The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-09-01
DO PENNIES SPOIL CHILDREN?

70, children, the gods were good to you;
 | Be glad while the world endures,
 Be well content as the years wear through;
 l Give thanks for life, and the loves and lures.
 For pennies she gave you, gracious though few. Smiles and kisses, that mother of ! yours.'
 Some ore has somewhere said: Civ ing pennies to the urchins of the very poor breeds the grave danger Of rum ing the child. Ever afterwards he will be on the lookout for special
 forms of graft This thought inter ested me so much t1fat I have spent long weeks going through the poor districts of Q large city to find out the
 truth for myself. My investigatlon slisproves the theory that pennies given to the very poor children really spoil them. On the contrary It mas
 saved many a little one from criml- nal career.
 One mother said to me: ''The with holding of pennies from little one breeds a spirit that is hard to down. fl had a hand-to-hand tussle with grim want to support my four little ones
 When I went to the butchers or the
 grocers, I was obliged to take the
 little ones with me clinging to my
 skirts It was almost impossible to
 drag the children from the fruit-stand
 outside while I made my purchases
 within. I read their longing for the
 good things in their eyes. More than once I have caught their little hands outstretched to grasp the goodies as they called them, thinking no eye was there to see them. At such times I turned the tide of. their becoming pill ferers by taking from my worn-out thin purse. penny for each, yet could i'll afford it.
 Children, I said, huddIing them close about me, never take anything that belongs to some one else. If you crave anything tell mother about it. She will buy it for you.' Consequently my little ones have never picked even a cherry from a stand, or "a peanut from vendors cart
 Few realize the strength of tempta- tion that assails the heart of child. They do not know the enormity of the crime in stealing the goodies with in reach of their hands To them it is only prank to secure a plum, or the little red peach their mouths water for The possession of a penny at the right moment makes man of the most poverty-stricken lad. He feels his Independence when he can step up to the counter and say to the grocer: 'T want to buy a penny plum. please." He can eat his purchase with keen satisfaction, before the proprietor's eyes, not being afraid to look him in the face.
 Longing for the things just beyond their reach which is forever denied them enlbitters the life of the chf@ dren of the tenements. They are
 weak from privation. Can it be won dered that they would appease their thirst. unable to forego the longing which no one semeed to love them enough to gratify?
 One poor mothor who works late and early. over the wash-tub gives her three little boys a penny day to spend as they like. They are the only chilaren in the neighborhood that the grocer, the baker and the street ven der do not have to watch from the moment they come in sight until they are well past their premises. Those pennies are the best investment that poor mother could have made Chill
 dren do all manner of little jobs for