The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1915-09-02
HOME CIRCLE C0LUM
FATHER AND son

tnat deserves 10 De tCIQ In the most en-
thusiastic language that anybody can
command.
But enthusiastic language about the
marvellous things that mother can do
with boy is mere buncombe when
used by some shifty father for blind
behind which he lodges responsibility.
Adam showing ofNblame on Eve cut
no meaner figure than the modern faith
er who pretends to believe that he
ought TO leave his boy wholly to his
wifo's training, because women have
an instinct for that kind of thing"
1t is, in fact, a hypocritically polite
form Of wife-desertion, and if human
law can't punish it for that, Gods law
can and will.
The truth is that, however much a
good mother is able to do for son,
there are some vital things owing to q
young fellow in preparation for man
hood which only his father can furnish,
and any father is an inexcusable trait.
or who won't give himself directly and
personally TO meeting such needs in
his boys life.
| What are some of the debts father
owes his son-which the best mother
On earth can't pay?
Primarily a father owes his son an
example of the kind of life that the son
ought to aspire to.
| 1t is never ending establishment to
see how complacently multitude of
| fathers assume that their sons will, of
course, be something different in morals
and behavior from what they themsel-
| YES are.
a father in mean and tricky trade
expects to see his son choose some hon
orable line of livelihood. A father
who has smirched his record in corrupt
| politics counts on his son growing up to
| he an honest and honored citizen, The
drink ing father is anxious that his son
shall be sober. And strangest of all,
| the father who has spurned religion all
his life would like to see his son join
church.
And they are all relying on the moth
ers to keep their own sons from initial
ing them.
All that can be said about it is that
| if such father has sou to be proud
Of, it is because the Lords mercy is a
million times better to him than he de-
serves.
The only fathers who have just
! right to expect sons who Will wear
| their names with credit in the coming
! generation are fathers who in their
own generation keep their names from
| stain.
A boy who can't look TO his father
with safe pride for an index to the
| kind of character worth while in the
world has been cheNed Of a better her-
| itage than the worlds most fabulous
| fortune.
The shyster who commits the fraud
is the father himself.
| A father owes his son really sym
pathetic helptulness.
| Among conscientious fathers who
actually desire TO raise their boys right
it is thousand pities how often the eff
fort goes wrong.
When baby lies in mothers arms,
the fathers fears say to him, "Wouldn
it be awful to have that boy grow up
mean and wicked! 1T would Kill me to
have that kind of disgrace in the fam
| ily." So he buckles down not to get
the son a splendid life but to save hlm-
self from sorrow and shame.
Just as selfish thought is always
bound to do, that selfish thought puts
everything away. The first thing the
boy is made to understand is that he Is
going TO be compelled to do right be
cause his parents can't put up with
having naughty, troublesome young
ster around the house.
Thus at the very outset the boy gets
the IDEA that being good is something
forced on him for the pleasure of the
grown ups.
And most assuredly he takes care not
to be good whit longer or whit of.
Lener than he has to be.
Character can't be approached 10y
that road.
What wise father will make boy
understand instead is that the good be,
havior required Of him and all the good
principles taught him are for the sake
of furnishing him with manhood that
will stand the test when he has to play
his own part in the world.
| Even when eXactlng the most rigiC
obedience, the father is never a master
set above the boy 70 bend him TO his
pleasure, but always the companion
who has been over the road before, who
therefore on this new TRIPS In honor
bound not 10 let his younger comrade
step into any OF the pitfalls he saw in
the earlier journey.
"A younger comrade that's the
core of the right relation, The thirty
or forty years between the father and
son don't make them different orders
OF beings.
The only difference is that the father
knows the road better and so Is appoint
ed to guide.
And the God who appointed him is
going to hold him TO harsh account il
he doesn't get the son through safe.
A boy who senses the simple fact
that his father Is answeraDle TO their
common Father for bringing him
through TO manhood without wreck
won't spoil his fathers record with
God by disobeying.
This is not contradcting what has
Just been said about the shame Of Il
fathers expecting son TO be good
man while he himself continues TO en-
Joy the profit or the pleasure Of being
| wicked.
But honest men trying to their ut
most TO set before their sons an up.
right Christian example, are yet con
scious that it is not in them TO be all
they would like to be.
There are the strengths Of manhood,
eilciencies Of zeal, capacities OF kind.
ness, realities OF fraternity, heroisms OF
service. PROJECTIONS OF conservation and
passions ofdevotion to which the father
has all his life been reaching forward,