davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-10-11

And Of course he presently said
meekly: every well, dear" And
now be boasts about his health and
energy, and lays it all to the light
supper, and is really beginning to
think that he instituted it.
Personally, il were cook, ]
would rather cook for forty persons,
and KNOW ahead Of time what 1
had to prepare, than cook for two,
with the sweet, incompetent mistress
coming out into the kitchen every
morning to muse and hesitate and
change her mind about salads and
soups.
And just as no business can be
managed for five minutes without
SYSTEM, without n starting hour
and a stopping hour, without a
definite division Of duties and
strict regard for time, no house
hold can.
IL must amuse-if it does not
anger--many a business man-to
come home after day crammcd
with responsibilities, accidents, wor-
RIGS of all sorts, and have his wife,
fresh and dainty, in the tree-shaded
eight-room, one-scrvant house he has
provided for her, regale him upon
some such details as these:
George, the man didn't come for
your vest, after all j telephoned
and telephoned, and he kept saying
the line was busy, and I couldn't
wait. I've had the most frightful
day, anyway. Ida went downtown
this morning and came back a
WRECK, and had to get the chill
drcn's lunch, and il COMPLETELY
went out of my head that Grace had
said she was going to bring the baby
over, and when they came in was
n SIGHT, doing the dishes, and then
| suddenly remembered the theaier
seats, and the man was MOST i'm
pudcnt over the telephone, said they
never reserved seats on the day OF
performance, and / telephoned you,
and got thu: horrid Joe Snyder, who
San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-10-11
"Too Many Children Think of Their
Homes as Places of Gloom
Where They Get Food"

her boy and it has worked wonder.
fully. He has run the awful gaunt-
let's through which we send our
young to be bludgeoned and stun
ned or perverted by chance. He has
come through with clean mind and
wholesome distaste for the fright
full experiences and experiments to
which the vast majority of parents
condemn their children. They have
dread of curing the maddening
thirst for information by the one
sure cure-which is information.
She gave him plenty of that.
The well of truth is there wheth-
or we like it or not, and it is a
deep well. Parents may dip the
water and set it to the lips of their
children with a benediction Of de-
cency. Otherwise, the children will
lap it up from the dirt or take it
from the foul vessels of other chill
dren or from those terrible crea-
lures who love to tear innocence to
pieces.
THE BOYS HEALTH.
ALI this while Mrs. Claymore has
been taking her boys health and
strength into consideration. He has
a pony and can swim it across a
river, holding on by its name or its
tail. He has a boat, he has a BIZ
cycle. He is encouraged to give
parties and to 90 to them, to dance
and to sing, and to dress himself up
when the occasion requires it.
His happiness is another Of her
concerns. She is his playfellow, his
companion when Ne wants her to be
one, and his chief admirer when he
tries to be brilliant. She talks to
him, not with the lofty condescen-
sion of a saint, nor with the sicken-
ing baby palaver of odious sweet
ness. She talks to him as one boy
talks to another.
When his mischief is not too Sc.
rious, she grows extravagant with
the extravaganza characteristic Of
Americans.
"You do that again, and I'll kill
you !" she cries. And it means just
what he knows it means. If he
keeps up his mischief, she attacks
him with fury, and a mad chase
ends in a rough and tumble wres-
Ting match on the rug or the lawn
or wherever he is overtaken.
"You say that again, and I'll slap
you down." is one of her favorite
expressions. 1t is not recommended
in the Rollo books, but it has n
cheerful sound somehow.
FOR THAT WHIRL.
When he begins to frown or
whine, she knits her brows and
threatens:
Take off that pout or I'll knock
it off,"
She helps him with his studies
and makes them her own. The home.
work usually begins primly in
chairs. By and by he is rolling
San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-10-11

asked simply, when we marveled.
The little boys will be in bed, the
girls and Tom will help me. The
only difficulty with domestic sys-
tens" Martha added, in discuss
ing the subject with me one day.
sis that most women won't THINK
THEM OUT. Every baby means an
altered routine. just as every en-
ployee in an office does. There's
no use trying TO fit the schedule
Of no children, or one child, TO
family Of eight. It's a mothers
business to work it out on paper
with a pencil. If we get up at
such and such an hour, and do this
and that before We sit down 10
San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-10-11

on the floor in agony, crying:
II can't learn it! My brain re-
fuses to learn it,"
She insists, and before long goes
to the mat with him, trying to
force the unwelcome facts into hisl
dyspeptic mind. And soon she il
saying with a magniloquence that
he loves:
"You will learn this lesson to.
night or we both die together
here 7"
This is. her line Of talk. 1t win
not be found in any book Of Ell.
quette or in any manual raising little
imps into little cherubim. But the
boy loves it and his home is a bit
Of the real world to him, a
democracy where he lives a real life ;
not an artificial school where a
couple Of pretentious dubs try to
overawe a child by hypocrisies that
any child can penetrate at once,
however much he may, in his turn,
pretend to be deceived.
Too many children pay their par
ents a lip-service of ysspect and an
imitation Of Difference and even of
affection solely as we pay the gov
eminent our income tax-because 1t
is less trouble to pay it than to try
to get out of paying it.
Too many children think Of their
homes as places of gloom or bore
dom where they get board and
lodging in return for certain sacri-
fices. They seek their real happi.
ness and their real love outside
and learn all the realities outside.
FATHER is BUSY.
Tom Claymore's father is a busy
man but he gives mis- boy far big
ger share of his life than most
fathers do. Tom and his father are
chums in a thousand manly ways.
But he does not find his mother a
mere weak old lady who must be
humored and petted and deceived
for her own sake and for the sake
of peace and freedom outside. He
finds his mother the wittiest, live
Hest, gayest sanest, most irresisti-
bic. uncertain and fascinating per-
son in the world.
He grows better and wiser and
more tractable in the ways in which
he ought to be tractable year by
year; and a splendid manhood is in
creasingly indicated for him.
His mother in any case can know
that If he does not succeed in being
a great man, she has done her
utmost TO be a great mother, seek
ing tirelessly to adapt herself to
his real spiritual and physical
needs, and hunting for inspirations
for the persuasion of his soul.
Other mothers with other chill
dren may find it wise to adopt other
methods. But those are her meth
DDS.
Copyright 1925, By the Bell syndi-
cate, Inc.)
San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-10-11

MANY women despise anything
Ava like order in their manage
ment Of household finances. They
say they hate budgets and domestic
economy and distribution Of income
and all the rest Of 1.-THE topic Of
money makes them tired.
Consequently they founder along
always IN debt. always worried and
harassed by the unexpected size and
number of bills. They resent the
prices Of hats and lGwn-mowers
and wallpaper and the charges Of
dentists and school-teachcrs, without
ever really taking the trouble to face
them.
They think they are superior to
their prosaic neighbors, who tave
to stop and think about the budget
before they buy package of
gum"
But they-and not the others
are really the slaves 10 money. Ger
tain other women are apt TO treat
physical health in the same slip
shod, old-fashioned way.
~Oh. let him eat it," they say
Of the baby and the cocoanut cake.
They've all got TO have a certain
amount OF stomach-ache. and head
colds and castor-oil. Maybe it won't
hurt him. And.if il does-you have
to look for that when you raise
chiidren!"
And many, many women, even in
these enlightened days. let all the
affairs Of the household slide along
kaslhsEard, without order or sys-
sem or Intelligence. happily assur-
ing you that II doesn't make any
difference anyWSs; beds are bound
San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-10-11
FINDS NEW DEVICE.

when another or his spells came
over him he could not be coerced
by a threat of Jail. So his des-
perate mother was driven to this
device. She said to him:
at has gradually come over me
that you are not my son at all. l
used to think you were, but I've de-
cided you're not"
He was learned enough in the
mysteries of life to laugh at this:
cav, you can't fool me! AS if
a mother wouldn't know her own
child"
"She can't always tell. You see
San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-10-11

car and drove to the city Jail to
deliver him up to justice. He could
not believe that she meant 1t and
went along in sheer bravado, until
the sight of the great stone portal
broke his will; he made hasty
appeal for forgiveness, surrendered.
promised to be an angel and was
taken home.
FINDS NEW DEVICE.
He is not a boy who will swal-
low the same medicine twice and
San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-10-11
THREATENED SUICIDE

When he was crossed in his de-
sires, reasonable or unreasonable,
he would climb to the roof or some
other height and in a spasm of
frenzy, promise to throw himself
off if be were not granted his wish.
The most ruthless parents would
hesitate TO say to their only son,
Go on and kill yourself, and good
radiance. :"
Mr.. and Mrs. Claymore were not
San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-10-11

when you were born ! was taken
to a hospital, and while l was
there, the meanest old Cracker wo-
man you ever saw-a perfect devil
from up country-was brought in
to have her baby. We both had
our babies at the same time. And,
of course, the nurses took them
away to wash them before they let
their mothers see them. So all l
could do was to take the baby they
handed me and treat it as mine.
but I've been thinking it over.
You act just as mean as that old
Cracker woman. You're dirty, lazy,
lying, swearing, vicious. You don't
understand how to behave like
gentleman or how to treat gentle
people. You belong in one of those
Cracker huts where you would never
have shoes, not even in winter-nor
any blankets on your bed; where
you'd never have any nice clothes
or have to wash or learn anything.
You'd sleep with the pigs and play
with them.
THREAT SUCCEEDS.
1--WE just about made up my
mind that that's the only explana-
ton and I'm going to take you to
that Cracker mother and say, Take
back your baby and give me
mine y"
This was pretty terrible but he
gasped:
"Aw, you couldn't ever find her."
"Oh, couldn't I? They have the
records in the hospital register. All
have to do is to go and look in
the big book and find what baby
was born the same day you were
and what the mothers address is.
She'll be glad to have you, and
heaven knows, I'll be glad to get
my own poor baby out of that hor-
rible place where he's being beaten
and kicked about and frozen and
starved, and"
With a wild cry for mercy he
flung himself into his mothers arms
and begged to be taken back into
her heart. And he made des-
perate effort to prove that he was
really the scion of gentlefolk and
not changeling.
One of the ghastliest horrors Of
a mothers life IS when her boy
comes home contaminated and be-
fouled by his first encounter with
the behavior and language Of such
children as he is bound to meet in
the democracy Of the streets.
Mrs. Claymore did not try to ex-
press swooning disgust, much as she
felt it. She knew that she would
only enhance evil by dramatizing
it.
AS TO SMUT.
She took Toms smutty words as
il they were merely a smutty nose,
unpleasant, not neat, not nice, not
pretty, but nothing to be proud of
or excited about. So they ceased to
be fascinating.
She encouraged him to tell her
the off color stories he heard and
managed to find them simply rather
stupid and cheap but not at all
shocking and terrifying. They lost
most of their charm at once.
San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-10-11

NAV present the world to a definite
child character in such a way that
his reactions are changed, and es-
tablish habits of self-control or self
release suited to the child's nature
and to its environment as well.
In the good old days the effort of
everybody was to instill into every
body else q sense of sbject obedience
to everybody else. Children were
taught to knecl 10 their parents
and obey them implicitly. In Israel,
Greece. Rome, Europe, Asia, Africa
and Puritanical America, a dis
obedient child was liable to the
death penalty. The parents them
selves had been taught to obey the
officers of the king with grovel-
ing servility, and to kneel before
the king as he passed. The king
was supposed to be the divinely an
ointed son of heaven and obedience
was a religion. By SO much more
was obedience TO ones deity duty.
Since people knelt TO their parents
and their kings, of course they
knelt to their gods. Since great
men, geniuses, merchants and noble
men approached their kings only
with petitions, of course they ap-
preached heaven in the same way.
Their lives, their healths, wealths,
and liberties were wonderful, I'M
deserved mercies granted from an
indulgent throne; and misfortuncs
were their simple deserts.
AUTHORITY WEAKENED
But for the last hundred and
fifty years the thought Of obedience
as a first principle of duty has been
oozing rapidly out of the world.
Kings are either ousted altogether
or permitted to pose only as figure
heads during good behavior. In no
counry in Europe is there a king
who is absolute or whose authority
is not derived from the consent of
the people.
The sense of groveling obedience
TO parents has gone glimmering
with the divine right of kings. This
makes it more difficult for the par
ents, but much pleasanter for the
children-also more profitable. The
law nowadays recognizes almost
nothing as a parental right beyond
the rights Of trustee; but parents
are under terrific bonds for good
behavior. This is the day Of child
ren's rights.
San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-10-11
'This Is Neither a Model Nor a Hor-
rible Example, But Is the
History of One Home
By RUPERT HUGHES

CrNCE there are all kinds of
mothers and an kinds of sons,
fner are bound 10 be all kinds Of
relations between them and all
kinds of theories as to what their
relations should be.
This is the story Of how one
mother is managing her young boy.
1t Is not put forward either az a
model or a horrible example, but
as a bit Of the history of one home
in the United States in the year of
our republic the one hundred and
forty-ninth.
This mothers method is working
excellently in this one case; and it
is not an easy case, for the boy is
wilful, all but indomitable. 1t
might not work with other children;
but it fascinates me as the pic
turesQue effort Of a singularly de-
lightful, wholesome and conscien-
tious woman to help a son who has
been having some difficulty in ad-
justing himself and his sensitive,
almost ferocious temper to the world
as he finds it.
The home-life that my own moth
er gave to me and our large fam.
lily, I have already described else
where in a tribute of profound ad-
miration and gratitude. Our con-
ditions were different and were diff
ferently met, but I hope that this
child when he grows up will realize
as well as we did, how much thought
a mother can give TO the welfare Of
her offspring; and how vital it is
that the mother should adapt her
training to the child instead of try
ing to break her child to her own
will.
HAS HOT TEMPER.
Suppose we call her, Mrs. Alice
Claymore,~ and her boy, Tom"
One Of the first things Mrs. Clay
more learned Of her little gift from
heaven was that he had a heap of
hell in him. His anger was in
slant and tremendous. 1t was a
sickness, a delirium, almost an in
sanity.
Most children announce their
main traits of character in their
cradles, and it is hardly more pos
sible to change a child's character
than to change the color Of his eyes
or hair. Sometimes. however. one
San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-10-11

was: Give me liberty or give me
death :"
Evening star., 1925-08-22
Cbeying Orders

| once hired out to Hiram Haight
and drew two bucks a day, and he re-
marked, Now get this straight-my
word YOU must obey. I've hired about
a thousand guys since first l came to
wise, they turned my orders down. /
am the man who pays the mon. and
properly expect that / will see the
chores all done just as | shall direct
am the man who digs the cash, and
if | say to you, Go. feed the COW
sawdust mash that's what I'd have
you do. | am the man who has to dig
the kopeck and the groat, and If | bid
you paint a pig or fumigate a goat. ]
want to see you go your way without
protesting wheeze; II is your province
to obey and mine to spring DEGREES.
He gave me orders oftentimes which
seemed to me absurd: | felt | was
committing crimes when | obeyed his
word: and ever and anon I rose, In
indignation strong, prepared to seize
him by the nose and show where he
was wrong But soon my bitter wrath
I'd quell, rejecting, in my heart, THE
blamed old chump is doing well--he
must be rather smart. He has the
wealth in bars and bricks, his credit is
sublime, and l. who would denounce
his tricks, am busted all the time.
Perhaps his methods are correct and
mine show lack of brains; so ii were
wiser, | expect, to do as he ordains.
1t was the wisdom of sage that
made me thus obey; for soon he came
and raised my wage by so cents day.
Evening star., 1925-08-22
We Should Sheer.

"one subject I have never read
a hout in your column. writes d col
,-asnondant "is commissions or spasms,
ar whatever other name you nave ~.
them. that children have. You ool
DENY that children have coh'ul
do YOU? Then will you klnoiy, or IN a
sneerinp way tell US your ideas ABOUT
tbem9" And the correspondent goes
on to describe a case, what TINS ana
tbat doctor said or did or didn't 90 at
one time or another, and so on
I've always had in the back OF my
;ad fancy to buy a little farm
nurav out beyond anywhere, to retlre
and live the simple life after We ios'
nv lob. But now / can see LII nave
m oct a rather large farm, one WIN
9o.acre field in one corner 10 Which
7 can repair at intervals ana nave d
aood sneer. far enough from simple
eoITs Won see, so that they won't think
an, sneering at them. There Will
,robahly be plenty of things ana conol-
t;ors loft TO sneer at, enough TO keep
~, sneering schedule filled up Tor as
LONG as I can stand the simple NE.
7 sunnose | might erect a sign beside
+bo road warning passing strangers
that the frightful spectacle IN Eonder
f;eId is lust old DIR. Brady dolnS ms
regular morning sneer; kindly refrain
from disturbing OF HioieSeii6 'he
+or with irritating remarks until ne
recovers from the seizure
children sometimes nave Goh' III
s;ons Ats or spasms. l make this ad'
r,jssion freely and by my own WILL
without influence or duress from any
quarter. I go even further ana ad-
nit that babies and older chliarell
sometimes have worms. Nay OF yea
a 6 Won please. I'm willing to concede
that once in a great While cnlid VINO
has worms has spaSms, put the com,
cidence is insignificant, because >
children out of 10 who nave worms
never have any spasms, and out OF
10 who have spasms have no worms.
Speaking of worms-and leaving the
sneer about spasms for another Gay.
a recent acquisition of the menaserie
is a PUP as Irish as Paddy's pig, out
named Antonio. This Antonio nad
scarcely arrived at his new home wnen
an amateur dog expert looked al MS
gums. remarked that they looked pale
and opined the pup had worms ano
even dispensed the medicaments Tor
the treatment of the alleged infesta'
ton. But the pup seemed to Keep
pretty we'll, thank you, without the
treatment.
] After a time the pup languished, and
Evening star., 1925-08-22
PERSONAL HEALTH SERVICE
HY WILLIAM BRADY, NJ. ID.

the veterinary physician was consult
ed The physician determined by sci
entific examination that the pup had
no worms, but only a distemper which
cleared up in two days. Although l
know nothing about dogs, the alacrity
with which the amateur dog expert
diagnosed worms" by a mere peep at
the pups gums struck me as remark
ably like the ubiquitous neighborhood
gossip's diagnosis of worms" in all
ing children-only we were so fond of
the pup that we hesitated to infiict the
alleged worm medicine on him. The
neighborhood gossip can spot worms"
in an ailing child by mere glance at
the face or a sniff of the breath. The
facial sign which leads to SO much
cruel mistreatment of ailing children
is particularly white lines beside the
mouth" especially with flushed cheeks
end bright eyes and any restless
twitching. Or add a peculiar heavy or
sweetish odor on the breath, and you
have practically condemned the child
to such maltreatment.
Evening star., 1925-08-22
Nine Years Old.

A boy of 8 is very interesting and
very troublesome youngster. He is
much like tadpole, half way toward
his goal He may turn out to be a
big toad and he may be just a toad
That's the interesting thing about
him, watching him shed his worn-out
garments of body and mind.
Instead of the quieScent, receptive
child who took what was given him
and thought it great good luck, he
suddenly becomes a loudly questioning
for and who said SO and go on away
from here.
Instead of being the good child who
sat still in the classroom and said his
tables and wrote his numbers and
read in his turn, he becomes over
night, it seems, in the changing from
one teacher to the other, an aggres-
sive. noisy, inattentive bundle of mis-
chief, done up in wrinkled blouse and
crumpled jacket, who Scorns a gold
star and boots at the boy who STANDS
first in his class.
Instead of an obedient child, trot-
ting off to bring a glass of water for
some thirsty adult, placing chair for
Gram, going to the door to see who is
there, and whispering the news to
mother, he turrs out to be young
rowdy, who refuses to do anything
until at least the third order and
that delivered with threatening en-
phasis.
Instead of the meek, though wig
Cling child, who submitted to the
washrag and the brush, staying clean
for a few hours at a time and enjoy
ing a fresh blouse and pretty socks.
he becomes a frowsy child, who balks