The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1908-05-30
SPORTS FOR THE YOUNG.

kind and quantity OF it.
We are living in sportive age and
so much of the peoples time and
money is going for which is not bread,
that many find themselves unable tc
provide necessities of life for..them-
selves. One naturally asks who is to
blame that there are so many poor in
this land of broad untitled acres that
offer rich opportunities for earning a
livelihood.
| I have long thought that the in
creasing idleness and dissipation is,
in great measure, owing to parental
neglect. Parents have not respected
that true old proverb, "train up a
child in the way he should go and
when he is old he will not depart
from it.. They have handed over the
reins to their children and have let
them do the driving. As fresh COL
lege graduate, in reply to the question,
"What are you going to do next 2"
said, II am going to train up my pa.
rents In the way they should CO." He
said this loosely and the laugh went
around and the parents were as proud
as they could be of so brilliant child.
He was as good as his word-he
trained them out of a fortune and has
never been able to maintain himself
and family in anything like the COM
forts in which he was nutured, and
has no means to help the parents he
made poor. This is Gods way of
righting things. When people for
| get their duty to their children be-
cause they have plenty of cash and
do not teach them to be industrious
and frugal, God makes them poor
and so gives to the next generation
chance at least to practice the wisdom
of their early ancestors and thus re-
store the family to its lost prosperity.
Nobody can estimate how much good
poverty has done for this country.
What stimulus 1t has been to exer-
ton /! And how many of the inven-
tions and appliances for expeditions
business and home comforts have
originated in the fertile brains of
poor men, whose childhood days were
not flush of amusements.
The children of all rich parents
do not come to grief, because soma of
them are sensible people and rear
their children in plain ways and teach
them to earn their own spending
money and not to spendi it all after it
is earned. 1 know a few rich men
who oblige their sons to begin at the
bottom of the business they are to
pursue, and keep pegging away with
very few holidays and no expensive
and injurious sports. Young men
trained in this way are not so apt to
become spendthrifts and gamblers,
though the society they will be apt
to rningle with on account ef the,
I43th .of.-tha. naterpal nurse so
the wonder is that any Of them can
be trained into solid, trustworthy men
and women.
The work of training should begin
in infancy. All children Of sound
minds have resources within them
selves for entertainment. A few
empty spools, blocks, old books or
other inexpensive things, will af-
ford amusement for hours. 1t quick
ems their faculties and their dexter
ity to make their own playthings
and will serve them longer and more
proftably than great numbers OF fac
tory-made toys. I venture to assert
that large proportion ofthe millions
of money spent annually for toys for
the children is worse than wasted. 1t
encourages laziness in the young and
an unwillingness to be helpful and
wait on themselves. A toy, to be
useful, should require effort to get
amusement out of it. A ball, kite,
a wagon, puzzle or anything over
which the child must exert himself to
bring out genuine sport, is of the
kind that is most profitable, and these
are all the better If of home construc-
ton. We begin with the children
and by the abundance of senseless
TOYS and amusements that we provide
them with, we instill wasteful habits
and then wonder why they will not
stick to business and be of some ac-
count in the world when grown up.
They have been trained to waste in
youth and will not depart from it in
age. ;,
I have in my minds eye boy that
knew forty years ago. | met him
in his fathers house-he was brave,
bright, beautiful child. I sat him on
nv knee and talked to him and
thought how happy must be the pa
rents of such boy.
They were quite wealthy people, he
was the only child and the house was
strewed with costly toys, but he SEEM
ed to have lost all interest in them.
Although his parents had been brought
up plainly, they had fallen into the
ways of the world-wine and beer
were dealt out from their sideboard
and the boy was allowed to sip and be
sociable with the rest.
Where is that boy to-day! His
parents are dead. He has wife and
two children who, it is reasonable te
believe, wish that he were dead, also.
He is worthless sot. He was lef'
a fortune, but it is rapidly disappear
ing. His occupation is drinking
{ His face is red and swollen and looks
as if blood poisoning was in progress
The world would be better of withou
him than with him and a few NOR
years will finish the story. His chill
, dren will be poor and no doubt helI
to swell the full ranks of paupers anc
vagabonds. Who is to blame? LIE
us think about these things.
Are these mothers doing their en-
tire duty in training their little ones
: who leave them in the care OF ire
sponsible help, while they are out a
some bridge or euchre party wher
!; the wine cup is included in the enter
4 tainment? Although these car
t functions may be held at some fash