The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-06-28
There Is Much Criticism
of Children in Our Homes
Some Folks Say that They Make Transition from
Childhood to Manhood and Womanhood Too
Swiftly to Acquire OLd-time Graces.
nv FRANCES sHAFFER.


In the priminer days of our grand
mothers the notion was very much
abroad in the land that children must
be seen. not heard" and that they must
be quite sternly repressed until they
stepped well over the grown-up line. AND
they were kept on the borderland much
longer than they are today.
But now the pendulum has swung the
other way. ard they step from the little
girl-and- boy period all too soon, so soon
that there are no longer any young girls
that there are no longer amp young girls
and boys. that they pass from little
folk right into seasoned men and wom-
en-, without the softening, tempering
touches that once were theirs in the
period of waiting.
And that is not the only comment
that is made.
A woman was rather shocked the other
day-though that was not the first time
the criticism had come to her ears-to
hear the outspoken statement that in the
sudden transition from childhood TO
womarhood and manhood's estate the
young folk OF today, as they run, had
lost .much OF the grace and the sweet
ness that in earlier days were their
greatest charm.
The critic-another woman-said they
grew I'D with such amazing swiftness
that there had not been time-or maybe
twas inclination that was lacking-to
teach them the dignity Of politeness and
gentle manners, the kind that illuruine
the bearing OF man or woman or chic
in any period or in any land
And then she grew quite specific.
Bit Hard on the Boys.
Pass a group of boys, she said, boys
of sixteen, and eighteen years or So
walking abreast. talking, laughing, and
with interests all NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
they break their lire at the approach OF
a woman, for the simple sake of letting
her pass? Not so. if she wanted to get
by. let her make her way, for it was
not part of their creed TO bother.
1t is certainly a bit hard on the boys,
for some of them are ready enough to
break ranks, quick to show that they
have welI-defined notions of politeness
and that there is the saving grace Of
old-time gentleness under the cover OF
boyish brusqueness-
And yet-one knows very well what she
means And il would be well If they
were kept little boys bit longer, cultl-
waiting some of the graces of life rather
than so early learning to smoke and to
copy the very worst tricks Of the men
they watch and yearn to grow like. Yes.
a few years more in the care-free land
of boyhood, with mother and father to
train them in the small cOurtesies that
make folk go on their tired way, re-
joicing at the glimpse of a knight, would
do them a world of good. And in time
they would be grateful indeed, for the
training, for there is mighty difference
between hoorishness and knightliness
and in the fruits that are borne there
from.
Whose the fault? Does the lapse fall
upon che boys or the ones who hold in
their hands the training of boys?
And the girls,
True enough: they are allowed, much
too early, to peep over the fence of girl
hood into the land o. womanhood, to
assume the airs and the manners of
"grown-ups' and to act as if years of
experience had passed over their heads
What Critics Say.
They dress. the critic says. in a fashion
suited to their mothers, if to any one,
adopt practices becoming to no one. dis
cuss matters quite beyond their years
with all the sang froid Of veterans; and. |
worst of all, they actually cultivate and
openly betray a certain hardness, a !
studied laXity of manner that lead on
lockers to think-they scarcely know
what.
And over all there is the same sorry
drop from the old-time grace of man.
ners, the same indifference to the lit
tie courtesies that boys evidence.
Is it true? All these charges-do they
fit the mass of developing womanhood
or only the few who confuse the pretty !
modern spirit of independence and free
dom with something brusque and coarse
and, yes, unwomanly?
One does not know. but one thorough !
~ believes that while the unlovely type
is much in the public eye, on the streets,
I'm the swing of society, in the very home
itself. pert, noisy, inconsiderate and al
together too much grown up, it repre-
scnts only an unhealthy fringe and that
the great majority of girls know that
they can be modern, independent. free
as air. yet subscribe 10 the gentle dig
nifty that rests softly and sweetly on
girlish heads.
- TO the rest-onc cannot deny their
eN!stence-!t would ne well. indeed. il
they could be impressed with the truth
that the sprinStime Of life is much too
beautiful TO be thrown aside and with
the other great truth that 1t wonderfully
pays &c rcrrember ltfs's small courtesies.
And 1t is rhe same old story again.
does not their fall from girlish grace
rest upon the older felix whose duty it
is to restrain their impetuous haste?
For there are many wholesome lessons
that might be taught them while they
were 4
Standing, with reluctant feet,
Nh.-a the brook and river meet" |