The Pensacola journal., 1914-12-22

| these things: and follow after right
eousness, godliness. faith, love, pa
| tience, n1eekness-''
We are subject to the speed mania
/ from the cradle to the grave. From
| earliest babyhood, baby must be hur-
rfed. He must walk before any other
baby ever did. He must cut his first
tooth sooner than the average. He
| must talk and show off TO visitors so
as to be so smart, so cute.
And after he is able to say the first
few words it is hurry up to learn the
| big words, and even some children un-
der three years old are expected to
articulate such tongue -tWisters as ex
quisitely, supernumerary, etc.
Oh yes, it is so nice for our baby
to be so much smarter than
Mrs Jones' next idoo4, but if Mrs.
Jones is a woman of good judgment,
as we may hope she Is, it is quite like
ly that her baby when it is old enough
to go to school will have better health
than ours, will have steadier nerves,
may have a keener faculty of observa-
tion, may ever be able to analyze with
some accuracy what is presented to
it's young mind.
i
of candy for several years, it is likely
to have decayed teeth at the. age of
three, continual tonsilitis attacks af-
ter four, severe indigestion at five,
shattered nerves at six and possibly,
epileptic fits at seven.
a very appropriate poem by one OF
the masters of modern verse, Nixon
Waterman, reads this:
Making a Man.
Hurry the baby as fast as you can
Hurry him, worry him, make him a
man.
Off with his baby clothes, get him in
pants,
Feed him on brain-foods and make
him advance.
Hustle him, soon as he's able to walk,
Into a grammar school, cram him with
talk.
Fill his poor head full of figures and
facts,
Keep on a-jamming them in till it
cracks.
Once Boys grew up at a rational rate.
Now we develop a man while you
wait.
Rush him through college, compel him
to grab
OF every known subject a dip and a 4
dab.
Get him in business and after the cash
All by the time he can grow a mus |
tache
Let him forget he was ever boy.
Make gold his god and it's Jingle his |
joy.
Keep him adjusting and clear out of
breath,
Until he wins-Nervous Prostration |
and Death
During the school years the boys /
and girls are certainly hurried to the |
limit, especially in city schools. The /
school program is apparently based |
upon the maximum of effort that can I
be attained by the child having the /
brightest mind and the best nourished |
body. No allowance is made in the
program for sick spells, accidents or
other unavoidable causes OF absence.
Those who fall behind must make it
up some way. This causes more strain
and worry, more restless nights and
aching heads. Exercise in the fresh
air is curtailed.
Many a child pays for its education
with shattered nerves, with a. stunted,
body. Many a weak, nerv- i
ous invalid drags his or her weary I
way through life on account of too Il
mad strain and hurry and worry in
earlier years.
Many a coffin is filled 10y a bright
boy or girl whose vitality was so far
exhausted during school life, as to fall
L victim Of the great white plague,
Do we not know as a well-proven
medical fact that most cases of tuber-
,ulosis come on between twenty and
hirty?
A very great error that parents
commit lies in permitting the study of
music in bright, nervous girls during
he same time that school studies are
zept up.
What happens? Instead OF a weak
,ody already overstrained by ordinary
chool work. being allowed to recuper-
tie in active outdoor play or whole
ONE exercise, the nerves are stin
more exhausted because the appoint
nent with the music teacher comes
light after school hours. The child is
obbed OF health by its own parents.
This then is the price we have to
ay for the speed mania: Tired nerves,
n undeveloped body, a predisposition
oward any serious disease, a life-habit
hat s5 1