OVERGROWN BOYS by Mary Sweet Potter

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 20, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 40.

OVERGROWN BOYS.

By Mary Sweet Potter

THERE can scarcely be a more refined method of cruelty than that of ridiculing the awkward movements of a boy whose superfluity of flesh or stature prevents his moving gracefully among his more naturally formed brothers and sisters; and yet fathers and mothers, as well as thoughtless friends or playmates, are often guilty of thus wounding the feelings of the overgrown boy who is so unfortunate as to have been born among them. Even the attainment to a noble and perfectly symmetrical stature (which the years always bring to such a one, if his health does not fail under the extra imposition of labor which his mistaken friends require of him), cannot atone for the cruel hurts he thus receives. If he is a sensitive child, they rankle in his very soul, and do untold harm there.

Some parents are in such haste for their children to become men and women that they force them on, hasten their development in every possible way, and if nature favors them by bestowing a more than ordinary growth in bone and flesh upon any of their children, they are rejoiced to have the excuse to impose duties and exact behavior according to the number of pounds avoirdupois, when in reality there is no standard to go by. Too many children are thus defrauded of their childhood, and who is prepared to answer to such a charge, by and by, when it shall be brought against him?—Mary Sweet Potter, in Good Housekeeping.