The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1890-03-28


questions. To earn livelihood for you
has not always been an easy thing for
your father. BY what fatigues of body
and what disturbances of mind and long
years of struggle, in which sometimes
the losses were greater than the gains,
he got bread for you, paying for it in the
sweat of his own brow and the red drops
of his own hearts blood. He looks older
than he ought to look at his years, for
it has been work, work, work. Many a
time he felt like giving up the battle, but
then he looked at your helplessness and
the helplessness of the household, and
then nerved himself up anew and said:
''By the help of God l will not stop, my
children must have home and education
and advantages, and a comfortable start
in the world. and l must get little
something ahead, so that If l am taken
away these helpless ones will not be
turned out on the cold charities Of the
world"
Yes, your father has been q good
friend to you. He has never told any
one, and he never will tell any one, of
the sacrifices he has made for you And
he is ready to keep right on until unto
to that hand that has been toiling for
you all these years shall come the very
numbness Of death. You can not afford
to break his heart. But you are doing
It, Yes, you are. You have driven the
dagger clear in up to the hilt.
And your mother-I warrant she has
never told you much about the nights
when you were down with scarlet fever,
or diphtheria, and she slept not wink,
or falling into drowsiness your first cry
awakened her, and brought the words,
"What is it, my dear?" o, if the rock
ing chair could speak! o, if the cradle
could only tell its story of years! And
when you got better and were fretful
and hard to please, as is usual in con-
valescence, she kept her patience SO
well, and was as kind as you were I'M
reasonable and cross. o, midnights Of
motherly watching, how can you keep
silence? Speak out and tell that wan
dering young man the story that he so
much needs to hear.
by the bye, l wonder what has become
of our old cradle in which all of us chill
dren rocked! l must ask my sister when
see her next time. We were large
family, and that old cradle was going a
good many years. / remember just how
it looked. 1t was old-fashioned and had
no tapestry. Its two sides and canopy
all of plain wood, but there was great
deal of sound sleeping in that cradle,
and many aches and pains were soothed
by it as it moved to and fro by day and
night. Most wildly l remember the
rockers, which came out from under the
cradle, were on the top and side very
smooth, so smooth that they actually
glistened. They must have been worn
smooth by foot that long ago ceased
it's journey. How tired the foot that
pressed it must sometimes have got! But
it did not stop for that. 1t went right
on and rocked for Phoebe the first, and
Dewitt the last And it was a cradle
like that or perhaps of modern make
and richly upholstered, in which your
mother rocked you.
Can it be that for all that care and de-
votion you are paying her back with
harsh words, or neglect, or a wicked life?
Then must tell you that you are the
foolish son who is the heaviness of his
mother" Better go home and kiss her,
and ask her forgiveness. Kiss her on
the lips that have so often prayed for
you. Kiss her on the forehead that so
often has ached for you. Kiss her on
the eyes that so often wept over you.
Better 60 right away, for she will be
dead before long. And how will you
feel then after you realize it is your
waywardness that killed her? Romulus
made no law against patricide, or the
Staying of father, matricide, or the STAY
| ing of mother, because he considered
such crime impossible, and for 600
years there was not a crime of that sort
in Rome. Then came Lucius Ostius and
slew his father, proving the crime pos.
sible. Now, do you not think that the
child, who by wrong behavior, sends his
father to premature grave is patri-
eide, or who by misconduct hastens a
mother into the tomb is matricide?
The heaviness of parents over sons
depravity is all the greater because it
means spiritual disaster and overthrow.
That is the worst thing about it. In the
pension regulation soldier receives for
the loss of both hands or feet S72. For
loss of one hand and one foot $50. For
loss of hand or foot $50. For loss of
both eyes S72. But who can calculate
| the value of whole man ruined
body, mind and soul? How can
| parents have any happiness about
your future destiny, o young man
gone astray? Can such opposite lives as
you and they are living come out at the
same place? Can holiness and dissipa-
ton enter the same gate? Where is the
little prayer that was taught you at
your mothers knee? Is the God they
loved and worshiped your God? 1t is
your soul about which they are most
anxious; your soul that shall live after
the earth itself shall be girdled with
flames and the flames, dying down,
will leave the planet only live coal
and the live coal shall become ashes
and then the ashes shall be scattered by
the whirlwinds of the Almighty.
But" says some young man, my
mother is gone; my behavior will not
trouble her any more.
oh, that those lips had languagei Life has
passed
With me but roughly since I heard thee
| last"
What! Is she dead? How you startle
me! Is she dead? Then perhaps you have
her picture. Hang it up in your room
in the place where you oftenest look.
Go and study her features, and while
you are looking the past will come back.
and you may hear her voice, which is
now so still, speak again, saying: From
my heavenly home, my dear boy, SO.
licit your reformation and salvation. &c