The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1885-07-30

OlIl .MOlHEhS.
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 SO long divided mar
ron 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 u age there remain a few pref
udices 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-portraits 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-fed, groaning under the lash
OF q cruel task-mistress and tyrannical
usurper@a pale, sad, f~orlorn, ghostly
little creature. who, after the arduous
tasks OF the day are ended, steals softly
to b grave of the own mother to pour
forth unavailing plants and tears upon
thai seuseless sod-to pray in agony to
be laid at rest from life's sorrows by the
III 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 and Me-
dusa glance, with q nose and chin sharp
as her temper and almost meeting over
the toothless jaws, with long arms end
ing in skeleton fingers that delight in
blows. with a 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 picturep 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
ated, the virtues scarcely recognized.
She is a martyr to whom few are will
ing to accord the martyrs crcwn; a
tragic heroine who may never expeetto
find her poet. Her history, save in ex-
ceptional cases. may be sketched as
follows:
By marrying a widower she has be-
come at the same moment both wife
and mother. She enters the new home
with a heart full of kindly sentiments,
with q 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
Is a girl-a less facile subject for
step-motherly management than a boy.
The step-mother's first meeting with
her little charge (whom its father fond
eulogies had led her to believe an angel
all but the wings) is not encouraging.
She finds ayerted chances where she
had hoped for the gaze of truthful,
trustful eyes; her caresses are repealed,
her loving words awaken no spons
THE little u 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
u~nresponsive. The sweet cherub has
smiles for others. sunny chances, kindly
words and merry laughter for all the
world but her step-mother. Her gayety
abroad is in strange contrast with her
sullen obstinacy at home. Her heart
seems an Eolian harp. responsive to
every kindly outside breath, echoiug
every voice of affection save that from
her step-mother's lips.
The step-mother broods over all this.
asking herself the reason. and question
ing her own conscience as to any remis-
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
. 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 n 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 dc
so differently from the stranger who has
usurped her place; this stranger whom
it is nothing less than sacrilege to cal
by the sacred name of mother. In
short, the child is given to understand,
more by covert i~nsinuation than by di.
rect words, that any love or respect she
awards the living mother is robbery Of
the dead.
Perhaps she learns this lesson at home
from some old family servant or gov
erness-a person not bad at heart, but
the victim of a suspicious nature tina
magnifies molehills into mountains, o.
of a mawkish s~entimentality that dis
Germs in the dear departed-rendereG
doubly dear and sacred by death-vir
tues that would be impossible to AM
inhabitant of this world, Poor moth
erless little c~reature!'' Sweet, for
saken darlingr' Lovely i~nnocentr'-
these words-uttered in every note O
the gamut of sympathy-form the con
slant refrain of the tune the child hear.
early and late, and it is no wonder tina
she ere long ZONES to regard herself a
the most forlorn and ill-treated o
human beings. Thus early schooled il
self-pity. in distrust and hatred, she i
indeed an object of commiseration.
For the wisest reasons the step-mothe
denies the child some wonted yet harm
full indulgence, and thereby rouses
revolt among the whole circle of spie
and meddlers. Their declare
to the object of their jealous care, evel
fhouOh xyordS ho. Wopfipn fhaf fhi