308 
THE RURA.L NEW-YORKEK 
February 
The Child and Its Work. 
How Shall It Be Paid ? 
Part II. 
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Practical Methods. —Whenever I 
have a hit of work that I think one of 
the children can do I tell him what I 
want done and what I will pay him for 
doing it. He is usually glad to get the 
money; for, mark you, our children re¬ 
ceive practically no money except what 
they work for. He does the work prompt¬ 
ly and cheerfully, because he has the 
money in view. The money takes away 
the drudgery. Another thing, he is never 
paid until the work is finished, and if, 
perchance, the work is poorly done he has 
it to do over again or he gets no pay. 
Right here I should like to touch upon a 
point upon which I feel strongly. When 
I set a child to do a piece of work, first 
I tell him very particularly how I want 
it done. Then, if possible, I stay about 
and visit him now and then to see how 
he gets along. This prevents him from 
going far wrong, and it is infinitely better 
than l<> let him finish the work, find it 
not done as you wanted it, and give him 
an angry scolding. Such a scolding seems 
to me a mean injustice. As the children 
grow older we give them more work and 
more pay. 
Tin-: ('iiild’8 Money. —It may be ob¬ 
jected to this plan that children ought not 
to have money, since they use bad judg¬ 
ment in spending it. As to that, I have 
so far in my observations upon the point 
failed to see that children are much more 
likely to do fool things with their money 
than are adults with theirs. If a child 
is going to spend his money foolishly it is 
a good thing to find out when he is still 
within his parents’ control, for then it is 
possible to direct him in his larger ex¬ 
penditures and teach him the folly of 
wasting that which cost him pains and 
labor. Another way of paying a child is 
1 o turn over to him some sort of small 
business and share the profits with him/ 
For example, this past Summer I gave 
over to one of our girls (eight years old) 
the care of a small flock of chickens. She 
received as pay for attending to them 
one-half of all eggs laid. If we needed 
the eggs at the house we bought her share 
at tin* local price and paid her cash for 
them. Otherwise, she sold them at the 
store. This plan worked well with this 
girl, as she has taken excellent care of 
the flock and proved especially proficient 
with young chicks. It is my intention 
to encourage this girl to my utmost along 
this line and see that she has poultry up 
to her capacity to care for. I shall re¬ 
main in partnership with her and hope to 
see her in a few years an efficient man¬ 
ager of a considerable plant. For an¬ 
other girl (11 years old) I intend to buy 
a few sheep. These we will handle in 
partnership, she to receive her pay out of 
proceeds of the flock. 
Boy Partners. —Another plan I tried 
with our two hoys, aged 13 and 15. The 
season of 1913 I took them into partner¬ 
ship with me on the farm. We all- worked 
together, each doing what he could for 
the common good. A strict account was 
kept of all cash sales, and out of every 
dollar thus taken in the younger boy 
received five cents and the older boy ten 
cents. In our case this plan worked 
finely. The effect of this system upon 
the boys pleased me to the point of de¬ 
light. Very soon after the arrangement 
was made the boys began to realize that 
the better everything about the farm was 
attended to the better it was not only for 
me but also for them. If the potato plot 
should be allowed to dry out or become 
weedy it meant fewer bushels of potatoes 
to sell, consequently fewer nickels and 
dimes for them. If the com should be 
neglected it meant less feed for the stock, 
consequently less milk to sell, less gain in 
young cattle, lighter hogs, etc., and, of 
course, smaller sales out of which to draw 
nickels and dimes. They soon became 
anxious, even eager, to pitch in to all 
work as it came along and finish it up. 
They put even me to shame, so impatient 
were they to be up and doing. I could 
not loaf a minute or neglect a thing, and 
when, at the end of the year, it was neces¬ 
sary for me temporarily to suspend farm 
operations I know that both boys were 
really sorry and disappointed that we 
could not continue the partnership. We 
are all three impatiently awaiting the 
time when we shall renew the arrange¬ 
ment. I have hopes that by means of 
this system I shall be able to bring up 
the girls as efficient farm women, and to 
keep the boys from leaving the farm. 
The Children’s Spending. —Now a 
word about the spending of this money. I 
pay the children for their work. I make 
it a rule to interfere with it as little as 
possible. I consider that since the chil¬ 
dren earned this money by good square 
work they are justly entitkd to spend it 
practically as they please. They buy 
Some candy. They go to entertainments 
and pay their own way. They give their 
own money at church and Sabbath school. 
They buy skates, shoes, guns, hair rib¬ 
bons, clothes, ice cream, stockings, fans, 
hats, baseballs, mittens, Christmas and 
birthday presents; in fact, they buy a good 
percent of everything they need, and buy 
with reasonably good sense. We are 
obliged only occasionally to advise them a 
little about such matters. Finally, not¬ 
withstanding what I have said upon this 
subject, and the faith I have in the plan 
of putting children to work at fair wages, 
I wish to repeat that each child is a 
problem in himself. A system that works 
well with ray child may fail with yours, 
and vice versa. But this system of which 
I have written is, so far as I am able to 
find out, the best for at least a very large 
percent of children. If anyone has a 
better it is plainly his duty to place it 
before the public where all may have the 
benefit of it. f. n. M. 
The Stammering Child. 
I T is unfortunate that so serious a dis¬ 
order of childhood as stammering should 
be held so lightly in popular estimation, 
and that it should so frequently be a mat¬ 
ter of quip and jest in the family of an 
unfortunate sufferer rather than one of 
thoughtful attention directed toward its 
cure. To the thoughtless listener there 
may be something ludicrous in the help¬ 
less repetition of sounds or syllables, but 
to the one unable to speak like his fel¬ 
lows there is nothing but mental anguish, 
no matter how bravely concealed. The 
tendency to stammering usually shows 
itself in children at an early age, at a 
time when they are learning to formulate 
ideas in their minds and to express them 
in words. Both undertakings are new to 
them and in the attempt to combine men¬ 
tal and physical processes an unfortunate 
lack of harmony sometimes develops. 
Fortunate is the mother who applies to 
the family physician for advice if, in 
cases of this kind, he has prepared him¬ 
self to advise wisely ; but the wisest phy¬ 
sician cannot know everything, and un¬ 
til recently, at least, medical schools have 
ignored instruction in the treatment of 
speech defects. Many physicians do not 
consider themselves competent to advise 
intelligently in these matters and, con¬ 
sequently, do not make the attempt. This 
has left an open field to the advertising 
charlatan, of which he has not been slow 
to take advantage. 
Recovery may, and not infrequently 
does, occur with advancing years without 
special attention having been paid to 
this defect, but so often does the begin¬ 
ning tendency develop into a confirmed, 
and practically incurable, habit that no 
chances of spontaneous cure should be 
taken. When a child begins to repeat 
the first sound or syllable of words that 
he attempts to utter it should be as¬ 
certained whether or not there are aden¬ 
oids, nasal obstruction, or other defects 
in the speech-making apparatus*, and, if 
these are not found, it may be assumed 
that the disorder is a nervous one and 
amenable to treatment. 
The stuttering child is usually a nerv¬ 
ous child, very likely a timid child and 
One more than ordinarily sensitive to the 
behavior of those about him. He has also 
an almost perverse determination to 
copy the undesirable traits of those with 
whom he comes into contact. For this 
reason, the other members of the family 
have a duty to perform ; they should re¬ 
frain from boisterous, excited, language 
in the child's presence and from those 
things which over-stimulate the child's 
imagination and attempts at expression. 
When the child begins to speak rapidly 
and incoherently, he should be gently 
checked by the older ones about him and 
made to speak slowly and in a low voice, 
lie should not be scolded, for scolding is 
likely only to increase the child’s nervous¬ 
ness and difficulty, hut he should he 
guided into the correct way of utterance. 
Most certainly he should not be laughed 
at or mocked by others or in any other 
way made to acquire a nervous dread of 
repeating his failures. In the early 
stages a child may sometimes he cured of 
his defect without ever having known 
that he possessed it. 
It should be borne in mind that, in 
the majority of cases, stuttering is due to 
emotional disturbances, and, for this rea¬ 
son, the child should be trained in the 
control of his emotions and to do things 
in a quiet, orderly, way. In this the ex¬ 
ample of his elders is as important as 
precept. To the mother will necessarily 
fall the greater part of the child’s train¬ 
ing and upon her patience and tact the 
outcome will in large measure depend. 
It may be that beginning school life 
with its boisterous fellowship and the 
excitement of class work has furnished 
the immediate cause of undue emotion¬ 
alism and lack of self control, if so, tem¬ 
porary withdrawal from school nov be 
considered. It is better, however, that a 
child should be taught self control under 
the ordinary conditions of life than that 
he should be shielded from them. Soon 
or late he must enter into competition 
with his fellows. 
Stammering which, at first, is but an 
expression of fear or other emotional dis¬ 
turbance may easily become, through re¬ 
petition, a fixed habit, and, like other 
habits, the longer indulged in the more 
difficult it is to overcome. 
the country doctor. 
The Young Climber. 
((/'Vil, baby, look out, you’ll fall.” 
vX The little fellow was two-thirds 
of the way up the stairs. lie straight¬ 
ened up, and in doing so he wob¬ 
bled much like a top that has spent its 
force. lie turned and smiled at his 
mother as she shrieked. Again he dipped 
forward and started to continue his ad¬ 
venturesome climb, forgetting that he 
had rolled from the top of the stairs clear 
to the bottom a day or so before. Chil¬ 
dren have the climbing instinct; tumbles 
and falls d<> not curb it, and scoldings 
will not. Prof. Filler, Director of the 
Department of Physical Education of 
Wisconsin, says: “Courageous and in¬ 
formed parents closely supervise tin- 
child’s activities during the early years.” 
He describes a simple arrangement which 
will satisfy the youngster’s desire to 
climb, and will not afford any danger. 
“Take the baby’s high chair and re¬ 
move the slats or spindles of the back 
leaving only tin; frame with an opening 
large enough for tin- child to crawl 
through. Fasten rungs across the back- 
legs of the chair, converting it into a lad¬ 
der. The baby climbs the ladder and 
reaching through the opening in the back 
of tin- chair grasps the side arms of tin- 
chair. He draws his legs and body 
through and extending his legs in front 
sits down. To get down he reverses tin- 
process. A child at 12 or 14 months will 
learn this trick in one or two trials and 
will never voluntarily permit itself to In- 
lifted into or out of its chair thereafter. 
“Tin- use of this chair may be extended 
by attaching to its front a smooth 
waxed board reaching the floor at an 
angle of about .”>0 degrees, to be used as 
a slide. The pleasure of this experience 
serves to greatly promote the use of tin- 
chair as a climbing apparatus.” 
w. j. 
Taking Out Stains. 
ti'T'IIFRF. Johnnie, you stumbled 
X against the wagon-wheel, and got 
your nice new waist and coat all 
black with grease. Why didn’t you be 
more careful?” 
Johnnie went into the house crying, 
for he did feel so proud of the nice waist 
and suit, and it was the first time he had 
them on. Miss Abby Marlatt, of Wis¬ 
consin. would wipe away the tears, and 
say. “Johnnie, I’ll fix it for you.” Any¬ 
how, she tells how to help the little folks 
out of such unfortunate situations. 
“To remove wagon grease spots always 
soften with lard rubbed on the stain. 
Wet with turpentine. Then, if the goods 
are white and washable, wash with soap 
and water; if colored and washable, with 
naphtha soad. and if cloth is not. wash¬ 
able place softened grease area over many 
folds of cloth and gently apply small 
cloth wet in “carbona” (carbon tetra 
chloride). Move spot to new folds of 
cloth and continue to apply carbona till 
grease is all washed through into under 
cloths. With fresh wash cloth and fresh 
carbona. gently rub from center spot to¬ 
ward edges to remove any circle which 
may have formed. 
“Ink spots should be removed when 
fresh. As a rule avoid the use of soap. 
(Some st.vlographic inks may be thor¬ 
oughly removed by washing with soap 
and water.) Soaking the spot in warm 
milk, or if the color is fast, sour milk 
for from one hour to twenty-four hours, 
may remove the ink spot, and then the 
milk stain may be removed by washing. 
In white goods it is very easy to use the 
sour milk treatment.—Salt and lemon 
juice may be spread on the spot and 
placed in the sun until the ink disap¬ 
pears.—Muriatic acid may be used as 
follows: Place the spot over a bowl 
which contains hot water. Moisten tin- 
spot with muriatic acid, then plunge tin 
spot in hot water, repeat till the stain 
disappears. Then rinse in ammonia wa¬ 
ter and several clear waters.—Javelle 
water which contains free chlorine may 
be purchased at a drug store. A stain 
soaked in this for a few hours will usual¬ 
ly disappear. In this case the cloth must 
be rinsed in ammonia water and then 
in many clear waters.—Oxalic acid will 
rot the cloth if much is used. 
“To take out grass stains, wash the 
spot in kerosene until it turns yellow. 
Then wash with soap and water. AVher • 
the goods are lion-washable and of a deli¬ 
cate color, wash the spots in alcohol tili 
tin- green color is removed.” 
THE LITTLE GARDENER GOING TO BUSINESS. 
