Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-09-19
'Ar"t Idols Get Right-O Of Way Instead OF LOrd

| when they get the milliner's bill.
| We are neglecting the home life
| today for the club, for the lodge,
flor the literary, for society and
| thousand and one things, sir. Fit
yourself to be the intellectual COM
| panion of your children. The learn
! ing at the school and college will
! soon fade from their minds, but
what they learn at your knee will
| stick after they have to hObble on
| the cTutches of decrepitude, taking
| their teeth out and cleaning them
at the sink.
There are mighty few things
I more important than conversation.
Oh! the good you can do with your
tongues or the evil and pain you
can give. A loving conversation is
a great panacea. Many homes have
none. No affectionate greetings
when they return from school and
, the store; % regretfuI goodbye
when they go away; no Preside
chatter. Meals are eaten in 81
lence and the old man never speaks
unless he grunts for somebody TO
pass him the grub and you'd think
you were in q deaf and dumb asy-
lum.
The perpetual scolding, don't,
don't, don't. A child should never
be told that they were to be seen
and not heard. OF all sentences
that crawled out of hell, l think
that is the rottenest. Forget it!
Now 1 will tell you some
''don'ts." Don't tell your children
what you don't mean. Don't wait
on them too much and don't make
them wait on you all the time.
Don't break a promise. Don't talk
about your neighbOrs. Don't hurt
their self-respect by Furnishing
them when company is present;
wait until the company is gone and
dust them if they need it. Don't
overdress them because you are
able, and thus shame your neigh
Dor who has a big brood that
hasn't got so much as you; for it
will make your kids feel that they
are above his, and this will create
strife ana enmity; don't do that.
Another thing, don't give them a
task they can't perform.
We let the moral ironing go to
our school teachers. l have never
aspired to hold but one office. that
is to be I member of the school
board, and the first thing 1 would
do would be to raise the salary OF
the teacrers and pay them u
months a year.
1t is a disgrace the salary we
pay our preachers and public
school teachers in America, the
two indispensable people on earth. !
The average wage is less than five
hundred dollars a year. 1t is three
dollars day for the teaching year .
and it is a dollar sixty cents a day /
for the calendar year on the aver /
age There are II states where the +
salary is less that three hundred I
dollars a year and two states where /
the average is less than two hun /
dred fifty dollars a year Why? |
When our teachers go in. in the |
fall, their cheeks look like roses; |
when they come out, my friend, I
they look like lilies and they are [
anaelnics. they are bending over /
that miserable nonentity that bears
your name trying to poke some /
thing into his empty head /
We have taken from our school +
teachers the right to lick our kids
and they don't get licked at home. /
No wonder they boss you before T
they have sprouted long pants!
Efficacy of Stick.
A woman who was the mother Of
seven noble sons was asked how /
she ever raised them so success
fully. She said, i did it with
prayer and a good hickory switch
l don't know of two better in
struments on earth. You cant
pray all the time nor lambast all
the time; you can't do that. No,
sir.
Now. I don't believe in licking
the kids all the time and for every
fracture of your laws and rules.
There are homes that need that
hickory switch hanging around
handy and above it the motto, 4
need thee every hour"
When the devil robs a boy the
last thing he takes from him is
what he learned on his mothers
knee.
Don't shut the door of the house
and fear the sun will fade a little
patch of carpet. Oh. don't drive
the children into the street to play
lest the merry laughter will shake
the cobwebs from the corners. If
you want to ruin your home, let
your children understand that
mirth and laughter must be left
out of doors. Let them regard
home as only a place to work and
sleep, and the work has begun
which will end in wreckage.
Young men and women must
have fun, and if they can't have it h
at home they will hunt out the
haunts of vice where a great line
Of God-forsaken, good-for- nothing
cormorants congregate to lead .
them from Jesus Christ and virtue. !
from truth and decency. Don't re-
press the buoyant laughter. Oh! (
4 half hour around the freside I
telling stories will iron out their ]
troubles and will be a panacea to I
their aches and their pains. {
Put your home first; put your !
nome first. Oh! men, women, the ]
lime will come too soon when the {
family circle will be broken: the t
line will come too soon. When {
ever it comes, it is too soon. and
leath is an unwelcome visitor
When he comes suddenly. or at the t
end of a long sickness. he is never '
welcome The time will come too S
soon when you will long for the {
ouch of hands that have turned I