The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-05-08
A DIP INTO THE FUTURE.
WARNING MOTHERS WHO ARE CARE
LESS ABOUT THEIR CHILDREN.

LESS ABOUT THElR CHILDREN.
There Is No End to the Terrible Ills
which Grow Out of Such Indifference
Fortunately the Majority of Mothers
Are Not of This Class
If every mother dipped into the future
far as human eye could see" and were con-
fronted with vision of the result OF her
domestic life and work, she would un-
doubtedly put far more conscience into
both than she does now. OF course, as the
saying goes, there are mothers aud moth
ers. There are some whose life from q
child's birth is one long act of conscience,
of the devotion born of love, regulated By
wisdom, and carried TO its perfect end.
But there are many others at whose hands
the generation receives injury; those who
regard a child as more a natural happen
ing than anything for which they have a
peculiar responsibility, and feel that it
must take its chances with all the rest Of
the physical universe, mothers whose chill
dren are described as ''tumbling up, for
they certainly are not brought 1p.
The mother who lets the children play
with any others whom they please 10 play
with, content so long as they are not both
ering her; who says TO the children, Run
away now" so that she may have gossip
with the hours companion, quite reckless
of where it is they run; who Is off at a
neighbours for an hours enjoyment, still
ignorant of their whereabouts; who does
not worry herself as to what they may be
concerned with while she herself is occu-
pied with her fancy work or her novel
that mother is one whose children will
never rise up and call her blessed, unless
they are fools, or unless natural affection
makes them blind TO facts; and she is,
moreover, one of those who give occasion
for all the wild talk of the people who,
bent on reforming the race, would begin
by taking children away from their moth
ers and bringing them up by the public
state.
If anything could give excuse for such
barbarous and ignorant medding with
the fountain heads of life as the idea of
taking children from their own mothers
must be considered by all who have a heart
in their bosoms or brain in their heads,
it is the behavior of the sort of mother to
whom we have been referring. For we
have all seen sons Of power and vigor,
daughters of exceptional capacity, who
have gone entirely wrong, and Of whom
we have said how much they might have
been had they been trained by any one else
rather than their own mothers.
What else can one of these easy going
mothers expect than that her son will, in
his unguided ignorance and the inclination
of his animal spirits toward amusement
and excitement, fall among the companion
ships which amuse and excite only to ruin2
Some fortunate accident, some kind fate,
some protecting providence, may lead him
to better things; but she cannot know that
this will, happen; it will be no virtue of
hers if it does, and all the odds of human
ity are against the happening. One day,
when her boy has beggared his family,
broken his wife's heart, and is a wreck and
a ruin, society will have Ii dreadful account
to make with her, to say nothing of any
higher or yaster account that she may have
to settle. And then is her daughter-in-law
who sees how different might be her own
fate and that of her children in her turn,
had her husbands mother done her sim
plest duty-going to keep silence about
her? That daughter-in-law is, as likely as
not, the only form in which Nemesis shall
perceptibly approach her, but some power
have mercy on her when that perhaps now
unborn individual begins TO comprehend
to whom it Is she owes the loss Of the hap
piness of her own life, the sorry outlook of
her children, and more, and worse than
all, the misfortunes of the one dearer to
her than life itself
1t is fortunate that Of the great mass and
number of mothers who are able to call
their time their own IN degree there are
but few, comparatively speaking, who let
their Children run up like weeds IN this
way, with only the care that cannot in any
way be dispensed with. But it is necessary
for the well being of the individual and Of
the community that there should be none
at all. This is necessary, moreover, for the
salvation Of the mother herself and the
idea of motherhood, which should have no
such obloquy cast upon It, al good moth
ers resenting the existence of this poor one
as an injury to themselves A leopard can
not change his spots; woman cannot, per
haps, materially change her characteristics
put good mother is the same the world
over. She forgets herself in her child; bis
good. his comfort and his pleasure are all
far before her own with her; she has added
to her obligations by bringing him into the
world, and although he may not eftace her
other duties, her duty 70 him Is 70 be per
formed at whatever cost TO herself What
ever the Child's father may DO. however il
may be that he performs or not his own
obligation IN the matter, hers remains the
same She is answerGble to God for this
child She never needs to think Of any
dreadful day when the jewel that was gwen
her will be demanded back, undulled and
unbroken, If the Unceaslng thought Of ber
inner consciousness has been how she can
turn this jewel so that 1t VIII receive and
retain the most Of the inedable hight; how
she can train up her child 10 help forward
the purposes Of God il the worlG--Harper'
Bazar.