“Why, I would do the same as I would if there were no stranger. I would always employ those known means that would produce the best results, whether strangers or no strangers. As I have stated before, if a child receives the proper training from infancy, it rarely ever cries. The greatest cry-baby, I think, can be cured from the annoying habit of crying by proper training and kind treatment in a few months’ time, but not by your method of training. I have often noticed in your private families, who have strangers or guests with them, that the mother would try every means but the right one to keep her child from crying, so as not to annoy her guests or boarders; but the more she tried the greater was her failure; the more she amused and humored the child the more it cried for amusement. Thus her companions become the victims of a nuisance caused by the mother’s inadequate knowledge of human nature. Children, as well as adults, should be free to make their own amusements. The intent of those who produce this vast army of cry-babies and ill-tempered children is, no doubt, as good as that of the Inquisitor and witch-killer was; but for all that it is a lamentable defect. “Again, let us not forget that the pernicious effect of this cry-lesson does not end here. There is a still deeper and more fatal evil connected with it. To illustrate: Crying involves an expenditure of vitality, not only on the crier, but also on those who make an effort to silence the crier, and on all who are annoyed by it. “Once more: A child that has fallen, or has hurt itself otherwise, in a way for which nothing can be done to alleviate the pain, should not be picked up or be soothed by parents and adults. It should be made to understand that it came to grief by its own acts--by a violation of a natural law. If under these conditions, it receives sympathy from others, it will soon cry for it. The sufferer, if sympathy is lavished upon it, will begin to infer that the injury was brought about by a personal agency controlled and influenced by the sympathizers. The child should learn as early as possible that the so-called laws of nature are constant and uniform, and do not bend to suit its whims, but that its conduct must conform to the laws. The latter course will tend to make a child intelligent and look for causes, while the former makes it superstitious and ignorant.