San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-10-04
MOTHERHOOD, A PROFESSION.

%'AO LAlL<hllOolg, y iNOI LA,hchO~N
The discourse of week ago, pure
~ preliminary to this of this morn
ing, accepted the fact of special pre-
paration for special work as one, OF
the distinctive features of this pres
ent. A profession is more than EN-
ployment. 1t is that to which trained
powers are devoted, that for which
special preparation has been made land
which requires some marked native
adaptation before it is undertaken as
a life work. If this is true of the So
called learned professions, law, medi-
cine, divinity, civil engineering, etc,
it is doubly so of motherhood. 1t is
just as true that no one is fit for moth
erhood until trained therefor, as that
no one is fit to practice medicine or
law or engineering without due and
special preparation, superimposed up
on some natural and recognized adap-
liability for the particular profession
chosen.
= The recklessness, with which ignO-
rant, and no less innocent than igno-
rant, young womanhOOd takes to itself
the duties of wifehood and mother
hood is one of the maryels of this
wonderful age. Not that it has not
always been so, but the demands of
this age are larger, and the knowledge
of this age is broadened and deepened,
and the conscience of this age is
quickened as that of no other age has
been, and as consequence more is
expected of the people of this pres
ent age than of any former one. And
it Is because this expectation is not
met in the lives of motherhood to be
any more than in that of the mother
hood that is that the attention of the
Light congregation is called TO this
evil. ~
1t is takeD/ altogether too much for
granted that the young girl is destined
by nature ito be a wife and in time a
mother, sfhd th-YfOre nature has TAX
en- rne work ind her own hands and
wisely and well endowed the girlhood
of the race for the womanhood that
is her destiny, and the wifehood and
the motherhood into which she is
probably growing. That naturally
the girl will grow into the woman is
not denied, but into what kind of a
woman? That this woman is more
than likely to gravitate to some mans
side and become wife, is also within
the range of the greater probabilities,
but What kind of a wife? 1t is also
true that out of this conjugal relation
comes the pain and pleasure of moth
erhood, but what kind of motherhood?
All that this teaches is that mother
hood is largely the universal condition
of the grown girlhoOd of the race
1t does not even suggest the faintest
idea of that special preparation
through which alone the development
into wifehood and motherhood can be
successfully accomplished. One would
think that in view of the fact thai
women, are destined to be the mothers
of sons and daughters who will beal
the image of that motherhood in every
fibre of their young natures, it is o.
the first concern that all connected
with such motherhood should be wise
.ly taught and nationally understood
Not only is such not the case but il
the majority Of cases the utmost car
is taken to keep the young developing
girl absolutely ignorant of every par
ticle of knowledge upon this subject
That this is so is notorious. In onl
a very few of the more intelligen
homes of this advanced land are tn
young girls, that are growing into thei
womanly inheritance of affectional
feeling and desire, taught anythin
concerning that wonderful chang
that marks the transition from cir
hood to womanhOOd. and all that it
destined to lead to in their future q
wife and mother. Mothers then
selves, burdened all their lives on a,
count of the ignorance that ushere
them into their own relations, a
mothers, seem not to care that TIL
same burden of ignorance is entaile
upon their daughters. This also
one of the inexplicable things of lii
and must be referred to that falls
idea OF what is pure and what is in
modest that so wOefully distorts IA,
3hd puts premium upon blindne'
TO natural condition.
How many mothers are there in Il
Light congregation who before the
entered upon their lives as wives u
derstood what their destiny as moth,
was to be? How many of them ha
any real conception of the awful inhe
itance that they We're necessitated
entail upon their children? An inhe
itance of physical, mental, moral, spi
itual being and character that cou
not be thrown off, but must continl
TO stamp the nature of those childr,
as long as they continued to liy
whether that life is to be bounded
this present consciousness or NJ
How many of these mothers, had tn
known this, would have elected
bring their children into the wo1
without any more preparation for I'll