The Waterbury Democrat., 1936-09-22
WOMAN,S REALM M ]
EA1EtNAB N
 Your Children
By Olive ROberts Barton

Elsie Janis sale of all her posses sions = in order to ''travel light and make other people happy"-is more than mere news. It seems to me to be the forerunner of a great move ment for kindness. True, there are those who always question the mos tives of anything altruistic, but they are usually people who could not possibly conceive that there are still utterly tnselfish souls in this world.
 It set me to thinking about this matter of kindness. There are sev- eral new world movements, whose credos are Kindness, "friendliness" And their devotees are kind.
 Religion in the abstract has not achieved the purging of the human heart to any great extent. It has purified living and popularized hon. or and uprightness. It has civilized the world whether we concede the fact or not. We hold its mistakes against it.
 Spreads Slowly
 Be that as 1t may, now we have a powerful new force, both in re- ligion and out of it; this new in spiration of kindness. Watch it. It is going to affect high and low. It is growing. Its influence is reaching, unbeknownst at the moment, into all grades of society. It doesn't look like it, does it? We'll, wait awhile. It takes years for the leaven to work sometimes. And I predict that this will be slow. But I myself have reason to know that thousands of people are following this new creed of kindness and courtesy and that some are even going to the extremes of divesting themselves of their pos sessions to practice 1t.
 One of its outstanding tenets is courtesy. The other is not to gos- sip. I speak here, not of any one movement, but of several that have been started. The world is ready for sort of halt in its pro- digious pace, and the tendency toward kindness is not so much a result of any groups influence as the urge of people themselves. This is sincere and sober fact.
 It is timely just now to accent the idea in the training of the child. He won't be in the swim by and by, if he is too arrogant and selfish. He will not be count ed as 8 real gentleman, if he has y1n cnyN11sc&ino fio,n Nf 0o,yrfacxy av,A kindness. It won't interfere with his success or his rights. He can still be his own master. No one admires the supine and disgrun- tied one, who refuses to compete honorably with his fellow beings
 Great Are Truly Simple
 I had no intention of sermoniz- ing. My intention was merely to call attention to the fact that kindness can be 8 standard for success, as well as ruthlessness. And I believe, aside from the ver- ities, that it is going to be a con- crete policy for the future that we cannot disregard in child guid- ance.
 Above all things, let us make courtesy our watchword. Have the children. stop saying unpleas- ant things about each other or anyone else. Let us watch our tongues at home. Let us stop thinking of the successful with bitterness, and imagining that all of them are mean, and proud and crafty. Our leadership is every thing to the children.
 Your true sophisticate is the kindest person on earth, always was. It is erroneous to think otherwise. The really great are simple. So let us teach our chil- dren gentleness and kindness. Copyright 1886, NEA Service, Inc.)