Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1882-09-29
Step-MOthers.

respect. Homer had his fling at the
women who marry widower with child
rem; Virgil went out of his way to cast
particularly hard and jaggel stones at
their dcfenselessnesS; Ovid accused them
of such things that it were better their
mothers had not borne them. Where
these great ones denounced, lesser
voices rallied; and the scandahzing of
step-motherS gradually became Us classic
as many other stupidities and falsities
Medieval literature accepted this con-
ventionality of antiquity, precisely as it
accepted other representations of women
handed down from those mighty ages,
without question As to their probability
or naturalncs5. 1t was enough for re-
viving intelligence to learn what had
been thought, without thinking on its
own account. But it is little hard that
the books of modern times, and espec-
tally the novels of our own day, which
go everywhere. and present to many
people the only mental impressions they
receive, should echo the jests of Ovid
without their wit, or the ISLANDERS of Vir-
gil without their brilliancy.
The matrons of antiquity who pointed
the moral for detraction were never heard
in their own behalf, and NAV have been
neither so fierce nor so frisky as thGpoetS
delighted to draw them. Besides, the
offending DANES of Homer, the half
savage princesscs of Thessaly, the slow
wttcd farmers wives of Epirus, were
hardly of the same humanity with the
iine-iibred womanhood Of to-day. Shall,
therefore, some sensitive soul, doing her
best for the happiness of her husbands
children. be dismayed by cheap jests,
stale two thousand years ago, or by de-
traction, which but repeats the comments
of scandal-mOugers dead before the
Ioniau immigration.
What is there in the contact with ten
der orphans to harden woman's heart
against them? If she have babies of her
own. her love for them. her longing to
live for their sakeS, teach her what bitter
ness Of parting, what pangs of appre-
hension, the dead mother must have
known, and tonch her spirit to unspeak-
able compassion for the motheress chill
dren given to her to rear. If she be child.
less, then that instinct of maternity which
lives in nearly every woman's heart, and
must be satisfied, reaches out naturally,
almost inevitably, toward her husbands
children, for his sake hardly more than
for theirs. In families where the chill
dren of the first wife are too young to
remember her with regret, when the
step-mother comes to them it is the rule,
and not the exception, that they love their
new protector with 4 love that makes no
abatement, and are perhaps happier than
they would have been had their own
mother lived.
For we maintain that the popular i'm
age of the step-mother is so far = phan-
tom, a mere tigment of the imagination,
that mans second wife is likely to be q
much higher type OF woman than his
first Beauty, grace of manner, an
idiotic fondness for himself. the most
perishable and accdent;s charms, en-
chant the boy-loyer, and make him the
husband. When his girl-wife becomes
the mother of his children, folly is not
thereby translated into wisdom; and if
she be compact of follies, however pretty
and well-behaved, her offspring will
for that combination. Does anybody
doubt that Agnes would have made far
better mother for Dora's baby, had it
lived. than that poor. sweet-faced. loving.
silly, altogether charming simpleton?
And Agnes is the woman whom the
DavidS, in their thoughtful prime, would
choose.
Step-mothcrs are impatient, unjust.
unable to see its conduct from the childs
point of view. we are told. Are mothers.
then, so uniformly patient, just. full of
loving imagination? Their children fret
them. bore them. offend against them
innocently, and are sharply and unfairly
punished constantly. But their love is
taken for granted by censorious world.
and very likely perverse generation
praises their "discipline." Against tie
laws of the step-mother the young Of
fender may trespass seventy times seven
times, and if her voice be harsh at the
surviving relatives on the maternal side
openly pity him. or with ostentatious
forbearance, "with arms encumbered
thus. or this head-shake, or by pronounce
ing of some doubtful phrase" aid and
comfort the rebel vastly more than by
espousal of his cause.
We mean merely to assert that the
world is peopled by human beings. Ma
ternity comes by nature. but mother
hood is the fruit of grace. 1t is as likely
to be the possession of some maiden
aunt, of some childless matron, of some
misunderstood step-mother. Us of her
who has suffered in travail. Children
are wearing, and those who have them
in keeping are worn. The temper of the
race is not flawless, and the list is short
of our own acquaintanceS who are too
patient, too tolerant, and too just But
it is unfair, it is monstrous, to condemn
whole class of women to reprobation,
and assume their guilt as well, for a
kind of otiolseS which We do not even
comment <pon when another class of
women commits them. The tale runs
that the Queen of TheSeus compassed the
death of her step-son by extremely I'M
pleasant and undcrhand means. But
Medea, on the other hand. killed her
own innocent children because their
father had offended her. got on comfort
ably in very high society afterward. and
finally received divine honors. Which
illustrates, perhaps. the average verdict
on the conduct of mothers and STEP
mothers.
1t is said that second wives are jealous
of the pale ghost of their predecessors,
and visit this jealousy ON their children.
Women ought eagerly to confute this
libel upon their sex. 1t is often true
that older children are jealous of the
new mother; but this is usually because
they are taught this doubt by those
whom they love. Selfish and jealous
women will be bad step mothers, a. they
will be bad mothers. But the proper
ton Of selfish aud jealous women is not
inordinate, and the great host of self
denying, helpful and loving step-mothors
ought not to suffer vicarious contumely.
Their place is not an enviablc one. But
in that future when the voice of common
sense shall silence the voice of tradition.
it is certain that men and women will
be ashamed to jeer at one of the most
difficult attempts, at one of the most