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Show HABIT IS POWERFUL In Training Children Prevention Is Much Better Than Care, Habit is one of the strongest forces of the world. Not like dynamite or a big cannon ball, or a steam engine it requires a man to start off such a force as either of these mentioned yet If that same man had the tabit of smoking he would find it a very difficult matter indeed to simply drop It short off, and never do it again. So in the end it is an economy of mind to train children in habits such as will be of value to them through life. One of the mistakes made by mothers In training their children is in supposing that careful habits can be cultivated in careless surroundings. A ragged or soiled carpet so little valued that a grease or ink spot may fall and be left upon it without" causing caus-ing comment, may become . a moral calamity. A child who is made to eat its food carefully, in a room where the furnishings are respected even if extremely ex-tremely plain, where carelessness is followed by a penalty, naturally acquires ac-quires careful manners, while tying the child up in a bib and allowing it to spill Its food, or be careless in eating, eat-ing, soiling the cloth, or its hands, is responsible for bad table habits in the men and women whom we meet. A child is quick to imitate. If the mother moth-er is worried by the soiled cloth or a spot, and takes the trouble to clean it up, to keep the furnishings of the room neat, to spend some time in setting the table carefully and keeping the room in order, she saves time otherwise spent in repairing damages and correcting cor-recting the child. The ounce of prevention pre-vention is worth seven pounds of curt in the training of children, and it is a pity when it is not administered in the small doses needed ,by children, and not in the radical doses necessary to overcome neglect in matters that are never minor, for manner and habit speak for much in man. Truly a man may be moral and eat wiUi his knife, but he would be a more valuable man in the community if he recognized the uses for which the knife was designated desig-nated and applied it only to th03e uses. And so with many other habits and manners that prove such trials to men and women of today, and which might have been avoided if in their childhood the thoroughness in training had been appreciated. |