The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1896-03-04
To BE q True Mother.

Motherhood, as it was once understood,
has gone out Of fashion. The prevailing
mode of motherhood is about as "airy,
fairy" and unsubstautial u thing as the
butterfly wings made of gausl and wire
that are now called bonnets They are
supposed to be ornamental and are in
tended to show off rather than conceal the
hair. So the present fashions in mother
hood are intended to accentuate and make
more conspicuous the woman and her per.
sonal attractveness. That merging of her
individuality in home duties that made in
the past home and mother" such won
derful words is out of date. In the flippant
slang of the hour it is ga lapsed reminis-
cence." Woman no longer "merges her
individuality in the home.
If she does any merging she "merges'' in
club and whether or not she knows
when to use the nominative and when to
use the objective case she goes into print
We all have our proper sphere below, "
and "a sweet faced woman presiding over
well ordered home is thing of beauty
and joy forever" Some women are born
to newspapers, some have newspapers
thrust upon them, and some achieve news
papers All are equally unfortunate The
combination woman and newspaper Is
tragedy, but tie world is fun of unwritten
tragedies. Certain birds do not sing until
their eyes are put out, and no woman
wr..VS well until the lights are out and
tic v.uiain is down OF her life's little play
of love and hope She is then no longer a
Wo.nn She is a performer. If the spec.
tat..' applaud, do not envy her the cheap
ad,f,.ust hunors that come from her flying
lea ON saLioring horses
An9 "sWeut faced woman" darning
Il.
happy remembrance or the evening meal
u T. ,Iul compensation for daily toll, Is the
womun to envy. She it is for whom the
sun shines and the birds sing and the wild
flowers write their messages of love and
peace on the highways.
If you want to grow green with envy
over anybody success in life" or salts.
flying experience, she is the woman for
you to hunt out and see if you cannot
"pick to pieces, - for she has more peace,
more enjoyment and more solid respect
in one hour of her symmetrical and well
ordered life than all the trapeze performers
in existence ever imagined.
Like the distant roar of oncoming waves,
whose resistless force threatens to sweep
everything before them, hear the voices
of the women who sniff at "sweet faced
nonentities' and tell me that great men
have great mothers and that women
must do and be and suffer" if their sons
are to be other than mere eating and
drinking and smoking animals. 1 agree
with them. / reverence the strength and
courage and intellect of these women who
are leading the van in the onward march
of progress. My point is this and only
this-that all tragedy comes from misdi
rected effort, wasted or perverted force
nnintantipna1 criuna r,,ic nd
ness and misfit virtues. Great men must
have great mothers-tbat is, great moth.
erhood to brood over and help and develop
them. Motherhood must be not only
theory of excellence, but a condition OF
actual seryitude. Motherhood is not in
tended merely Us u furbelow to be ignored
or paraded. In broad sense it may be
interesting" In "a narrow and everyday
life of detail it is filled with inconven.
fences, annoyances and self sacrifices that
are incessant and imperative
The more intelligent these sacrifices OF
self the more speedy and abundant will be
the reward In her children the mother
lives again, and her mistakes of training,
though they We're made spurred by mid.
night prayer, will come back terrible and
memorable. If she sowed her little field
with dragons teeth of pride worldly
mindedness, hypocrisy and secret selfish.
ness and fancied she sowed only the pure
grain of high aspiration, reasonable con.
formity and the enjoned wisdom of the
serpent" none the less will her dragons
teeth bring forth the tabled devastating
army of warriors
AS she has taught her children pride
either consciously or unconsciously-so has
she taught them heartlessness As she
has instilled worldly mindedness, so has
she destroyed a certain sane, sweet self re-
lance that does not dodge shadows mol
disdain humble and necessary usefulness.
AS in her timidity she has feared the world
and taught her children what she fancied
innocent arts of self defense, so has she
taught them vulgar self assertion, offensive
insistenco upon their own rights OF
claims, and a narrow self seeking, fatal
to all grace of manner or nobility of char.
acter
The one thing needful is character
Books may help it. The proper education
may modify 1t. Society, even in its mar.
rowest and most conventional sense, may
be useful in pruning the wild shoots of ar.
rogance and inartistio expression of crude
thought and feeling, and many other
things may contribute toward forming
the character that brings and enjoys hap.
piness. Yet all these things are but agen.
cies that the mother must use to make the
children take an honorable place in the
world and be in their own home the "be.
ings beauteOus, " whose presence is bless.
edness, whose breath is health, whose
touch will heal the many woes the wretch.
ed feel.
1t is science. 1t is an art. 1t is the
work of n lifetime. 1t is the condition of
all joy, this intelligent motherhood. Let
us think what it means, and let us try to
teach it--not merely in wild leaps of fren.
zied effort but in patient and painstaking
purpose. Let us study details. Agnes
Leonard Hill in Chicago Tribune.
THE most perfect echo in the world
Ia aaid 10 hn that at Shinlau in SnssaX-