The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-12-30
The Greatest Operatie
 Contra1to of tn e D ay

that their own welfare as well as their own comfort depended upon obeying me and behaving properly.
 Once a child is brought to realize this. 1t will fall into proper ways. made it a rule never to punish my children severely, but for wrong doing, I deprived them of some pleasure. This subjected them to no indignity. as thrash ings sometimes do with sensitive chill dren, and the lesson is better learned, l find. a 4 -
 required the truth at all times and in all circumstances. and I did not punish child that admitted it's transgres- sions Children, I have found, are very sensible, and even at an early age are open to conviction, If one will only take the time and pains to explain But alas, { Esosmany mothers are too busy!
 Irrational .Punishments
 Grave, very grave, mistakes are made by parents in modes of punishment for Trivial misdoings-. A harsh word, roughly. spoken; a hand laid none too gently on a little shoulder, push or a slap; all are calculated to impress a child with its own irreignihcance, to create in the little brain the thought that there is an inequality between child and parent that maysi never be overcome When a child thinks thus-and who can say what deep. thoughts enter little draw within itself, to live its own life lparta from its parents.
 With fl1is comes self-pity, and, after ward, each reprimand, no matter how thoroughly deserved, IS regarded as but another engagement in the perpetual, impossible fight between forces hope icssly and 2 .unevenly matched Thus, little by little, the boy or the girl grows away" from those who should h~ his or her chief companions and con- fdants.
 The chiid's Brain r5 iess elLittle beginningsl Imaginary as. it may seem, 1t is not impossible that some great.crirnes have had their true origin in unjust chastisement reted out to well-meaning child. Small things affect us older folk; how much more must they affect a growing, sensitive brain, open to new thoughts and new ideas every instant of its existence. and put ting on each act observed a construction naturally. narrow, and based. in many cases. purely on sentiment and seldom on reason?. For children. all, are. senti- mental, and their reasoning, if reason they do, has for its objective point an ideal
 These little brains of our children. which treasure kind word SO long and retain as carefully the memory of -wrong-some day they will have to think. out questions large with import and on which. the welfare of not one person alone, but of many hundreds, may depend.
 How great. then is the responsibility that rests with mothers and fathers who are charged with the training of these brainst How necessary that we should try to see two points of view at thes same; time and always. so that no vagrant train of thought may be started in the latle head.
 I seldom had to resort to, corporal punishment, I am very glad to say, though admit that there are. occasions when it is necessary. My children were close to me, and I think they un- derstood me from the time they could understand anything at all.
 If they misbehaved and they saw that I was hurt or sorry, they were sorry too, and that was quite sufficient pun ishnrent, for none of them would trans rress. again in the same way, as long as the memory of my sorrow at their act lasted. They all learned to know what was passing through my rli7d when I