Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-05-07
Mothers Cooking.

Mothers Cooking.
In very interesting discussion by
Of intelligent ladies OF the proba-
BILE effect upon home life of the organiza-
ton Of domestic labor and the consequent
probable removal Of cooking from private
houses, one lady suggested that possibly
one bond Of the home might be lOOsened
by such arrangement. She referred very
beautifully to the fact that many hus.
band and son far away from home, thought
longngly Of the appetzing food prepared
by the hands Of wife or mother. She spoke
OF the genuine satisfaction enjoyed by
many devoted wife and mother in prepar-
ing some special dish for the pleasure Of
husband or son. She queried whether wo-
men would not be 10th to yield up this
power Of gratifying, aud Of binding to
home, even by so material an influence as
that Of dalntily prepared food.
The suggestion has its weight, yet on
this very point women need to be on their
guard. A family Of growing boys, who
learn to prize their mother most Tor the
material comfort she can afford them, are
not bound to her by the highest and most
enduring ties. And il the mother affords
them this comfort a. the expense Of great
bodily fatigue and exhaustion Of vitality
she may be doing herself and them great
wrong. We have seen family Of great
hulking boys return home from work or
from some jaunt, and demand that mother
or sisters shall prepare some special dish
for their pleasure without any reference
whatever to the inconvenience or fatigue it
may cost. This is all wrong, and the
mother or sister who indulge such demands
is simply forleiting her own dignity, and
accepting for herself false position.
Nor can it be doubted that the affection
that many sons have for their hard-work-
ing, sllving mothers, who are willing to be
up early and late for them, cooking their
favorite dishes, keeping their clothes and
linen in spotless order, is only the atfec-
tion which they might feel toward some
faithful old servant who would render the
same service. And, alas, too often is II
the case that when mother can no longer
perform these offices, she becomes burden,
she must be kept out Of the way. Earth
has no more pitiabe spectacle than that Of
a mother who has stunted her mental
growth and denied herself every opportu-
| nifty for any other lookout on life than that
which came through hard daily toll, losing
her power to perform this, and her life in
consequence becoming blank both to her
self and family.
| On the other hand, who has not sometimes
seen the mother whose mental force and in
tellectual powers have held her children
even when the bodily powers have utterly
failed. The story is known to all OF Wash
iugton's visit to his mother, not for the
home-cooked food and comfort she could
| give him, but for the counsel he wished TO
ask, and the strength and consolation he
| hoped to receive to aid him in his trying
| duties as seldier and statesman.
Cromwell experienced one of the most
crushing griefs OF his life when, while he
was protector, he lost his mother in her
nineteth year. A poet, whose works are
| Just at present attracting the attention OF
the best minds, dedicates his first volume
of poems to his mother in beautiful and in
spring verse:
Thou noblest type OF womanhoodl
Thou who in manhoOd's evil day,
As by the couch OF Infancy,
| Still faithful stood.
| "Unfaltering, and with purpose strong,
RebulSlng al the hosts OF wrong
!. With Love is more than gift OF song
And Virtue Is the highest good '"
The mother to whom such tribute /,
paid has indeed lived to some purpose
We may be sure that the principal tie
which bound her son to her was not hel
cooking.
A very lovely and cultivated woman il
speaking of the love she felt for, and tn,
influence which she expected and hoped to
exert over her children, said:
81 hope and trust that my boys will hay,
sweet memories Of their mother, but they
will never particularly associate her will
gingerbread or pies, or any kind Of food
! hope they will have many pleasant mem
orius Of hours spent looking at pictures, o.
listening to entertaining stories or poems
] think my little boy will lnever hear Song
Of Seven, without thinking OF his mothe
and of her reading them to him."
But now a word for the hundreds unC
thousands Of faithful mothers who dom
get a chance TO do anything but cook 70
their children; who are compelled by cir
eumstanoes to attend personally to all thei
numerous and eXaeting material wants
Well, let them not be discouraged. |
they are doing the best they can the high
est archangel can do no more. Only le
them be on the watch to lop of a little her
and there from the time given to this kin,
of work so as to spend 1t on more endurin
things A few less pies, puddmgs an
doughnuts, little more plain bread an
milk, a few more rambles in the wood
when the spring flowers blossom, littl
more reading OF books and newspapers /
the evenings, and a few less rutiles an
tucks, and the busy mother will find he
own spirit refreshed and strengthened, an
her children will love her all the more, an
will be all the better as a consequence.
Mrs, Starret, IN West. MGgdstRe.