We must confess that the Chinese hold a higher regard for their parents
and the aged than we do. They look upon the Western custom of the son’s
coming of age and going out into the world without regard to his
parents, or they for him in many cases, as behavior fit for the brute
and not fit for human beings. With them, as the parents are held
responsible for the conduct of the child, so the child is responsible
for the credit of the parents.
All children cannot be clever or highly intellectual, but they may all
be well trained and unselfish. A child should be taught in a mannerly
fashion and not in accordance with a story told of a mother who was
taking her well-beloved child, Tommy, to a Christmas-tree entertainment
given in a public hall. At the door of the hall she said: “Tommy, mind
your manners; smile and look pleasant, or when I get you out again I
will break every bone in your body.” As the mother is rude to her child,
in like degree she may expect rudeness from the child. A child has a
right to civility as well as the adult. General Garfield said: “I never
pass a ragged boy in the street without feeling that one day I might owe
him a salute.”