El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1915-04-20

~ He latest exponent of the new
high pressure. rapid-action
L method Of child culture, which
is geared up TO such speed that it
entirely eliminates babyhoOd and
childhood and in u short years turns
a mewing infant into a human en-
cycIopedia, has prOpounded ten COM
mandments for mothers. Two Of these
are
Thou shalt not say Don't unto thy
child"
Remember never to say Thou
must
Probably the recipe for raising up
young pedants Is correct Probably.
ir you start with a babe in the cradle
and devote your time TO stuffing it
full Of polysyllables and facts, il viii
be full to bursting Of pOlysyllableS
and facts at time when other chill
dren are still lisping and looking for
the man in the MOON instead OF dis
cOursing about the probabilities Of
there being canals on Mars.
Personally L am an unregenerate
cave woman when it comes TO ba-
bies- / adore them when they are
pink and soft and cuddly. and 1 think
five-year-old who hasn't got a
single piece Of Information concealed
about his person is the most enter
tanning human being on earth, and
II 4 AAaAA a u1A- that 1 EOA4AA ( rock
TO sleep. or who didn't believe in Santa
Claus, or who didn't talk baby talk.
1 should feel that I had been cheated
out Of the very best thing that life
can give TO a woman.
Many HrecOciOus Children Become Ill
None of your little Solomons in the
cradle Of mine. And 1 should have
clear conscience about letting my
baby be baby, and my child be a
little untaught child through all that
4 -.H
brought up on a race horse farm. and
/ know what happens 10 the two
Eear-Olds that are raced too early.
Also have seen so many marvellous
" precocious children who turned in
TO commonplace dull men and women.
However, these be heterdox views.
and / am not going to argue them
with any expert child culturist. but
what ] do want TO call attention to
are these two commandments to
Thou shalt not say don't unto
Remember never to say thou
Not say don't to child. Not
say thou must" to a child. when
one-half OF life is don't to us. and
the other half is thou must"
Why. that's the trouble with the
world today Men and women have not
mad II ground into their consciousness
since their earliest childhood that their
lncAnations and desires must not gov
ern their actions. and that there are
certain things that they must not do.
and other things that they must do
simply because one is right and the
other is wrong
There is not a man in the peniten-
Ilary, there Is not a girl on the street.
who are not there because their moth
ers failed to say to them often enough
and lmpressfvely enough. "Don'r do
that and you Must do this other" 1t
is the mothers who have said don't
and must TO their children. and en-
forced them with a strong hand. who
nave raised up the men and women
who have done the big things in the
world, and who keep law and order
in IL.
Moral Muscles Must Be Strenrfbened.
You don't train the prizefighter who
IS going into the ring to battle for the
championship on lolly-pops. or by en-
couraging him to sit around on silk
cushions, and telling him that his op-
ponent viii be dead easy and he won't
have to exert himself much to win the
purse. On the contrary. you harden his
muscles by every known method. and
impress on him that he's got to nut
every ounce of strength that's in him
into his punch, or else he'll be beaten
to pieces.
Execatly the same method applies
to children We fOredOom them to
failure, If we do not strengthen their
moral muscles And that is exactly
what we would do if we failed to say
don't to them, or must to them
7 never hear a mother lying to a
child about taking a dose Of medicine
and telling him that it isn't bitter
when she knows it is. without feeling
that she is "a criminal She is weaken
ing the child by just that much. She