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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
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toward raising our children right, it 
would lighten many a grief and be a 
much more comfortable way to dwell to¬ 
gether in unity. mabel b. castor. 
Fear Not the Face of Man. 
T EACH COURAGE.—The woman who 
has no children is said to be the 
one who always knows how to bring them 
up, so here is a suggestion from “one 
who knows how.” The suggestion is 
prompted by observing the feelings of two 
elderly people during a thunderstorm. 
To one, any electrical storm brings fear. 
To the other, such a storm has no terrors, 
unless it is very severe, and even then, 
the fear is largely controlled, and thus is 
not increased by its indulgence. Now 
why is this? There may be some differ¬ 
ence in temperament, but a knowledge 
of the up-bringing of those two people 
the homes, mothers who have assumed 
the full burden of household duties, caus¬ 
ing the children to feel that mother has 
no rights of her own, but is there to 
wait on, and slave for her family. The 
new clothes are bought in many a home 
for the children, while mother wears the 
old. The good times are all planned for 
the children, and by them if they are 
young men and women, and in these 
homes, they seldom think that mother 
might like to get away from the everyday 
drudgery of household cares. Shall we 
teach our children that because we are 
not known by the other people in a 
train or public place, they may have 
full liberty to make as much noise as 
they wish, to run or push or crowd 
others? It has seemed to me this was the 
attitude of some mothers I have seen. 
I was traveling with my two little girls 
one day, and amusing them with stories 
A PROMINENT MEMBER OF THE APPLE CONSUMER’S LEAGUE. 
The Hen With One Chicken. 
Do you remember, in one of the school 
readers, about the white turkey that died 
and left her orphaned child to the tender¬ 
ness of a cruel world? The old Dorking 
hen with her brood of 11, and the duck, 
and goose, all offered to accept the little 
poult; but the hen with one chicken was 
too busy by far, and bitterly resented the 
attitude of the others because they 
seemed to think she had little to do. 
That fable did not appeal to me until 
I had a brood of four. Then I began 
to see that if any woman was fitted to 
raise a family by receiving the divine gift 
of perfect child-knowledge, it was the 
"hen with one chicken,” or else the one 
with none at all. The only difference I 
have been able to discover is that the 
mother will admit that mistakes can be 
made, and the childless woman candidly 
tells you that everything you do is a mis¬ 
take ! Why these female founts of wis- 
dom are not entrusted with 10 or 12 
children, remains one of the mysteries. 
No doubt there is one of the causes of 
social degeneracy. 
Have we not all heard the childless 
woman say: “If that was my young one, 
it would act differently !” or “I never in 
my life saw a creature so little fitted 
to raise a child as that Blake woman !” 
The funny part about it is* that she is 
sincere in her ignorance, and sometimes 
becomes so exasperated at the shortcom¬ 
ings of women in general, that she adopts 
some foundling and proceeds to theorize. 
Then, if she makes mistakes, it can be 
laid to the criminal tendencies of the un¬ 
known parents. Very comfortable ar¬ 
rangement. 
The first baby in a family is usually 
a sort of experiment, for young parents 
are anxious to do the right thing. Hav¬ 
ing done their best, they credit themselves 
with the baby’s growth and good nature. 
Therefore if the one child is the only one 
as well, it is natural for the mother to 
consider herself an authority on child 
culture, for she never finds out that a 
second child’s disposition demands an 
entirely new set of ideas. 
It is said that children invariably re¬ 
flect home training. This may be true 
in some cases, but most children have a 
very generous touch of Adam in their 
make-up, and even the most well-trained 
youngster turns to and upsets the uni¬ 
verse, leaving its parent weak with 
amazement. One such child was heard 
pattering down the stairs one night after 
bedtime, and the mother with a rapt look, 
said : “Here comes Billy, people; just lis¬ 
ten what he says, for a sleepy baby is 
so near the angels, that their bedtime 
messages are almost sacred!” The door 
burst open to admit Billy, starry-eyed 
and flushed with the wonderful news, and 
he shouted, “Mamma, Mary found a 
bed-bug!” We considered that a matter 
of house-cleaning, rather than child¬ 
training. 
One thing is very certain: The more 
children a mother has to train, the less 
assurance she has of her own ability, and 
she rarely offers advice to other mothers; 
but the hours a childless woman preaches 
advice, and the reams she writes on the 
subject, might lead the unsuspecting to 
believe that mothers are the most sense¬ 
less creatures on earth. Our little ones 
must endure the knocks and blows of the 
foundling, their morals may be tainted, 
and school-going made a nightmare to 
both pupils and parents, yet no word of 
disapproval dare leave our lips, because 
the woman who has theories, has also a 
tongue particularly adapted to quoting 
Scripture about the persecution of “the 
fatherless and weak.” 
Many a good woman longs for chil¬ 
dren, though physical defects bar her 
from the joy of having a child. To those 
unselfish hearts have prompted to give 
a home and love to some unfortunate 
child, or children, must come life’s rich¬ 
est blessings. The woman who voluntar¬ 
ily takes the responsibility of a tiny baby 
to raise as she would her own, for love’s 
sake is one that never finds fault with 
the flesh and blood mother. It is also 
noticeable that such children grow into 
the useful citizens in later years, when 
the child that was taken at six, or eight 
years (after the bothersome age!) to 
theorize on, is enjoying the distinction 
of being the village hoodlum. If we real 
mothers could only have a little less con¬ 
demnation, and a greater amount of 
praise for the honest efforts we make 
would seem to give the key. The mother 
of the first was afraid in a thunderstorm, 
and freely expressed her fear in the pres¬ 
ence of her child. The mother of the 
other never expressed any fear, as far as 
can be remembered, except in two in¬ 
stances, when the storm was of intense 
severity, and even then, there was no 
outburst of alarm. The result of these 
two methods naturally shows in the lives 
of the children, even to old age, giving 
much suffering to one, and much comfort 
to the other. A mother and daughter 
were sitting together during a heavy 
thunderstorm, and on speaking of it after¬ 
wards. the daughter said, "I began to 
be afraid, but I saw that mother wasn’t, 
so I thought it wasn’t worth while.” As 
a matter of fact, the mother was afraid, 
but did not think best to allow herself to 
show it. To a mere on-looker, it seems 
cruel to a child to bring him or her up to 
be afraid of anything, more than is ab¬ 
solutely necessary. Fear can be con¬ 
trolled until, as the years pass, it ceases 
to exist, except in extreme danger, or it 
may be indulged until it is a source of 
untold suffering throughout a long life¬ 
time. ELIZA F. MILLER. 
Children and Property Rights. 
There are too many children nowadays 
who have very little, if any respect for 
the rights of others, and I believe it is 
the fault of the mother. We find in 
and a picture book for the four hours’ 
ride. A little child about four, sitting 
two seats in front kept running the 
whole length of the car, grabbing the 
arms of the seats and jumping until all 
in the car were tired of it. At last she 
stopped at our seat, where I tried to 
amuse her for a few minutes, but she 
pinched my baby until she cried, and 
annoyed us so much, that I asked her 
to go to her own seat for a little while. 
She only stayed a few minutes when 
back she came, and I was very glad 
when we reached our destination. 
Through it all the father and mother sat 
in their seat asleep. 
Let us, mothers and fathers, start early 
with our little ones to teach them to 
practice the golden rule, no matter where 
they may be. As soon as the little ones 
can have things to play with they should 
be taught that some are their own, and 
others belong to brother or sister. Each 
member of the family should have a place 
for his or her things, and no other mem¬ 
ber should use them without asking the 
owner. Begin when they are tiny and 
steadily day by day, train them to re¬ 
spect the rights of each one in the home. 
Slipshod methods will never bring re¬ 
sults, and deceit may easily be taught 
unless one is very careful. Sometimes 
mothers say to a child, “You may take 
sister’s things while she is gone,” and if 
some time you find your own things have 
August 29,. 
been molested while you wore away, you 
have only yourself to blame. 
There are some people who seem to 
think this earth was made for the benefit 
of their children. They are allowed to 
meddle with other’s things, even to take 
things to pieces to see how they are 
made, picking up to look f.t fragile bric- 
a-brac, and generally snooping in other’s 
homes. If children are taught in home to 
leave other’s things alone, it will have 
much influence on their whole lives. 
In teaching that each must have his 
or her own things, we must guard against 
selfishness, but in the beginning we may 
teach them easily, to divide or lend and 
each feel happier for it. Where the par¬ 
ents are living very close to their chil¬ 
dren, they are ever guiding by precept 
and example. It is the children who are 
pushed oft, left to care for and amuse 
themselves constantly, who are lawless 
and a source of trouble to everyone 
around, or have no respect for the rights 
of others. a mother. 
Burned Bone for Children. 
IFTY years ago I lived in Argentina, 
•><) miles west of Buenos Aires, for 
six years. I noticed that the farm¬ 
ers had very fine teeth and hair, hardly 
any bald heads. The reason? They lived 
nearly exclusively on meat, mostly mut¬ 
ton, boiled or roasted on the open fire; 
seldom vegetables, never potatoes, some¬ 
times twice a day a biscuit weighing one 
ounce. The water contained much lime. 
I supposed that this water made the 
strong, healthy teeth and hair, as both 
are related creations. I thought I was 
justified to recommend the use of burned, 
pulverized bone to use for little children, 
to be given in mush, rolled oats, or other¬ 
wise. I would like to know whether 
powder made out of burned bones could 
hurt a baby when given with the food, 
and if it will be digested in the stomach? 
Are not they using bone meal to cure 
young, growing animals that are weak in 
the legs and bones? m. v. 
Oregon. 
The only practical result of adminis¬ 
tering pulverized, burned bone to chil¬ 
dren would probably be to upset the di¬ 
gestion, if given in any considerable quan¬ 
tity. We are not dependent upon the 
lime in drinking water for our supply 
of lime salts, as these are abundant in 
the common foods and, except in certain 
morbid states, as in the disease called 
rickets, growing bones are supplied with 
idl these elements that they need. In 
rickets certain lime salts are adminis¬ 
tered in very small quantities in connec¬ 
tion with other drugs which stimulate 
bone formation, but even in this disease, 
correction of faulty hygienic conditions is 
more relied upon than administration of 
lime directly. m. b. d. 
C ITY life is full of comedy and tragedy. 
Here is a bit of the latter which is 
not an unusual occurrence. A policeman 
walking through a New York street at 
noon saw a baby climbing on the window 
sill of a five-story house. This policeman 
was about 40 feet away when the child 
lost its grasp and fell. The policeman 
ran with all his speed, but he missed 
the little fellow by two feet, and the 
child was instantly killed upon the pave¬ 
ment. It appeared that the child’s moth¬ 
er had gone into another room for a 
moment, to get her pocketbook to pay a 
bill, and during her absence the baby 
climbed over the window sill to its death. 
That little one would have been far hap¬ 
pier and safer, could he have spent his 
life playing in a garden or in some green 
field on the farm. 
Wiiat To Know. —Down in the village 
there is a little lad of seven or eight who 
cares for nothing in life except “jogger- 
fry.” He reads constantly and every¬ 
thing he can get on the subject, and goes 
about asking busy mothers, for instance, 
such questions as, “How much of the 
earth was known at the beginning of the 
seventeenth century?” Could you an¬ 
swer that question point blank? I 
couldn’t. The wise woman says there 
aye two ways of knowing things, to r<^ 
member wTiat yoil heed to know and to 
know where to find the other things. The 
highest practical wisdom seems to be to 
know what is necessary to carry in your 
head. The more I think of her words, 
the wiser they seem to me. It isn’t 
necessary to one’s work to know how 
“much of the world was known at the 
beginning of the seventeenth century” if 
there is a book on your library shelf to 
tell you in case of need. Far better to 
know how to give first aid in a drowning 
accident when occasion offers. K. 
