The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1891-04-02

Wet the Clay.


far more than when | am looking at |
the immovable marble. A touch |
here-there-and all is changed, in |
the twinkling of an eye one trait |
springs into life and another dis
appears. The queen, who is a very |
beautiful woman, was represented in
Miss Uosmer's statue as standing, |
wearing the picturesque cloak that |
she wore during those hard days of |
garrison life at Gaeta, when she
showed herself SO brave that the
world said If she, instead Of that very
stupid young man her husband, had !
been king the throne need not have
been lost. The very cloak made of
light cloth SLOWLY faced with scarlet
was draped over II lay figure in one
corner of the room. In the statue
the folds of drapery over the right
arm were entirely diSarranged, sim
ply rough clay. The day before they
had been apparently finished, but
that morning Miss Hosmer had, as
she laughingly told US, pulled 1t all
to pieces again." AS she said this
she took up large syringe and show
cred the statue from head to foot
with water till it dripped and shone
as if it had just been plunged into a
bath. Now it was in condition to be
nodded. Many times day this pro-
cess has to he repeated or the clay
becomes so dry and hard that it can
not be worked. l had known this be-
fore: but never did | so realize the
significant symbolism of the act as
when looked at this lifeless yet life
like thing, to be made into the beauty
of woman, called by her name and
cherished after her death-and saw
that only through this chrysalis of
the clay, SO cared for, moistened and
moulded could the marble obtain its
soul. And rs all things I see in life
seem to me to have voice either for
or of our children, so did this instant
ly suggest to me that most of the
failures of mothers come from their
not keeping the clay moist.
The slightest touch tells on the
clay when it is moist and can produce
just the effect which is desired; but
when the clay is too dry it will not
yield, and often it breaks and crum-
bles beneath the unskillful hand.
How perfect the analogy between
these two results, and the two at
mospheres which one often sees in
| the space of one half hour in the
management of the same child! One
can win from it Instantly gentle
obedience: that persons smile is a
reward, that persons displeasure is a
grief it cannot bear, that persons
opinions have utmost weight with it,
that PEI sons presence is a controlling
and Subduing influence. Alas! the
mother produces such an opposite eff
feet that it is hard to believe the
child Can be the same child. Her
simplest command is met by antago-
nism or sullen compliance, her pleas.
ure and displeaSure are plainly of no
account to the child, and its great
desire is to get out of her presence.
What shape will she make of that
childs soul! She does not wet the
clay. She does not stop TO consider
before each command whether it be
wholly just, whether it lie just the
time 10 make it, and whether she can
explain its necessity. Oh! the sweet
reasonableness of children when dis
agreeable necessities are explained to
them instead of being enforced as
arbitrary tYranies. She does not
make them to feel that she shares
all their sorrows and pleasures that
they cannot help being in turn glad
when she is glad and sorry when she
sorry. She does not 50 take them in
to constant companionship in her in
terests each day-the books, the
papers she reads. the things she sees
that they learn to hold her as the
representative of much more than
nursery discipline, clothes and bread
and butter. She does not kiss them
often enough, put her arms around
them, warm, soften, battle them in
| the ineffable sunshine of loving ways.
IL can't imagine why children are so
much better with you than me" ex-
claims such a mother. No, she can
not imagine and that is the trouble.
If she could all would be righted.
1t is quite probable that she is a far
more anxious, self sacrificing, hard
| working mother than the neighbor
whose children are rosy and frolick-
ing, affectionate and obedient; while
hers are pale, fretful, selfish and sui.
| len. She is all the time working,
W III hAhBs Will CudlCCS dCIlNlDy vi
hard, dry clay; and the neighbor,
who perhaps half unconsciously keeps
the clay wet, is with one half the
labor modelling sweet creatures of
natures own !ovliest shapes. Then
she says, this poor, tired mother, dis
couraged because her children tell
lies, irritated because they seem to
her thankless. "After all children are
all pretty much alike, 1 suppose.
believe most children tell lies when
they are little; and they never realize
until they are grown up what parents
| do for them" Here again l find a
similitude among the artists who
| nsint mr. model Studios are full of