Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1883-03-23
llStaers. Yrom social standpolnt.

Mothers, From Social Standpoint.
Happy and fortunate little woman at
home, who never felt called upon to
write a line for the papers in your life. do
YOU realize what an enviablelot is yours?
Ii fO- nothing else, because it never &C.
ours 10 you that the ilotsam and jetsam
Of conversation. the beauties of nature,
the flying of a bird against the wind,
the bit OF wisdom dropped quantity from
the lips of a child, are each and all good
material TO be woven into your weekly
or monthly budget. The writing habit
(be glad that il is not yours) is other
wise. One gets to be ever ON the alert,
half unconsciously, too, and everything
that one hears is mentally seized upon
for future use. Like the birds who 90
darting here and there in the spring
sunshine, catching bright hued thread,
or shred of wool, or whisp of hay
wherewith to build their nests, we of the
journalistic profession think nothing in
advertent or inappropriate which we
! may blend into our modest fabrics. So
much by way of preface, if not of apollo
gy. And for what one dark-eyed
woman said to her neighbor. in the pub
lie conveyance which accommodated
thrOng of passengers:
"She had completely effaced herself
for her daughters. Everything is done
to accommodate Helen and Julia, and
Mrs lis superseded. 1t don't seem
just right to me that a mother should
be kept altogether in the background"
co." said the sweet looking lady to
whom this was addressed, ''self-denial
10 10 lUHaks, -
life anyway. but sacrifice all through"
agreed with the first speaker 1t
don't seem right TO me that the Helens
and Julias, bright, beautiful, bewitching
though they may be, should step to the
front. in selfish absorption and monopo-
lie the best things, while ''mother," a
pale, cOlorless, WORKOUT figure, is wear
ing old dresses, reading old books OF
none at all, seeing few friends, and liv-
ing a humdrum life of routine, chiefly
enlivened by conflicts with Bridget's
stupidity and Noah impertinence. In
deed, it is not right, and Helen and
julia, flashing like butterflies in the
sunny morning of youth, would be the
last TO enjoy their warm and coy home,
if they felt that they were responsible
for the monotony of their mothers ex-
istence. Mother is herself the person
most to blame. For self-denial is easy,
indeed, to a real mother. From the
hour when her nature first over-brimmed
with the tidal rapture which sweeps full
flooded into the heart that cradles babe,
through the weary watching hours of
teething and whooping-cough, mumps
and measles, on through school days and
vacation days, and counting days, the
mothers life is poured out and given
necessarily for her children. So it
should be in sense. In every child the
mother renews her youth, and each son
and daughter is an addition to the home
wealth. -....
But some of your mothers, to whom 1
am talking, carry your self-sacriiice so
far that you forget that you have any life
of your own, for which you are RESPONSE
bic to God. You spend your strength so
freely and so recklessly during the years
of your children's childhood that you
have no elasticity. no resources, no
health left to spare by the time they
your skill and talents to the material
side of the house that you have no time
to keep up with the current of the worlds
thought, or to grow intellectually with
your young people. Many good woman
suffers her religious life to droop and
languish, because in her thoughtless
giving up of every moment of time, and
of every remnant of nervous force, to
the daily demands of her household, she
has absolutely no opportunity left for
sitting ut the Masters feet. Society is
not, in our cities, given up so wholly to
the young as it was few years ago.
In fact, there can be no social success
where only the crudity of early youth
appears upon the scene. Older people,
who bring to the front the tact, the ex-
perience and the knowledge which they
have gained through the years. must
mngle in the social gathering, if it is to
be witty, brilliant and attractive. The
mothers must be in the van, and the
daughters, as BELTS their age, little in
the sheltering shadow. if we are to have
the ideal social-life growing out of the
ideal home-life.
am very fond of the Helens and
Julias. like their sparkle, their vivac-
ity, their esprit. But do not like their
want of consideration for mother if she
is, perhaps. little old-fashiOned. little
tired, little diffident and frightened in
the blaze of their splendOr. True and
tenderly loving daughters will never be
contented to let mothers eHace them
selves even though self-denial be an easy
maternal duty.-M. E. SangSter, IN IN
terror. s.. F e