The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1920-09-15
CHILD TRAINING
(The Golden Age)


fifty years before birth and continue
until the child has reached seventy
wears of age. by which time he will
have learned the fundamentals OF how
to live. unless he has been brought up
in the atmosphere of certain eccles-
iastical institutions and has remained
in it. in which instance the case may
become hopeless.
A mother who does not use her III
telligence can make large progress
toward running child within very
few weeks after its birth; she can do
this by making it perfectly clear to
the child that he can get anything ne
wants by crying for it. Later she can
teach the child to lie by making prom
;ses which she does not keep and
does not intend to keep. Father can
assist in this. They can also teach
their childrn to swear, to be unclean
in mind and body, to be evasive,
tricky, unprincipled and brutal. 1t is
entirely natural for children to do
what they see done by their fathers.
Love for right principles and love
for God as the Author of all that Is
pure and lovely in creation is never
in children by parents who
do not love and practice those princi-
pies. No child was ever beaten into
goodness or love of truth. The
child should be appealed to through
the power of reason and example;
and the greatest Of these is example.
The physical ability of a six.foot
man to beat boy of tender years
does not imply that the man is fit to
be a father. An ourang-Outang might
be able to give the father an even
worse punishment than the father
would dare give the boy though some
times these punishments are bad
enough, and far worse than a decent
anthropoid ape would think of using.
A man who knows how to use only
physical strength in discipling his
children is not much of father. His
children are to be pitied.
A New York justice sentenced, to
not less than six months and not
more than three years in the peniten-
tiary, a father who beat frail little
underfed boy of nine years old with a
leather trace because he did not hold
the baby as ordered. One hundred
and eleven cuts were found on this
child's body. In the central part OF
New York state clergyman beat a
f0ur-year-old child to oath for refus
ing to say his prayers What kind OF
God would one be that would wish a
parent to beat a child to death for re-
fusing to pray for Him? He would
be worse than the parent himself. He
would be like Moloch, the old-time
. eternal-torment deity.
Following another ancient Europe
an custom, more than half of the
states of the union still give the
fathers exclusive rights over their
children. control Of education, religion
and medical care. earnings, and the
right to all property in case of death
Three states, Delaware, Florida and
Tennessee, to their shame, even per
NIT the father at his death to trans
fer his children from the mothers
care to that of other guardians. A
more just and merciful arrangement
lin effect in many states, is equal
guardianship Of the children as lons
as the parents live together, entire
control to the surviving parent in case
lof the death of one of the parents
and in the case of separation or di
vorce the Judge decides which parent
is better fitted to have the children.
On account of the high cost of liy
ing fewer children of seven to twelve
years of age are being adopted from
the asylum than heretofore. A child
of this age requires as great an out
lay as an adult; and as he is unable
to render aid to the family adopting
him, he does not find as great wei.
come in a new home as when prices
were not so high. The demand for
girls for adoption is far greater than
the demand for boys. Pretty rough
on the boys.