Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 October 1879 — Whipping Children. [ARTICLE]

Whipping Children.

Saturday Night. A parent who don’t know how to govern a child without whipping it, ought to surrender the care of that child to some wiser person. Sportsmen once thought that it was necessary to lash their dogs in training them for the ffeld. They know now that the whip should never be used. Horsemen once thought that it was necessary to whip colts to teach them to start or stop at the word, and pull steadily. They know that an apple is .better than the lash, and a caress better than a blow. If dogs and horses cun be thus educated without punishment, what is there in our children which makes It necessary to slap and pound them? Have they less intelligence? Have they colder hearts? Are they lower in the scale of being! Wo have heard many old people say: “If we were to bring up another child we would never whip it.” They are wise, but a little too late. Instead of God doing so for little children that they must be whipped to goodness. He has done so much for them that even whipping can’t ruin them—that is, as a rule. But, alas, there are many exceptions to this rule. Many children are of such that a blow makes them cowardly* *ojc reckless, or deceitful, or permanently-ugly. Whipping makes children lie. Whipping makes them hate their parents. Whipping makes home distastefulmakes the boys run away, makes the girls seek happiness anywhere and anyhow. Whipping is barbarous. Don’t whip.