The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-07-30
UNFIT PARENTS.
Miss Bartelme Says Many Arc In
worthy of ChiIdren's Honor.

Chicago, July 30.-Establishmen
of a visiting housewives association 70
teach mothers how to look properly
after their homes, and the changing
of the biblical Injunction of Honor
thy father and thy mother" to Honor
thy sons and thy daughters, on Ihe
theory that if the latter were ruInlleo
the former command naturally "ooi1
follow, were suggested as princlpaI
cures of domestic evils in a tax on
Some Present Conditions OF FANNY
Life and Its Needs" by MISS mary
Bartelue public guardian OF COOK
county. In the pulpit of All Souls
church. lakewood boulevard ana
Langley avenue.
I've hear so much about family
discord. contention. and divorce the
speaker said, land those with good
educations, sanitary homes, whole
some food, long restful vacations, and
a surfeit OF pleasure forget their re-
sponsibilities toward their less for
fact that many boys and girls are
ashamed of their homes and even OF
their parents, yet in our puDic
schools we teach them that uncleanli-
ness drunkenness, disorder, uncouth
manners, and the coarseness which
they see in their homes are not to be
tolerated
Parents Undeserving of Honor.
perhaps they should not De
ashamed of their parents. but they
certainly ought not to be satlshed
with them. If a boy is to honor
drunken, lazy father 1 see no reason
why he should not follow his example
If a mother spends large portion Oh
her time gossiping with the nefghoors,
is coarse, slatternly about her person
and her home. and nags at her nus
band and her children I can not see
how the children suffering from these
conditions can reasonably be expected
to honor or respect her, even though
she i,n their mother.
Every child must have social life,
end if the young girl of foreign par
ents who has gone through our gram /
mar schools and is now at work down !
town wishes to enjoy the company of |
her friends and is ashamed of her |
home and has good reasons to be, can |
we wonder if she meets her company |
in the streets and public dance halls? |
Parents have neither the liberty nor |
the license to abuse or neglect their !
children. and one form of abuse is to |
permit a child to associate with char
acters So low and degraded as some of
these parents
Tells of Two Unworthy Fathers.
At this juncture Miss Bartelme told
q couple of stories that made her
hearers see certain matters in a new
light One dealt with a girl IL years
old in the Home for the F'riendless
who lost her arm eight months ago
and on whose behalf the public
guardian will receive $500 from the Ii
j
I'm this case" the speaker said,
''the father never called upon the
child or bothered anything about her
until he learned of the money and
now wants to know how much of it he
will get for being her father
The other story she learned from
girl of 19, whose father deserted the
mother and four children seven years
ago The mother shaved and kept the
family together for five years. when
she succumbed to. consumption, and
W hen the supposed head of the family
learned of her death he returned and
showed his fatherly duty and interest
the children about and demanding
the pay of the two wage earners
among the children.
SeIfishncss Root of Evil.
Miss Bartelme condemned those
who spend their entire earnings upon
ence of parents and others in the
"a mily. Selfishness. she asserted, is
he root of most family difficulties.
She set up cleanliness as the first re- {
luirement of a happy home and ex- {
planned that all girls ought to be $
aught how to sew. scrub, wash and Z
cook and that the boys ought to be I
aught how to make themselves use
,ul. t
Ignorance of girls at vacation t.
schools who put clothes of all colors I
md descriptions into one tub drew l
'orth the remark about teaching Y
mothers how to do their work. From
,uch a scheme the speaker would ex- {
)ect the same good results as are now
derived through the visiting nurses.
she thought the women's clubs ought |
% take up the proposition. Boys, she |
aid. need the artistic side of life as
we'll as the girls.