Year: 1875

We are rejoiced to perceive general
move, all along the line of journalists, re-
viewers, and public teachers generally, to
put the brakes on the mad career of the
nation in general, and especially to check
the inordinate development of the young


people and children of our homes and
schools. The indecent haste with


which children are rushing, or being
rushed into the world and its responsible
ties, is forming the theme of pulpit and
press and we feel it the place of the re-
ligious press, in particular, to call atten-
tion to this subject.


Ihe tact Is becoming so notorious that


foreign reviews are devoting columns to


the insane and unhealthy development OF


our young people, and to the truth that


our homes and schools are being invaded


with the demon of unrest in this respect to


so great an extent that it seems like
wild race to get through and out of the


world as quickly as possible. young
America" rules the hour in domestic cir
cles and in social life, so that our society
is assuming an aspect of premature devel-
opment, and thus becoming comparative
ly frivolous and shallow. The tradition
al respect of children towards parents is
being greatly weakened, to say nothing of
the alarming spirit of disobedience that is
creeping into our schools and manifesting
itself among young people generally.
The tiLae was when the young feared


and succumbed to the old; but we are al


most prepared TO say that these halcyon


days are passing away, and that the old


men fear the young, and in almost all
phases of life quietly make way for rather
than meet and control them. Instead of
being carefully trained at home, in the
tender years ofchildhood, in all those prin-
ciples which make them good and happy
as they grow up, parents are too prone to
hurry them off to school, with view of
being free from the responsibility Of their
government. and thus send them to teach
ers without having learned the first ele.
ments of self-denial or control, and in
readiness to be rebellious and unruly at
school.


And again, they are now -a-days allowed
in so many cases to enter on all the frivol-
tiles of social life, in the line of balls, par
ties, theatres, ETC., at very tender age,
that, while they should yet be mere chill
dren, gaining healthy growth of body
and mind, they are permitted and encour-
aged to run careers greatly in advance of
their age, to the detriment of health and
study, and to the total bunting of their
relish for these social enjoyments at the
proper period for their assumption. In
this way our whole social career In the
respective classes and grades Of society is
in advance of nature and common sense,
and is calculated to rob us Of just the sup
posed prizes that we are grasping after;
for premature youth inevitably brings pre-
mature old age, and deprives us of a por-
ton of the years of vigor and activity al.
lotted to US by the Creator.


As nation. therefore, we are compar-
atively short-lived, and are frequently
closing our career at an age when among
other people we would be in the prime OF
life. Compare the statesmen and schol-
ars of England, France and Germany.
with those of our own land, and we shall
be surprised to find how long they remain
in active and efficient service after most of
us have sunk into the grave, or are worn
out


And this premature development of the
young is making itself even more OBJ
noxious in the annals of crime than in
those of our social and commercial life
Depraved and wicked boys are actually
becoming the terror of our large cities.
The gangs,of ruffians that infest so many OF
them, and make certain quarters proven
bially dangerous, are nearly all composed
of boys from the ages oftwelve to twenty.
Many of these have no homes, many have
worthless parents, who drive them into
the street to steal or beg, and many, un-
cared for during the night after the en-
ployment of the day, are left to seek such
associates as chance or their instincts NAV
bring them into contact with.


The good old era of apprenticeship for
boys, with their masters homes at night,
or the fireside of their parents, seems to
have passed away. and they proudly re-
sent any effort at control or discipline.
The streets and low and vile places OF
amusement are their preparatory schools,
and the House of Refuge and Reforma-
tories their retreats. And they now re-
sent even these \ few weeks ago sew
eral boys in New York city, varying in
age from eleven to fourteen, were arrested,
and convicted of the crime of burglary.
They were sent to the House of Refuge,
but protested that adopts like themselves
should not thus be confined with children
but rather with the older criminals of the
Pcnitentiary. where they might sooner
graduate in all the arts OF crime.


The truth is, that this whole matter is
becoming very serious one for our ma
ton. and it is high time to stop and reflect.
Parents should look more carefully to their
children, and guard and restrain them in
harmony with their teachers. while the
church and the State should be more be
decided and vigilant in exerting repres-
sive influency, in all phases Of life. to hur-
ry on at pace and in a manner subyer.
sive OF sound reason and final profit
lions Herald.