et woman. For the
manners of little boys are almost invariably what their mothers make
them.
Awake early in his heart a sympathy for the deformed, the crippled, and
otherwise unfortunate beings.
There is no other country where such vulgar and heartless curiosity, and
even ridicule, is bestowed upon grotesque or unsightly types of
humanity, as in America.
A little dwarfed girl in New York City committed suicide a few years
ago because she was so weary of being laughed at and ridiculed by her
associates in the street and at school.
Think of that, in this Christian age, and in the metropolis of America!
An old street peddler was set upon by school-children and so annoyed and
misused that he became insane.
Another was injured by street children--the children of the public
schools--and died from the effects of their abuse.
This is the fault of mothers who have never deemed it their duty and
privilege to awaken the tender and protective qualities in the character
of their children.
Speak often to your boy of the pathos of dumb animals dependent upon
human thoughtfulness for food, drink, and decent usage.
Say what a privilege it seems to you to be able to befriend them, and to
be a voice for them in making others realize their duty to our dumb
brothers.
Obtain interesting books on natural history and read stories of animal
life to your boy. Instruct him in the habits of beast, bird, and insect,
and talk to him of the wonderful domestic instincts and affections in
many of our speechless associates. The exhilaration of the wild bird,
and the happiness of the deer and the hare in the woods and fields, call
to his mind day by day. It will be more gratifying to you when he is man
grown to feel he is the loving friend and protector, rather than the
skilled hunter of bird and beast.
The higher order of man does not seek slaughter for amusement. He
realizes that he has no right to take, save for self-protection, that
which he cannot give.
Make your son a higher order of man by developing those brain cells and
leaving the destructive and cruel portions of the brain to shrink from
lack of use.
Even in his play with his inanimate toys, you can be arousing the best
or the worst part of your boy's nature.
The child who whips and screams at his hobby-horse usually, when a man,
whips and bellows at his flesh and blood steed.
Tell him the play-horse is more easily managed by coaxing and petting,
and that lo
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