The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1894-01-31

fO0t on the rocker sometimes nalG the day OF
half the night k-rock-rock-rock. In.
stead of our drug stores filled with all the
wonders OF materia medica and called up
through telephone, with them the only
apothecary short of four miles ride was the
garret. with its bunches OF peppermint aSd
pennyroyal and catnip and mustard and
camomile 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 fitted approprl'
ately into good, easy, comfortable heaven;
they were the folks, and they got there, and
they are rested. They war no spcctacles,
for they have their third sight-as they lived
long enough on earth to get their second
sight-and they do not have to pant for
breath after going up the the emerald stairs
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?" I answer, "Shes
in your 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 will look like
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 life 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 door and frighten the child, and you
may shatter his nervous system for life
time. During the first ten years you can tell
him enough spook stories to make him a
coward till he dies. Act before him as
though Friday were an unlucky day, and It
were baeful to have thirteen at the table, or
see the moon over the left shoulder, and
he will never recover from the idiotic su-
perstltions. You may give that girl before
she Is ten years old fondness for dress
that will make her mere dummy Frame"
or fashion plate, for forty years. Ezekiel
xvi. A, GAS is the mother so is her daugh-
ter" Before one decade has passed you can
decide whether that boy will be Shylock or
George Peabody. Boys and girls are gen.
orally echoes OF fathers and mothers. What
an inc ,herent thing for a mother out OF
temper to punish child for getting
mad, OF: for father who smokes to shut
his boy up in dark closet because he
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 left the nursery,
and his schoolmaster In the schoolroom
overheard this conversation "Byron, your
mother Is fool" and he answered, II
know it." You can hear all through the
heroic life OF Senator Sam Houston the
words Of his mother when she in the war
of 1872 put musket in his hand and said I:
s'There. my son, take this and never
disgrace it, for remember had rather all
my sons should fill 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 are not surprised that her son
was murderer. Give that Child an over
dose of catechism, and make him recite
verses of the Bible as punishment, and
make Sunday bore, and he will become
stout antagonist of Christianity. Impress
him with the kindness and the geniality and
the loveiness 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 broken bridge, twelve cars falling
100 feet and then consumed. saw that only
one span of the bridge was down and all the
other spans were standing. Plan good
bridge Of morals for your sons and
daughters, but have the first span OF ten
years detective, and through that they will
crash down, though all the rest keep
standing. o man, o woman, II you have
preserved your integrity and are really
Christian, you have first Of all to thank
God, and 1 think next you have to thank
your mother. The most impressive thing at
the inauguration of James A. Garfield &c
President Of the United States was that af.
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. II I had time to
take statistics out of this audience, and ]
could ask what proportion Of you who
are 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 you2 You
used to like sin as we'll as any Of u.s." 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 for you, Charlie, that you may be Chris
tain" he said. "Boy5, that's the sentence.
The trouble with Sisera's mother was that.
while sitting at the window Of my text
watching for news Of her son from the bat.
tlefeld, 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?
Have they not divided the prey-to every
man damsel or two, to Sisera a prey OF
divers colors, prey Of divers colors OF
needlework, of divers colors Of needlework
on both sidesY" She makes no anxious
utterance about the wounded in bat
tie, about the bloodshed, about the
dying, about the dead, about the princi-
pies involved in the battle going on, battle
80 important that the stars and the freshets
took part, and the clash OF swords was an
swered by the thunder Of the skies. What
she thinks most OF Is the bright colors Of the
wardrobes to be captured and the needle
work. "To Sisera prey of divers colors, a
prey OF divers colors osneedlework, Of divers
colors OF needlework oh both sides"
Now neither Sisera's mother nor any one
else can soy too much in eulogy OF sthe
needle. It has made more useful conquests
than the sword. Pointed at one end and
with an eye at the other, whether OF bone or
ivory. as in earliest time; or OF bronze, as In
Pliny's time or Of steel, as in modern time ;
whether laboriously fashioned as formerly by
one hand, or as now, when 100 workmen In
u factory are employed to make the different
parts OF one needle. It is an instrument d.
vinely ordered for the comfort, for the
life, for the health. for the adornment
OF the human race. The eye OF the
needle hath seen more dom mestic
comfort and more gladdened power
ty and more Christian service than any other
eye. The modern sewing machine has in no
wise abolished the needle, but rather en-
- L. l. Gad far Tho aaodlarrArl.