The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-23

N~ ONE time ago you promised 8 talk on the adoption of chil-
 ! dren. Whether 1t ever ap-
 peared or not I don't know,
 but l never saw anything on the subject and it is one in which l am deeply interested. My husband has just been given 8 position by his firm which wiA take him away from home a great deal. We have no children, and I am thinking of adopting a child to keep me from getting too lonesome. But whether to get an infant or little older child Is question l can't settle. We can give It a good home, education, and lots of love. 1 would like the opinion of others and of yourself on this matter. W. c. P.''
 l have never given the suggested talk on the adoption of children. but think it is a topic on which much may be said, and, like Mrs. W. c. P, I would like the opinion of others.
 To begin with the latter part of the letter she writes, would like to state as my individual judgment that it is better to begin with baby than with an older child. Those of us who have decided views on the training of children know how much of their discipline should be started while they are still in the cradle and comprehend the difficulty that lies in breaking up bad habits, no matter how young the child. I have known mothers who struggled for months to conquer the ways given a baby by the nurse who held lax views as to the care of children and had started by taking up the child at h, canonical hours.
 Therefore think it simplifies later ex- periences if the child is adopted as soon after birth as he can be taken from his mother, and if the adopted parent can have as much of the experience of young infant as possible. In that way she learns to know the child as she could not if she took him into her family, at . more advanced age.
 Next, as to the prime questions which always present themselves when the adoption of child is under discussion. How much attention should be paid to the record of his parents, and what risk is there of his inheriting undesirable traits? few days ago I heard lecture by d man who probably knows more of criminology, root and branch, than any one else in the country. In reply to question what he considered the strong est influence in determining a child's character, his answer came promptly and uncompromisingly:
 Without doubt, environment. Take a child of thieves and scoundrels and bring him up in the right way and you will make a good man of him. The child of the best descent, if put in surroundings of vice, with the example of wrongdoing and en- couragement to crime on every side, has . good chance of turning out criminal. l consider heredity a negligible factor l rearing children
 In measure l agree with him. That is, l accept his views so far as the moral side is concerned. Many of our best stu dents on the subject of heredity have decided that acquired traits are not trans missible. In other words, the evil ways into which man falls are not handed down to his children. A tendency to be light fingered or tricky or untruthful does not run in a family, so far as inheriting these qualities is concerned.
 What do come from parent to child however, are physical blemishes in the way of disease. Some of these may be conquered by the right kind of care. It is claimed that if the child of tubercular 8 healthful locality where he can be