Year: 1874

add a score of volumes to the children S
library, and make you purer, nobler,
better man.


Children have a right to be kept at
home; especially to be kept off the streets
at night. If it is unpleasant to have
your children about in the evening with
their din and noise, it is just as unpleas-
ant to them to be there. If only on the
street, they sigh, in the shop, anywhere
that they might have some sport. After
due deliberation with some enemy they
slip out The parents are no longer an
noyed, and the children receive their
| first lessons in street education. Pleased
with the change they repeat the process,
and soon the early hours of the night
| never find them at home. They have
gathered with other boys at the corners
of the streets. They have listened to
their smart sayings, their funny stories,
and having been charmed they go again.
| If too cold here they have congregated in
some corner grocery, where they have
listened to obscene stories, filthy jokes,





church members whose mouths ought to
have burned as they uttered such things
in the presence Of pure-hearted lads. The
booys are good students, with eyes and
ears quick to see and hear, and they soon
become adopts in the use of street slang.
In a little time they can talk as loosely,
and indecently, and perhaps as profanely,
as do the others. These were boys of
good impulses, and only needed judicious
training to have done we'll. The road
into which they have unconsciously put
their feet will surely lead to their ruin


These boys must be kept at home. Let
me repeat it again, for 1 know this is
weak point with many people-these
boys must be kept home at night. l
know of no other salvation for them. On
the street they can learn nothing good
They are almost sure to take their first
lessons in crime A father who allows
his boy to spend the early hours of the
night upon the streets, even of our best
towns, without knowing the company he
keeps, or in what he may be engaged,
either cares not for his childs welfare, or
is so wholly ignorant of his own relation
and duty to his child, that he is morally
disqualified to be parent AS you value
the well-being of your children, their
purity and uprightness of character, as
you value the welfare and peace of COM
munity, and above all as you value your
own future happiness, keep them at
home. For this purpose "God setteth
the solitary in families"


How keep them at home? Not by
mere force of authority if you can find a
better way. AS soon as they are able to
break away from your authority they will
do so and plunge into the vices against
which you cautioned them most earn
estly. Make home attractive to these
children. Their loftiest natures have
cravings of their own, and you must meet
them or the boys will They need COM
panionship and you must supply it. Pa
rents should keep their own hearts so
thoroughly in sympathy with their chill
dren that they can adequately meet this
want. A boy should have no more SYM
pathetic or appreciative friend than his
father. Sad for parents and terrible for
children when they are driven outside
for companions into whose ears are
poured those sorrows and anxieties which
parents should hear first of ALL When
boys need other companions select them
and invite them to your house. If not
fit to come to your house they are not
fit associates for your children. They
should not for one moment be allowed
to select them on the street.


Thus far have spoken chiefly of the
rights which belong'-to children, and of
which they are deprived by the careless
ness or wickedness of their parents 7
have not exhausted, l cannot exhaust
the subject. Did time permit l might
urge further that children have right
to be sent to school and kept there until
they shall be taught those things they
need to know to become good citizens.
l might also urge the right to be trained
in habits of reverence for and obedience
to parents. In this respect our age is





suffering the disastrous consequences in
the great prevalence of youthful crimi-
nails. The child that is not law abiding
at home. does not obey the will of the
parent, is not apt to obey the law of the
land, or the law of God The trouble
some classes of society-those who DISC
bey God and respect not man, are not
those who have been trained to habits of
obedience in peaceful, orderly homes,
but those who have grown up without
restraint and without law; but have no
time to pursue this thought.


If these children should grow up pure,
and virtuous, and orderly members OF
society, then they have right to de-
mand of the community in which they
are reared, that to the full extent of
their power they shall keep away from it
all incentives to wrong doing. Think of
a community which should gather all the
filth and garbage of a neighborhood into
some corner of the town and allow it to
rot there, daily sending forth everywhere
its noxious vapors, carrying upon their
bosom disease and death, to be breathed
in by the citizens of the place, and then
having done this disgraceful act should
impose heavy penalty upon all who
should become sick2 Think of the Wis
dom of the government of Holland if it
should order all the dykes, which now
keep the water from oyerhowing that re-