"Get work! Get work! Be sure That it is better than anything you work to get."
Country children can gather the eggs, cut feed for the animals, often have a pet lamb, chickens, heifers or colts of their own to care for.
There is little difficulty in finding "ch.o.r.es" for them to do. But the city boy and girl are not so fortunately situated.
All that can be done for them is to devise errands, and to place upon them as much responsibility for small duties about the house, as you think they can bear. They should spend as much time as possible in the open air, playing in their own yard or, under close watch, in the street,--the playground of most city children.
Every means that can be thought of should be used to make them despise the idea of idleness, and to love work.
A distinguished professor in one of our great universities taught his cla.s.ses that work was one of the cardinal evils, and that a prime endeavor of life should be to get along with as little work as possible.
A mother of one of his pupils, who had brought her son up to believe that work was n.o.ble and honorable, and that it ranked with the four gospels as a means of salvation from sin, has never forgiven that professor. He overturned in the mind of her son the ideal of the glory of work, which she had so painstakingly erected there, and it has never been fully re-established. No such man as that teacher should ever be given a position upon a college faculty.
When one reads of the childhood of the vast majority of our distinguished men it seems chimerical to hope that children brought up in comfort, with plenty to eat and to wear, should ever attain to high positions. Most of our great men appear to have struggled through seas of adversity, in order to get an education and a foothold in the world of literature or art or politics or finance. We recognize that it was the self-reliance and the capacity for hard work thus developed, which brought them success. We know that it is a truism that poverty is the mother of muscle and of invention. Many wealthy parents have tried to supply this great motive by depriving their children of luxuries, and making them work their way through college, or "begin at the bottom" of some business. This has sometimes, but not often, resulted well; for, after all, artificial poverty is only a blind, and the child has ever the underlying consciousness that it is, and that there is no real need that he should much exert himself.
A lady who conducted a subscription cla.s.s of society women in their own beautiful parlors, testified that their mental inertia was lamentable, and that the only two in her cla.s.s of fifty, who really seemed to have any capacity for keen thought, were women who worked for a living. They had to make their minds nimble and bright in order to keep themselves afloat.
In Professor Drummond"s remarkable book, "Natural Law in the Spiritual World," there is a striking ill.u.s.tration of the deteriorating effect of disuse upon organs, in the highly organized crab, which, when it finds a rich feeding-ground, attaches itself to some convenient rock, loses one by one its feelers and tentacles and soon becomes a simple sac, fit only to suck up nourishment.
Many of the absurd opinions and nearly all of the sins of the so-called "society" people can be laid to idleness. The mind, seldom used to its capacity, becomes dull and unable to reason, and the moral nature loses its strength of conviction. Nothing is worse for our country than the increase of our idle cla.s.ses. Its salvation is the slogan that every man and woman should work and earn at least a living.
Our "leisure women" are realizing their plight, and most of them are entering actively into our great philanthropic and civic organizations.
The war has given them a splendid opportunity and it is a good sign for our nation that so many of them have seized it. The idle woman, whom George Meredith calls, "that baggage which has so hindered the march of civilization," is coming to realize her responsibility as a citizen of a great democratic nation. The leisure man among us is so rare that he is an almost negligible quant.i.ty, for which we may well be thankful. If we can get the child of America started well in the ways of industry, the man is safe; for one who has experienced the transporting pleasure of achievement, can scarcely help wanting more of it.
"The phrase, "economy of effort," so dear to Froebel"s followers, had little meaning for Dr. William James," says Agnes Repplier. "He a.s.serts that effort is oxygen to the lungs of youth, and that a n.o.ble, generous rivalry is the spur of action and the impelling force of civilization."
It is certainly the "cue" of every patriot who loves his country.
The joy of work is well described by Cleveland Moffett in the article which has been mentioned. He says: "However disagreeable work may be, life without work is even more disagreeable. All who have tried it, no matter how rich they are, agree that enforced idleness ranks among the most cruel of tortures. Men easily die of it, as doctors know, who every day order broken-down neurasthenics in their middle fifties, back into the business or professional harness they have foolishly retired from."
The field of work for those women who are obliged or prefer to support themselves, is broadening hopefully. President Woolley of Mount Holyoke tells of seven of her recent graduates who took part lately in a symposium at the college, all of whom were engaged in paying work, but no one of whom was teaching, though that has. .h.i.therto been the main dependence of the wage-earning girl.
One of these young women was a physician; the others were respectively: a lawyer; an interior decorator; an editor of the children"s department of a well-known periodical; a county agent in New York State; a member of the staff of the Children"s Bureau at Washington; and the Secretary of the American Nurses" a.s.sociation.
Such incidents make us confident that the varied talents of our bright girls will soon find as wide a scope as that enjoyed by our boys.
And it cannot be too strongly emphasized that regular daily work in early life is invaluable in establishing habits of industry.
A common expression used to be: "He has good habits," or "He has bad habits." We do not hear it so often nowadays, but the words are full of meaning. As a man"s habits are, so is he.
"Could the young but realize," says Mr. Moffett, "how soon they will become mere walking bundles of habits, they would give more heed to their conduct while in the plastic state."
It is then that we mothers must mold them into the workers that we want them to be, and we must use the patriotic motive to quicken their love of industry. In certain states this motive is strengthened by laws compelling idle men to work.
Robert Gair is the founder of what is now the greatest "paper-products"
business in this country, and probably in the world. It is located in the Borough of Brooklyn, New York City. There Mr. Gair, on the occasion of his seventy-fifth birthday, made an address to his employees, a portion of which, as reported in the _Brooklyn Eagle_, was as follows:
"No permanent achievement, whatever its form may be, appears to be possible without stress of labor. Nothing has come to me without persistent effort of the head and of the hand. Hard labor will win what we want, if the laws of nature are obeyed. Self-coddling and the fear of living strenuously, enfeeble character and result in half-successes.
Hard labor has no penalties. It is the loss of hardihood through careless living that brings penalties. Do the one thing before you with your whole heart and soul. Do not worry about what has gone by, nor what lies ahead, but rivet your mind and energies on the thing to be done now. Self-indulgence and late hours produce leaden hands and a listless brain, robbing your work of "punch.""
Mr. Gair cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln. He enlisted early in the Civil War and saw hard service. Less than two hundred of the original 1,087 of his regiment remained to be mustered out at the close of the war.
Surely his wise and uncompromising words indicate one of the most necessary ways in which our young people, who desire to show how much they love their country and wish to promote her glory, can contribute to it.
CHAPTER VIII
A PATRIOT"S MANNERS AND MORALS
Manners are the happy way of doing things. . . . Give a boy address and accomplishments, and you give him the mastery of palaces and fortunes. . . . The moral equalizes all; enriches, empowers all.--EMERSON.
A THOUGHTFUL writer upon American customs recently remarked, "The morals of America are better than those of any other nation, but their manners are the worst."
A certain mother once said, "I was always so fearful that my children would become bad men and women that I devoted all my attention to making them good. Then I was shocked to find, when they had grown up, that though their morals were satisfactory their manners were not."
Perhaps most American mothers are like her. And that may be the reason why we have the reputation of being the worst-mannered of all the so-called "civilized" peoples.
Still, the outlook is encouraging. Observing critics have been heard to say that the children now growing up, in spite of many exceptions, have better manners than those who have preceded them. The public schools are more careful regarding such matters than they used to be, and so are parents. In fact, if it were not for our numerous importations from the countries which most severely criticize us, our American manners, on the whole, might be called pretty good.
Have you not noticed how many laboring men remove their hats when apologizing to you, or offering a seat in a street-car? Or say, "Excuse me?" when it is proper. Instead of staring at a cripple or a deformed person, as people used almost invariably to do, in very many cases lately it has been remarked that eyes have been politely turned away and an effort apparently made to appear unconscious of the misfortune.
Parents are teaching their children to eat more gracefully. More hands are neatly manicured. In fact, perhaps we are going almost too far in this direction. In one of the "Country Contributor"s" interesting articles in the _Ladies" Home Journal_, she says, "Don"t let anybody tell you that a lady or gentleman must have nice hands. It isn"t true."
She means, of course, that useful work, which often spoils the beauty of the hands, must be considered far more important than the keeping of them immaculate.
Quarrelsome and ill-bred children are still to be found among us, even in pretty good families; but in spite of the large cla.s.s always present, who are chronic complainers of the decadence of the times,--a sure sign of approaching senility,--it must be acknowledged that the manners of the children one meets nowadays are better than those of the last generation.
It would be a confession of the impotence of effort if this were not so.
Thousands of women"s clubs and scores of women"s periodicals have been hammering at "the bringing up of children," for, lo, these many years.
Add to these, the thunderings of the pulpit and of the lecture-platform, and we must admit that the best ways that we know of imparting information and inspiration are useless, unless there has been within the last quarter-century an improvement in the behavior of our children.
We must remember that civilization is a slow process, and one cannot readily believe that, even in the millennium, there will not be some silly mothers and some naughty children.
It is said that we behave better, so far as outward signs go, when we wear our best clothes. Without fostering the love of dress, which is likely to be fully developed without help, especially among our girls, it cannot be too strongly impressed upon our children that they must never appear before others without being neatly and properly dressed. A princ.i.p.al of a famous Normal School used to instruct his students that they must always dress as well as they could afford.
"It will have a good effect upon your pupils," he said, "and it will help to establish the dignity of your profession."
One of the few compliments which foreign visitors generally paid us (before the war) was that we were a well-dressed people.
Perhaps this has had more effect upon their estimation of us as a nation than have some of our more solid virtues. Perhaps it is really a sign of the possession of solid virtues.
But, again, it is example which counts more than precept in the case of manners, as in everything else. If you wish your children to treat your wife with respect, you must treat her so yourself. If you rise when she enters the room; if you hasten to place a footstool for her; if you apologize for pa.s.sing in front of her; if you hasten to help her up and down the rough places; then your children will do it. Otherwise, all of her and your injunctions will have small influence. There are good citizens and good soldiers who are uncouth and awkward in their manners, but a graceful courtesy clothing the more substantial qualities will give them far more weight in the community.
One impatient boy complained to his fastidious mother, who was bound to make him a gentleman in manners, no matter what else he might become, "Oh, mother, it is nothing but "Thank you," and "I beg your pardon," and jumping up to give people your seat, from morning to night--and I get so sick of it! When I grow up, I"m never going to say them or do them any more!"
Courtly and polished manners are said to be impossible among the ma.s.s of the people in a republic. Let us try to show the world that this is false. Distinction of manner is not one of the great qualities of a nation, but if we wish to impress upon a somewhat incredulous world the glory and beauty of our inst.i.tutions, we shall find the cultivation of beautiful manners a great help.
Dr. Lyman Beecher once said, "What a pity that so many of our finest and most self-sacrificing Christians have had rough manners! They have robbed their example of half its force."
The current ambition that our nation should be courteous as well as brave, is shown plainly in the questions which come by the hundred to the "household departments" of our periodicals, especially from mothers and young people. Points of good behavior and etiquette are expounded there so fully and so often that there would seem to be no excuse for any ignorance among us of the proper conduct in any situation.