The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1882-06-28
"MAMMA."
BY MARION LAKELAND.
4 sketch from Life.

"I hope not, for her sake as we'll as our
own. She is always miserably i'll at ease"
cit is very different with papa. L am
proud TO introduce him everywhere and at
all times"
Mamma is good woman, Garry"
zone Of the best and dearest in the world,
Kate"
''But hopelessly behind the age-sDd US. "
"Don't enlarge upon thst point, dear.
She il socially and ;estheticslly impractic-
able;" and the speakers voice shuddered as
At the scratch of steel upon glass. at hurts
me TO admit It. i can not divest myself of
the fancy that there is undutifulness in my
modification, when grow cold and hot by
turns il watching what she would call her
company manners.
"Not word more, Garry, or / shall con-
Tess my own shameful lack of moral cour-
age This whole discussion is worse than
improbable. Mamma is mammal All our
wishing and talking can not transform her
into our refined and gracious ideal matron.
The best we can hope for is to keep her in
the back ground when there are those pres
esf who would be unfavorsbly impressed
with her solecisms."
The twin sisters-blondes, with fair, fluffy
hair, blue eyes and ftly-:inted cheeks, del
icate Of feature and viyaciOus of speech
sat at the library table, folding and direct
ing invitations TO their twenty-frst birthday
party. In the dialogue above recorded,
there was not touch Of asperity or i'll
humOr. As rule, they were in thorough
accord with one another, snd suited the
comfortably padded, perfumed world in
which they lived as well as it suited them.
Bat the attractive, perfumed, self-seeking
world has made them supercilious and cold
hearted. 1t had shriveled the love of their
childhood for their mother until it was SO
faint and weak that it could not accept and
overlook her faults of education and of etl-
quette. The remembrance Of her loving
care and of her sacrifices for them wss for
gotten. They had ceased to "honor" her
whom TO honor is q divine benedictiOn and
3 blessing.
The adjoining room was "papa sanctum.
E5en Barrett, the successful merchant, pre-
ferred to call it his "den." Here he enjoyed
his evening cigar over book and newspaper,
wrote letters that could not be postponed
until business hours, and chatted with his
grOwn-up son, who was his business part
neT, and with such favorite cronies SIS were
admitted to the family apartments. The
den was obscure by day, receiving lie ht
from solitary window opening upon a mar
row alley and the blank wall of the next
house.
A woman was now lying upou the sofa
just beyond the library door-as sllow, mea.
ger womsn, angular in outline, with faded
eyes and cheeks. Her hands, bony, with
large knuckles, lay idly upon the front of
such black merino gown as a busy house
wife would wear about her morning work.
Her daughters wore embroidered peignoirs
a Ia NNafsaar1 ahaar r
over their dainty hands.
Mrs Barrett had headache, and was
giving herself the rare indulgence of
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 sis
1erly prattle wandered to other subjects.
Mamma is mammal "Hopelessly be-
hind the sge-snd usp keep her in the
haczgryund;' Papa is so differentr"
These sentences were the precjpitate of
the whirl of thought in which "@stheti-
caIly," "impracticable," "ideal matron,"
f'solecisms," Aoated as insoluble and confus-
ing particles.
In her girlhood such terms were not in
the mouths of women. She had been too
busy since to pick them up. Married at
twenty to busy man, who had his fortune
TO make, she had, as she would have phrased
It, kept up her end of the log" She was
coCntry-bred, industrious and conscientious
Eben was ambitious. 1t was to please and
help him that she worked rs diligently at
home as he did abroad; had risen early, lain
down late, and eaten the innutritious bread
of carefulness for twenty-six years.
She had borne six children, al of whom
were alive and healthy. She was a cook and
model housewife, an expert seamstress and
economist, feared God, honOred as king her
husband, served as princes and princesses
the -childreu she had given him.
I ears 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 ex-
celient intellect; the exigencies of business
hac drawn him into competition that was in
itself 81 education. The discovery had not
troubled her seriously. He was the stronger
vessel. S.. Paul ard nature taught her to
look up to HIM. So long as he loved her,
<iked to have her slt near him in the even
iags, the Argand burner that illumined his
bOok or is.less, sheddinglight on her mend
ing basket, she was content.
Her children filsd, colored, glorihed her
life Being Shy, undemonstratiVe and un-
learned, che could not have put this into
words, but surely they must have known it.
de- husbands wealth, their own personal
snGo sments Of beauty. intelligence and
.ttct. had opened To them tie doors of the
-@best society fact that elated but did not
surprise her They deserved the highest
places the world could give-being, as we
have said, royal in themselves. In her
quiet way. she enjoyed seeing their social
-triumphs-
Her daughters had smiled at her "com-
psuy manners.p She had done her best-it
appeared now in the wrong direction. As
by fash of lightning through riven roof,
she saw that in service for others she had
forgotten herself, and to her hurt.
"What draughtp' Garry broke off her
work to say. 81 will shut the library
door"
The heavy leaves rolled together, and thu