The free press., 1894-02-01
rhnro ro, then ns reading of elaborate

There was tnen no reaulnR Ol eiaDprdte
treatiges on tho best modes of rearing chill
dren. and then leaving it all to hired help,
with one or two visits a day to the nursery to
see if the principles announced are being car
ried out. The most of those old folks did the
sewing, the Washing the mending, the darn
ing, the patching. the millinery the mantua
making, the housekeeping and IN hurried
harvest time helped spread the hay or tread
down the load in the now. They were at
the same time caterers, tailors, doctors,
chaplains and nurses for a whole household
all together down with measles or scarlet
fever or round the bollse with whooptnS
coughs and groups anh runround fin
gers and earaches an@ all the iniantile
distempers which at some time swoop upon
every large household. Some of those mothers
never got rested in this world. Instead OF
the self rocking cradles Of our day, which.
wound up, will go hour after hour for the
soIace of the Young slumberer, 1t was weary
foot on the rocker sometimes half the day. or
half the snicht-rock-ro In
stead of our drug stores filled with all the
wonders of materia medlca and called up
through n telephone, with them the only
apothecary short OF four miles ride was the
garret, with its lunches of peppermint and
pennyroyal and eatnip and mustard and
canomile flowers, which were expected
to DO everything. Just think Of 1t Fifty
years of preparing breakfast, dinner
and supper. The chief music they
heard was that of spinning wheel and
rocking chair. Tagged out, headachy and
with ankles swollen. Those old fashioned
mothers-if any persons ever lifted appropri-
ately into good, easy, comfortable heaven,
they were the folks. and they got there, and
they are rested. They wear no spcctacles,
for they have their third sight--as they lived
long enough on earth to get their second
sieht-and they do not have to pant for
= tl,o ba Id efoir
Of the Eternal palace, at whose window they
now sit waiting for news from the battle.
But if anyone keeps on asking the ques-
tions "Where's mother?" | answer, she's
in vour present character" The probability
is that your physical features suggest her.
If there be seven children in household at
least six Of them look like their mother, and
the older you get the more you VIII look like
her. But speak now especially of your
character and not OF your looks. This is
easily explained. During the first ten years
of YOUR life you were almost all the time
with her. and your father you saw only
mornings and nights. There are no years
in any lie so important for impression as the
first ten. Then and there is the impression
made for virtue or vice, for truth or false
hood. for bravery or cowardice, for religion
or skepticism. Suddenly start out from be-
hind a door and frighten the child, and you
may shatter his nervous system for life
time. During the first ten years you cantcll
him enouon spook stories to make him
coward till he dies. Act before him as
though rri,iay were an unlucky day, and it
were baleful to have thirteen a. the table, or
see the moon over the left shoulder, and
IN will never recover from the idiotic su-
pe,stitions. You may give that girl before
she is ten years old fondness for dress
that will make her n mere dummy frame,
or fashion plate, for forty years. Ezekiel
xvi, A, GAS is the mother so is her daugh-
fer" Before one decade mas passed you can
decide whether that boy will be Shylock or
a George Peabody. Boys and girls are gen
orally echoes of fathers and mothers. Whaf
an incoherent thing for q mother out OF
temper to punish q child for getting
mad. or FOR a father who smokes to shut
his bov M in dark closet because be
has found him with an old stump OF
cigar in his mouth or for that mother to
rebuke her daughter for staring at
herself too much in the looking glass when
the mother has her own mirrors so ar
ranged as TO repeat her form from all sides
The great English poets loose moral char
acter was decided before he Lett the nursery,
and his schoolmaster in the schooiroom
overheard this conversation byron, your
mother is fool" and he answered, Il
know it," You can hear all through the
heroic life of Senator Sam Houston the
words OF his mother when she in the war
ot 1912 put a musket in his hand and said
There. my son, take thls ana never
Disgrace it. for remember | had rather all
my sons should fiji one honorable
grave than that one OF them should turn his
back on an enemy. Go and remember, too,
that while the door Of my cottage is open to
all brave men it is always shut against cow
ards Agrippina, the mother of Nero. muir
deress. You ara not surprised that her son
was a murderer. Give that child an over
dose OF cntechism, and make him recite
verses of the Bible as Il punishment and
make Sunday q bore, and he will become a
stout antagonist OF Christianity. Impress
him with the kindness and the geniasity and
the loveliness OF religion. and he will be its
advocate and exemplar for all time and eter-
nifty.
A few days ago right before our express
train on the Louisville and Nashville rail-
road the preceding train had gone down
through a broken bridge. twelve cars falling
100 feet and then consumed. | saw that only
one span Of the bridge was down and all tho
other spans were standing. Plan a good
bridge of morals for your sons and
daughters. but have the first span OF ten
years detective. aud through shat they will
crash down, though all the rest keep
standing. o man. o woman, If you have
preserved your integrity and arc really
you nave iltSL Ol dl 10 lldnh
God, and l think next you have TO thank
your mother. The most impressive thing at
the inauguration OF James A. Garfield rs
President OF the United States was that al
ter he had taken the oath of office he turned
round and in the presence of the Supreme
Court and the Senate of the United States
kissed his old mother. If 1 had time to
take statistics our of this audience, and l
could ask what proportion OF you who
ara Christians owe your salvation under
God to maternal fidelity, I think about
three-fourths of you would spring to your
feet. "Ha ha - said the soldiers of the
regiment to Charlie, one OF their comrades.
''What has made the change in you? You
used to like sin as well rs any of us" Pull
ing from his pocket his mothers letter, in
which, after telling OF some comforts she had
sent him. she concluded, "We are all pray
ing foryou. Charlie, that you may be Chris
tain" ne said "Boys, that's the sentence
TIE trouble with SissrG's mother was that,
while sitting at the window Of my text
watching for news of her son from the bat
tleiield. she had the two bad qualities of be-
ing dissolute and being too fond of personal
adornment. The Bible account says: "Her
wise ladies answered her yea. She returned
answer to herself: Have they not sped?