Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1907-01-26
SUNDAY SERMON.

and story since the day when the
shepherds paid homage at the
nanger in Bethlehem. From g
home like this the father gains
strength ana inspiration for the
conflict, Ia the field where senti-
ment is a stranger and where the
only law which governs is the survi-
val of the fiUtest.
He offers no complaint and asks
for no sympathy; il a winner il the
fight the struggle is never counted,
however severe it may be. There
are many heroines in the homes,
but the heroes outside, in the thick
Of the fray, contribute largely to
the .laurels.
-
Much could be SAID about the
goodness of the average father. He
is good and the children know it,
but they sometimes forget TO say
anything about it. He is the old
man" long before the failure of
mental and physical faculties de-
velop, and his cash surplus is in
liberal demand, from the day of
the first pair of skates until a few
years after graduation, and this is
sometimes followed by the skidoo
problem as TO what there will be
left to divide, ard Low long 1t ought
to take him SO declare p dividend.
The boy ORA VS. Oh the mothers
love and the fathers pocket5ook.
The former is always ineXhaustabIe,
ard the latter frequently exhausted.
The mother receives the credit to
which she is entitled; the father
gets the kicks, for which he ought
TO be grateful. Its an awfuliy
Gice thing In be mother" so peo-
pie say who IA tried it. There's
a variety of opinion. as to the ques-
ton, in the ranks of fathers.
Responsibility for the coming
generation rests upon both, and
the age is SO rapid that tits difficult
to k8ep up E running acquaintance
with our own children.
OF course nobody ever had chill
dren Just like ours. The Lord never
intended they should. IL there is
only one in the family. the mother
thinks him 1.-The sweetest boy that
ever was" yet she would need tag
TO identify him if mixed up with a
dozen others.
When he gets out on the street
with the boys. he is a little the
brightest that ever happened. He
knows it for mother told him so.
The neighbors are of a different
opinion, but the neighbors are pre-
JUDGED.
When he graduates on the varsity
eleven, and whoops it UP from Min
nesota to Yale, the echo cheers the
heart Of the mother like lullaby,
while the ''old man" saws wood
and thinks. The mother is happy,
and the father has paid the bills so
long that he has ceased to complain.
The trouble with a multitude of
fathers is, that they don't know
their boys half as we'll as their
neighbors do, across the street.
There are more orphans, at large
today, with two abIe-bodied parents
living, than at any time in the his
tory of the country, and the home
is not altogether responsible.
Among the fads, which are being
carried to extremes, just now, one
of the most pernicious is the much
discussed child labor law. 1t is all
right when applied to children, but
the only way you can make a child
of boy when he is Is years and II
months old, is to keep him in knick-
erbockers, and corral him in the
backyard.
The average father IS credited
with some common sense, and ne is
wise enough TO know that it never
pays to compel a boy 70 60 to school
after he is IA When that age is
reached he is old enough to reason,
and if ne can't be convinced by
argument and parental sollcitude,
the place for him is at work.
The truapt officer may chase him
around the block, for a couple of
years, and think he is educating
him. So he is, for the slums and
all sorts Of vice.
This is the experience in every
large city, where an army of boys
are kept from work by law until
they become common Ioafers well
on the road to crime.
Where these conditions prevail,
and they are not the exception, the
boy becomes an alien, and the in
fuence of the father is Ill, at q
time in the boys life when he needs
protection more than at ANY other
DeriOd