Democratic messenger., 1894-01-20


first To hear every case of perplexity.
but she is the judge in every court of
domestic appeal. That is what puts
the premature wrinkles on so many ma
ternal faces and powders white So many
maternal forehcads. You sce. il is a
question that keeps on for all the years
of childhood. II comes from the nur-
sery, and from the evening stand where
the boys and girls are learning their
school lesson. and from the starting out
in the morning. when the tippet ar hat
or slate or book or ovrrshoe is lost. un-
til at night, all out of breath. the young
sters come in and shout until You can
hear them from cellar to garrct and
from front door to the back fence If tho
back yard. Where's mother" In
deed II child's life is so iuli of that
question that if he he taken away ono
of the things that the mother most
misses and the silence that most op-
presses her is the absence of that qucs-
tion, which she will never hear on earth
again. except she hears it in dream
which sometimes restores the nursery
just as il was. and then the voice comes
back so natural. and So sweet. and So in
nocent. and so inquiiing that the dream
breaks at The words. Where's mother"
II that question We're put to most If
us this morning. we would have to say,
if we spoke trnthfully, like Sisera s
mother. she is at the palace window.
She has become queen unto God for
ever, and she is pulling back the rich
folds of the kings upholstery to look
down at us. We are not told the par
ticulars about the residence Of Sis
era's mother. but there is in that scene
in the book of Judges SO much about
embroidcries and nccdlework and ladies
i'm waiting that we know her residence
must have been princely and palatiaI.
So we have no minute and particular
description If the palace at whose win
dow our glorified mother sits. but there
is SO much i'm the closing chapters If
the good old book about crowns, and
pearls big enough to make gate ont of
one Of them. new songs and marriage
suppers. and harps. and white horses
with kings in the stirrups. and golden
candlesticks that we know the heaven
ly residence of our mother is superb, is
unique. IL colonnaded. is domcd, is en-
powered. is fountained. IL glorified he
yond the power of pencil or pen or
tongue to- present. and in the window Of
that palace the mother sits watching
for news from the battle. What a con
trast between that celestial surrounding
and her once earthly surroundings!
the old time way. with hut little or no
hired help. except perhaps for the wash
ing day ar for the swine slaughtering.
commonly called the killing day"
OLD FASHIONED MOTHERS
There was then no reading Of elabo-
rate treatises on the hest modes of rear
ing children. and then leaving il all tc
hired help. with one or two visits n lay
to the nursery to See il the principles
announced are being carried out. The
most IF those old folks did the sewing.
the washing. the mcnding. the darn
ing. the patching. the millinery, the
mantua making. the housekeeping. and
the hay or tread down the load in the
NOW. They were at the same time ca
terers. tailors. doctors. chaplains and
nurses for whole household all togeth-
er down with measles or scarlet fever.
or round the house with whooping
coughs and groups and runround fin
gers and carachcs and all the infantile
distempers which at some time swoop
upon every large household. Some of
those mothers never got rested in this
world. Instead of In" self rocking era
dies of our day. winch. wound up. will
60 hour after hour for the solace of the
young slumberer. il was weary foot on
tho rocker sometimes half the day or
half the night ~ rock rock rock -
rock. Instead Of our drug stores filled
with all the wonders of materia med
lea and called up through telephone.
with them the only apothecary short of
four miles ride was the garret. with
its punches of peppermint and penny
royal and catnip and mustard and cam
omiIe flowers. which We're expected to
do everything. Just think Of it. Fifty
years Of preparing breakfast. dinner
and supper. The chief music they
heard was that Of spinning wheel and
rocking chair. Tagged out. hcadachy
and with ankles swollen. Those old
fashioned mothers any persons ever
fitted appropriately into good. easy,
comfortable heaven. they were the
folks. and they got there. and they are
rested. They wear no spectacles. tor
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 en-
erald stairs of the Eternal palace. at
whose window they now sit waiting for
news from the battle.
But il any one keeps on asking the
question Where mother" | answer.
She is in your present character. The
probability is that your physical fea-
lures suggest her. II there he seven
children in household at least six of
them look like their mother. and the
older you get the more you will look
like her. But speak now especially
of your character and not of your looks.
This is easily explained. During the
first 10 years of your life You were al
most 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
10. Then and there is the impression
made for virtue or vice. for truth or
falschond, for bravery or cowardicc, for
religion or skepticism. Suddenly start
out from behind u door and frighten
the child. and you may shatter his nerv-
ous system for lifetime. During the
first 10 years you can tell him enough
spook stories TO make him coward till
he dies. Act before him as though Fri
day were an unlucky day, and it were
baleful to have i3 nt the table, or see
the moon over the left shoulder. and he
will never recover from the idiotic su-
lao. Ia. 4, IS