The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-14


 Might turn the rivers tide,
 l A tiny breeze from the mountain
 Might start a crooked tree.
 A little soil from about the roots
 Might cause the tree to die.
 The small things count in all the big things of life. The infant grows the great man; the tiny drops of rain moisten the soil, and the seed sprouts and bursts forth the plant. Little deeds make the soul happy, in fact every atom that floats in the air or falls oh earth has filled it's magnificent offices. If the small deeds can do great good. cannot they result in equal harm?
 We weigh the good in the little folks and measure them by our lives and are so blinded by the hope of right that often much that is wrong escapes the parent. l When they do generous deeds they tell | us, when they are selfish we seldom find i it out. And thus it is if we do not search 1 for wrong we seldom see it. It takes vigilant eye to guard the growth of small vices that are often born of corrupt | communications.
 The "fb" that our tiny offsprings whisper so sweetly at early age sounds very cute, but the fact that he enjoys the l laugh is indicative of the consciousness of the fact that something out of the or- dinary has been done. and that "fib'' Ia the germ that fosters falsehoods. Another great idea is being cast abroad now, that | something for nothing to make without the proper exercise of the mind and mus c1e. When a boy steals ride he has been ! smart, is probably nickel in, but decid edly the principal he's out. Every day we are brought face to face with some of the small vices. It is much easier to discover them in your neighbours children than in your own. It is no uncommon oc- casion to hear of what the Jones boy has done, but we of the Smith family are out l of the danger line.
 So much is being said about the abuse 1 of the transfer, and the writer honestly | thinks much of this abuse is because of a neglected training against the little wrongs that seem so trhing. Few moth- | CTS today do not spell the word economy hourly and have it photographed in their memory so the child either is well drilled in scheming, or just naturally inherits the principal of making nickel go long | way-so they often do not see the error | or riding to town on one line. buying a spool of thread. and with transfer in hand, jump on the other line, all for nickel. l Then when the parent hears of the quick 1 business she needs the thread too bad to l even stop to think of the moral, the real lesson that is due the child. The child is more often the victim of ignorance, but mark the wrong in the training. Children are not the only ones who are careless in discerning the abuse of priv ileges, it is astonishing how some of the 1 grown ups overlook the justice they owe and the injustice they place to the credit of self There is no need of whispering \ over facts-when everybody knows these Little wrongs-the corporations can take care of self: the law gives them protec- ton. We are not pleading to make any body richer. but we do plead why spare the rod and spoil the child?" Once a child becomes innured to small vices he then begins 10 grow the greater ones. We do not need mothers meet ings' to exchange patterns to adorn the form but we do need a concentrated ef- fort to keep our school boys and girls from overlooking the small vices that may confront them in their daily habits and duties and in their mingling with their playmates.