The Washington herald., 1913-07-30
CHILDREN RECEIVE,
FAULTY TRAINING
Ambiious Msthsrs Teach Little 0ses
to Curb Kindly Dsnesner Which
Wins Friends Whea Snebs
Are Cast Aside.
By FRANCES sHAFFER.

The little girl blundered somehow and
her mother was pointing out to her how
grievousIy she had fallen from grace.
1t seems she had followed natural
prompting and had selected q playmate
just because she liked her, without wait
ing to learn the social status Of her ia
Their and mother, and the extent Of their
worldly possessions. The child was sunny
Of face and of heart, with the fine mark
Of pure friendliness born in her. but the
mother was desperately trying to dry up
the wellsprings of human grace and nat
uralness for pretty cheap substitutes that
tend straight to snobbishness.
While the mother laboriously explained
that one could not, must not, make friends
with ''nobodies," the little one used all
her childish art to explain that her small
companion was not a ''nobody,"-she was
the very incest girl she ever had met
But her pleadings were idle, for the moth
er was very well aware that the chiid's
parents were unable to meet the require.
ments Of the social catechism. And that
was enough for her, for she had not the
independence, the nobility to step aside,
upon occasion. and look beyond the social
. crust to, the manner of self that might
perchance reveal the choicest human
makeup.
which VIII Win Out.
And, listening to the rebuke. watching
the eager little face, eloquently betraying
that she was cast by nature into a more
human, beautiful mold than that OF her
mother, one was impelled to wonder
which will win out, nature or the mother:
When enough, yesterdays shall have
passed over the head of the little maid to
marshal her into the bigger realm of
womanhood and she has found the class
in life for which training and her own
joyous, happy self have best fitted her,
will she have learned what real aristoc-
racy means? Will she remember that
theresls something beautiful and sugges-
tive of other things in spirit of friend
illness that dares show its face before
social soundings have been taken? And
will she still show the warm, impulsive
nature that will make her willing, once
in a while, to get away from her own
side the social fence for glimpses of in
teresting faces and more interesting
hearts over the way? 1t is to be hoped
she will, for that is the telling stamp
that nature gives to her own gentle
women.
But one never knows how little folk
may change, for, in spite of the kindly
promptings of nature, children easily
enough fall in line with the patterns
before them, and If they are led to be-
Ieve that il is fatal to take single
step for which there are no hard-and
fast rules, they naturally incline to
their social clutches and do not dare
make a move without them. And the
way from simple. unaffected friendli-
ness to the insufferable growth OF snob-
bishness is pretty easy, with someone
to push along.
Dwarf Her Natural Self.
And it easily may be that the iron
hand of conventionality and all the
hedges and barriers falsely built about
the little maid will SO stifie and dwarf
and kill her natural self that the sweet
little grace of the child will be lost in
the woman, trained to worship the ve~y
ideal of social advancement, without any
thought Of its cost
For one would like to whisper to that
ambitious mother that II the fear to
let her child step aside nom the class
which she thinks harbors the very best
people, she may teach her something
worse than mere snobbishness.
For snobbishness. YOU know. always
implies sure lack of security, some steps
that yet remain to be taken before the
social sanctuary is reached. And while
those farther down on the prestige ladder
look up and see just snobs, those that are
I'D glance down and view something quite
different. They see the pitiable spectacle
of folk, stretching every nerve to win
more exalted place toward the top and
in the process growing a bit fawning.
For il is an unhappy fact that when