The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1871-11-10
Spinsters and Mothers.

So said my friend, Sarah Weston, one
of the truest and sweetest women have
ever known. She is what the world |
calls an old maid, n woman of refined |
tastes, ripe culture and generous inn
pulses. Her girlhOod had its love-dream, /
with its bright anticipatiOns of home, |
and the joys and interests of welded life. /
The dream ended in her lovers grave, /
and to a nature like hers it could never |
returni no second love was possible. |
But she did not therefore devote herself
TO nursing selfish sorrow, nor darken /
her own life or that of her friends with /
useless lamentations. Thanking God |
for the love which, having entered into |
her life, had made it richer for all the |
future, she shut in her own heart all the |
sweet and sOrrOwful memories of the |
past, and went forth to her work. Many
sad heart has been uplifted and
strengthened, many a heavy one light /
ened of its load, by the sympathy born
OF that experience. Every year has
added strength to her character, given
her n broader horizon, and a more salts
tying life. Children are irresistibly at
tracted TO her, young men and women
make her their coLiidant, and the old
brighten at her coming, and grow young
in her presence. Emancipated from
mere personal interest, she has olsen
gagged attention and ready sympathy for
all with whom she comes in contact.
Looking in her bright, cheerful face,
thinking of her character, so strong and
sweet, the full Towering of 4 perfected
womanhood, pOndered her words. Is
ii true that any nature is necessarily
impoverished by the missing of certain
experiences | cannot think so. Such
nm iflaa 70 In 4.
justice of God. l cannot think that his
best gifts are put beyond the reach of
any of his children, or that soul can
miss of It's highest development through
the force of circumstances beyond its
control.
In my first public utteranee on the
Woman Question, l claimed that wom-
anhoOd was greater fact than wifehood
or maternity, and all my thought on the
subject since has but emphasized that
utteranee. Some of the best and wisest
mothers ] have ever known were women
who had never borne children, while on
| the contrary | have seen mothers of
large families whose love was a mere
animal instinct, and who knew absO-
/ lutely nothing of the claims of a true
motherhood. Half the love that is SEN
/ timentalized over as mOtherly has in il
no higher elements than animal instinct
and self-love. The undue indulgence
the showing off and elaborate dressing
of children, proceed not from love, not
from wise consideration of their best
good, but from a weak fOndness that car
deny them nothing, and from personal
vanity that plumes itself on its own. A
witty friend of mine, commenting upon
n family of sadly spoiled children, ex-
/ claimed, "POOr thingsi how they dc
need a good, judiciOus stepmother." ;"
And many an individual of that much
abused class has done incOmparably bet
] ter for family of children than their
own mother would have done Women
who take the place of mother to children
not their own are apt to be actuated by
higher motives than mere instinct or
| self-lOve; the best interests of the child
are considered more important than its
| inclinations, and weak indulgence and
| disastrous "yes-es" are superseded by a
wise control.
In one of our large Western cities lives
an unmarried woman, who has adopted
and filed the place of mother to more
| than twenty children, and in her care
and training of them shown n self-sacri-
| ficing tenderness, a devotedness and
| wisdom, which no mother could have
surpassed. To train children was her
natural vocation; from childhood she
| had shown an aptitude for it, and, at
/ tanning wOmanhOOd, this was the one
strong desire Of her heart Her brother,
n successful business man, with whom
she lived, had large means and n life
filled with varied interests. She had a
handsome room in his house, plenty of
money for the qualification of her per
sOnal wants, and an aimless life. az
wish | were n man, she exclaimed inn
patiently one day, as he was unfolding
some rev project that was sure to result
in a golden harvest. 'NO, | don't
either" she added; "but wish had a
mans opportunities for making money. -
"Why, Mary" exclaimed her brother
in tone of grieved surprise, ''don't you
have all the money you want / am
sure ! wish you to have.n
He was one of those large-brained,
active men, who, had he been doomed to
a life of dependence and inactiOn, would
have gone mad or committed suicide,
and here was his sister, only year or
two younger than himself, sharing the
same nature, and he was sastOnished that,
being sumptously housed and clothed,
she was still unsatisfied.
''No, Harry" she replied, al don't
have all the money | want; | want
enough to do a work in the world and
have something to live for, instead of
having everything provided for me, and
the days left so dark and empty that
when | wake in the morning wonder
how | shall manage TO exist till night.
/ am bored to death with an existence
that is fit only for canary-bird or q
lap-dog, but which is enough to drive
any woman with an active mind and n
] hnaltInt- hnfix- into n 1mnltig asylum -
The brother was an exceptional man,
for he neither laughed at her, nor asked
why she didn't get married and have a
house and children to occupy her, but
he asked much more sensible question,
"What would YOU like to dO?i
II would like to have a large house
and fill it with children who need a
home and be a mother to them. That
would interest me as much as great bus
iness enterprises do you"
The brother made no reply. He
walked the length of the room and back
again, went TO the window, and with
both hands thrust in his pockets as if he
/ hoped to find at the bottom the solution
of the difficulty, stood looking out.
/ Suddenly his face frightened, he turned
on his heel, and went briskly out of the
house.
"WeH, Molly" he exclaimed gayly as
I he met her at the tea-table, II have
bought you a house, and you can begin
/ to gather your flock of vagabOnds as
/ soon as YOU like" And it was no joke.
His sisters word had set him thinking.
He had gone back TO the time when,
hardly more than children, they were
thrown, pair of penniless orphans,
uponthe world; ofall she had been to him
during those years when the conflict with
fortune seemed so unequal, and more