The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1896-09-11

MOTHER GOOSE.
TuEFAMous OLD LADY REALLY LIVE

really real and truly true! To think
that this most immortal woman wri-
tiers has been left in sucl, ~obscurity,
when all the little luminarics have
been held up as torches in the land.
Talk Of the popularity of Harriet
Beecher Slows Uncle TOm,n why, 1t
does not compare for a moment with
the widespread knowledge OF that
book which bore upon its quaint title
page "Songs for the Nursery, or Moth.
er G0Ose's Melodies for Children"
printed by 7. Fleet, at his Printing
House, Pudding Lane, l719. Price,
Two Coppers.
But she really lived, did dear Moth.
or Goose, and she sung her wonderful
melodies to real live babies; sang
those immortal outbursts Of a merry
heart and a fanciful imaginat ion;
croOned those quaint lines OF humor
out OF an overlooking heart. Maybe
they grew out Of her own experience.
Maybe she really shrieked with laugh
ter over the chastiscmcnt Of Tom. the
piper's son, noted well the growing
conceit OF little Jack ITOrner, knew
the sad ending OF the three wise men
OF Gotham, who were her neighbers,
perchance. What a fanciful mind
must this Elizabeth Foster have had
to have conceived the singular advcn-
lures Of DR.. Foster, Of Chester, the
elopemcnt OF the disl, with the spoon,
and the activity OF the COW who
jumped over the moon.
Elizabeth Foster was the maiden
name OF this prank nf the MUSES..
She vas born in Charleston. Mass, in
1885, and there lived until she married
thrifty Isaac Goose, in 1892. and re-
moved to Boston. Isaac Goose came
OF a wealthy family who had once had
the strange name OF VertigoOse. They
were land-holders and people Of local
ren0wn, but 1t remained for quaint
little Elizabeth Foster to perpetuate
their name. Isaac Goose owned a
house IN the corner Of Temple place
and Washington street. BY the nurses
OF those who sat around the board
Olympian, that spot should be to-day
the site Of a publishing house of chill
dren's books, in order to satisfy the
eternal fitness Of things.
Elizabeth was stepmothcr to ten
little goslings, as Isaac Goose had
been married before, and In due time
six more were added to the brood. Is
1t any wonder, you mothers Of few
children to-day, that she tuned her
Tyre and sang:
''There was an old woman who lived In a shoe;
She had so many children she didn't know
what to dol"
Isaac Goose departed this life in
1910, and Ills Mother Goose's daugh-
ter Elizabeth married Thomas Fleet.
Thomas was a j%ourneyman printer,
and he recognized unknown literary
merit as oon as the wise Zangwill of
the present day. His first son was
the best bit Of luck with which for
tune had favored him. Dear old
Mother Goose, not yet weary OF
children, after all her experiences,
promptly moved Ove to live with
them as soon as little Master Fleet
appeared on the scene, and to him de.
voted her entire time and thought.
She made Thomas Fleets house in
Pudding lane her house; and to young
Thomas she sang, those wonderful
conceits which, in past days, had Sc
delighted her own children. Mr. Fleet
at first rather resented the constant
presence OF the mother-in-law ele
ment, and in caustIc terms denounced
her and her rhymes as nonsense
and the woman herself as ian old
fOOl.n AS, at this time, she was bare
ly 81 years old, women OF that age
nowadays should consider their priv
ileges. They are quite young and al
lowed some frankness.
She loved to wander upstairs, down
stairs, singing here, there and every
where. Finally Thomas Fleet could
stand it nc longer, and he was about
to do some desperate deed when the
practical idea OF publishing the alb.
surd rhymes Of his mothcr.ln-law &C.
CURED to him. Odds hobs, he had
nearly killed his goose which could
lay golden eggs. He followed the old
lady about after that, as a regular
business, and wrote down her rhy mes,
collected enough for a volume and had
them printed and bound. 1t was the
hit Of the season.
Ungrateful T. Fleet. The title page
bore, as 1t still does, the cut Of an old
goose, with long, outstretched neck
and mouth wide open. Which shows
his base ingratitude. THE son-in-law
waxed rich on Mother GoOse's fame,
and she, never knowing her true place
10 literature, sang on happily over all
the little Fleets that arrived.
This most popular Of all American
women poets lived to the ripe age Of
% years. One hundred and seventy.
0nc years ago her first volume of po-
ems was first published. Its shadow
will never grow less. For 1t the mind
always has out the latch.string. For
its conceits there Is ever the smile.
II. there is an American classic, one
that never will be ontlived, 1t is the
collection Of poems, verses, nonsense,
what you will, that had its birth 10
the mind Of Elizabeth Foster Goose.