The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-08-18
THIS FROM BILL ARP, WHO
DILATES UPON The LOVE
OF A MOTHER.
Mrs. Apps Fight with the Croup-Reme-
dies World Without End The
Philosophic Pair Discuss
ing Medicine.
Written for The constitutional

Written for The constitutional
C~ARTERsvILLE, Ga, August 1.-The
most vital, providentiaI and beautiful
trait in our humanity is the maternal
instinct.
The love and care which a mother
has for her offspringi i the saviDg grace
of childhood.
Without it the little helpless things
would perish in their infancy, and the
world become depopulated.
For years and years l have watched
these mothers-watched and wondered
and to my mind there is no great T
proof of the love of God to the human
race than the intense, all absorbing
love of a mother for her child. This
love is not founded i'll any philosophy
that we can understand. Why should
she love one child more than another?
Why love her own illfavored, fretfuJ,
trublesOme offspring more than the
beautiful, affectiOnate child of her
neighbOr? There are IS, 600, 900 people
in the United States, and every n of
them had q mOther[ reckOn-thOugh
the scriptures do speak Of imam that
is born of woman, like there might be
some other sort somewhere. Perhaps
"a, 900, 600 of them had a mothers love
and care during infancy, and if that
love and care could have been exclu-
sive, uninterrupted and unprejudiced
by outside influences what a world of
good people we would have.
Twas Illuminating about this the other
night, because about midnight, "when
deep sleep falleth npOn man." but mott
upon a woman with an infant child,
there was an alarm up stairs, and my
wife struck a match and hurried up to
find the little grand-child suffering
with the Group. There IS nothing in
the world that so alarms a young
mother as the Group. 1t comes so
suddenly, and with such a sharp me-
tallic, unnatural growing sound that
death seems right at the door, and
what is to be done must be done quickly
or not at all.
The anxious mother trembles and
piteously begs for help-help to save
her child, her only child; but Mrs.
Arp has raised ten from the cradle to
courting-time, and they have all had
the Group, a good deal of Group, and it
is heard to scare and old soldier; but
still she has a holy horror Of this
insiduous, nightloving, treacherous
disease. and she goes to fighting it like
killing snakes. Syrup of ipecac is her
fav0rite rememedy, but she uses warm
lard and t~urpentine, and flax seed, and
onion juice, and calOmel, and DOver's
powder, and liniment, and warm
water, and lObelia and nitrate of silver
and some other things when necessary,
according to circumstances, and some
Of them always do the work and bring
relief, and [ have thought that if q
small portion of all these remedies
was put in a bottle and well shaken
before taken, it would cure most any
infrmity that flesh is heir to.
We were talking about the alarm
we had the other night and l re-
marked that the inflammation Of the
mucous membrane Of the larynX was
always attended with
1T was Group" said Mrs Arp, the
child had the Group
"Of course, - said I, " but you know,
my dear, that when the treachae and
bronchial tubes become partially OBJ
structed with false membranes"
The child had the Group" said she.
1T was a clear case of old fashioned
Group"
Under such circumstances" said
l, it is essential that the inner cuticle
of the larynx be suffused with alb
sorbents, and the outer epidermis be
subjected to counter irritants be
cause
"5yrup of ipcac is better than
either" said she, and 50 l subsidized.
The next morning after a case of
Group, my wife begins with calomel
and ~quinine to work off the cold, and
she generally prevents a return. She
takes the lead as the family doctor,
and keeps on hand a pretty fair drug
store. All that [ have to do in such
emergencies is to stand around and be
handy, and move with alacrity and
wait on her, and fire up the stove and
bring hot water, and spill some of it
on my bare feet and never finch. If
Group was the only infantile trouble
our conjugaI life would have had a
fair share of felicity. but there has