American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1881-01-22
ssMAMMA."

Wei, hope he's not quite such a fool.
Mortimer Collins.
"MAMMA."
-. a sAetcA' From Life. Z
edo you suppose mamma will come
into the room that EVENING" n
al hope not; for her sake as we'll as
our own. She is always miserably i'll at
-"It is very different with papa. am
proud to introduce him everywhere and
and at all times"
Mamma is good woman, Garry. ~
One of the best and dearest in the
world, Kate.'' Z.
'.But hopelessly behind the age and
u.s." = 80 ,..,.
- Don't enlarge upon that point, dear.
She Is socially and esthetically imprac-
ticable;" and the speakers voice shud-
dered as at the scratch of steel upon
glass. ut hurts me to admit it. 1
cannot divest myself of the fancy that
there is undutifulness in my mortifca-
ton. when grow cold and hot by turns
in watching what she would call her
company manners"
"Not word more, Garry, or shall
confess my own shameful lack of moral
courage. This whole discussion is
worse than improbable. Mamma is
mamma! All our wishing and talking
cannot transform her into our refined
and gracious ideal matron. The best
we can hope for, is to keep her in the
background when there are those pres
ept who would be unfavorably impressed
by her solecisms.
The Observation-Disclosures with fair,
fluffy hair, blue eyes and softly-tinted
cheeks, delicate of feature and vivacious
of speech-sat at the ibrary-table,
folding and directing invitations to their
twenty first birthday party. In the
touch of asperity or nl-humor As a
rule, they were in thorough accord with
one another, and suited the comforta-
bly-padded, perfumed world in which
they lived as well as it suited them.
But the attractive, perfumed, self
seeking world had made them supercil-
ious and cold-hearted. 1t had shriv-
eled the love of their childhood for
their mother, until it was so faint and
weak that it could not accept and over
hook her faults of education and of
etiquette. The remembrance of her
loving care and of her sacrifices for
them was forgotten They had ceased
to .'honor" her whom to honor is a
O1VlU6 D6ueQtctt0u anu q blessing.
>, The adjoining room was papa s
sanctum.'' Eben Barrett, the success
full merchant, preferred to call it his
..den.'' Here he enjoyed his evening
cigar over book and newspaper, wrote
letters that could not be postponed I'M
til business hours. and chatted with his
grown-up son, who was his business
partner. and with such favorite cronies
as were admitted to the family apart
ments. The den was obscure by day,
receiving light from solitary window
opening upon a narrow alley and the
blank wall of the next house. -
iE "A woman was now lying upon the
sofa just beyond the Hbrary-door; q
sallow, meager woman, angular in out
line. with faded eyes and cheeks. Her
hands, bony, with large knuckles, lay
idly upon the front of such black me-
-srmo gown as busy housewife would
wear about her morning work. Her
= daughters wore embroidered peignoirs
q la HdttsGu, sheer, dainty ruffies fall
ing over their pretty hands.
Mrs. Barrett had headache, and was
giving herself the rare indulgence of a
lounge in the quietest room in the great
house The pleasant ripple of talk in
the library had soothed rather than
disturbed her, until it had turned so
suddenly upon herself that she was
stunned into stiffness. Nor could she
move at once when the sisterly prattle
I wandered to other subjects.
Mamma is mammal Hopelessly
behind the age-aad usr' keep her
in the backgrounds Papa, is SO diff
ferentr'
These sentences were the precipitate
ofthe whirlofthought in which "esthet-
ically," "impracticable," "ideal mat
ron," "solecisms," floated as insoluble
and confusing particles.
In her girlhood such terms were not
in the mouths of women She had been
too busy since to pick them up. Mar
his fortune to make, she had, as she
would have phrased it, kept up her
end of the log" She was country-bred
industrious and conscientious. Eben
was ambitious. 1t was to please and
help him that she worked as diligently
at home as he did abroad; had risen
early, lain down late, and eaten the in
nutritious bread of carefulness for TWEEN
ty-six years
She had borne six children, all OF
whom were alive and healthy. She
was q cook and model housewife; an ex-
pert seamstress and economist; feared
God; honored as a king her husband;
served as princes and princesses the
children she had given him.
Years ago she had seen that her lord
and master had grown away from her
mentally. The friction of other minds
had frightened and developed the
powers of naturally excellent intel
1ect; the exigencies of business had
drawn him into competition that was in
itself an education.
The discovery had not troubled her
seriously. He was the stronger vessel.
st. Paul and nature taught her to look
4. up to him. So long as he loved her,
liked to have her sit near him in the
evening. the Argand burner that illu-
mined his book or letters shedding
light upon her mending- basket, she was
: content.
Z, Her children filed, colored. glorified
her life. Being shy, undemonstrative
and unlearned, she coula not have put
this into words, but surely they must
have known it. Her husbands wealth,
: their own personal endowments of
beauty, intelligence and tact, had
opened to them the doors of the ''best
society," fact that elated, but did not