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October 2, 1912 ] T H E I
gle day in the life of a civilized man could be
exposed, it would disclose the services of a multitude
of helpers. When he rises a sponge is
placed in his hand by a Pacific islander, a cake
of soap by a Frenchman, a rough towel by a
Turk. His merino underwear he takes from the
hand of a Spaniard, his linen from a Belfast
manufacturer, his outer garments from a Birmingham
weaver, his scarf from a French silk
grower, his shoes from a Brazilian grazier. He
is taken to the city by the descendants of James
Watt, his messages are carried hither and thither
Kir "Crli?- u:_ J >- * ' ? .
uj uujiwu, uis uay ? sunt oi wotk is done tor him
by a thousand Irishmen in his factory. .
A million men, women and children have been
working for him that he may have his day of
comfort and pleasure." In the great world of
nature thene is one disturber of harmony?the
parasite which, at the expense of the workers,
lives a life of glorious ease. The social parasite
is the great disturber of the harmony of the
world of industry. It is the mission of true
democracy to sign the death warrant of the social
parasites who today are disturbing the social
order. In the world of nature parasitism spells
degeneration, which also infects the world of industry,
and will continue to do so till democracy
stamps out the social epidemic of luxurious idle
nc-no.?i rtsuy iman ibxaiti-iner.
CHILDREN'S TERRORS.
It must be remembered that explicit utterance
is not essential for the conveyance of
ideas, for in the child a vague general notion
is quite as effective for producing emotion as
is a clear-cut concept. Now the explanation of
this is very simple; it depends upon the fact
that gesture precedes speech as a vehicle of
thought. The infant comprehends the varying
attitudes and vocal tones of its mother long before
it can distinguish different words. If I
say to a small hoy that a bear will eat him up
the effect upon his emotions entirely differs
whether I make the remark with portentous
gravity and horror or whether I say it
with bubbling joviality as evidently a huge
joke. In the first eventuality the boy will rush
to my side in terror and try to be saved from
the bear, and a phobia ia in course of construction;
with the latter procedure the boy will
laugh consumedly, and it would not take much
to make him enter the cage and strike the bear.
But even when terrified a child feels a refuge
in the protection of his elders during the day,
when they are rarely absent.
At night, however, the child is alone and his
ilttle consciousness cannot find the easy support
of others. Before the kaleidoscope of his
dreams pass the various images and accompanying
emotions of his waking life, so that
if any of these images has become linked with
fear it is certain to bring with it terror as it
surges into dream in the night, and the child
jumps up awakened in panic, finding no one
near him upon whom to lean.
It should not be difficult to see that these
night terrors are the product of a suggestion
while awake, implicit or explicit. Tt nhnniri
not be difficult for those who are forewarned to
prevent morbid fears of this type. I may cite
the case of a southern lady who could never
enter a dark place without feeling an indescribable
horror. No hereditary phychopathy
could be invoked to explain her dread, for none
of her three daughters had the least fear of
the dark and indeed they used to be sent by
their school fellows into dark and eerie places
without experiencing the least trepidation.
The difference was that as children th#y were
protected by their mother from the tales of the
plantation negroes, who knew that dismissal
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SO
would follow transgression of the prohibition.
'ihe formation of a night terror was nipped
in the bud in the case of my own boy, then aged
three and three quarters. I shall try to explain
the method. For several weeks he had
been visiting the zoological garden every afternoon
in the company of a French maid of exceptionally
forceful character and apparently
free from the superstitiousness of the average
nurse. For a long time all went well, until
one evening the boy began to cry in bed soon
after he was left for the night. At this unusual
occurence I mounted the stairs and inquired
the cause of the boy 's trouble. He said
there were lions in the house and that he did
not want to stay alone as he was afraid they
would eat him. The source of the idea had
been that the lions had roared more loudly
than usual on that particular afternoon and he
had been much impressed, standing for some
time quite motionless before the cage, though
unterrified.
I soon convinced the boy that the lions had
to remain in their cages, and could not get out,
hence there were none in the house, so that
there was no occasion for fear. Of course it
was first necessary to give him the feeling of
security gained by embracing me, and secondly
A 1 x-11- ? ^ ------
iv >n.6iu me cuuiuaniiuu uy muting 01 something
else. I have forgotten what. In this
way the state of terror was dismissed and the
feeling of protection was induced before we
returned to the subject of the lions; then we
made rather a joke of the funny roaring of
the lions before we had finished, and he finally
lay down with solemn purpose to go to sleep
and think, as I suggested, of the tramcars and
motors passing outside his open window. It
was all a very simple substitution, but it was
the prevention of what might have become a
serious fear psyehoisis if injudiciously handled.
?Medical Record.
THE BOY WHO ARGUES.
"What would you do with a boy who will
argue about everything?" asked a mother the
other day with every evidence of distress and
discouragement. "If I ask him to do a piece
of work, he wants to do it his own way, and
will stand and argue longer about every point
than it would take to do it, even if it is of no
importance greater than the best way to pile
the wood in the wood box."
"Arguing is reasoning aloud with an antagonist,
who also reasons aloud," said the
counsellor. "Lacking the antagonist, the arguing
will soon die out. It is sometimes a sign of
lut-tis, Mumeuiues oi seii-wm, sometimes oi a
desire to hear oneself talk. The habit of arguing
once formed cannot be corrected by
counter-argument. No one can argue alone,
so the first step in the process of cure is to let
the child find out as soon as he begins to argue
that he is ignored.
"If he is given a piece of work to do, he
must be allowed to do it in his own way, unless
time is taken to teach him your way so
that he will comprehend it. You cannot teach
him by words unless he has come to years of
understanding, and perhaps not then by words
alone. Your words will very often not mean
to him just what they mean to you, so that even
if you give him the most minute instructions,
in so simple a thing as piling wood in a box,
he will find ample opportunity for misunderstanding.
Let him learn how to do things by
helping you.
"If he wants to try new, strange and utterly
childlike ways of doing things do not arbitrarily
interfere by word or act, such as will bring
U T H (1107) 5
replies and retorts, unless your are prepared
to take time and the necessary patience to make
him fully understand you and your methods.
But let him experiment; accept his original efforts;
and by easy, natural stages lead him on
to the more perfect ways, even of laying sticks
of wood.
"Do not despise his log-house plan, even if it
1 i.1 xl e ? * ...
cuiuuers me noor ior a ntue wnue, nor object
if he prefers to stand the sticks on end in the
box, instead of laying them cordwood fashion.
Until you can lead him to see by actual demonstration
that your way is the best, you would
better leave him to discover that fact by observation.
There is reason on both sides of the question,
but the mother who insists too strongly
upon prompt and unquestioning obedience on
the part of a boy who is inclined to argue will
probably find herself developing the decidedly
unpleasant and unwise habit of nagging, which,
by the way, is more to be deplored than the
arguing habit.?American Motherhood.
R.UT.F.S FOP TTAPPrWFHQ
It was at a girls' summer school years ago
when one of the girls rose and said to Alice
Freeman Palmer, who had been talking to
them:
"Mrs. Palmer, you are always so cheerful
and happy; will you tell us, please, how can
we be happy?"
"I will, dear," said this saint of her sex. "I
will give you three very simple rules:
"The first is this: Commit something to
memory every day, something good. It needn't
be much. Three or four words will do?just a
pretty bit of a poem or a Bible verse.
The second rule is: Look for something
pretty every day; and don't skip a day, or it
won't work.
"My third rule is?now mind, don't skip
a day: Do something for somebody every day!
That is all there is to it, dear. You'd better
try it."
These three rules are just as good as when
they were spoken; they will work always and
everywhere, in the country as well as in the
city: for women as well as for girls. They will
make a farm house warm in the chill winter
and a tenement cool in the blazing summer.
They will help to make us masters of our lives.
They are so plain that everybody can understand
them and so practical that everybody
can keep them. No matter how lowering and
how gray the sky, these rules infallibly will
make the sun shine through.?Sunshine Bulletin.
AN INEXHAUSTIBLE TREASURY.
(Continued from page 3.)
"My great love for the Word of God, and
and my deep conviction of the need of its heincr
spread far and wide, has led me to pray to God
to use me as an instrument to do this, and to supply
me with means for it; and he has condescended
to enable me to circulate, in all parts of the
earth, and in various languages, 284,652 Bibles,
1,458,662 New Testaments, 21,350 copies of the
Book of Psalms, and 223,500 other portions of
the Holy Scriptures; and God "ha? been pleased
thus, simply through the reading of the Holy
Scriptures, to bring thousands of persons to the
knowledge of the Lord Jesus."
"Them that honor ME I will honor."
Springfield, 111.
Young man, my advice to you is that you cultivate
an acquaintance with and a firm belief in
the Holy Scriptures?this is your certain interest.?Franklin.