Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1886-03-21
old Maids Children.
BY Christine Terhune Herrick,


By Christine Terhune Herrick.
AS throng of people came pouring out
Of church one day, after listening to a
sermon the subject of which had been
widely advertised; "The Proper Method
of Training Children" young married
woman turned with some amusement to
an elderly maiden whose whole appearance
announced that she could not be short of
threescore.
"Why, Aunt Betty" she said; "Why
did you come to hear that sermon?u
The old lady's eyes twinkled
"Well, child, didn't have any present
need OF instruction as to how to raise
children, but you never can tell how
things may be- In time of peace, prepare
for war;, you know"
From the liberal amount of advice be-
slowed gratuitously upon the mothers of
families by unmarried women, one would
think this branch of domestic care had re-
ceived the most arduous study. This is
especially true OF those to whom the term
sold maid" can be applied with peculiar
fitness. For there is great difference
between those on whom the phrase is
sometimes fixed with sweeping general
application. There are lovely and gentle
women who have made the title one of
honor These are those single women to
whom every one turns naturally when
work, comfort or sympathy is desired,
whose lives are perpetual benediction,
and who often possess more motherliness
in their childless hearts than would suffice
to stock a dozen of the married women
whose children are born, nursed and
tended from sense OF duty and not from
the true naternal instinct Children have
keen discrimination in these affairs and
cling as spontaneously to one maiden aunt
as they shrink from another.
The impossible degree of perfection
that seems to be expected by some of the
more fussy spinsters from the juniors of
their near relatives families has given
rise to the expression sold maids chill
dren," used in describing the paragons
of all the virtues which the offspring of
such stern critics might be supposed to
embody. bright little poem on the land
OF Thus and So which has recently been
going the rounds of the children's depart
ments of the newspapers furnishes n
graphic account of country inhabited
by Just such prodigies of good behavior.
While the lovers of the genuine and nat
ural human being would probably agree
with the small boy of the poem in his OBJ
Jections to taking up his permanent abode
IN this mythical region, yet it might not
oc subject of unmingled regret if some
OF the customs in vogue there were intro
duced into everyday life.
The old maids children's might be rather
unchildisn creatures, but would it not be
agreeable ii there were a judicious mixture
OF some OF their ultra excellent qualities
with the ordinary boy and girl nature ?
I 40 t,,A,, H.. i 4.
detracting from the healthful spontaneitv
winch is one OF childhood's greatest
charms will not be doubted by those who
have witnessed the combination in really
well-bred children.
The custom of denouncing those fash.
ionable mothers who neglected their sick.
~ babies and sought their pleasure al gay
balls and public entertainments was nc.
cepted as the correct thing thirty wears
ago, and moral tales of that date abound
IN narrowing incidents Of parents being
hastily summoned from routs and brii-
ilant assemblies to stand at the bedside
OF dying infant As this type was aban
uoned, the literary mother took the
vacant place. Her absorption in literary
pursuits produced less blood-curdllng re-
SUITS than her predecessors passion for
soclety, but Its effects were perhaps
hardly more comfortable. Her cheerless
nome was depicted in striking colors-
the aSh-strewn hearth, the unswept floor
the ragged and unframed children. the
husband driven to desperation and drinl,
by Wretchedly conducted hpuse while
the blue stocking herself sat, an imper-
sonatlou OF slatterniness, in the midst of
the misery OF which she was the cause
sereneiy unconscious % everything safe
her own exalted thoughts and aspirati-. I
Grauually she, too, is slipping I'D OBJ
security, and as yet her success has not
put In an appearance. eNhough she Is !
probably like old .rehn GJ9in's hat and
wig, "upon The road"
In conta-aplation Of the horrors Incl
dent ~pon lack Of devotion to what should
DC the prime objects of every married
woman's first attention--her home and
lamily-writers have omitted mentioning
those mothers who iniure both themselves
ana their children by too strict devotion
TO the little ones This has been called
the children's age, by, on an average,
three out Of every I've Sunday-school
speakers for the past forty years, until the
hackneyed phrase has completely out
grown its period for usefulness. The
question may be raised, although hesita-
ungly, II the fact itself is not nearing the
same stage In one way, too much can
not be done for children. In another.
more than enough is performed.
child's truest and best happiness does
OF consist In maxim G his individual we'll
oelng the pivot upon which the whole
household machinerv tnrne no LIN ~