Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1877-10-16
NO. 245
Misffllanecus.
THE BIOGRAPHY OF "MurHER GOOSE


At the Christmas festival of the Sunday
school of the new Old South Church, Bos-
ton, The Rev. j. M. Manning made an adj
dress, in the course of which he stated
the interesting fact that "Mother Goose''
was not myth. but veritable per-
son and a member of the Old South
Church. He said: There is one thing in
the history of the Old South Church which
has not had the recognition it deserves.
In the list of admissions for the year 1893
appears the immortal name of Elizabeth
Goose. | almost beg pardon OF her mem-
ory for saying Elizabeth" since by the
unanimous verdict of the world, in whose
heart her name is enshrined, she Is known
as Mother Goose. So. then, Mother
Goose is no myth. as some have thought
but once lived in Boston, in veritable flesh
and blood, as the records of the Old South
Church clearly show. 1t is also a pleas
ure to find, that in making Goose of
herself she married into well-to-do fam
lily, where, in due time. she too, by put
ting her melodies to the press, not mere
ly laid one golden egg, but has been lay
ing steady succession of them from that
day to this. For, unlike the goose 10 the
liable, she could not be killed, but still
lives, and yields stores of wealth to the
booksellers as often as Christmas-tide
returns. Her nest will not be empty so
long as there are children and nurseries
in the world. 1t is almost pity, if one
may say SO without straining the meta
phor, that her eulogy cannot be written
with a quill taken from her own dear
wing What child in all Christendom has
not often nestled under that wing, been
brooded by it. and forgotten every trouble
in listening to her immortal laysp
The maiden name of this venerable la
dy, mother of US ALL was Elizabeth Fos-
ter; she lived in Charlestown, where she
was born. until her marriage. Then she
came 10 Boston, where her thrifty hus-
band, Isaac Goose, had green pasture
ready for her, on what is now Washing
ton street, and including the land in aud
about Temple place. t..,,sst.es ,.,s
She was his second mate, and began her
maternal lille as step-mother to ten child
rem. These all seemed to be lively little
goslings and to their number she rapidly
added six more. Think of ii sixteen gos-
lings TO single goose-assuming that
none of them had been eaten up by the
hawks, and that none of them had died of
crook in the neck. Poor, happy Mother
Goose No wonder that her feelings were
too many for her, and that she poured
them out in the celebrated:
"There old woman who lived in SHOE
She had 90 many children she didn't know what
to do. f... o.. t4..h
Yet her family cares seem. on the whole,
to have sat lightly on her; for she was no
wild goose flying north or south with every
turn of the sun, but she staid by her nest
through cold aud heat. happy as the day Is
long, and living to be ninety two years old.
She even survived the father Goose MANY
years, and she led and fed her numerous
flock and tenderly brooded them in the en-
closure on Temple place till they were
able to swim and forage for themselvs.
One OF these. her daughter Elizabeth,
became the wife of Thomas Fleet. And
here is the fact to which we owe il that her
name and fame are spread through the
world. Thomas Fleet was printer, liy-
ing in Pudding lane, place whose very
name had so savory taste in the dear old
lady's mouth that when Thomas Fleet be-
came a har py father she insisted on going
to live with him as nurse of honor to his
sun anu Hths lduC. w do tQt Uttlu
ideal of blessedness for Mother Goose.
Her activity and concern in the house were
such as TO throw what we read about busy
mother-in-laws wholly in the shade. No
doubt she would have been glad to save
Rome, as certain other geese once did with
their cackling, but lacking the opportuni-
ty to do this she sang her ditties from
morning till night, 'up-stairs and down.
stairs and in my lady's chamber till her
son-in-law became seriously alarmed at
the fertility of h"r genius. Sing she must,
however, for was she not poet, fun of
the divine fire which refuses to be
quenebed? 1t is well for the world that
she was law unto herself. No upstart
son-in-law could control her, or keep her
from humming and cooling at her own
sweet will. h'a aoH
And now it was not Roman Senate.
but Boston printer, that her persistent
music awaked. A happy thought occurred
to Thomas Fleet. He printed and sold
songs and ballads at his printing house
in Pudding lane. Was it not a sign of
good about to come to him,
that this precious mother-in-law, with her
endless rocking and lullabies, had put her.
self in his wayP He stopped asking the
Irrepresslble songster 10 rock less, and
urged her to sing more. And while she
sat in her armchair, or shuffled about the
room lost in sweet dreams, he carefully
wrote down what he could of the rhymes
which fell from her lips. His notes rapid
ly accumulated, and in little while he
had enough of them to make, a volume.
These he now printed, and bound them
into a book, which he offered for sale un-
der the following title: Songs for the
Nursery or, Mother Goose's Melodies for
Children Printed by L. Fleet, at his
Printing House, Pudding Lane, l7l9. Price
two coppers." This title page also bore
a large cut of a veritable goose, with wide
open mouth, showing that the proverbial
irrevereDce OF motherin-laws is not q
thing OF recent origin. They were just
as saucy in the days of Mother Goose as
now, and just as ready to turn penny at
he expense of their mother-in-law.
How the immortal author bore this pro-
ane use OF her name. or W hat she thought Of
he ungracious but shrewd Thomas Fleet,
history does not say. We have every
reason to believe, however. that she took
It just as sweetly as she had taken all the
other trials and annoyauces of her life