FROM DAY TO DAY. 
Tub government of the child is now 
a subject of study in every woman's 
club or teachers’ association. Insubordi¬ 
nation in the schools, hoodlumism in 
town, village, and rural community, and 
overt crime of mature years, are so often 
to be traced to lack of discipline in earli¬ 
est years, that no mother can afford to 
overlook the risk resulting from care¬ 
lessness on her part. Our friends who 
give the results of their experience in 
the brief symposium this week are all 
of the opinion that the habit of obedi¬ 
ence must be formed before the child is 
of an age to reason about it. This is, 
without doubt, the proper course, and it 
is necessary that the mother inspire a 
feeling of confidence in her decisions. 
The children must feel that mother’s 
reason is a good one, though it may not 
be fully apparent to them. 
ing life gives us in after years, when 
Fate, like the hard schoolmistress she 
is, expects us to sit up straight and re¬ 
spect the rights of our fellow-scholars, 
if we would escape a sharp rap from her 
ruler. 
* 
The mother must remember, however, 
that she is not merely teaching obedi¬ 
ence—she is teaching the child. An 
obedience that does not lie “ at the back 
of the head,” as the French say, that is 
not grounded in the child’s character, 
can be of no effect. We must have the 
habit of obedience first; then the obe¬ 
dience of reason. The only trouble is 
that we ought to begin with the mothers 
first, for an undisciplined mother can¬ 
not train a disciplined child. 
REASON AND OBEDIENCE. 
THE FIK X STEP THAT COSTS 
* 
A familiar newspaper story, now go¬ 
ing the rounds, states that Mrs. Caroline 
Corbin, the anti-woman’s suffrage leader 
of Chicago, went to school with Busan 
B. Anthony. Years after, the two women 
met in Washington, and Miss Anthony 
asked : “ What have you been doing all 
these years ? ” “ Bringing up four boys,” 
answered Mrs Corbin. “ Boys ! ” scorn¬ 
fully exclaimed the outspoken Susan. 
“ What under the sun is a woman with 
your brains doing with four boys?” 
“ Would you have me strangle them ? ” 
was the retort. “Bosh ! ” was the em¬ 
phatic answer, “ you should never have 
had them. They will grow up to be 
men—nothing but men.” Perhaps this 
story is apocryphal, but there is one 
suggestion in it that we cannot afford 
to overlook, and that is that our boys 
will be men, and the undisciplined boy, 
careless of parental rule, will, as he 
grows older, become the undisciplined 
man who is a nuisance or a menace to 
society at large. Most school teachers 
say that their greatest trouble is to en¬ 
force obedience among children who 
have never before, in their brief lives, 
felt constrained to obey anything ex¬ 
cept their own untutored wills. Neither 
is it always the children of the poor and 
ignorant who cause this trouble; an 
equal carelessness is shown among the 
well-to-do. In some of the city public 
schools, the enforcement of discipline is 
a very difficult matter, any physical 
punishment being forbidden, and the 
offending children seem entirely without 
the moral sense that sees disgrace in the 
small penalties that may be inflicted. 
This is a very serious matter, and one 
that affects the very foundations of 
social order. 
* 
A good many mothers appear to be¬ 
lieve in government by the injunction, 
“ Don’t 1 ” The children are followed by 
such a shower of “ don’ts,” no matter 
what they may be doing, that they look 
upon it merely as an interjection. All 
their orders are received in negative 
form, and it is small wonder that dis¬ 
obedience results. One may almost envy 
the small Quaker who was taught the 
difference between right and wrong, 
and then left to follow his own guid¬ 
ance. If he transgressed, he was 
whipped, but if he asked for an opinion, 
his mother merely remarked, “Thee 
knows which is right. Follow thy 
own judgment.” This would appear 
rather hard training, but it is the train- 
To 
Jan. I 
Next 
for 
25 cts. 
( 
) 
< 
You must have just one neigh¬ 
bor or friend who wants 
The Rural New-Yorker. 
) Then just call his attention to this 
( suggestion: We will send him the 
paper for the rest of this year for 
\ 25 cents. 
We often meet pareats who think it useless to 
exact obedience from children who are too young 
to reason. In other words, they do not believe in 
b ind obedience to parental will, even in the case 
of children unable rightly to judge for them¬ 
selves. What is your attitude toward such views? 
How early should you consider it possible to ap¬ 
peal to a child’s reason? Is it not possible to 
make a child feel the reason that underlies 
parental rule, even when too young to under¬ 
stand it? Is not the obedience of habit a valua- 
able aid in guiding children ordinarily self- 
willed ? 
The Obedience of Reason. 
Children should be taught prompt 
obedience just as soon as they are old 
enough to comprehend wbat is required 
of them, and taught that the reason for 
their obedience is because it is right, 
that the parents are only obeying a com¬ 
mand themselves, when they require 
obedience from their children. It is 
best to give reasons whenever it is pos¬ 
sible, so that the child will be con¬ 
fident that there is a reason for obedi¬ 
ence, even when no reason is given. 
I do not think that a child should ever, 
under any circumstance, be required to 
do anything that he thinks is wrong. 
Some children seem to appreciate reason 
as soon as they can understand what is 
said to them, and some people live to be 
old without ever possessing such ap¬ 
preciation ; therefore, some children 
may be ruled by reason, while others 
must be ruled by the rod, or not ruled 
at all. 
One of the greatest causes of disobedi¬ 
ence is that parents do not stop to think, 
but give so many commands that they 
forget many of them themselves, and 
if the child happen to forget one that 
the parent remembers, much ado is made 
over that one, while the others which 
the child remembers and, probably, re¬ 
gards as the more important, are for¬ 
gotten. 
I asked a mother once why she for¬ 
bade her baby boy doing a little thing 
that his child heart was set on, and that 
there was no harm in. She replied that 
she wanted to make him mind, and she 
had to tell him not to do such things to 
teach him that he must obey. He was 
naturally a good child, but is now the 
most disobedient one that I ever saw, 
and his mother has made him so. 
Tennessee. sara r. fobbks. 
The Obedience of Habit. 
1 ‘ Train up a child in the way he should 
go, and when he is old he will not de¬ 
part from it,” were the words spoken 
nearly 3,000 years ago by one who “ ex¬ 
ceeded all the kings of the earth for 
riches and for wisdom.” Some one has 
said, “ Education does not commence 
with the alphabet. It begins with a 
mother’s look and a father’s smile of 
approbation or sign of reproof.” Believ¬ 
ing in this theory, the wise disciplin¬ 
arian begins very early to exact obedi¬ 
ence from the children under his care. 
The precise age at which they are made 
to feel the “ reason that underlies 
parental rule ” is difficult to determine. 
I have known children less than a year 
old who seemed to feel perfectly this 
reason. They were accustomed to regu¬ 
lar habits of eating, sleeping, playing, 
etc., and were so perfectly controlled 
that one would not know that there was 
a baby in the house from the trouble 
caused. 
Other children who, necessarily, have 
less care, are often left to the age of 
three or four years, and then subjected 
to the powers of “ breaking the will,” 
as the first subjugation of untrained 
children used to be termed. It is per¬ 
fectly possible to avoid all such conflict¬ 
ing scenes between parent and child by 
the “ obedience of habit,” formed at the 
tender age of only a few months. In¬ 
deed, this is the cornerstone upon which 
successful discipline rests. In this way, 
the child is often unconsciously con¬ 
trolled and brought steadily to complete 
obedience, for “habit is a cable; we 
weave a thread of it every day, and at 
last, we cannot break it.” 
New York. ella f. flanders. 
Obedience Before Reason. 
It has always seemed to me that a child 
can be taught to obey much sooner than 
most persons admit. If a child does not 
obey until his reason prompts him to, 
he probably, never will. Blind obedience 
is all that a parent can exact from the 
very young child, and such obedience 
must underlie all parental authority. It 
will be time enough to reason when 
there is something to reason with ; but 
the habit of obedience should be formed 
before that. 
The age at which the reasoning powers 
are developed depends upon the child, 
and each parent must decide for him¬ 
self and for each child. If he is always 
dealt with gently, though firmly, with¬ 
out unnecessary friction with his natural 
likes and dislikes — perhaps we might 
call them his physical whims—and with 
no unnecessary interference with his 
proper liberties, the foundation of a 
law-abiding citizen will have been laid, 
and confidence in and respect for the 
parent will have been established, even 
before the child reasons much about the 
matter. d. b. f. 
Michigan. 
RURAL RECIPES. 
Cooking an Old Fowl. —Wash and 
wipe the fowl, cut it up as for stewing. 
Place a piece of butter the size of an 
egg in the bottom of a flat iron kettle. 
Allow it to melt; as soon as it smokes, 
lay the fowl in, piece by piece, flesh side 
down, turning until all is browned. 
Sprinkle the meat with pepper and salt, 
add one peeled onion, with four whole 
cloves stuck into it, and one bay leaf. 
Pour in warm water enough to cover, 
and keep it simmering (not boiling hard) 
for three hours. Thicken with flour, 
and serve. 
Graham Wafers —This is an original 
recipe which I have no hesitation in 
offering; we prefer them to those we 
formerly bought. One cupful of thick 
sweet cream ; one cupful of sugar; two 
HALL’S 
Vegetable Sicilian 
HAIR RENEWER 
Beautifies and restores Gray 
Hair to its original color and 
vitality; prevents baldness; 
cures itching and dandruff. 
A fine hair dressing. 
R. P. Hall & Co., Props., Nashua, N. H. 
Sold by all Druggists. 
tablespoonfuls of baking powder, a 
pinch of salt, unsifted Graham flour, 
enough to make a tolerably stiff dough. 
Roll as thin as possible, cut any shape 
desired, bake in a hot oven, and store in 
an earthen receptacle to retain brittle¬ 
ness. 
Snowflake Cake. —One scant cupful 
of granulated sugar, one cupful of sweet 
cream, cupful of sifted flour, 1% tea¬ 
spoonful of baking powder, one stiffly- 
beaten white of egg, a pinch of salt. 
Bake in a square shallow pan in a moder¬ 
ate oven. Cover with the following 
icing : The white of one egg and two 
tablespoonfuls of milk, stirred stiff with 
confectioner’s sugar, flavoring as de¬ 
sired. Cut the cake in squares. 
French Toast. —This is the most suc¬ 
cessful way of disposing of stale bread. 
Cut it in rather thick slices, dip in 
beaten egg, to which has been added a 
little milk, salt and a dash of pepper. 
Fry in hot fat in a frying pan, turning 
till each side is a golden brown. Serve 
hot. If the crust of the bread is very 
thick or tough, trim it off, and cut the 
slices into neat shapes. This toast is 
nice served in place of a vegetable with 
roast poultry or, omitting the pepper 
from the egg in which it is dipped, and 
dropping a spoonful of jelly on the top 
of each piece, it makes a nice dessert. 
The quickest, easiest, and best mode of 
making ordinary toast is first to place 
the slices on the grate of a hot oven for 
a few minutes before toasting, turning 
if needed. It will only require a short 
time over the coals to bring the desired 
color. 
i HMViKinu \ 
CVOMKUl 
1 rniatnatiii 
i 
Inside 
of a Hundred 
Homes 
Glimpses 
into one hundred of the 
daintiest furnished homes 
in America, showing what 
good taste can do with 
little money. See October 
Ladies’ Home Journal 
Other features: Stories by Mary 
E. Wilkins and Hamlin Garland; 
“ Shams of the Modern Girl,” 
by Ruth Ashmore; “A Chicago 
Girl in Europe,” by Lilian Bell. 
One Dollar a Year Ten Cents a Copy 
The Curtis Publishing Company, Philadelphia 
DAVID COPPERFIELD 
is, beyond doubt, the greatest of Dickens’s stories. 
It is said that he so regarded it himself. Agnes 
Whitlield, the heroine of the story, is one of the 
most charming characters of English literature, 
and the other characters, if not so pleasing, are 
no less pronounced. A“Micawber,” a “Uriah 
Heep ” and “Barkis is willin’,” are familiar 
quotations. These and others are so often refer¬ 
red to that, if it were a task instead of a pleasure 
one would need to read it. We have a sma 
stock of these books in large, plain type, on goov, 
paper and nicely bound in cloth, that we can 
give for one new yearly subscription, while the 
stock lasts. Send the $1 and the name and ad¬ 
dress of the new subscriber and we will send the 
book prepaid. 
The Rural New-Yorker, New York. 
Are You 
willing to roll up your sleeves and work ? If so, 
we want you to represent THE RURAL NEW- 
YORKER at your fair this year. We want a 
hustler at every fair in America this year. This 
is the time; now speak quick before the other 
fe llow gets the appointment ! 
