Everybody's Friend. (Stillwater, Okla.), Vol. 10, No. 2, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 1, 1912 Page: 2 of 12
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,o EVERYBODY
mW
The Dependent Child
The new-born child conies into the world as
weak and helpless and dependent as any living
thing that ever came from the hands of the
Creator. Without the watchful care of love it
cannot live and grow and develop.
— o —
Yet in this little helpless bundle of humanity
is wrapped up all the possibilities of man, man
who is the key-stone in the vast arch of crea-
tion. But without the help which only love can
give, no child can ever develop into a blessing
to the world.
* — o —
No occupation on earth is more worthy of the
best effort, more deserving of ample reward,
than that of the mother. To nurture and train
and teach a child so as to make out of it a good
and useful man or woman is a greater work
than to build cities or win battles.
— o —
The little child who is forsaken by father and
mother, or in any way bereft of its natural pro-
tector, is the most sad and pitiable object of all
earth’s creatures. The opening intellect, the
child’s sense of what it is missing and its sensi-
tiveness to distress, makes its lot the saddest
of all unfortunate creatures.
__ O —
Because of the helplessness of the child, be-
cause it is in no way to blame for its wretched
condition, it is more to be pitied, more deserves
sympathy and care, than almost any other vic-
tim of poverty. Men and women may be poor
and wretched and miserable, partly or entirely
because of their own missteps, but the child
cannot bo to blame for its condition.
— n —
Through the strange vicisitudes of life, and
the unsearchable providence of God, many
homes have not been blessed with children, or
have only so few that the home seems empty.
In such families are found the best homes in
the world, ready prepared, for the child that
has no home. In our American land there
seem to be enough good homes to supply every
neglected child with a fit and comfortable one.
if only the right child and the right home could
bp brought together.
February, 191--
Because not every child will tit into just an\
home, is no proof that the family is unworthy,
or unable to properly care for a child, nor yet
that the child is unmanagable or beyond hope.
It only tells that this particular child is not
adapted to this particular family. To get. the
right child into the right family is about the
most difficult work of the child-placing agency,
and requires wisdom and tact.
— o —
When the child is no longer an infant, and
has formed habits and gained some knowledge
of many things, it is hard to find a family espec-
ially adapted to its needs. From sucl) a child
many a family expects too much. They are apt
to expect implicit obedienc, and a show of grati-
tude for giving it a home. Implicit obedience
is not acquired in a day. Nothing but long and
careful training will obtain this, and it is a rare
virtue in good families in this country and in
this age of the world.
— o —
The sense of gratitude is not naturally devel
oped in children. The children someway have an
idea that the world owes them a home and food'
and clothes, and do not realize that they should
be thankful for such blessings. The little girl
in the happy home well expressed the child
view of it when she said to her father one day,
“Papa, ar’n’t you glad that we let you live with
us, and eat at our nice table?” Do not be too
much disappointed if your child takes favors as
a matter of course, and shows little gratitude.
It is simply child-nature.
— o —
The family who from faith in, and love for,
humanity, take in a homeless child and with
love and patience and forbearance help it to
develop what is in it that is good, and to build
up a strong character, is doing a more com-
mendable, a more praisworthy work then when
they bring up the children which have been
born into their home. Caring for their own is
doing only what God and nature has made their
unavoidable duty to do. But when caring for a
neglected child they are doing more than a nat-
ural duty—they are doing what Christian chari-
has laid upon their heart to do. In this wa\
they work with God in doing good.
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Cripe, D. E. Everybody's Friend. (Stillwater, Okla.), Vol. 10, No. 2, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 1, 1912, periodical, February 1, 1912; Stillwater, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc1598055/m1/2/: accessed June 19, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.