The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1882-03-30
For THE HERALD.
Those Boys Of Ours..-A Kind
Talk to their Mothers.

dren as mothers. My opportunities
to observe the various phases of society
are abundant and of daily occurrence,
and I have not allowed them to pass
without making some notes thereon.
When [ assure you that my motive
for doing so cannot be impugDed, I
trust you will pardon me for giving
you the benefit Of the observations I
have made, and for briefly alluding to
the conclusions to which have ar
rived, cleaned from a wide field of Oh.
ser0atiou. Every good mother desires,
above all earthly things, the good Of
her children and if any one of you
we're told that one of your sops, when
he shall attain his majority and be
turned out ou society, will be an out
law aid pest upon the community,
it would offend you, and you would
regard it as an insult which it was
your duty to resent. That is natural,
and is just the same with all mothers,
through all the generations, from mo-
ther Eve till nov.
Let me, then, admonish you, that if
you really do desire the good Of your
son, that be be worthy and respected
among the men be will mipgle with
when he attains to the stature of man.
hood, that you must do your duty to
that son noW. Judging from the
large proportion Of men now floating
over the land that are utterly unwor.
thy Of confidence in any business trans
action, who are worthless alike to
themselves, their families and to the
country; who regard not the truth,
and prefer lie; who violate the laws
of uan and trample upon the man
dates Of God we are forced to con-
clude that there has been something
wrong in their raising; that the moral
training 10 tender infancy has not
only been sadly but sinfully neglected,
and the work which should have been
doue then being neglected can never
be accomplished; and the poor mo.
ther, in the years of her decrepitude
and helplessness, can only reflect in
sorrow and self.condemuation upon
lost opportunities.
The words spoken to the mother of
the fouudling in the basket among the
rushes in the ebbing water Of the
mystic river, were uttered in a beav-
emily voice, to each of you, the moment
you were made a mother, and the in
Junction has been renewed at every
subsequent renewal Of The sacred re.
lation "Take this child and raise it
for ne, and I will pay thee thy wage" :"
"He that knows his duty and does
it not shall be beaten with many
stripes" AS mothers, then, what is
your duty, or rather, what are your
duties? Have your several duties to
your offspring been duly performed
when you have attended to the mere
physical wants of every day life !?
When you have fed and warmed and
cleansed your child and taught it to
be tidy, has your whole duty been
discharged ? Not by any means. You
are placed, by Divine appointment, as
a sentinel to guard all the avenues to
the citadel of the soul, and there is no
rest for you frou the rcveille that
places you at your post till the tattoo
of "off duty" is sounded at the margin
of the River when you are summoned
to cross over. You must never desert
your post; for if you do the evil one,
the enemy of the soul, the great op.
poser of peace and goodness, in your
absence, may plant q seed of evil that
will produce vile weed the roots of
which you may never be able to erad-
icate. In military discipline, the
sentinel placed on duty to guard
sleeping army is shot by order of the
commanding general, or by a decree
of court martial, if he is found slum-
beripg and not watching, or is detected
in disloyalty, or giving aid and COM
fort to the enemy. Awful as is such
a penalty, the doom that awaits the
mother that ignores or neglects the
moral training of her children is be-
youd the figure Of speech to portray
dsfes the human language. And this
is true when We reflect upon the men
tai agony of the poor mother, should
her life be prolonged, to witness her
son in the hands of an officer Of the
law, being carried to the gallows, or
to place of penal servitude, for crimes
against society, when the commission
of these offences is traceaple, as is
nearly always the case, to neglected
infancy and a childhood unrestrained.
l heard Of a young man once that was
sentenced to be hanged for some crime,
and, while under the gallows, asked to
be allowed to whisper something in
the ear Of his mother, who was pres
ent, like one of old, but under widely
different circumstances, though promp
ted by the same undying maternal
love that moved weeping Mary to
wend her way to the cross. Permis-
sion being granted, the poor mother
at once placed herself by the side of
her son and her ear to his mouth, that
she might receive, as she supposed,
bis dying whisper; but in place Of
which, the unnatural human monster
bit off q portion of her ear, telling her
that his awful fate was the conse-
quence and outgrowth of the neglected
training of his youth, and that was
the penalty be desired to iOAict upon
her.
Ta,oh ronr cbjIdra rho 1ntu thev