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Show III Temper in Children i By ELLA WHEELER WILCOX. (Copyright, 1913, by Star Company.) Something like 125 years ago a little girl wan born In New England. She was pretty and bright, and her parents made tnuoh of her; and she aoon became a spoiled child in the way of disposition. She was irritable and fault-finding: and these tendencies were not corrected, but excused on the ground that "Abble was high-strung," and "smart." and "not like other ordinary children. She married, young, a man of rare sweetness of character, and with an inexhaustible in-exhaustible patience. He was devoted to his handsome wife, and she" made him a very good consort, so far as her Industry Indus-try and economy and loyalty went. But Bhe worried him with her faultfinding fault-finding and Irritability. He made the great mistake of establishing estab-lishing his wife with his relatives, and all her quarrelsome and irritable tendencies tenden-cies were, of course, aggravated. She bore him six: children, and as she had never been taught anything of the laws of parental Influence, she fretted and complained about the Increasing numbers of her children, before their birth. And after they came Into HfA and she grew to love Uiem, she made the great error of telling them how unwelcome thoy bad been. This was specially true of the second r.hlld, who was scarcely a year younger than her older Blstor. The second child Inherited all her mother's moth-er's Irritable characteristics and prided herself upon boing extremely high-spirited and capable of "answering back" with some sharp retort. She, too, waB excused, and even lauded for her peculiarities. She was regarded as "out of the common" com-mon" and "just like Abble." When she married her husband did not possess tho amiable qualities of her father, fa-ther, and, of course, discord soon prevailed. pre-vailed. Children came Into this hqme. and so a second generation was reared in this unfortunate atmosphere. The grandmother lived until she reached the age of 91. and with each year her disposition grew mora unpleasant. When the daughter visited at her old home there was always bickering and scolding and quarreling. And into these family fusses three generations gen-erations wero drawn: Then came a fourth generation, after the grandmother' died, and this fourth generation was brought up under the same conditions, and today this generation genera-tion Is oursed with the original uncurbed temper and unhappy tendency to find fault of the first great-grnndmother, whloh came down through the Becond grandmother and the father, and was, like a river, fed from streams running Into it from other branches, which all became corrupted when the original stream was approaohed. SIstera have become enemies, brothers quarrel; Jealousy, 111 temper, gossip, backbiting back-biting and all manner of bad habltB, resulting 'from uncontrolled temper, have destroyed homos, and In some of these homes a fifth generation of little children chil-dren is becoming infected. And all this might have been averted, and heaven, Instead of hell, been established estab-lished In the homes of four generations had the first ohlld been taught self-control, good will, amiability, gentle manners, man-ners, the religion of kindness and courtesy. All of these women had kind hearts toward the poor, slok and needy. They were always "good neighbors when there was trouble In other homes. But they never leaimed the strength and power which lies in silence, and they never learned the beauty of the soft answer which turneth away wrath. The two original sinners (for such uncontrolled un-controlled tempers are sinful) were women wom-en of great Btrength of intellect and of dominating personalities; therefore their Influence was far-reaching and powerful. In many of their descendants the unpleasant un-pleasant qualtlcs have taken the form of petty meanness and ignoble nagging toward kail those with whom they are thrown In close association. Yet the tendencies can all be traced back to the first source. If your child, madam or sir, shows wonderful "spirit" and Is very "high strung" and brilliant with repartee in the "way of the quick retort, do not laugh and applaud and think you have something some-thing to be prouud of, something out of the ordinary. Teach your chlldron the religion of kindness, the religion of gentle voices, amiable manners, generous Judgments, and self-control. Make thorn understand early how vulgar vul-gar is uncontrolled temper and how Ill-bred Ill-bred the sharp rejoinder. Do this for their own sakes and the sakes of unborn generations. |