Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1895-11-29

the world was created, while the invalidism
which has so often characterized woman
hood will pass over to manhood. which ny
its posture on the wheel is coming to curved
spine and cramped chest and defOrmity for
which ano'her fifty years will not have pow
er to make rescue. Young man, sit up
straight when you ride.
Darwin says the human race is descended
from the monkey, but the bicycle will turn q
hundred thousand men Of the present gener-
alton in physical condition from man to
monkey. For good womanhood, I thank
God that this mode of recreation mas been
invented. Use it wisely, modestly, Chris
tiauIy No good woman needs to be told
what attire is proper aud what behavior is
right. If anything be doubtful reject it. A
hoydenish. boisterous. masculine woman is
the detestaton of all, and every revolution
of the wheel she rides is toward depreciation
and downfall. Take care OF your health. o
woman: of your nerves in not reading the
trash which makes UP ninety-nine out OF lOJ
novels, or by eating too many cornucopias OF
confectionery! Take care OF your eyes by
not reading at hours when you ought to be
sleeping, Take care of your ears by stop
ping them against the tides OF gossip that
surge through every neighborhood.
HEALTH Only those know its value who
have lost it. The earth is girdled with pain,
and vast proportion Of it is the price paid
for early recxlessness. L close this thought
with the salutaton in Macbeth:
Now good digestion wait on appetite
And health on both.
Advice the third: Appreciate your mother
while YOU have her. 1t is the almost uni
versal testimony Of young women who have
lost mother that they did not realize what
she was to them until after her exit from
this life. Indeed mother is in the apprecia-
ton Of many a young lady a hindrance. The
maternal inspection is often considered an
obstacle Mother has so many notions about
that which is proper and that which is i'm
proper 1t is astounding how much more
manv girls know at eigh cen than their
mothers at forty-hve. With what an elabe-
rate argument, perhaps spiced with some
temper, the youngling tries to reverse the
opinion of the oldlin9. The sprinkle of gray
on the maternal forehead is rather an indi-
cation to the recent graduate OF the female
seminary that the circumstances OF to-day or
tonight are not fully appreciated.
What wise boarding school that would
be if the mothers were the pupils and the
daughters the teachers! How we'll the teens
could chaperon the fftes! Then mothers
do not amount to much anyhow. They are
in the way and are always asking questions
about postage marks Of letters. and asking,
''Who is that Mary Dr." and "Where did you
form that acquaintance, Flora?" and "Where
did you get that ring Myra?" For mothers
have such unDrece Tented means of knowing
everything-they say sit was birl in the
air" that told them. Alas. for that bird in
the air Will not soma one lift his gun and
shoot It? 1t would take whole libraries to
hold the wisdom which the daughter knows
more than her mother. "Why cannot /
have this?' "Why cannot do that?" And
the question In many a group has been, al
though not plainly stated "What shall we
do with the mothers. anyhow? They are
SO far behini thu times" Permit
me TO suggest that if tbs mother
bad given more time to looking after herself
and less time to looking after you she would
bavs been as fully up TO date as you, in
music, in style Of gait in aesthetic tastes and
in all sorts OF information. l expect that
while you ware studying botany and chem
stry and embroidery and the new opera she
was studying household economics. But one
day from overwOrk, or sitting up Of nights
with a neighbor's sick child. or n bl1st of the
west wind, on which pneumOnias are hOrsed,
mother is sick. Yet the family think she
will soon Le we'll, for she has been sick SO
often and always has got well. and the ply
sician comes three times day, and there is
n consultation Of the doctors, and the news
is gradually broken that recovery is impossi-
BILE. given in the words "While, there is life
there is hope" Aud the white pillow over
which are strewn the locks little tinted with
snow becomes the point around which all
the family gather. some standing, some
kneeling. and the pulse beats the last thrOo,
AMI the bosom trembles with the last breath.
and the question is asked in II whisper by
all the group "Is she gomez" And all is
over.
Now come the regrets. Now the daughter
reviews her former criticism OF maternal su-
peryi3oD. For the first time she realizes
what it is to have a mother and what 1t is to
lose a mother Tell me, men and women,
young and old. did any of us appreciate how
much mother was to us until she was gone?
Young wou'an. you will probably never have
more disinterested friend than your moth
er. When she says anything is unsafe or inn
prudent. you had better believe it is unsafe
or imprudent. When she declares 1t Is
something you ought to do. think you had
better do it. She has seen more OF the
world than you have. Do you think she
could have any mercenary or contemplate
motive in what she ADVISES you? She would
give her life for you it it were called for. Do
YOU know of anyone else who would do
more than that for you? Do you know of
anyone who would do as much? Again
and again she has already endangered
that life during six weeks OF
diphtheria OF scarlet fever. AMI she never
Once brou ght up toe question OF whether she
bad better stay, breathing day and night the
contagion The graveyards are full OF moth
ers who died taking care of their children.
Better appreciate your mother before your
appreciation of her will be no kindness to
her, and Che post mortem regrets will be
more and more Of an agony as the years pass
on Big headstones Of polished Aberdeen,
and the best epitaphs which the family put
together and COMPOSE and a garland OF
whitest roses from the conservatory are often
the attempt to atone for the thanks we
ought to have uttered in living ears, and the
kind words that would have done more good
than all the caIla lilies ever piled up on the
silent mounds of the cemeteries.
The world makes applauditory ado over
the work of mothers who have raised boys
10 be great men. and l could turn to my
bookshelves and find the names Of fifty dis
tinguished men who had great mothers
Cuver's mother, Walter Scott's mother, st.
Bsrnard's mother, Benjamin Vests mother.
But who praises mothers for what they do
for daughters who make the homes Of Amer
lea? do not know Of an instance OF such
recognition. declare to you that believe
am uttering the first worl that has ever
been uttered in appreciation OF the self
denial Of the fatigues and good sense
and prayers which those mothers
90 through who navigate a family Of
girls from the edge OF the cradle TO the
schoolhouse door. and from the schoolhouse
door up to the marriage altar. That is an
achievement which the eternal God cee-
brates high upin the heavens, though for it
human hands 50 seldom ap the faintest ap-
plause. My! Nv What Il tins that mother
had with those youngsters. and If she mad
relaxed care and work and advice aud solic-
itation ofheavenly help. that next genera
t;on ,,ouId hava landed in the DOOrhOuSe