Above all things see to your boy's religious training, see that he does not associate with people who make flippant remarks about sacred things. Give a little time in the evening to conversations with your children. As I speak, one little mother comes to my mind, she always made it a duty to sit with her boys and talk over the incidents of the day, she inquired what new ideas they had received, etc.; they laughed and chatted together, "Ma dear" had their entire confidence. This mother warned her sons against vice, showing them the horrid pitfalls of sin. Judicious advice coming from a loving mother will keep boys from sins, the memory of which even when repented of, would haunt them forever. After Mrs. Carpenter's address she introduced Mrs. Blondell, who gave her thoughts on the duties of mothers towards their children. We often hear severe criticisms on the manners of young people of the present day and contrast them unfavorably with the manners of a generation ago. No doubt much of this criticism is warranted. The great mass of young people of today are lacking in deference, courtesy and respect. But the fathers and mothers who complain of these faults rarely question themselves if they are not wholly or in part to blame for the bad manners of their offspring. I have known parents who sit at table or in the home circle, and in the presence of their children freely criticise or comment on the conduct of their neighbors or friends, permitting their children to tell all they have seen or heard in a neighbor's house. Such parents must not be disappointed if those children grow up with the habit of gossiping and commenting just as freely on themselves. Now there is no one thing more destructive of good manners than the gossiping and tale-bearing habit. If urbanity were persistently taught and practiced in the home there would not be so much to learn, and especially to unlearn with regard to intercourse with the world at large. People would not then have two manners, one to use in public and one in private. There would be less self-consciousness and less affectation, for these arise from trying to do a thing of which we are uncertain, to assume a manner which we have imperfectly acquired. Sometimes one meets with children who seem to lack the idea of truth, then it must be developed, and great exactness is demanded of the mother in every statement. In describing a garden with five trees, say _five_, not five or six or several. Go to extremes in accuracy of detail, for the sake of giving the child the habit of telling only the exact truth. If a promise has been made to such a child there is more than ordinary necessity for keeping it to the letter.