Teach Your Children to Obey

1917

Our Boys and Girls

A fault, often laid to the mother, is the habit of unnecessary fault finding or nagging. One reason many mothers have so little influence with their children, is the habit of insisting on non-essentials. They make a fuss about trifles and lay down the law on points that are of no great consequence, like the kind of stockings or gloves they may wear, and then, when there is reason to protest against some really wrong course, they have used up all their force on unimportant details and their words carry no weight with the child.

You cannot begin too early, however, to teach your children to obey. If there is occasional rebellion it should be checked immediately, although I think if a child is taught obedience from earliest infancy, the idea of revolt will never present itself as possible.


Every Day Etiquette

"When sending a dinner invitation to a husband and wife, to which one is it addressed " inquired Fred.
"To the wife of course," said his sister.

There isn't a whole lot of difference between putting a man on, and tipping him off.

The Man Who Dared Disobey

1900

The great soldier is the man who, as a subordinate, on all ordinary occasions obeys orders implicitly, but who, when the great emergency arrives, knows that, to save the day and his country, he must disobey. He breaks his orders on his own responsibility, knowing that the result and the future will justify him. Failure would be his ruin. Success may immortalize him. And if he is great, he knows that he shall succeed.

One of the members of the Russian imperial cabinet, Monsieur Witte, minister of finance, is one of the most powerful and important men in the empire. Highly esteemed and trusted by the emperor, he is respected and honored by the representatives of foreign powers. Yet Monsieur Witte is of humble origin — a fact which, in Russia, where every circumstance favors the man of noble blood above the plebeian, has counted for much against him.

Monsieur Witte, in his early life, after an imperfect education, was made station-master at a small and unimportant railway station in southern Russia. The war between Russia and Turkey arose, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers had to be transported into Roumania and Bulgaria. One day Monsieur Witte, in his station, received telegraphic instructions to make certain arrangements in connection with the passage of these troops along the line.

In Russia orders from a high source, connected with the affairs of the government, are terrible things, not to be disobeyed. But this young man saw that obedience in the present instance would create great confusion, if not positive disaster. His superiors had told him to do the wrong thing. He ventured to violate his instructions, and to do the right thing.

The president of the railway summoned the young man before him, and asked why he had presumed to disobey his telegraphic orders in a matter of such vast consequence. Monsieur Witte told him why, and convinced him that he, the station-master, was right, and that the orders were wrong. Instead of removing or punishing him, the chief of the road advanced him.

Afterward this railway president, Monsieur Wichnegradski, was called to St. Petersburg to assume a place in the imperial cabinet. Remembering the man who had so successfully disobeyed, he sent for him and gave him a post under him. After that Monsieur Witte's advancement was rapid, and he rose to occupy the highest "business" position in the empire — that of minister of finance. — Youth's Companion.

Changes in Weddings — Fewer Vows Made "To Obey"

1910

OMISSIONS AT THE ALTAR

Many Brides Who Now Refuse Make the Verbal Promise of Obedience

This year, as usual, some of the June brides got into the newspapers by refusing to make the verbal promise of obedience "till death us do part," as required by "The Form of Solemnization of Matrimony," specified in the Book of Common Prayer.

The full ceremony includes the exaction of a vow to "serve him," likewise, "so long as ye both shall live;" and it furthermore comprises several admonitions quoted from St. Paul and St. Peter, all to the one effect, wifely subjection. Any other point of view could hardly have been expected from spokesmen of the first century oriental community, particularly not from St. Peter, who himself was married, and who would, therefore, probably not have wished to upset an ancient, popular tradition no less convenient for his sex — than venerable.

Despite the eastern origin of its faith, the Christian world has managed to de-orientalize itself a good deal in nineteen hundred years, and the flavor of orientalism, which, quite naturally, attaches to the "Solemnization of Matrimony," is not now entirely to the taste of all western women — or men. But aren't the fair modern occidental Protestants rather illogical? They refuse to promise "to obey" a man for a single minute, although obedience is purely an act of volition, not requiring the smallest regard or respect for the person obeyed, or even acquaintance with him. On the other hand, the brides find it easy to swear "to love" a man forever, although love is a thing completely beyond control of the will!

Deign, if you please, Mesdames les Divorcees and others, to acknowledge that the great fundamental reason of marital discord, infelicity and wreck is the cessation of that feeling "to love," whose perpetual continuance it appears so very easy to pledge. Moreover, nobody ever alleges post-nuptial disinclination or even refusal "to obey" as a sufficient provocation for divorce. Of those two covenants, why object to the lightest? — Collier's.

From The Pencil's Point: Wisdom and Quips

1916

Troubles, like babies, grow larger with nursing.

You can bank on finding a well-filled pocketbook interesting.

Men who don't enjoy good health ought to be physicians.

When you expect an opportunity it usually misses the train.

One word may make a new friendship or break an old one.

No man ever bought a horse that turned out to be just as represented.

Wise is he who selects an obedient daughter of a good mother for his wife.

Some people seem to think you should pay rent for the place you occupy in their thoughts.

Even if you have nothing to give the poor but a crust of bread, make it palatable by softening it with a little of the milk of human kindness.

It took Father Time thousands of years to make a man of a monkey, but a girl can make a monkey of a man in two minutes.

The modest friend who offers to lend you a couple of dollars when you are broke is far more worthy of your praise than the hero of a hundred battles.