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THE SUNNY SOUTH.
ADVICE TO PARENTS.
Dr. Talmage Protests Against Our
School System.
Finds a Timely Lesson in the Sacrifice of Jephtha’s
Daughter—Thousands of Children Educated
Into Imbecility.
Washington, April 16.—In his sermon
today Dr. Talmage lodges a protest against
the parental heedlessness and worldly am
bition which are threatening the sacrifico
of many American children; text, Judges
xi, 36, “My father, if thou hast opened
thy mouth unto the Lord, do to me accord
ing to that v^hich hath proceeded out of
thy mouth. ”
Jephthah was a freebooter. Early turned
out from a home whero he ought to have
been cared for, he consorted with rough
men and went forth to earn his living as
best he could. In those times it was con
sidered right for a man to go out on inde
pendent military expeditions. Jephthah
was a good man according to the light of
his dark age, but through a wandering
and predatory life he became reckless and
precipitate. The grace of God changes a
man’s heart, but never reverses his nat
ural temperament. The Israelites wanted
the Ammonites driven out of their coun
try, so they sent a delegation to Jephthah,
asking him to become commander in chief
of all the forces. He might have said,
“You drove me out when you had no use
for me and, now you are in trouble, you
want mo back,” but he did not say that.
He takes command of the army, sends
messengers to the Ammonites to tell them
to vacate the country and, getting no fa
vorable response, marshals hi£ troops for
battle.
Before going out to the war Jephthah
makes a very solemn vow that if the Lord
will give him the victory, then, on his re
turn home, whatsoever first comes out of
his doorway he will offer in sacrifice as a
burnt offering. The battle opens. It was
no skirmishing on the edges of danger, no
unlimbering of batteries two miles away,
but the hurling of men on the points of
swords and spears until the ground could
no more drink the blood, and the horses
reared to leap over the pile of bodies of the
slain. In those old times opposing forces
would fight until their swords were bro
ken, and then each one would throttlo his
man until they both fell, teeth to teeth,
grip to grip, death stare to death stare,
until the plain w.as one tumbled mass of
corpses from which tho last trace of man
hood had been dashed out.
Jeplithnh’s Danghtcr.
Jephthah wins the day. Twenty cities
lay captured at his feet. Sound the vic
tory all through the mountains of Gilead.
Let the trumpeters call up tho survivors.
Homeward to your wives and children.
Homeward with your glittering treasures.
Homeward to havo the applause of an ad
miring nation. Build triumphal arches,
swing out flags all over Mizpah, open all
your doors to receive the captured treas
ures, through every hall spread the ban
quet, pile up tho viands, fill high tho
tankards. The nation is redeemod, the
invaders are routed and the national honor
is vindicated. j
Huzza for Jephthah, the conqueror!
Jephthah, seated on a prancing steed, ad
vances amid the acclaiming multitudes,
but his eye is not on the excited populace.
Remembering that ho had made a solemn
vow that, returning from victorious bat
tle, whatsoever first came out of the door
way of his home, that should be sacrificed
as a burnt offering, he has his anxious
look upon the door. I wonder what spot
less lamb, what brace of doves will be
thrown upon the fires of the burnt offer
ing.
Oh, horrors! Paleness of death blanches
his cheek. Despair seizes his heart. His
daughter, his only child, rushes out tho
doorway to throw herself in her father’s
arms and shower upon him more kisses
than there were wounds on his breast or
dents on his shield. All the triumphal
splendor vanishes. Holding biick this child
from his heaving breast and pushing the
locks back from the fair brow and looking
into the eyes of inextinguishable affection
with choked utterance he says: “Would
God I lay stark on the bloody plain. My
daughter, my only child, joy of my home,
life of my life, thou art the sacrifice!”
The whole matter was explained to her.
This was no whining, hollow hearted girl
into whose eyes the father looked. All tho
glory of sword and shield vanished in tho
presence of tho valor of that girl. There
may havo been a tremor of the lip, as a
roselcaf trembles in the sough of the south
wind; there may have been the starting
of a tear like a rain drop shaken from tho
anther of a water lily. But with a self
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sacrifice that man may not reach and only
woman’s heart can compass she surrenders
herself to fire and to death. She cries out
in the words of my text, “My father, if
thou hast opened thy mouth unto the Lord
do unto mo whatsoever hath proceeded
from thy mouth.”
Innocence Sacrificed.
She bows to tho knife, and the blood,
which so often at tho father’s voice had
rushed to tho crimson check, smokes in
tho fires of the burnt offering. No one
can tell us her name. There is no need
that we know her namo. The garlands
that Mizpah twisted for Jephthah, the war
rior, have gone Into the dust, but all ages
are twisting this girl’s chaplet. It is well
that her name came not to us, for no one
can wear it. They may tako tho namo of
Deborah or Abigail or Miriam, but no one
in all the ages shall have tlio title of this
daughter of sacrifice.
Of course this offering was not pleasing
to the Lord, especially as a provision was
made in the law fWr such a contingency,
and Jephthah might have redeemed his
daughter by the payment of 30 shekels of
silver, but before you hurl your denuncia
tions at .Jephthah’s cruelty remember that
in olden times when vows were mado
men thought they must execute them, per
form them, whether they were wicked or
good. There were two wrong things
about Jephthah’s vow. First, he ought
never to havo made it. Next, having
made it, it were better broken than kept.
But do not take on pretentious airs and
say, “I could not have done as Jephthah
did." If in former days you had been
standing on the banks of the Ganges and
you had been born in India, you might
have thrown your children to the croco
diles. It is not because wo are naturally
any better, but because we havo more gos
pel light.
Now I make very practical use of this
question when I tell you that the sacrifice
of Jephthah’s daughter was a type of the
physical, mental and spiritual sacrifice of
10,000 children in this day. There ai’o
parents all unwittingly bringing to bear
upon their children a class of influences
which will as certainly ruin them as knife
and torch destroyed Jephthah’s daughter.
While I speak the whole nation, without
emotion and without shame, looks upon
the stupendous sacrifice.
Children Overtaxed.
In the first place, I remark that much
of the system of education in our day is a
system of sacrifice. When children spend
six or seven hours in school and then must
spend two or three hours in preparation
for school the next day, will you tell me
how much time they will have for sun
shine and fresh air and the obtaining of
that exuberance which is necessary for the
duties of coining life? No one can feel
more thankful than I do for tho advance
ment of common school education. The
printing of books appropriate for schools,
tho multiplication of philosophical ap
paratus, the establishment of normal
schools, which provide for our children
teachers of largest caliber, are themes on
which every philanthropist ought to bo
congratulated. But this herding of great
multitudes of children in ill ventilated
schoolrooms and poorly equipped halls of
instruction is making many of the places
of knowledge in this country a huge holo
caust. Politics in many of the cities gets
into educational affairs, and while the two
political parties arc scrabbling for the
honors Jephthah’s daughter perishes. It
is so much so that there are many schools
in the country today which are preparing
tens of thousands of invalid men and wo
men for the future; so that, in many
places, by the time the child’s education
is finished the child is finished! In many
places, in many cities of the country,
there are large appropriations for every
thing else, and cheerful appropriations, but
as soon as the appropriation is to be mado
for the educational or moral interests of
the city we are struck through with an
economy that is well nigh the death of us.
In connection with this I mention what
I might call the cramming system of tho
common schools and many of the acad
emies ; children of delicate brain compelled
to tasks that might appall a mature intel
lect; children going down to school with
a strap of books half as high as themselves.
Tho fact is in some of the cities parents do
not allow their children to graduate for
the simple reason, they say, “We cannot
afford to allow our children’s health to be
destroyed in order that they may gather
the honors of an institution.” Tons of
thousands of children educated into imbe
cility, so that connected with many such
literary establishments there ought to bo
asylums for the wrecked. It is push and
crowd and cram and stuff and jam until
the child’s intellect is bewildered, and the
memory is ruined, and the health is gono.
There are children who once were full of
romping and laughter and bad cheeks
crimson with health who are now turned
out in the afternoon pale faced, irritated,
asthmatic, old before their time. It is
one of the saddest sights on earth, an old
mannish boy or an old womanish girl.
Girls 10 years of age studying algebra!
Boys 12 years of age racking their brain
over trigonometry! Children unacquaint
ed with their mother tongue crying over
their Latin, French and German lessons!
All the vivacity of their nature beaten out
of them by the heavy beetle of a Greek
lexicon! And you doctor them for this,
and you give them a little medicine for
that, and you wonder what is the matter
of them. I will tell you what is the mat
ter of them. They are finishing their ed
ucation !
Body and Brain Weakened.
In my parish in Philadelphia a little
child was so pushed at school that she was
thrown into a fever, and in her dying de
lirium all night long she was trying to re
cite the multiplication table. In my boy
hood I remember that in our class at school
there was one lad who knew more than all
of us put together. If we were fast in our
arithmetic, he extricated us. When we
stood up for the spelling class, he was al
most always the head of the class. Visit
ors came to his father’s house, and he was
always brought in as a prodigy. At 18
years of age he was an idiot. Ho lived ten
years an idiot and died an idiot, not know
ing his right hand from his left or day
from night. The parents and the teachers
made him an idiot.
You may flatter your pride fey forcing
your child to know more than any other
children, but you are making a sacrifice
of that child if by the additions to its in
telligence you are making a subtraction
from its future. The child will go away
from such maltreatment with no exuber
ance to fight the battle of life. Such chil
dren may get along very well while yon
take care of them, but when you are old
or dead alas for them If, through the
wrong system of education which you
adopted, they have no swarthiness or force
of character to take care of themselves.
Be careful how you make the child’s head
ache or its heart flutter. I hear a great
deal about black man’s rights, and China
man’s rights, and Indian’s rights, and
woman’s rights. Would God that some
body would rise to plead for children’s
rights. The Carthaginians used to sacri
fico their children by putting them into
the arms of an idol which thrust forth its
hand. The child was put into tho arms of
tho idol and no sooner touched the arms
than it dropped into tho fire. But it was
the art of the mothers to keep the children
smiling and laughing until the moment
they died. There may be a fascination
and a hilarity about the styles of educa
tion of which lam speaking, but it is only
laughter at tho moment of sacrifice.
Would God there were only one Jephthah’s
daughter!
Discipline of the Young.'
Again, there are many parents who are
sacrificing t’hoir children with wrong sys
tem of discipline—too great rigor or too
great leniency. There are children in
families who rule tho household. Tho
high chair in which the infant sits is the
throne, and the rattle is tho scepter, and
the other children make up the parliament
whero father and mother have no vote!
Such children come up to be miscreants.
There is no chance in this world for a
child that has never learned to mind.
Such people become the botheration of tho
church of God and the pest of the world.
Children that do not learn to obey human
authority are unwilling to learn to obey
divine authority. Children will not re
spect parents whoso authority they do not
respect. Who are these young men that
swagger through the street with their
thumbs in their vest talking about their
father as “the old man,” “the governor,”
“the squire,” “the old chap,” or their
mother as “tho old woman?” They aro
those who in youth, in childhood, never
learned to respect authority. Eli, having
heard that his sons had died in their
wickedness, fell over backward and broke
his neck and died. Well ho might. What
is life to a father whose sons aro de
bauched? The dust of the valley is pleas
ant to his taste, and the driving rains that
drip through the roof of tho sepulcher are
sweeter than the wines of Helbon.
There must be harmony between the fa
ther’s government and tho mother’s gov
ernment. The father will bo terr.pted to
too great rigor. The mother will be
tempted to too great leniency. Her tender
ness will overcome her. Her voice is a lit
tle softer, hor hand seems better fitted to
pull out a thorn and soothe a pang. Chil
dren wanting anything from tho mother,
cry for it. They hope to dissolve her with
tears. But the mother must not interfere,
must not coax off, must not beg for the
child when the hour comes for the asser
tion of parental supremacy and the subju
gation of a child’s temper. There comes
in the history of every child an hour when
it is tested whether the parents shall rule
or the child shall rule. That is the crucial
hour. If the child triumphs in that hour,
then he will 6ome day make you crouch.
It is a horrible scene. I have witnessed it.
A mother come to old age, shivering with
terror in tho presence of a son who cursed
her gray hairs and mocked her wrinkled
face and begrudged her the crust she
munched with her toothless gums!
How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is
To have a thankless child!
Rocks to Avoid.
But, on the other hand, too great rigor
must be avoided. It is a sad thing when
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Chief Justice Mansfield if she was not
proud to have three such eminent sons and
all of them so good. “No,” she said, l
is nothing to bo proud of, but, something
for which to be very grateful. ”
Again, there aro many who are sacnllc-
lng their children to a spirit of worldli-
ness. Some one asked a mother whose
children had turned out very well what
was the secret by which she prepared them
for usefulness and for the Christian life,
and she said: “ This was the secret. When
in the morning I washed my children, I
prayed that they might be washed in tho
fountain of a Saviour’s mercy. When I
put on their garments, I prayed that they
might be arrayed in the robe of a Saviour s
righteousness. When I gave them food, I
prayed that they might bo fed with manna
from heaven. When I started them on
the road to school, I prayed that their path
might lie as the shining light, brighter
and brighter to the perfect day. When I
put them to sleep, I prayed that they
might bo infolded in the Saviour’s arms. ”
“Oh,” you 3ay, “that was very old fash
ioned.” It was quite old fashioned. But
do you suppose that a child under such
nurture as that ever turned out bad?
In our day most boys start out with no
idea higher than the all encompassing dol
lar. They start in an age which boasts it
can scratch the Lord’s Prayer on a 10 cent
piece and tho Ton Commandments on a 10
(Continued on Page Eight.)
domestic government becomes cold mili
tary despotism. Trappers on the prairie
fight fire with fire, but you cannot suc
cessfully fight your child’s bad temper
with your own bad temper. We must not
be too minute in our inspection. We can
not expect our children^to bo perfect. We
must not see everything. Sinco we havo
two or three faults of our own, we ought
not to bo too rough when wc discover that
our children have as many. If tradition
be true, when we were children we were
not all little Samuels and our parents were
not fearful lost they could not raise us be
cause of our premature goodness. You
cannot scold or pound your children into
nobility of character. The bloom of a
child’s heart can never be sepn under a
cold drizzle. Above all, avoid fretting and
scolding in the household. Better than
ten years of fretting at your children is
one good, round, old fashioned application
of the slipper! That minister of the gos
pel of whom we read in the newspapers
that ho whipped his child to death because
ho would not say his prayers will never
come to canonization. The arithmetics
cannot calculate how many thousands of
children have been ruined forever either
through too great rigor or too great lenien
cy. The heavens and the earth aro filled
with the groan of tho sacrificed. In this
Important matter seek divine direction, O
father, O mother.
Some one asked the mother of Lord
.A
X
NOW FOR YOUR COTTON ESTIMATES.
THE NUMBER OF BALES IN THE COTTON CROP. SEASON I898-I8S9.
$5,000 FOR SOLUTION!
An Extraordinary Offer to Our Subscribers Here it M.Sr Read It AH Very Carefully and Be Sure
You Understand the Terms.
FIRST AWARD.
To the subscriber or subscribers naming the exact number, or the near
est to the exact number, of bales In the cotton crop of 1S9S-99 we »
will give if the estimate is received during
April, 1899 $2,500
If during May, 1899 2,000
If during June, 1899. 1,500
If during July or August, 1899 1,000
k'j
SECOND AWARD.
To the subscriber or subscribers naming the first next nearest we will
give, if the estimate is received during
April, 1899 $1,500
If during May, 1899 1,250
If during June, 1899 1,000
If during July or August, 1899 750
THIRD AWARD.
Note Specially-;
To the subscriber or subscribers naming the second next nearest we will give, if the estimate is re
ceived during
April, 1899 u $1,000
If during May, 1899 750
If during June, 1899 500
If during July or August, 1899 250
So that the most we are liable for hereon is $5,000.00 in Cash.
If the exact figures are not given during the contest, the money will be paid out for the nearest to the exact fig-
> ures. Somebody will get the money; it does not come back to us by any means. Those who solve the problem
at the longest range will receive proportionately the hignest prizes, as you notice the figures grow less as the
time expires and because tho number of bales received up to certain dates, as the time advances, can be known exactly leaving shorter time and
probabilities to figure against. The point is to hit it exactly during April, then you have it. In all three of the cases submitted it is distinctly un
derstood that should more than one correct or equally correct estimate be filed In the contest, the amount of the prizes so earned will be divided
properly among the correct answers.
In Last Year’s Cotton Contest Hr. D. P. HcLaurin, of Clio, 5. C., Was Paid $2,500 in Cash.
for his (nearest to the correct number of bales) estimate received on April 4th. This is the largest sum ever paid out to any one person in any of
thecontests. Mr.McLaurinmay miss It this year, and it may be your time to hit it. Think of it! Two thousand five hundred dollars in cash all for
one estimate! ! !
Among the other amounts paid were: B. M. Woods. Box 991, Fort Worth, Texas, $375,000; Mrs. C. J. Quinn, Pistol, Ga., $375.00; Robert Boyd,
Powell, Ark., $333.34; Mrs. F. H. Hanklnson, Beach Island, S. C., $333.34; D. W. Perdue, Griffin, Ga., $166.69.
FIGURE ON THIS $5,000 PROBLEM.
THE CONTEST CLOSES AUGUST 31, 1899.
The estimate to be made upon the total United States cotton crop for
1698-99, the crop that has alredy been gathered and is now in the country,
as official figures of receipts will show it from September 1, 1S9S, to September
1, 1899. This is not the crop that Is to be planted this spring, because the
figures thereon will not be obtainable until September 1, 1900. It is for the
crop already in and being marketed, official figures of which will be an
nounced in September. As a guide for making your estimate we give the
Season Acres planted. Bales in crop.
1888- 89 19,362,073 6,938,290
1889- 93 20,171,896 7,311,322
1890- 91 20.809,053 8,652,597
1891- 92 20,714,937 9,035,379
1892- 93 .' 18,067,924 6,700,365
official figures for each of the last ten crops. The conditions under which
this last crop was grown and its probable output are elements for you to
compute from, and will aid in the correctness of your present estimate.
The figures given by Latham, Alexander & Co., of New York, are ac
cepted the world over as official, and we give an exact copy from their
latest edition of “Cotton Movements and Fluctuations” as follows;
Season. Acres planted. Bales in crop.
1893- 94 19,684,000 7,549.817
1894- 95 21,454,009 9.901,251
1895- 96 18,882,000 7,157,346
1896- 97 22,341,000 8,757.964
1897- 98 24,071,000 11,199,994
Their Estimate of the Acreage for the Crop of the Season of 1898-99 is 22,736,000 Acres. %
THE FOLLOWING ARE THE CONDITIONS OF THE CONTEST:
First. If the prizes offered under the first proposition are awarded for
the EXACT estimate upon the number of bales, the prizes offered under the
second proposition will be for the nearest estimate, but if the first prizes
are given for the NEAREST estimate, no one having named correctly the
exact figures, then the second prizes would come in for the second nearest
estimate, and the third prizes for the • third nearest estimate. Second. If
some one should submit a correct estimate in one division of the time shown
above and some one should send a correct estimate In some later division,
this last estimate would take rank only proportionately b£ the award for
the nearest estimate according to its period, because the larger sum had
been previously awarded proportionately to some one who named the
amount correctly in the former period. Third. The condition precedent for
sending an estimate of the cotton crop is that each and every estimate
must be accompanied by .$2.00 for a year’s subscription to The Weekly Con
stitution and Sunny South. This must be sent in the identical envelope
that brings the money that pays for the subscription. You cannot subscribe
now and send your estimate after ards; no forgetting it or leaving it out
by accident or otherwise, or not knowing of this contest at the time you
subscribe, or any other reason, will entitle one to send an estimate after
ward. The estimate must come with the subscription, or not at all. In
sending your estimate by an agent of The Constitution or The Sunny
South, you make him your agent, and not ours, in forwarding your esti
mate, both as to the correctness of the figures as you intended them and the
certainty of the forwarding of the estimate. Should a party send more
than one estimate, he or she will be entitled to a share of the prize-fund
under which it may secure a prize for each correct estimate sent. Persons
may enter the contest as many times as they send subscriptions, and under
the rules the same person may receive a prize with each of the three prop
ositions. Fourth. In making your answer just state simply: "I estimate
the number of bales of cotton will be ” Make your figures very
plain. We will record them as received every day, exactly as they look,
and will allow no change whatever. If you want to make estimates later,
or if you want to' repeat the estimates you have made, send other subscrip
tions. Don't forget every subscription for yourself or your friends will en
title you to an estimate. Address all orders to
THE SUNNY SOUTH, Atlanta, Ga.
The above is the Atlanta Constitutions' ofier, and they may be depended on to give away every cent promised. We have made
arrangements by which every subscriber we have can, by sending ns $2.00 for a renewal, receive as a premium the Weekly Con
stitution for one year, and also be allowed one guess in above $5,000.00 contest. Send yonr guess direct to ns and accompany
it with $2 for The Sunny South and Weekly Constitution one year, and both will be sent yon and yonr guess will be turned
over by ns to The Constitution and properly entered to yonr credit. If yon are already paid up on The Sunny South, yon can
•end $2.00 and have yonr subscription extended for one year from the time it will expire and also receive The Constitution one
year and also guess in above contest.
THE SUNNY SOUTH, ATLANTA, GA.
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