Show VALUABLE suggestions ON TRAINING THE YOUNG columns of the ordinary newspaper are largely devoted to descriptions of criminal exploits great and small email the space apace devoted to acts of virtue and meritorious deeds is comparatively limited this exhibit familiarizes people with crime its phases being dished up to them at every meal the consequence quence to is inevitable sin becomes less repulsive when the moral sense is thus thue blunted the individual becomes more mom liable to wrongdoing wrong doing in his own conduct the effect is somewhat similar to that produced upon the minds of susceptible and romantic young people from the reading novels with a view to correcting this thie tendency mrs mra grant started in the of comans womans work A record of virtue this led to the making by a clergyman of an experiment which was described under the head of moral chemistry in an article by miss anna garlin spencer in the december century Gen tury an episcopal minister had a sunday school class of boys so rough and rude that the regular sunday school teachers would have nothing to do with them and turned them out of the sunday school it was wag uon this very unpromising material that the experience ot of moral chemistry was tried it was suggested to him that it might interest his one hundred bad boys in that pursuit and offer prizes to those who could report a certain number of good or kinc kind tor or noble deeds which they lied had themselves witnessed or heard or read about either at the present time or in past history I 1 feel so strongly that the right way to help is to present examples of goodness instead of picturing wickedness and vice that I 1 think thin k thi tabi P experiment m might ight be worth trying no sooner said than done the minister in question began opera allons as follows 1 I will buy fifty little pass books to be given to the larger large r boys in which they may mav write down the ten best best and noblest acts they have seen or read in the papers during the past year christmas week I 1 will give a grand banquet the boys shall sit down to a feast and at its close a song or twosome two some ballad of brave and noble deeds shall be r ung followed by a reading of some noble ac act t a after ft r which the pr E me shall be brought out and awarded to ane successful competitor Aft erthe books were purchased he inserted in each a printed slip on which were the following words write in this book the ten kindest noblest kor best acts you have read or been tota tord write plainly on one side of the paper and as short as possible and return christmas the experiment was immensely successful cess ful when the books came in they contained an interesting collection of crudely constructed stories but the teacher derived almost as much advantage as the scholars from the experiment peri ment the boys had sent to many of their friends to find bud kind and brave deeds in the newspaper and elsewhere some of the conclusions were very curious here for instance are the entries made by one boy who did not think anything worth while putting in his bis book that he could not find in the bible jacob was very kind his brothers sold him and ana when his brothers in neede beede he took them in his home david was a 91 brave man he killed goliath whit a sling li samson killed ill 1000 people with a mule jaw boon and he pulled a lion jaw into daniel was a brave man he was in by 7 lion the seven jew brothers was brave and there mother the were killed be thy aou would id not eat pork the second set of books showed decided progress the following were the directions for the second year write plainly in this book ten of the kindest bravest and noblest acts you have read seen or been told the design of this compe competition is to teach you to seek for and to love that which is kind gentle and brave and to shun hun and hate those things which are base ignoble and wrong miss misi spencer the writer of the oen tury article says the second set of books is an advance upon the first in understanding of the intention of mr white in neatness in accuracy and in the proportion oi of those having the fall number of items in some instances the be same boys tried again and improved decidedly upon their original work although knowing that they could not g get at another prize the far greater number of kind sets acta done by humble people in everyday fashion which are recorded in the second set of books show that the boys had at last understood that they were asked to note that which touched or might affect their own lives closely and not merely to search history for sublime deeds of great men irh the e whole collection of books given in thi this s second contest shows shown much moral discrimination and many inc incident identa recorded touch upon those finer and more delicate elements ele menis of kindness and nobility which the boys could hardly have seen much of in their homes the prin ale of this unique enterprise in moral training is of universal applina ap application ion the principle that attractive power towards the good rather than repressive power towards the bad is the mighty lever in character building the great interest already manifested in this boys record of virtue wherever it has been known justifies this public recital of a most private and personal work perhaps the foregoing recital will be of some assistance to persons engaged in the care and training of the young |