The Washington herald., 1911-12-21
THE SINS OF PARENTS
TOWARD THEIR CHILDREN
1t Is Practically Impossible for a Boy Brought Up
in Disobedieuce, SeLishness and With Respect
for Neither God Nor Man to Grow
Into Noble Manhood
By DOROTHY DIX.

heartbroken old mother Of the murderer
or the thief, or the girl who has gone
astray, l haven't got many tears to shed.
feel like saying to the parent: You
are the real sinner It's your fault that
this criminal stands before the bar Of
justice. II you had done your duty this
man or woman would be living a good,
useful life. blessing, instead OF curse.
to humanity"
This sounds hard, but every word Of It
is true, for. except in the case OF the in
sane, congenitive idiots, there is not
crime committed in which the parents
are not the aiders and abettors OF 1t;
there is not crime committed that they
could not have prevented had they done
their duty by their children.
When you let your little boy fly into
blind RACES in which he beats the furni-
ture, and bites and kicks everybody
about him, you are raising up a potential
murderer. When you let your little boy
have another piece of pie because he
cries for It, although you know that It
will make him sick, you have started him
on the way to oeing a drunkard and in
dulging his appetite at any cost. When
task because it's hard, and because he
wants TO play instead of work, you fore
doom him right then and there to being
Cne of the failures in life.
Given a normal child, and its future
lies in the parents hands. The boy that
is taught obedience and self-control, re-
spect for authority, and regard for the
rights Of others, never grows up to be
drunken hoodlum. The boy that IS
brought up in the knowledge Of the dig
nifty of labor, and who is held RESPONSE
BILE for the performance Of certain duties,
and who is taught that there Is no shame
greater than that Of a man not being
able 20 stand on his own feet, does not
degenerate into an idler and a loafer.
The girl who is taught modesty Of be-
havior, and has high ideals of sweetness
and purity held unwaveringly before her.
is never the girl who goes wrong. She
has that in her own heart that beats all
the chaperons in the world.
Not New Facts.
These are not new facts. There's no
father or mother so dull as not to know
them better than any one can tell him or
her. Yet every day on the street cars
We see well-dressed boys, whose appear
ance shows they come from good fam
lies, whose behavior is that of hoodlums,
and who are being permitted to grow up
into being toughs. We sse these same
boys defacing the property in apartment
houses and making life hideous for the
other tenants.
we near their parents mourntul IA
ment that they cannot control Johnnie
or Willie. We are accosted on the streets
by beautiful and elegantly gowned lit
tie girls who beg for money for soda
water, and call after US epithets OF the
slums when we refuse to hand over a
dime, and We wonder what these chill
dren's parents are thinking about.
And the pity of 1t all Is that these
PARENTS are making criminals OF their
children through love. They are so ten
der to their precious darlings they can
not bear to deny them anything even
for the Child's ultimate good. They,
themselves, are so weak and flabby they
lack the strength to harden the muscles
Of the chlld's morals so that 1t will be
enabled to withstand the strain OF life.
To every father and mother that reads
these words commend DR.. Eaton's ad-
vice.