The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1906-06-14
Parental Discipline.
Too Many Boys Of the Present Day
are Growing Up Without the
Training and Restraint that Form
Character and Make Men.

Training and Restraint that Form
Character and Make Men.
Gastonia Gazette.
Seldom in every day life does one
run across more tragic iife-stOry
than that of the gentle Kentucky
lad who died the other day at High
Point, a road convict with a hole
through his body to mark the path
OF n vengeful bullet from the guards
remorseless Winchester He is spok-
ell Of as gentle, because, though
clearly lacking in high moral purpose,
he seems to have been brought up
politely; and besides, his dying breath
was plea for better treatment for his
fellow convicts Oh the road. He was
considerate of his companions in suf-
fering, and all the recorded utter
ances of the dying boy stamp him as
possessing more OF the finer instincts
Of his race than some of his fellow
men who have been lucky enough to
stay off the chaingang.
Taking it as true that he was bred
in gentle Kentucky home, one won
ders what is the secret of his down
fall. Was it heredity? Was it lack Of
mothers nursing and q mothers
prayer? Did this man sin or his par
ents, that he was born to temptation
like the rest of us and at last died a
convict? Perhaps these things will
never be known until everything else
is opened to the ken of man and the
angels, but there is one sentence
in his last words that may serve
to base guess upon. 81 was
reared to have anything l wanted" p"
he said, and therein may have been
the open door to all the i'll that he
could not conquer in his life's little
way
There are few OF us who do not need
the saving virtues which come from
character - from discipline--hard,
austere discipline. Endure hardness as
a good soldier, was the apostles in
junction. Hardness is good when
endured for the good it brings, and
some hardness must be endured by
every mothers son of us who would
be more than piece OF driftwood on
a sea of sin. There is training in it,
and training always looks to the flu
ture, is always directed to an hour OF
trial, of peril, of triumph or defeat.
The fair faced little boy with merry
eyes and loving ways and ever cheer
ing laughter overfowing with good
fellowship, tempts fond parents and
admiring neighbors to crafty his
every want. Better not do that.
Be good to him and deny him some
things. The lad, the guards rife
killed had everything he wanted when
he was growing up. And when the
choice was presented to him of de.
nying his pride or forging a check he
was weak on self denial and strong
in the oppsite direction. He had not
been trained for the test and the
whispering of evil won the conflict
Temptations, trials, many perilious
hours will come; woe to him who
goes to meet them in his crude un
trained strength, woe to him who
goes with his powers already domi
mated by evil influences. The Hebrew
lad in the courts of Babylon was dis
ciplined before the hour-he haG
thought of it. he had "purposed il
his heart that he would not" and he
5 didn't!
Our people are accumulating at {
, rate they have never before knowr
the material things of life. Parents
are better able than ever before t(
gratify every want of their children
. But it is a good idea not to do it
t Teach them to work. Occupied will
their work, they forget many foolisl
: wants, and that brain which whel
idle is the devils workshop, becomes
at once a trysting place for all o
| life's good angels. Teach the bo,
: thrift, that is all right; thrift is I
, good word and the word represents;
E thing that is filled with self-discipline
i self-denial. Teach him thrift, will
honor to balance in, and one of thes
; days somebody is going to be prou(
of the boy. Mothers, don't fear tt
see your darling boys get their garb
| mussed up at work. Don't be afrait
| to have them come home at nigh
| hungry and may be tired, too. Al
honest days work has never yet hur
| a boy, and if it takes enough of tn
snap out of him to keep him off tn
street at night and send him to be-
| early, You ought not to say, POO
| little fellowr' The rather you ough
to say, "Hurrah for the days work.
The snap will all be back the mex
morning But if you pet and pam
per and indulge and crafty becaus
you are weak enough yourself to pre-
fer the ease OF gratifying them to th
sterner path OF resisting and training
by the virtue of wise denial, then yo
n have only to go far enough with it il
: order to find q heart-ache that moth
I ing but heaven can help. Look int
+ your little boys fair, bright face an
). merry eyes, listened to the music c
s laughter in his sweet voice, and ifyo
t can do anything in the way OF train
ing-hard training, if necessary-t
keep him from dying in strang
land, in strange striped garments
among strange people, his thirs
firowing greater as his wounds blee
more, his dry lips wet with cool draft
from the hands ofpity-smitten alien
and from crying at the last, 9Th
way of transgressor is hard, hard
|, hardW If you can keepy your darlin'
little boy from a fate like that by dis
cipline, by training, however har
and stern, hadn't you better do it?