The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-07-11

to border upon impertinence; or if the
answering look is not one of indignation,
it will in nineteen cases out of twenty
SAVIOR of surprise. Some things in life
we know, and many more things we take
for granted, and that every mother
knows and understands her own child
better than anybody else possibly can, is
one Of the things taken for granted and
one popularity of the human mind is
that the things taken for granted are,
almost without exception, agreeable
things. Nothing hurts a mothers self
love more than to feel herself insecure
in the love Of those on whose affection
che has rightful claim.
Recently mother, in speaking of her
grown son, youth just home from col
lege, said in his presence with an air of
entire assurance, "Well, cannot under
sand boys deceiving their mothers. My
boy never yet told me lie. and al
ways knew where he was and what he
was doing" Few of the ladies present
saw the quick color mount to the young
mans face, and fewer heard his aside to
the young man-one OF his chums-who
was his guest at dinner and sat near
him at table, but that aside was, "Poor
old lady! she doesn't know everything.
does she? and she's good deal happier
than she would be if she did,
II should never think of telling mo-
ther," said one young girl to another in
the confidence of a morning tete a. tete,
into which came the discussion of the
triumphs and contretemps of the last
nights party "She would never under
Stand in the least, you know, why l
should have said to him what l did, or
have allowed him to say to me what he
did. Mothers look at all those things SO
differently, you know" And yet this
particular mother was one of the most
faithful of chaperones. and sat patiently
throughout the dances. and in moro than
one instance confidsd T. another mother
that her daughter told her every thing
and If it was not for the conventionality
that required it. she could be trusted to
go everywhere by herself;" and the
things she did not tell her mother, but
did contide to another young woman, in
cluded an appointment to meet at the
house of her friend young gentleman
against whom both father and mother
had warned her, as not at all the sort of
acquaintance whom they would like to
have her receive.
Nor am |, in stating these two Incl
dents-absolute facts in each case
speaking of an exceptionally bad young
man or young woman, but simply show.
ing that in their choice of pleasures and
their cultivation of that which made life
attractive, they had acted and were act
ing not only with entire independence of
the views of the mother, but leaving her
in absolute ignorance of their own
thoughts, feelings and pursuits. The
two cases mentioned belong to what we
call "our best society,"" were in what we
term ''good families" of social standing,
prominent church relations. people who
had given their young people the best
opportunities for education, and supplied
them with the freedom of action that
comes from the liberal use of wealth. In
both cases there were the pleasant home,
the constant going and coming of charm
ing friends, old and young, the frequent
entertainments and every outward indi-
cation of oneness Of family feeling. And
yet the real boy, as he was to his COM
panions, and the real girl, as she was to
her intimates, were to great extent
strangers to the mothers who flattered
themselves that they knew about their
children all that was to be known, and
more than anybody else could know.
At just this point hear some one ask,
"Well, what is the special harm of it?"
That is the way of the world. 1t looks
onward and never backward The youth
of the world must have its own exper-
ience, is finding pleasure in the present,
and it is quite natural that it should be
conscious of lack of sympathy in the
generation just before it.
And yet that generation just before it
embodies in its parent hood all that is
best that the young life has known
the tender care of infancy, the devo-
tion and affection so dear to childhood
all the hard labor and sacrifice that
make possible the pleasures of youth;
all the struggle of the manhood and
womanhood of the parents centering
largely in the future welfare of the
child. All the highest self sacrifice and
the best devotion that the life will ever
know lies just therein this past, to which
the young decline to look. and which to
quite too great an extent they ignore.
One harm of it lies in the injustice
and hurt to the fatherly and motherly
affection, which usually expends itself
without stint; but the chief harm lies in
the deterioration of character that in.
comes when life takes upon it
any phase of deceit. 1t is a very old. |
fashioned thing to say-and it has been
said great many times oyer-that the
child's life, whether of little child or
one of older years, begins to decline in