Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-03-17

40 SOUND, yet there are at tnlS moment
tens of thousands of parental hearts
breaking. All care was taken with the
boy g schooling, all good counsels given /,
and the equipment for sober and earn
est and useful life was provided, but it
has all gone, and the foolish son has be-
come the heaviness of his mother.
Much of the poignancy of the paterual
grief arises from the ingratitude of such
behavior. What an undertaking it is to
conduct family through the ailments
and exposures Of early life! Talk about
the skill demanded of a sea captain COM
manding a ship across the ocean! That
requires less skill than to navigate a
young soul in safety across the infantile
and boyhood years. The sicknesses that
assault, the temptations that intrap, the
anxieties that are excited! Young man +,
you will never know what your mother
has suffered for you. You will never
know how your father has toiled for you 4.
You have been in all their thoughts, in
all their plans, in all their prayers, from
the time your first breath was drawn to
this moments respiration. What
they could do for your health,
what they could do for your happiness,
what they could do for your mind, what
they could do for your soul, have been
absorbing questions. To earn a livell-
hood for you has not always been an easy
thing for your father. BY what fatigues
of body and what disturbances of mind I,
and long years of struggle, in which
sometimes the losses were greater than
the gains, he cot 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 time he felt like
GIVING UP THE BATTLE,
but then he looked at your helplessuess
and the helplessness of the household +,
and then he nerved himself up anew
and said: "By the help of God 1 will
not stop; my children must have home
and education and advantages, and a
comfortable starting In the world, and
I 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 a good friend to you.
He has never told anyone, and he never
will tell anyone of the sacrifices he has
made for you. And he is ready to
keep right on until unto that hand that
has been toiling for you all these years
shall come the very numbness of death.
You cannot 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 was down with scarlet fever or
diptheria, and she slept not wink, or
falling into drowsiness, your first cry
awakened her, and brought the words,
'What is it, my dear?' Oh, if the old
rocking chair could speak! Oh, if the
cradle could only tell its story of years!
And when you got better, and were fret
full and hard TO please, as is usual in con-
valescence, she kept her patience so well !,
and was as kind as you were unreason-
able and cross. Oh, midnights of moth
erlY watching, how can you keep silence?
Speak out and tell that wandering young
man the story that he SO much needs to
hear.
By the bye, I wonder what has become
of ou old cradle in which all of us chill
dren were rocked! l must ask my sister
when l see her next time. We were q
large family, and that old cradle was GO
ing good many years. l 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 era
die, and many aches and pains were
soothed by it, as it moved to and fro by
day and night. Most vivIdly l remem-
Der that the rockers, which came out
from under the cradle, were on the top
and sides very smooth, so smooth hat
they actually glistened. They must have
been worn smooth by foot that long
ago ceased its 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 Phebe the first, and for
Dewitt the last. And 1t was cradle
like that, or perhaps of modern make
and richly upholstered, in which your
mother rocked you. Can it be for all
that care and devotion you are paying
her back with harsh words, or neglects,
or a wicked life? Then 1 must tell you
that you are the "fooIish son who is
the heaviness Of his mother. Better
go home and kiss her, and ask her for
givness. Kiss her on the lips that have
so often prayed for you. Kiss her on
the forehead that so often ached for you.
Better go 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 a father, matricide, or
the staying of a mother, because he con-
sidered such crimes impossible; and for
600 years there was not crime of that
sort in Rome. But then came Lucius Os-
thus, and slew his father, proving the
crime possible. Now do you not think
that the child who, by wrong behavior,
sends his father to premature grave. is
a patricde, or who, by misconduct, has
tens mother into the tomb, is matri-
eide?
The heavlness Of parents over a son IS
depravity is ali the greater because 1t
means spiritual disaster and overthrow.
That is the worst thing about it. In the
pension regulations a soldier receives for
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
Oh, young man, gone astray? Can