Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 200, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 August 1911 — The Boy Puggle [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Boy Puggle

By DR, J. S. KIRTLEy

The Boy’s Punishment

The boy who sUps through life without getting some sort of punishment—’there is no such boy. Even if he should never do anything to require punishment—but no; why deal in pure hypothesis T If he should be able to escape all the vigilance committees [that are after him, it would be solely ■because he is doing the punishing and (administering the discipline himself, and in secret; but we need not tarry over that rare, if not specimen. Some divergence from the line of rectitude is inevitable, even when that line is clearly drawn by the teaching, and attractively illuminated, by the practise of those who have him in charge. He cannot escape all his monitors, including his conscience. So punishment must come, because, if there be no results of wrong-doing there can be no wrongdoing, and we have a fool world to live in. Those who have him in charge have been nominated and elected to administer it; but you must first catch the hare before cooking It, and you must tactually find something to punish before the punishment is handed out to him. It takes some sense to know with certainty, in every case, whether [there has been wrong-doing, what it deserves, how the punishment should be administered and what is the purpose of it. So it is an intricate and Unusual problem presented when his daddy starts out to punish him. Sometimes a boy looks impudent, has an Irritating accent and seems to deserve attention on general principles. In that case, circumstantial .evidence becomes conclusive. Sometimes it is his awkwardness and not his meanness that leads to a break. All of us are interested in what Tolstoi writes, and he says his ungainly, ugly, stupid-looking face and coarse, unshapely hands and feet distressed him ■and made him more intractible when a boy. An irritated parent may lick him to work off his own anger, and that is •worse than hanging the wrong man from circumstantial evidence. To mistreat a boy is a crime and ought to be (treated as such It is not always possible to keep a boy from thinking he (is unjustly treated and, in that case, jail you can do is to do right and let him get over his miff whenever it suits his convenience. Punishment can be reduced to a minimum by careful discipline in the directlng of his life. Directing a boy’s life is'a god deal like directing the course of a horse. There are two ways of driving a horse, a right and a wrong way. The right way is to hold the reins slightly taut, so that the horse can feel the faintest pressure on either line, and soon he will enter with you

Into the enjoyment of the drive. Th* wrong way is to let him have the reins and do as he will, until he does something you do not want, and then go at him and beat him till his skin and his heart are sore and he grows weary and profane and would like to do something desperate. The horse’s mistakes are wholly due to the wayhls driver has treated him and the latter deserves the beating. Good discipline will save drubbing. It Is my most solemn conclusion that. In almost every.case, the wrongdoing of a boy that requires punishment could have been prevented the parents, and that they ought to take the punishment themselves. They ought to have honor enough to voluntarily take it and let him know.lt, so that he may have the moral effect of seeing such a rare instance of nobility. There Is still an altruistic elementin suffering. But when punishment is truly deserved, it must be glven and the occasion made an epoch ni the life of the boy. It is not to be made an end in itself, nor a matter of retribution, nor anyone’s vindication, but an education to the boy. It must, first of all, bring him back to the line of rectitude from which he departed. It must awaken in him, not alone a sense of the majesty of right and truth, but a new desire to conform his life to It. . Inseparable from the punishing must be the effort to remove the occasion, and even the cause, of the offense for which it was Inflicted. It they trace it back to themselves they must protect him from themselves, their modes of speech, the atmosphere they create by their inner spirits and their failure to give him the wise discipline and the steady, authoritative direction his life needs. If the cause of It is in him alone, as. In rare instances, It is, they can undertake no higher life-task than protecting him against his own faults. He will respect authority, but not those who wield it like tyrants or outlaws. He may be persuaded to enter Into any right scheme of discipline, Involving punishments and rewards, which means he will co-operate In his own development, a thing very necessary If there Is to be a right development. The sentiment of fear, which one may appeal to, In a right way, may be harnessed up to active work and turned Into love. . Punishment must be free from threats and harshness and anger, for they defeat Its purpose. It must not be occasional and intermittent, but as each need arises. The quieter and freer from noise and talk such occasions can be made, the more surely will they serve their true purpose.