Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1877-01-23
Origin Of Mother Goose.

Rev. j. M. Manning, ID. D., the pas
tor of the Old South Church in Boston,
at the recent Christmas Festival, gave
the following interesting biography OF
an author who has become famous
throughout the world. He said:
There are many things in the history
of the Old South Church, Boston, which
help to make its name famous. But
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 occurs
the immortal name of Elizabeth Goose
l almost beg pardon of her memory for
saying Elizabeth" since by the unani-
nous 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 pleasure to find that, in max
ing Goose of herself, she married into
well-to-do family, where in due time
she, too, by putting her melodies to the
press, not merely laid one golden egg,
but has been laying steady succession
of them from that day to this. For, I'M
like the goose in the fable, 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 chill
dren and nurseries in the world. 1t is
almost pity, if one may say so without
| straining the metaphor, that her eulogy
cannot be written with 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 lays?
The maiden name of this venerable
lady, mother Of us all, was Elizabeth
Foster. She lived in Charlestown, where
she was born, until her marriage. Then
she came to Boston, where her thrifty
husband, Isaac Goose, had green pas
ture ready for her, Oh what is now Wash
ington street, and including the land in
and about Temple Place. She was his
second mate, and began her maternal
life as stepmother to ten children. These
all seem to have been lively little Cos
lings, and to their number she rapidly
added six more. Think Of it! Sixteen
goslings 10 a single goose assuming
that none of them had been eaten up by
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 celebrrted lines
"There was an old woman lived in shoe,
She had SO many children she didn't know
what to do
Yet her family cares seem, on the
whole, to have set lightly upon her; for
Lei "a xuoc No wild rooco Huiprr South ~
North with every turn of the sun, but
she staid by her nest through cold and
heat, happy as the day is long, and liv-
ing to be ninety-two years old. She
even survived tue father Goose many
years, and she led and fed her numerous
flock and tenderly brooded them in the
little enclosure on Temple Place till they
were able to swim and forage for them
selves.
One Of these. her daughter Elizabeth,
became the wife of Thomas Fleet. And
here is the fact to which we owe it that
her name and fame are spread through
the world. Thomas Fleet was printer,
living in Pudding lane, a place whose
very name had so savory a taste in the
dear old lady's mouth that when Thorn
as Fleet became happy father she in
sisted on going to live with him as nurse
of honor to his son and her. TO coddle
her own grandchild, in Pudding lane,
was the beau ideal of blessedness for
Mother Goose. Her activity and con-
Germ in the house were such as to
throw what we read about busy mothers
in-law wholly into the shade. No doubt
she would have been glad to save Rome,
as certain other geese once did with their
cackling, but lacking the opportunity
to do this she sang her ditties from
morning till night, "up stairs and down
stairs and in my lady's chambce," till
her son-in-law became sensibly alarmed
at the fertility of her genius. Sing she
must, however, for was she not poet,
full of the divine fire which refuses to
be uuenched? 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.
And now it was not Roman Senate,
but Boston printer, that her persistent
music awaked. A happy thought oc-
Cured to Thomas Fleet. He printed
and sold songs and ballads at his print
ing house in Pudding lane. Was it not
a sign of something good about to come
to him, that this precious mother-in-
law, with her endless BOOKINGS and lul.