TRAINING UP LIARS

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 6, 1887

TRAINING UP LIARS.

THERE are schools (private, of course) in our large cities in which children are systematically trained to pick pockets and perpetrate other kinds of expert crime. But what shall be said of "respectable" parents who openly initiate their children into habits of dishonesty? The temptation to natural cupidity in the matter of half-fares develops a peculiar standard of ethics for railway-car travel which many would be ashamed to be charged with anywhere else; and there are fathers and mothers, claiming high moral character, who, for a little paltry saving of money, will corrupt the pure conscience of a child by teaching him to lie about his age. A correspondent of an exchange says:—

"We have, with pain, witnessed a humbling scene, both for mother and child, in their combined efforts to cheat the conductor. When the conductor comes round and receives from the mother a fare and half, he asks: 'Where is your child?' 'Here he is,' is replied. He looks amazed, as does everybody else, to learn that the half-grown youngster is under five. He asks the infant, 'How old are you?' to which it replies, 'Four years,' looking out for the future that still they may keep a margin to travel on.

I know a young boy who is being simply ruined in his education by his mother. He is eight years old, with all the noble instincts of probity and obedience which generally characterize a boy's nature. This tender parent has instructed him that whenever he gets on a car, the appearance of the conductor to collect the fare reduces his age under five. Last week a friend of the family was displaying his interest in the child by inquiring his age. The little fellow hesitated for a moment, and then looked up at his mother: 'Mamma, is he a conductor?' 'No, child.' 'Then I am eight years old.'"—Good Cheer.