The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1885-08-01
STEP-MOTHERS.
A Few Words in Behalf of This
Misjudged Glass.

The world is every day growing more
humane, more just and charitable. The
narrow, social, secular and religious
walls that have 50 long divided man
from man are breaking down. Human
sympathies are broadening, ample ell
bow-room and fair play seems to be the
motto of the present generation.
But amid all the humanitarian prog
ress of our age there remain few pref
udces that like rank weeds DEFY all eff
forts at determination. and foremost
among these is the old-time prejudice
against step-mothers, a class that with
mothers-in-law may justly claim to be
the most ill-treated portion of the hui
man race.
The step-father and the father-in-law
awaken none of this antipathy which
society, with an objectionable lack of
chivalry, visits upon that so-called
weaker sex it claims to protect and
cherish.
The very word step-mother recalls a
series of portraits now pathetic, now
repellent--porraits slowed away in
most memories from fairy tales and
picture books that were both the de-
light and torture of childish DAYS. On
the one hand we see the step-child. half
clad, half-fel, groaning under the lash
of a cruel task-mistress and tyranncal
usurper-a pale, sad, forlOrn, ghostly
little creature, who, after the arduous
tasks of the day are ended, steals softly
to the grave of the own mother to pour
forth unavailing plants and tears upon
that senseless sod-to pray in agony to
be laid at rest from life 5 sorrows by the
side of the one heart that has beat in
unison with its own.
The reverse of this dOleful picture is
the step-mother-a grim, remorseless
female with caSt-iron features md Me
dusa glance, with a nose and chin sharp
as her temper and almost meeting over
the toothlesS jaws, with long arms end
inc in skeleton fingers that delight in
blows, with heart hard, preverse and
hideous as its outward tenement
The world abounds in step-mothers.
We all know them, but who has ever seen
one answering to this picture? The
actual step-mother is no being apart;
like men and women in general, she
has her full share of faults and virtues
But in her case the faults are eXagrer-
ated the virtues scarcely recognized
She is martyr to whom few are will
ing to accord the martyrs crown: a
tragic heroine who may never expect to
find her poet. Her history, save in ex-
hn CT,
follows:
By marrying a widower she has be-
come at the same moment both wife
and mother She enters the new home
with heart full of kindly sentiments,
with sincere desire to take the own
mothers place to the child or children
Heaven has bereft of maternal care.
The more children there are the harder
and more complicated becomes her
task. We will take the easiest case and
suppose there is only one, but that this
one is girl-a less facle subject for
step motherly management than a boy
The step-mOther' first meeting with
her little charge (whom its fathers fond
eulogies had led her to believe an angel
all but the wings) is not encouraging
She finds ayerted glances where she
had hoped for the gaze of truthful
trustful eyes; her caresses are repealed
her loving words awaken no response.
''The little one is shy and distant like
most children in the presence OF strang-
ers, says the father; "she will soon
learn to love you"
Months pass. The child has grown
accustomed to the new mothers pres
ence, to the new atmosphere of care
and tenderness, but she remains dis
tant. The little soul, that should warm
TO these caresses as the spring soil
warns to the sunlight, is Still cold and
unresponsiye. The sweet cherub has
smiles for others, sunny chances, kindly
words and merry laughter for all the
world but her step-mother. Her gaycty
abroad is in strange contrast with her
sullcn obstinacy at home. Her heart
seems an lEolian harp, responsive to
every kindly outside breath, cchoing
every voice of affect oH save that from
her step-mother'S lips.
The step-mothcr brOOds over all this,
asking herself the reason, and question
ing her own conscience as to any rcmis-
sion in duty. She little dreams that
some outside Penelope is all the while
busy unraveling her homework. This
Penelope is presumably a relative or
bosom friend of the first wife, who from
a misguided sense of loyalty to the dead
thus wrongs the living.
The child, on her visits to these old
friends and relatives, finds herself the
constant object of fearful lamentation.
The one theme upon which they ring
all sorts of changes is her own mother
the one mother who loved her so
dearly, who, were she living, would do
10 differently from the stranger who has
usurped her place; this stranger whom
it is nothing less than sacrilegc to call
by the sacred name of mother. In
short the child is given to understand,
more by covert insinuation than by di-
rect words, that any love or respect she