Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 13 (1898)

Lt 195, 1898

Colcord, Brother and Sister

Balaclava, Melbourne, Australia

March 10, 1898

Previously unpublished. Unfinished. Not sent.

Dear Brother and Sister Colcord:

I have some things to say to you which is essential and which I will first write; then, if I obtain no rest, [I] will present them to you. You are not pursuing a right course with your son. You treat him more as an equal than as a son to be instructed, controlled, and restrained. Why I write to you now is that his influence in the Echo Office is not good over the boys who need altogether a different phase of character from that which they now have. But your influence in regard to the training of your son has not been wise. You have missed the mark decidedly and you are a most deceived father and mother. 13LtMs, Lt 195, 1898, par. 1

I have felt that it would not do the least particle of good to say that to you which I know to be truth. He is helping the other lads to become sly in their habits and actions. You will say the boys in the office have led him astray, and once you go on that ground, you will repeat the same things. He is selfish; self, self, self. If he would, he could attend the school in Cooranbong and engage in study. He has talent but has not employed his talent to enrich his experience. He ought to be advanced and would be in knowledge, but pleasure-loving and to do as he wishes to enjoy himself is his main desire. I think it will be best to separate your boy from the office and place him in the school, giving him every chance, but he is not inclined to tax, brain, bone, or muscle. I must say that you do not read your son correctly; you judge him to be that which he is not. Indulged and not restrained as he should be, it will be a task to bring him where he will be under the best administration, inclined to study. He would amuse himself in the way of drawing and painting, but would prove a failure because he would not practice ... [unfinished] 13LtMs, Lt 195, 1898, par. 2