The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1921-02-05
FATHER AND SON AS cHUMs.

The four-year-old son of friend of
mine was once asked what. he intend
ed to be when he grew up, writes c.
F. Powlison. He was silent for mo-
ment. Then looking up with great
earnestness, he said, "Well, l think,
when I'm grown up, I'll hunt around
and pick up a lot of sticks and build
house with 'em. and be father"
OF course the little would-be faith
err" was greeted with peals of adult
laughter. Yet what finer or more nat
ural ambition could he have voiced?
We do not laugh when our little daugh-
ter talks of the day when she will
have a home and children. Why does
it strike us as comic that our small
boy should also long for fatherhood?
One would almost suppose that
there was something shameful and
unmanly about fatherhood, so thor
oughly do we discourage the fatherly
spirit in our boys. The tiny lad who
loves to take his battered old doll to
bed with him is leased and shamed
out of his allegiance. The youngster
of eight or ten who likes to play
house" is frowned upon,-he ought
to prefer building fort and playing
at soldiers. We are far more afraid
of making our boy SISSY" than of
permitting him to be a bully. Yet, if
we study the grown men about us,
we find that the SISSY" is a pretty
rare specimen, while the coarse
grained, selfish, callous bully is all
too frequent. There is no great dan
ger of our boys developing into cow
ards. There is the greatest danger
of their growing into business men
and money-makers rather than faith
ers and home-makers.
= Perhaps the words greatest dan
ger" may seem exaggerated, but let
us consider what the right sort of
fatherhood means to men, to boys and
to the nation.
To man himself, being good
father,-a wise father and an under
standing one,-means the greatest
possible happiness and satisfaction
1t means that he can watch the mir
acle of an unfolding personality, that
he can renew his own youth in his
children, and that he can be a CO.
worker with God in aiding, guiding
and inspiring them.
To a child, a good father is, next
to good mother, the best of all herit-
ages. His father is his playmate, his
chum, his ideal. His fathers political
opinions, business principles, and eth
ical standards are accepted unques-
tioningly by his admiring son. Some
one has wisely said that through low
ing and admiring the father whom he
has seen, the child takes his first step
toward worship of the Father Whom
he has not seen.
To the nation and the future world
good fatherhood means everything.
1t means that men shall henceforth
think not merely in terms of "big bus
mess" but of better human lives, that
they shall strive not only to bequeath
wealth to their children after death,
but shall devote their lives to giving
their children treasure Of sympathy,
love and guidance. 1t means that the
two generations shall work hand in
hand for a finer future world.
Therefore, I would say to every
father, know your boy. Begin today
to play with him, hike with him, dis
cuss with him, camp out with him, if
you possibly can. He needs you and
you certainly need him. Don't let his
mother have all the responsibility and
all the joy of parenthood-ge some
Of that joy yourself"