Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1881-03-24
Select Story.
" NJ A M M A :"
A Sketch from Real Life.

DO you suppose mamma will come
into the room that evening?
L hope not; for her sake as well as
our own. She is always miserably i'll
ut ease.'
1T is very different with papa. | am
proud to introduce him everywhere at
all times.
Mamma is a good woman, Carry.
'One of the best and dearest in the
world, Kate.
But hopelessly behind the age, and
u.s.
Don't enlarge upon that point, dear.
She is socially and aesthetically I'M
prscticable;' and the speakers voice
shuddered as at the scratch Of steel up.
on glass. 1t hurts me to admit it. |
cannot divest myself of the fancy that
there is undutifulness in my mortifca.
tion, 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 NOR
al courage. This whole discussion is
worse than anproftable. Mamma is
mamma All our wishing and talk
ing cannot transform her into our re-
fined and gracious ideal matron. The
best we can hope for is to keep her in
the background when there are those
present who would be unfayorably i'm
pressed by her sollcitations,'
The twin -sisters-blondes, with fair
puffy hair, blue eyes and soft-tinted
cheeks, delicate of feature and viva
cious ofspeech-sat at the library table,
folding and directing invitations to
their twenty first birthday party. In
the dialogue above recorded, there was
not touch of asperity or i'll humor
AS rule, they were in thorough &C
cord with each other, and suited the
comfortably. padded, perfumed world
in which they lived as well as it suited
them.
But the attractive, perfumed self
seeking world had made them super
cilious 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.
look her faults of education and of Ell
quette. The remembrance of her low
ing care and of her sacrifice for them
was forgotten. They had ceased tc
honor her whom to honor is a Divine
benediction and a blessing.
The adjoining room was 'papa's
sanctun. 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 un-
til business hours, and chatted with his
grown,up son, who was his business
partner, and with such favorite cron.
les as were admitted to the family
apartments. The den was obscure by
day, receiving light from solitary
window opening upon a narrow alley
and the blank wall Of the next house
A woman was now lying upon the
sofa just beyond the library door q
sallow, meagre woman, angular in out.
line, with faded eyes and cheeks. Hel
hands, bony, with large knuckles, lay
idly upon the front of such black
merino gown as busy housewife would
wear about her morning work. Hel
daughters wore embroidered Ia Wat.
teau, sheer, dainty ruffles falling over
their pretty hands.
Mrs. Barrett had a headache. and
was giving herself the rare indulgence
of a lounge In the quietest room in tue
great house. The pleasant ripple o1
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
wandered to other subjects.
Mamma is mammal 'Hopelessly
behind the age-and us |! Papa is Sc
different !!
These sentences were the precipitatt
Of the whirl OF thought in which 'aes
thetically,' 'impracticable,' ideal ma
tron,' 'solecism, Aoated as insoluble
and confusing particles.
In her girlhood such terms were mo-
in the mouths of women. she had beer
too busy since to pick them up. Mar
ried at twenty to busy man, who hac
his fortune to make, she had, as she
would have phrased it, kept up hel
end of the log. She was country. bred
industrious and conscientious Eber