Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1894-01-26


foot on the rocker sometimes half the day or
half the ight-rock-reck-r3 r3ck-rock IN.
stead OF our drug stores filled with all the
wonders Of m2terIl nedica end called uD
through telephone, with them the on.y
apothecary short Of fS1r miles ride was the
garret, with it5 lunches of peppermint and
panEyroyal and catnip and mustard and
camomlle flowers, which were expected
to do everything. Just think of it Fifty
years OF preparing breakfast dinner
and supper. The chisf music they
heard was that OF spinning wheel and
rocking chair. Faggod out, headachy and
with ankles swollen. Those old fashioned
mOthGTs-f any persons ever fitted appropri-
ately into good easy comfortable heaven,
they were the folks, and they got there. ard
they are rested. They wear no spcctacles
for they have their third sight as they lived
long enough on earth to get their second
sight-ani 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-
tons "Wherc's nothcr?" l answer, ''She's
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 got the more you will look like
her But ] speak now especially Of your
character AMI not Of YOUR looks This is
y
of your life YOU were almost all the time
with her, and your father you saw only
mornings and nights. There ara no years
n any life so important for impression as the
first ten. Then and tner4 is the impression
made for virtue or vice, for truth or false
hood, for bravery or cOwardice, for religion
or s&eptcism. Suddenly start out from be-
hind door and frighten the child, and YOU
may shatter his nervous systom for a life
time. During the first ten years you cantell
MN enough spOok stories to mako him q
coward till he dies. Act before him as
though Friday were an uniu0ky day, and it
were baleful to have thirteen at the table. or
see the moon over the left shoulder and
ne will never recover from the idiotic sU-
perstItIons You may give that girl before
she is ten years old fondness for dress
that will make her a 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 a SAyIock or
George Peabody. Boys and girls are gen
orally echoes of fathers ami mothers. WHAT
an incoherent thing for mother out of
temper to punish a child for getting
mad, or for father who smokes to shut
his boy up in Carll closet because he
has found him with an old stump of d
cigar in his mouth, or for that mothe1 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 schooIroon
overheard this conversation: Byron. your
mOthNE is q fool" and he answered.. 81
know it." You can hear all through tho
heroic life of Senator Sam Houston the
words OF his mother when she in the war
OF 1912 put 4 musket in his hand and said
'Ihere, my son, take this and never
disgrace it, for remember I had rather all
my sons should fill one honorable
grave than that Ole of them should turn his
back on an enemy. Go and remember too.
that while tho door OF my cottage is open to
ali brave men it is 2l"'&ys shut against cow
ards Agrippina, tho mother of Nero, MUIR
deress. you are not surprised that her son
was murderer. Give that child an ovar-
dose of catechism, and make him recjte
verses of the Bible as a punishment. and
mako Sunday bore, and he will become
stout antagonist of Christianity. Impress
him with the kindness and the geDiaiity and
the lOyelinesS OF religion. and he will be its
advocate and eXemplar for all time and eter-
nifty.
few days ago right before our express
train on the Louisville and Nashville raj
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 the
other spans wer0 standing. Plan good
bridge of morals for your sons ami
daughters, but havo the first span of ten
years detective, and through that they will
crash down, though all the rest keep
man, o woman, if you have
preserved your integrity and are really
Christian, you have first of ell to thank
God, and l think next you have to thank
your mother. The most impressive thinC 1T
the inauguration of James A. Garfield as
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 | 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 spri- g to your
feet. "Ha ba = said the soldiers OF tho
regiment to Charlie, one OF their comrades.
'What has made the change in you? You
used to like sin as we'll as any of US" Pull
ing from his pocket his mothers letter, in
which, after telling Of some comforts she hal
sent him, she concluded, ''We are all pray
ing foryou, Charlie, that you may be a Chris
tain" ne said, ''BOyS, that's tho 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
tefe!d, she had the two bad qualities of be-
ing dissolute and being too fond of personal
Inc IIOIo account says: der
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, a prey of divers colors of
needework, OF divers co!ors of needlework
on both sidesY" She makes no anxious
utt erance about the wounded in bat
tie, about the bloodshed. about the
dying, about the dead, about the princ-
pies involved in the battle going or. a battle
so 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 OS is the bright colorS of the
wardrobeS to be captured and the needle
work. ITO Sisera prey of divers cOlOrS, a
prey of divers co!ors of needleworb, of divers
cOlOrs of needlewOrk on both sides"
Now neither Sisera's mother nor any one
else can say too much in eulogy of the
needle. 1t has made more useful conuuesis
than the sword. Pointed at one end anI
with an eye at the other, whether Of bone or
ivory, as in earliest time; or of bronze, as i'll
Plinys time or of steel, as in modern time;
whether labOriOusly fashioned as formerly by
one hand, or as now when 1AG wOrkmen in
a factory are employed to make the different
parts OF one needle. it is IN instrument di-
vnely ordered fer the comfort, for the
life, for the health. tor the adornment
OF the human race. The eye of the
needle hath seen more domestic
comfort anu moro giaddene1 power
ty and more Christian service than any other
eye. The modern sewing machine has in no
wise abolished the needle, but rather Ell
throned it. THAI God for the need!ework.
from the time when the Lord Almighty from
the heavens ordered in regard to the en-
broidered door of the ancient tabernacle,
''Thou shalt make hanging for the door of
the tent o: blue and purple and scarlet and
fine twinet linen wrought with needlework."
down to the womanly hands which this
winter in this tabernacle are presenting
for benevolent purposes their needle
work. But there was nothing eX-
cept vanity and woridliness and social splash
in what Sisera's mother said about the nee
dlework she expected her son would bring
home from the battle. And I am not sur
prised to find that Sisera fought on the
wrong side when his mother at the window
OF my text in that awful exigency had ber
chief thought on dry goods achievement and
eooioI JiCDloy- only how MANY