登陆注册
5224900000028

第28章 THE CHILDREN OF THE LOST.(1)

Whatever may be thought of the possibility of doing anything with the adults,it is universally admitted that there is hope for the children.

"I regard the existing generation as lost,"said a leading Liberal statesman."Nothing can be done with men and women who have grown up under the present demoralising conditions.My only hope is that the children may have a better chance.Education will do much."But unfortunately the demoralising circumstances of the children are not being improved--are,indeed,rather,in many respects,being made worse.The deterioration of our population in large towns is one of the most undisputed facts of social economics.The country is the breeding ground of healthy citizens.But for the constant influx of Countrydom,Cockneydom would long ere this have perished.

But unfortunately the country is being depopulated.The towns,London especially,are being gorged with undigested and indigestible masses of labour,and,as the result,the children suffer grievously.

The town-bred child is at a thousand disadvantages compared with his cousin in the country.But every year there are more town-bred children and fewer cousins in the country.To rear healthy children you want first a home;secondly,milk;thirdly,fresh air;and fourthly,exercise under the green trees and blue sky.All these things every country labourer's child possesses,or used to possess.

For the shadow of the City life lies now upon the fields,and even in the remotest rural district the labourer who tends the cows is often denied the milk which his children need.The regular demand of the great towns forestalls the claims of the labouring hind.Tea and slops and beer take the place of milk,and the bone and sinew of the next generation are sapped from the cradle.But the country child,if he has nothing but skim milk,and only a little of that,has at least plenty of exercise in the fresh air.He has healthy human relations with his neighbours.He is looked after,and in some sort of fashion brought into contact with the life of the hall,the vicarage,and the farm.He lives a natural life amid the birds and trees and growing crops and the animals of the fields.He is not a mere human ant,crawling on the granite pavement of a great urban ants'nest,with an unnaturally developed nervous system and a sickly constitution.

But,it will be said,the child of to-day has the inestimable advantage of Education.No;he has not.Educated the children are not.

They are pressed through "standards,"which exact a certain acquaintance with A B C and pothooks and figures,but educated they are not in the sense of the development of their latent capacities so as to make them capable for the discharge of their duties in life.

The new generation can read,no doubt.Otherwise,where would be the sale of "Sixteen String Jack,""Dick Turpin,"and the like?But take the girls.Who can pretend that the girls whom our schools are now turning out are half as well educated for the work of life as their grandmothers were at the same age?How many of all these mothers of the future know how to bake a loaf or wash their clothes?Except minding the baby--a task that cannot be evaded--what domestic training have they received to qualify them for being in the future the mothers of babies themselves?

And even the schooling,such as it is,at what an expense is it often imparted!The rakings of the human cesspool are brought into the school-room and mixed up with your children.Your little ones,who never heard a foul word and who are not only innocent,but ignorant,of all the horrors of vice and sin,sit for hours side by side with little ones whose parents are habitually drunk,and play with others whose ideas of merriment are gained from the familiar spectacle of the nightly debauch by which their mothers earn the family bread.

It is good,no doubt,to learn the ABC,but it is not so good that in acquiring these indispensable rudiments,your children should also acquire the vocabulary of the harlot and the corner boy.I speak only of what I know,and of that which has been brought home to me as a matter of repeated complaint by my Officers,when I say that the obscenity of the talk of many of the children of some of our public schools could hardly be outdone even in Sodom and Gomorrha.Childish innocence is very beautiful;but the bloom is soon destroyed,and it is a cruel awakening for a mother to discover that her tenderly nurtured boy,or her carefully guarded daughter,has been initiated by a companion into the mysteries of abomination that are concealed in the phrase--a house of ill-fame.

同类推荐
  • 寄上舍人叔

    寄上舍人叔

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 本草撮要

    本草撮要

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 养生秘旨

    养生秘旨

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 佛说预修十王生七经

    佛说预修十王生七经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 翠崖必禅师语录

    翠崖必禅师语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 一人之第九奇技

    一人之第九奇技

    穿越一人之下世界,江心发现了自己独特体质带来的奇特能力。吕良:“悟得双全手,操掌三尸神。”江心:“双全手?好东西,我看看。多谢馈赠!”马仙洪:“我的法宝数量,超乎你的想象。”江心:“神机百炼?好东西,我看看。确实好用!”张灵玉:“我不想要通天箓,迫于师命,无奈接下。”江心:“你不想要,教我啊!打我就行。”王也:“奇门局中,我即是方位,我即是吉凶。"江心:”风后奇门,好东西,我看看。为什么这东西和算术有关?“江心:”鼯鼠五技,反制其身。不知道我的能力,有无资格称为第九奇技。“--------
  • 执手望年华

    执手望年华

    灰姑娘巧遇白马王子,是幸运?还是最大的不幸!他是高高在上的公子,翻手为云覆手为雨。他永远的高高在上,俯瞰众生。他爱你的时候,可以将你宠上天堂。他绝情时,也能将你推入地狱。她放弃梦想,远离亲人只为和他在一起。他却毫无留恋的远赴巴黎,抛弃了她与尚未出生的小生命。痛过,伤过,绝望过,才明白,她不过是他圈养的宠物,灰姑娘即便拥有了水晶鞋,也变不成高贵的公主。五年后,再相逢,他是国内知名建筑业巨子,有令人艳羡的殷实背景与门当户对的未婚妻。她是炙手可热的亚洲第一性感小天后,追求的男人趋之若鹜。带着刻骨铭心的仇恨,她再次出现在他身边。从未想过自己的心还会为她而痛。“对不起,请问你哪位?”她微微一笑,妖冶如罂粟。几米说:当你喜欢我的时候,我不喜欢你。当你爱上我的时候,我喜欢上你。当你离开我的时候,我却爱上你。是你走的太快,还是我跟不上你的脚步?
  • 楼兰聚梦:玲珑盏两世情

    楼兰聚梦:玲珑盏两世情

    “晴儿,我从未想过你会变得如此,如此恨我。”“沈岸沅,生辰夜,你为我雪中红梅,秋千架,你许我一生情愫,如今却是不肯信我,只为她的一面之词。你欠我的,七星阁欠我的,我会要你沈家上下加倍偿还,你我恩断义绝……长生山的风很大,七星阁的瓦也蒙了灰,从此江湖,再无那个对他许情的女子,那一声沅哥哥,空尘绝响,他再也无法追回。“向来情深,奈何缘浅,沅哥哥,直到最后,我还是走不出对你的执念。只是不甘,沅哥哥身边有了别的女子,只是不想,他对她眉眼温柔。横亘在两人之间的,从来不是深恨,而是浅爱,沅哥哥对爱浅尝辄止,晴儿却刚好相反……玲珑盏中泪,只求为君生,若有三生缘,可愿许真情。【情节虚构,请勿模仿】
  • 准斋杂说

    准斋杂说

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 萧红散文大全集:又见春天

    萧红散文大全集:又见春天

    被誉为“30年代的文学洛神”的萧红,是民国四大才女中命运最为悲苦的女性,也是一位传奇性人物。作为一个文坛传奇,萧红的作品总是和她的命运连在一起被人讲述,这多少掩盖了她作品的本应具足的光芒。本书几乎收录了萧红所有的值得一再品读的经典散文作品。萧红的散文女性特质非常鲜明,有着与生俱来的苍凉感、诗意暗涌、忧郁底色,夹杂着迷人的孩子气,同时不拒绝现实的残酷,这使得她超越一般意义上的女作家,跻身现代文学大家之林。
  • 让你感动的200个友情故事(影响一生的故事全集)

    让你感动的200个友情故事(影响一生的故事全集)

    本系列丛书从感动的视角出发,撷取生活中最受广大读者关注的亲情、友情、爱情、做人、沟通等几大方面的素材与故事,用最优美的语言传递人世间最真挚的情感,用最恰当的方式表述生活中最正确的做人与做事箴言。
  • 红楼夜已深

    红楼夜已深

    李青丝坐在自己搭建小院里,看着天空圆圆的月亮,思念起远在他乡的亲人。不知不觉中已经来到云裳国三年了。这三年里自己由一个青楼的倒水丫头,变成了云裳国最大的青楼的老板,也就是妈妈桑。如何在这个女卑的世界立足,李青丝展开了一条奇异的穿越之路。
  • 九龙玄帝

    九龙玄帝

    新书已发《我为一世魔主》,求诸位支持。 “师父,长大了,我要娶你。”“嗯?”“我要每天陪师父说话,不让师父一个人。”“师徒,怎可相爱。”“我不管,我就要娶师父。”长大了,他似忘了对白洛水的誓言,为了‘姐姐’瑶止,踏宫抢亲,鏖战八方。可血战之中,救他的是师,害他的却是瑶止。十年后,铁血再归,凭谁问,卷土不能重来!?金戈铁马,踏九霄,万里江山,除瑶名!这一世称帝,我只为你这不该辜负之人!————通俗版:真圣强者重生归来,与一九首妖龙携手,碾压一切,再踏巅峰的故事。
  • 金粟词话

    金粟词话

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 栴檀钵自香

    栴檀钵自香

    他是佛,本应无欲无求,却跌入凡尘。她是上古神祗,金枝玉叶,没有她得不到的,除了他。