The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1876-04-08
HONOR THY MOTHER.

Not long ago, D good looking smans n
middle life CAME to the door asking fol-
e the ministern When informed thai
he was out Of town he seemed disap
pointed and anxious. On Being ques
toned as to his business, he replied: a.
have lost my mother, and as this place
used to be her home, and as my fathe,
lies here, we have come here to lay hel
beside him." -s@r -s ID
! Our heart arose in sympathy, and we
said, 4" You have met with great loss.nn
I" Well-yes," replied the strong man,
with hesitancy, "a mother is great less
in general, but our mother had outlived
her usefulness. She was in her second
childhood, and her mind had grown as
weak as her body, so that she was mo
comfort to herself and was a burden to
everybody. There were seven of US,
sons and daughters, and as we could not
find any one who would board her, we
agreed to keep her among US year
about. But have had more than my
share of her, for she was too feeble to
be moved when my time was out, and
that was more than three months before
her; death. But then, she was good
mother in her day, and toiled very hard
to bring us up" a - - fna
Without looking at the face of the
heartless man, we directed him to the
house of a neighboring pastor and re-
turned to our nursery. We gazed on
the merry little faces which smiled or
grew sad IN limitations of ours, those
little ones to whose ear no word in our
language is half SO sweet as mother"
and we wondered if that day would
ever come, when they would say of us,
" She has outlived her usefulness is
no comfort to herself and a burden to
everybody else !"and we hoped that be-
fore such day would dawn We might
be taken to our FEST. God FORBID that
We should outlive the love of our
children! Rather let us die while our
h@Etsm sa part of their own, that our
gEf$e may be vatered With .their. tears
add on fove linked With their hopes of
he4yen- - a.se hissg sl.as beg ssaI
b. When the bell tolled for the mothers
burial, we went to the sanctuary to pay
oar only toksnofsespect to theaged stran-
ger for We felt that we could giSe her
tear, even though her own
children had none to shed.
She was a good mother in her day,
and toiled hard to bring us all up-she
was no comfort to herself and a burden
to everybody elsew These cruel, heart
less words rung in our ears as we saw the
coffin borne up the aisle. The bell tolled,
long and loud, until its iron tongue had
chronicled the years of the, toil-worn'
mother. Observation-Disclosures.
How clearly and almost merrily each
stroke told of her once peaceful slumber
in her mothers bosom, and Of her seat at
nightfall on her fathers knee. Six
seven-eight-nine-ten, rang out the
tale of her sports ON the greensward, in
the meadow and beside the brook. Eleven;
-twelve-th irteen-f fourteen, spoke
more gravely OF school days and little.
cares and joys. Fifteen-si.-4
sounded out
the enraptured visions of maidenhood
and the dream of early, love-. Nineteen.
brought before us the1i happy bride.
Twenty spoke of the young mother,
whose heart was full to bursting with
the .nev, strong glpve which Sod had
awakened IN her boom. And then stroke
after stroke told Other cary womanhood
-of the loves, and cares, and hopes, and
fears, and tolls through which she passed
during these long years, till fifty rang
out harsh and loud. From that to sixty,
each stroke told of the .warm-hearted
mother and grandmother, living over
again her own joyssand sorrows in those
of her children and chi1dren's children.
= Every family of all the group wanted
grandmother then, and the only strife
was who should secure ithe prize But
hark, the bell tolls .onl Seventy-sev-
overwhelmingly. She begins
to grow feeble, requires some care, is not
always patient or satisfied; she goes from
one child's house to another, 30 that no
one place seems like home. She muir
murs in plaintive tones, and after all her
tolls and WEAKNESS, it is hard she cannot
be allowed place to die in; that she
must be sent, rather than INVITED. from
house to house. Eighty-eighty one
two-three-four. All, she is now a
second child-now "she has outlived her
usefulness, she has now ceased to be a
comfort to herself or anybody" Tat is, she
has ceased to be profitable to her earth
craving, money-grasping children.
Now sounds out, reverberating through
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