IN AND AROUND STAMFORD 



XI 



had she been in a wealthy and cultured 

 home, she would have had a governess, 

 whose duty would not be to repress, 

 but rather to develop her joyous and 

 childlike qualities. 



"Can you," I said to the druggist, 

 "from your acquaintance with people 

 of that class, especially those who are 

 uncultured, tell why they so constantly 

 shake their little children, and try to 

 repress them?" 



"I don't know," he said. "I have 

 always wondered at it myself, and 

 now that you call up the matter, I 

 wonder more than ever. But I recall 

 that in my own home I had several 

 brothers and sisters, and my father 

 being a working man, we had difficulty 

 in getting along. My mother was 

 constantly shaking- up someone, and 

 telling him to keep still, especially 

 when in the presence of strangers. 

 And," he continued thoughtfully, "I 

 guess, now that you question the mat- 

 ter, it is a sort of embarrassment, a 

 feeling of shame at their position in 

 life. They are not able to obtain 

 clothes for themselves or their children, 

 as good as those that others have, 01 

 the education that they covet, and when 

 they come into the presence of those 

 who are better dressed, and better taught, 

 they are embarrassed and become self- 

 conscious. They feel as if they must 

 vent their spite upon some one, and 

 that one is usually a child." 



"No," I said ; "I think you are wrong. 

 It is a lack of a correct understanding 

 of what good behaviour is. Such moth- 

 ers have yet to learn that a child is 

 well behaved when it is perfectly nat- 

 ural, and that giving expression to a 

 joyous nature is not being vicious nor 

 ill behaved. Every time we see a fath- 

 er or a mother, no matter in what sta- 

 tion in life, trying to repress a little 

 child's natural joyousness, I believe it 

 is our duty to tell those adults that they 

 are doing wrong. The harmless, in- 

 nocent joy of no person in this world 

 should be repressed by anyone. At the 

 best, there are not too many happy 

 moments in life, and every bit of spon- 

 taneous, enthusiastic joy should be en- 

 couraged, regardless of its cause, 

 whether a five thousand dollar limou- 

 sine or a penny all-day sucker. There 

 are many commendable efforts made 

 nowadays for better education, better 



clothing, better sanitary regulations, 

 better playgrounds, for all children, yet 

 one more thing is needed, and the need 

 is apparent to any one who will take 

 the slightest notice of his surroundings, 

 and that is the need of inducing fathers 

 and mothers to stop repressing the de- 

 lightful, harmless, spontaneous expres- 

 sions of the little children's joy. 



A Photographic Study of a Bridge. 



Stamford, Connecticut. 

 To the Editor : 



I am sending herewith a photograph 

 of the bridge at the old wire mills at 



THE BRIDGE AT THE OLD WIRE MILLS. 



Turn-of-the-River, taken by my wife, 

 Mrs. Jennie W. Sackett, on October 



13. 1912. 



I think the picture is especially good. 

 The subject should be of interest to 

 all who love our dear old Stamford. 



Cordially yours, 

 Frederick H. Sackett. 



We are Children of Nature. 

 It was good, I thought, to see so 

 many people out-of-doors. Most of 

 them had employment in the shops, 

 probably, and on grounds of simple 

 economy, so called, would have been 

 wiser to have stuck to their lasts. But 

 man, after all that civilization has done 

 for him (and against him,) remains at 

 heart a child of nature. His ancestors 

 may have been shoemakers for fifty 

 generations, but none the less he feels 

 an impulse now and then to quit his 

 bench and go hunting, though it be 

 only for a mess of clams. — Bradford 

 Torrey. 



