Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 August 1893 — The Good-Night Story. [ARTICLE]

The Good-Night Story.

Ni w York Time? “Every night when I watch my little daughter working off the big thoughts that sweep over her brain as her tired body begins to relax, while her mentality seems to be briefly and proportionately stimulated, I tremble to think of the harm that could be done to her or any child —for Mabel is not an abnormal child in anyway—by an ignorant nurse or a thoughtless parent. —“The fact is that every normal child cries out for a bedtime story shows that its mental nature needs it just as its physical nature craves sweets. You want to give your child pure candy, so give him the unadulterated story. Leave out the fearful personalities, the grim-and gigantic figures -these, even if they are properly vanquished by the gallant hero, are too distinct for the crib-side tale. “Sit down by your little one’s bed and speak low and evenly. Weave a fanciful but quiet story that tells of pretty fairies and birds and flowers and droning bees and loving little boys and girls—these woo sleep to the weary but still active brain, not with the suffocating pressure of the storm lit with lurid flashes. Wt'with the soft clouds of the sunscr horizon that change from rosy pink to tender enveloping gray, and gradually deepen into restful gloom.”