Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 January 1907 — Heroic Treatment. [ARTICLE]

Heroic Treatment.

In these days, when child study is a bobby, ridden long and bard, it Is interesting to read of the nerve-train-ing which fell4o the lot of the Quaker authoress, Amelia Opie, in 1769 and after. The modern mother would

shrink with horror from some of the methods used on the sensitive child, but In this case It resulted in splendid stuff. Mrs. Ople is quoted in a book on “Quaker Worthies.” I was a creature of fears, tears and screams. My first terror was of black beetles, then of frogs, skeletons, black men and madmen. My mother made me take a beetle In my hand and hold it. As her word was law, I obeyed, but with awful shrinking. I gradually became accustomed to it, and was frequently told to take one up and put it out of harm’s way. T soon overcame that terror. I was made to hold frogs In my hands, and was taught to nurse a skeleton as I would a doll. I acquired the love of the African race by hearing of its wrongs, and I became an eager advocate' of emancipation. Mother compelled me to listen to her kindly converse with two poor old lunatics, and I grew to pity them instead of fearing them.