The Washington herald., 1912-06-28

Strange Little Being. .r
So. then, the, child who is capable of
taking the plunge into eternity must
be a strangely contorted. little being in
his mind, and somewhere the system
that has controlled his life must be
/ wrong.
In our EFFORT to give tho children of
our day q chance at individual devel-
| opment It seems to me that we have
swung the pendulum of liberty too far.
First Of all, children Of the modern
| home have too great liberty in their
= reading. Boys between eight and fif-
teen are extremely impressionable, and
If given a taste of the morbid will look
for more. could count dozen homes
| on the instant where there are little
lads whose reading is totally unre-
stricted. When the Beatty murder
/ trial was in progress down in Rich
mond I heard boys discussing its horri-
BILE details in every particular-boys
who are little more than babies, and
whose young minds are yet as a sensi-
| tized negative, registering every influ-
ence that comes their way, making It
a part of the character building that
goes on in the young from childhood
to ma turity.
I have watched boys on the street
cars at my home going hour-boys who
have all the earmarks of refinement
greedily devOuring and discussing a
scandal that IL would make an adult
man or woman blush to mention.
The daily press gives the world the
Dews-gOod, bad, and Indifferent. If
crime is committed. its every detail is
published, and its horrors dwelled upon
at length. Scandals make good copy
in the majority OF newspaper offices All
the morbid things that come and go in
/ human life are published in a metropoli-
tan newspaper, yet parents turn these
daily sheets over t the dear lads and
lassies in their homes, leaving them at
liberty to imbIbe morbid thoughts and
brood upon the hideous things in life
Of which children should know absolutely
nothing.
Forms Ideals of Children.
Through reading a young child forms
many Of his ideals Of life; therefore. the
books that fall into the hands Of a boy
or girl should be only such books as will
help to make those ideals lofty-stories
that will perpetuate youth instead of
making sordid. sophisticated old men and
old women Of our children while they are
yet little more than babies.
Well suppose a case for illustration.
Wen say Billy, aged twelve, is given a
newspaper to read in which there is the
story Of the suicide of some man. who
has ended his life because he had been
wronged by one he loved, or because life
had gone wrong in one way or another
never mind how. The fact is that the
mans solution was self-destruction The
story fingers in the mind Of the boy
He gives his young sympathy to the
man first, and later comes to idealize
him. Then, when he is nurI TO the core
by some injustice at home, the memory
Of the newspaper report comes into his
mind. and he broods over It until his
thoughts become morbid. and as likely
as not he considers that II would be a
heroic thing to Just go out and have his
revenge on his parents by ending his
life
The young have not had the advantage
OF a lifetime's experience TO guide them.
They take strange things and stranger
folk for emulation. and what they read
impresses them deeply.
And, personally. believe that too great
liberty granted them in their reading is
responsible for the abnormaHties of
many children.
The Ideal Way.
The most ideally childish. unsophisti-
Gated. and pure-minded group of chill
dren have ever met in my life have
a mother who never permits them a
newspaper anu WHO never gives a DOCK
into their hands that she has not first
read herself.
If there are history-making events in
the daily journal she gives them clear
and perfect understanding of them in
her own language curing a period in
each day, which she calls The Story
Telling Hour" If there is nothing Of
current event that she feels will add to
the sum total good Of their lives she
tells them instead some beautiful legend
or tale that will leave their minds filled
with wonderful ideals. And I believe
that this one hour out Of the twenty
four does more toward the formation
Of high ideals in her children: more to-
ward the creation of happy and beauti-
full thoughts; more toward assuring them
a normal, healthy adult life, than all
the other twenty-three put together.