THE MOTHER AND HER BOY.
By Alice Starr
Much has been said and written about girls and the problem of their rearing until it is almost an acknowledged fact with many at least that boys need no training. I have heard mothers say, “Oh, I am so glad my baby is a boy! Boys are so much easier to raise than girls. Why, boys almost raise themselves,” and so they are left to come and go as they please,—this too by good, conscientious women, who give their spare time and strength to works of charity and the uplifting of humanity. An incident I read not long ago will illustrate this point:— A lady who had occasion frequently to pass down a certain street, often met a bright faced boy on his way “uptown.” She finally made his acquaintance, and a friendly feeling sprang up between them. As soon as possible she asked him if he thought it was best and right for him to spend so many evenings in town. He raised his dark handsome eyes to hers, and said, frankly, “Well, no; I know it isn’t exactly right, but you see there is no place for me at home. Sue and Rose entertain company in the parlor every evening, and they give me strictly to understand that I am not wanted; and then father likes to have the sitting room to himself, where he can read or sleep without a noise; and you see mother is so busy working for other people’s boys, I suppose, that she has no time for me. So I spend more time uptown than I really ought to.” It doubtless was considered an easy matter to raise that boy. But what will the harvest be. Why is it so much easier to raise boys than girls? Another question arises: “Why is it that a boy can grow up without training, while it is the constant care and worry of the anxious mother that she shall be able to bring her daughter through that period of blossoming womanhood, pure and spotless? Why, too, is that mother more anxious than ever when her daughter begins keeping company with some young man? Why will she lie awake till late if the girl is away in his company, never closing her eyes till she hears the well-known footfalls? In short, why is it that our girls are not perfectly safe through this period of their lives? Ah! I hear some mother say, “We can not trust the boys.” Then, my dear mothers, is it not a fact that the mothers of our boys have sadly neglected their duty? If a boy was taken into his mother’s confidence as a girl is, and the mystery of his life unfolded to him, would it not have a tendency to give him a sense of the sacredness of the powers of his manhood? The boy will learn all these wonders, somewhere, somehow, from other boys, perhaps. He finds it all out, but it is sure to be enshrouded in a murky cloud of vice, and often he looks upon his own parents as parties in vicious habits. He grows up with the idea that virtue is all talk, that no one really practices it. He comes to look upon vice as not so bad after all. With such ideas of virtue and vice, can we wonder that he will not consider it a thing to be ashamed of if he does trifle with lustful passion when he has the chance? Can he be blamed for his conclusion when his training in that respect has been so sadly neglected? It has been said that the years between the ages of twelve and eighteen are years fraught with special dangers in a boy’s life. In German this period is called the period of “storm and stress.” These are the years when he so much needs a firm loving mother hand to guide him over the rough places. If he is not so fortunate as to have this pilot mother, he is sure to drift with the tide, unless there311is some other influence to take the mother’s place. These are strange and wonderful years to him, and O so many, yes, the vast majority, are left to themselves to find their own way through. If the boy at this age is strongly fortified with the knowledge the mother can and should impart to him, he will successfully repel many of the temptations that are sure to come at this period of his life; while, if he is not thus strongly fortified, he is a sure target for the many fiery darts of the enemy. Shall we not, as mothers of this generation of boys, rescue them from such a fate? O mother! if you are one to whom God has intrusted the care and training of a boy, go on bended knee to him for wisdom to perform the duties he has laid upon you. “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”