ocracy of home. I believe
in the republicanism of the family. I believe in liberty, equality and
love.

THE LIBERTY OF CHILDREN.

If women have been slaves, what shall I say of children; of the little
children in alleys and sub-cellars; the little children who turn pale
when they hear their fathers' footsteps; little children who run away
when they only hear their names called by the lips of a mother; little
children--the children of poverty, the children of crime, the children
of brutality, wherever they are--flotsam and jetsam upon the wild, mad
sea of life--my heart goes out to them, one and all.

I tell you the children have the same rights that we have, and we ought
to treat them as though they were human beings. They should be reared
with love, with kindness, with tenderness, and not with brutality. That
is my idea of children.

When your little child tells a lie, do not rush at him as though the
world were about to go into bankruptcy. Be honest with him. A tyrant
father will have liars for his children; do you know that?

A lie is born of tyranny upon the one hand and weakness upon the other,
and when you rush at a poor little boy with a club in your hand, of
course he lies.

I thank thee, Mother Nature, that thou hast put ingenuity enough in the
brain of a child, when attacked by a brutal parent, to throw up a little
breastwork in the shape of a lie.

When one of your children tells a lie, be honest with him; tell him that
you have told hundreds of them yourself. Tell him it is not the best
way; that you have tried it. Tell him as the man did in Maine when his
boy left home: "John, honesty is the best policy; I have tried both." Be
honest with him. Suppose a man as much larger than you as you are larger
than a child five years old, should come at you with a liberty pole in
his hand, and in a voice of thunder shout, "Who broke that plate?" There
is not a solitary one of you who would not swear you never saw it,
or that it was cracked when you got it. Why not be honest with these
children? Just imagine a man who deals in stocks whipping his boy for
putting false rumors afloat! Think of a lawyer beating his own flesh and
blood for evading the truth when he makes half of his own living that
way! Think of a minister punishing his child for not telling all he
thinks! Just think of it!

When your child commits a wrong, take it in your arms; let it feel your
heart beat against its heart; let the child