Pawtucket tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 1890-189?, 1895-05-03
HER HAPPIEST HOUR
PROMINENT AMERICAN WOMEN GIVE
THEIR VIEWS ON THE SUBJECT.


Actress IL Hsppiest - Motherhood tho
Key Ia Marion Hnriand's Happiness-An
Intsrssting Synopsis.
Tho question, "what IL tho happiost
timo In woman's lifci" was put by tho
Now York World TO IA number of dlstin-
guished women In widely different spheres
OF life. An interesting series of replies
was the result.
Most women Will agree with the answer
given by Mrs. Grover Cleveland, the wife
OF the president. She writes
Replies to your query must depend
largely upon each individual woman. Sho
who Is IA great artist and Whose whole be-
Ing Is absorbed by her art will find her
happiest time In tho practice of her art
She who aspircs to reign as n society queen
Will lind her happiest time when sho IL
generally recognized Us having made some
social success. She to whose character re-
Iigious enthusiasm Is the keynote will find
her happicst moments In devoting herself
TO church work, while the woman given
up to domesticity will find hers I'm the
duties and pleasures OF home. Thus the
happiest timo In each woman's life must
depend upon her personal traits and char
acteristics. FRANCES CLEVELAND.
Ada Rchan, tho well known actress,
gives the following answer:
The happiest timo I'm woman's life?
Well, II tho woman Is an actress, welded
to her art and devoted to it completely,
with all her heart and soul, 1t must be the
moment when she feels that she has
achieved the greatest artistic triumph of
which she Is capable; when, with the
plaudits and bravos OF a vast and critically
brilliant audience ringing In her cars, she
feels that she has accomplished the very
highest and noblcst in her art which ii Is
possible for her to accomplish and has per-
sonally realized hcr very highest ideal of
that art. ADA REHAN
Mrs. Margaret Bottome, the founder OF
the great order OF Kings Daughters, says:
There can be no happier time In the life
of woman than that on which she first
consecrates herself wholly and completely
to God and to his service, the timc when
she first realizes-that Is, actually feels and
not merely says or rcads--thOse words of
Paul, "For / am persuaded that neither
death nor life, neither angels nor princi-
palities nor powers, neither things present,
nor things TO come, neither height nor
depth, nor any other created thing, shall be
able to separate us from tho love of God,
which is In Christ Jesus, our Lord
MARGARET BoTToME.
In this fashion does Marion Harland,
the we'll known writer, express her views:
Nothing in this life can give a true,
good woman greater happiness, diviner
joy, than motherhood. When there Is
placed In her arms for the first time a bon
ny, bouncing baby boy or girl that is her
own, she feels that she Is indeed experience
ing tho greatest happiness of her life. To
clasp to her breast the little form SO recently
part OF her being; to feel nesting against
her the little red wrinkled check; to kiss
the baby lips from which she already hears
IN fancy that sweetest of all words to ma
terpal ears, "Mamma'-surely life has
nothing sweeter, more blessed for woman
than this. Then 1t Is she feels the full
force of the great poets words:
Look how he laughs and stretches out his arms
And opens wide his blue eyes upon thine.
Talk not of paini
The childless cherubs we'll might envy thee
The pleasures Of parent. Bless himl
AS yet he hath no words to thank thee, but
His heart will, and thine own too.
MARION HARLAND.
Mrs. Cushman X. Davis, wife of the
senior United States senator from Mime
sofa, writes:
/ should think the happiest time In
woman's life must be when she achieves
her greatest desire or ambition. AS wom-
ems desires and ambitions, like those of
men, are constantly changing, and as
when gratified they are Immediately re-
placed by others, all seemingly much more
worthy and much more craved than their
predecessors, 1t seems highly probable that
no woman can tell what is the happiest
time in her life. Real, true happiness, In
the highest, grandest sense Of that word,
is not vouchsafed to most of us in this
life. Pleasure and joy we may often feel,
but happiness In its highest, most blessed
form, seldom. Still we can always look
forward hopefully to the future remem-
bering that, as poor Ophelia says, "We
know what we are, but we know not what
1,a ~ CIcuMAN