The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-05-06
EVENING CHAT
By RUTH CAMERON.

If there is one inalienable right of
childhood it seems to me it's the right
to all the sleep it needs. even when that
happens to be more than it thinks it
wants.
And for that reason nothing makes
me more indignant than to see a
sleepy headed little kiddie being hauled
around on the cars or streets at night
and deprived of it's right to sleep by
the very people who ought to be the
most Jealous guardians of that right.
In the theater car on which 1 came
home last night there were three Of
them-one lucky in being small enough
to sleep, troubled, cramped, inter
mittent sleep, nothing like what he
should have been having in his crib at
home. but still a sleep. One little
girl five or six years old, leaning I'M
comfortably against her mothers arm
and occasionally lifting her head to
ask, fretfuIly: aren't we most there,
mammal" The third, boy of eight or
nine, less obviously suffering from
sleeplessness, to be sure, but an even
more pathetic sight than the other two,
because he had beneath his. eyes the
deep circles that showed that he was
all too well accustomed to such hours.
l don't suppose the society with the
long name, that abbreviates to S. P. c.
G., would be considered exactly justi-
fed in stepping in in cases like those,
but 1 wish it were.
/ wish there could be a law prohibit
ing parents from keeping children un-
der ten out after o'clock at night, I'M
less they could show that such a pro-
ceeding was absolutely necessary.
1t is as cruel to children to bring
them up without a full allowance of
sleep as without sufficient food.
One of the saddest sights in a big
city to me is to go through the Slums
at IL o'clock or midnight in summer
and see the little children still playing
/ q hnIif hn CT sc +on hot
in the crowded, i'll ventilated tene
ment houses for them to have much
chance of sleeping before then, and be-
cause they have parents that are too
ignorant to realize what such hours
mean for a child.
1 think every child up to the age of
fourteen might go to bed at 7 o'clock
practically every night of its life.
Fourth of July, Christmas, my birth
day and the night of re Church Fair
retiring that I was allowed, and it
didn't hurt me any.
Indeed. only wish it had been en-
forced longer.
From fourteen years of age until the
child gets through high school, I don't
think l-alf-past eight or nine for every
night i'm the week but Friday and Sat
urday is one bit too early.
OF course, there's going to be a good
deal Of protest against such a rule
When Other children are going TO DeQ
at all hours of the night. The hard
hearted father or mother that enforces
it is going to be pleaded with and &C
cused of cruelty, and all that.
But never you mind. -
Some day, when the girl realizes that
she has much prettier complexion than
the girls who went to parties or sat up
and read or went to the theater five
nights of the week. and your boy finds
he has the kind of physique that's
wanted on the varsity team, maybe
they're going to realize that early bed
time had something to do with pro-
ducing these blessings, and come to the
point o. thanking the author of early
bedtimes.
And even If they do forget that little
whole, rather likely-I fancy you are
going to be SO glad of their healthy
brains and bodies that you aren't go
ing to need much other reward.