The San Francisco call., 1896-05-10

these days women forget the wonderful
bond that little child is. What foolish
women they are A husband may be led
astray, may sin grievously. but if he can
ask his pardon through the eyes of little
child where is the wife who would not
grant it to him? A wife may seem foolish.
a bit tiresome, and sometimes even silly,
but if her love for her husband Gsps itself
in the voices of little children her weak
nesses will be forgotten and only her yir-
tue remembered. And yet there are
women who do not care to be mothers!
In those days of old, women may have
been-if such thing is possible-overreli-
gious. And such thing is possible-in a
way. The hot Sunday dinner was un-
known and children wept over the cate
chlsm and went to sleep and were wakened
up to hear the clergyman preach about the
horrors of hell and the certainty of small
boys and small girls getting there, but
somehow it made a good backbone in men
and women, did that queer religious treat
ment. [ have known what it was to sit
upon bench, that was uncushioned, at O
silent meeting; no preaching against hell
ever equaled that. For that meant two
hours of absolute silence ending in a sigh
of relief, when the older Quakers, who sat
up and faced everybody, shook hands.
During that time there came before me, as
no preacher could have painted it,
the sins | had committed. / remem-
bered kicking Ned, the dog; I re-
membered sticking out my tongue
at Henry Clay, the canary bird, and / re-
membered, worst of all. that when l was
sent up to the bathroom one day and told
to wash my face and hands thoroughly,
| only gave them what in my Southern
home would be called "a lick and a prom
ise." tell you, my friend, that a still
meeting of two hours will convince sem
sitlye child that it stands before God on
par with Judas and Ananias. But this
never hurt me. In fact, l think l always
felt better, and as | frisked home, hang
ing to my grandfather's hand, l would
nod at father Gibbons and stretch my
mouth very wide to show that my sec-
ond teeth were all quite in. But those
days are only after all little while ago.
They seem like yesterday to me. Here is
a question for the very learned people
why is it that we forget the wonderful
things that happened month ago and
remember SO perfectly everything that
happened twenty-five years ago? The
Y rays cannot explain that.
70 be quite honest. | have very little
helief IN the X rays. What good will it
do some girl who is horribly unhappy,
inasmuch as she feels she is to be victim
to consumption, to have an x ray thrown
on her and make the doubt q certainty?
Yes, my friend, am believer in hope. 1t
is an old-fashioned belief, but then | am a
bit old-fashioned and have a leaning even
toward Judas, fully believing that
While the lamp holds out to burn
The vilest sinner may return.
In the days of old, women who did not
believe were unknown. Nowadays we
may have eleverer women-I doubt it.
But in those days little children hung
around their mothers knees and learned
10 say their prayers, and, later on, when
they were big children and the sorrows
of life came to them they returned to that
mother and wept out on her heart the
griefs that they could not tell. Bah.