Children's Rights: A Book of Nursery Logic

Produced by Josephine Paolucci and the Online Distributed Proofreading
Team.
A court as of angels, A public not to be bribed. Not to be entreated, Not to be overawed.
1892
I am indebted to the Editors of Scribner's Magazine, the Cosmopolitan, and Babyhood, for permission to reprint the three essays which have appeared in their pages. The others are published for the first time.
It may be well to ward off the full seriousness of my title Nursery Logic by saying that a certain informality in all of these papers arises from the fact that they were originally talks given before members of societies interested in the training of children.
Three of them— Children's Stories, How Shall we Govern our Children, and The Magic of 'Together' —have been written for this book by my sister, Miss Nora Smith.
NEW YORK, August , 1892.
THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD CHILDREN'S PLAYS CHILDREN'S PLAYTHINGS WHAT SHALL CHILDREN READ? CHILDREN'S STORIES. Nora A. Smith THE RELATION OF THE KINDERGARTEN TO SOCIAL REFORM HOW SHALL WE GOVERN OUR CHILDREN? Nora A. Smith THE MAGIC OF TOGETHER. Nora A. Smith . THE RELATION OF THE KINDERGARTEN TO THE PUBLIC SCHOOL OTHER PEOPLE'S CHILDREN
Give me liberty, or give me death!
The subject of Children's Rights does not provoke much sentimentalism in this country, where, as somebody says, the present problem of the children is the painless extinction of their elders. I interviewed the man who washes my windows, the other morning, with the purpose of getting at the level of his mind in the matter.
Dennis, I said, as he was polishing the glass, I am writing an article on the 'Rights of Children.' What do you think about it? Dennis carried his forefinger to his head in search of an idea, for he is not accustomed to having his intelligence so violently assaulted, and after a moment's puzzled thought he said, What do I think about it, mum? Why, I think we'd ought to give 'em to 'em. But Lor', mum, if we don't, they take 'em, so what's the odds? And as he left the room I thought he looked pained that I should spin words and squander ink on such a topic.