents and
his attachments that he will look
down condescendingly on the neigh |
Dor who is not nearly so far advanced
ana sun has a pronounced liking for
marbles, kites, balls and robust
games boy ought to know how to /
play. Play is far more worth while
Tor him THAI work in the first ten
years of life. |
One great advantage of athletic
Eports' OF footban, baseball and bas-
ket-ball, lies in the fact that the st,tr-
oihesS and pluck they demand. prO- /
long the play-time Of the vouth rrbe
precoclous child is seldom or never a /
5000 catcher or pitcher or quarter !
BACK or hah- back; he is on the CON /
trary, likely to survey with disdsin
the poyish pride taken by athletes i'm 1
their triumphs, and to consider tho
time spent in the open air rather a /
waste than the opposite. His eDarpieS
are oent on acquiring more and still
more culture from the world Of Iftera |
lure Otten one sees the strange /
anomaly when such a youth has
grown I'D, Of a man whose inforr1o
lioh Is pTodlgious, While his knowI- |
edge Of available tools is accidents T.,
other words, it is not the youth who
mas made the most rapid strides DIR
ing mis- training who has the requisite
staying power to hold on and 90 we'll
IN the rougher realities of everyday
existence.
Another point to be noted Is that
everyone fights shy of the infant
prodigy Parents trot him ont 80
compel him TO show his PAGES. to the
boredom and disgust OF friends and
acquajntances. Fond mothers little
dream Of the dismay ard the secret
amusement they awake N the minds
or their social circle. Here comes
Mrs. w She Is sure TO lead the sub
5ect around to Albert's performances
unless that hopeful child ard his Won
derful speeches can be side-tracked. !"
/ have known a silent combination of /
forces ready to check the mother
without her suspecting il, when. as
usual. she began to launch forth on
her pet topic.
What becomes finally Of all the in
FAINT phenomena? Some of them. no
doubt, fiji early graves. others break