The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1879-06-18

Aye Their meaning, M TO apply IT,
lofty as it may be, 4 pr everyday
life. Nv .ss,ss s s I
Old Mother fInlbff1 3 az r;i5,S
fogss het poor dcs b0bo
"Mother Hubbard, you see, was
old; there being nonention Of others,
we may presume she was alone; a
widow-a friendless, old, solitary
widow. Yet, did she despair? Did
she sit down and weep, or read a
novel, or wiring her hands2 No! she
acent to The cupboard. And here OBJ
serve that she went to the cupboard.
She did not hop, or skip, or run, or
jump, or use any other pcripatetic
artifce; she solely and merely seent
10 the cupboard.
"We have seen that she was old
and lonely, and we now further see
that she was poor. For, mark, the
words were 4tecupboard.' Not one
Of the cupboards, or the right
hand cupboard, or the finland cup
board, or the one above, or the one
below, or the one under the floor,
but just the cupboard, the one
humble little cupboard the poor
widow possessed. And why did
she go to the cupboard? Was it to
bring forth golden goblets, orglittor-
ing precious stones, or costly appar-
81, or feasts, or any other attributes
of wealth. Hacas to get her poofdog
bone! Not only was the widow poor,
but her dog, the sole prop of her age,
was poor, too. We can imagine the
scene The poor dog crouching in
the corner, looking wistfully at the
solitary cupboard, and the widow go
ing to that cupboard-in hope, in ex-
pectation, may be-to open it, al
though we are not distinctly told
that it was not half open or aiar-Fto
open it for that poor dog.
But when she sot there the cupboard was
bare,
And SO the poor dog had none.
"When she got thsre' You see,
dear bethren, what perseverance is.
You see the duty of perseverance in
doing right. She got there. There
were no turnings and twistings, no
slippings and slidings, no leaning to
the right or faltering to the left
With glorious simplicity we are told
she got there.
"And how was her noble effort re.
warded?
"'The cupboard was barep TWAS
bare! There were to be found Meth
er oranges, cheesecakes, nor penny
buns, nor gingerbread, nor crackers,
nor nuts, nor lucifer matches. The
was bare! There was but
one, only one solitary cupboard in
the whole of that cottage, and that
one, the sole hope of the widow, and
the glorious loadstar of the poor dog,
was bare! Had there been q leg Of
mutton, a loin of lamb, q fllet of
veal, even on ice from Gatti's, the
case would have been different, the
incident would have been otherwise.
But it was bare, my brethren, bare
as a bald head, bare as an infant
born without q caul.
MANY Of you will probably say
with all the pride of worldly sophis-
try, the widow, no doubt, went out
and bought dog-biscuit.' All, no!
Far removed from these earthly
ideas, these mundane desires, poor
Mother Hubbard, the widow, who
many thoughtless workings would
despise, in that she owned only one
perceived-or Imight ev-
en- say saw-at once the relentless
logic of the situation, and which had
enabled her without deviation to
reach the barren cupboard. She did
not attempt, like the stiff.necked
scofers Of this generation, to war
against the inevitable, she did not
try, like the so.called men of science,
to explain what she did not under
et,nl Cbo en;J notbiOn STho non.