Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1897-11-11

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H nGAD u pkosby 6cA-
e tence in little French
n story the other day,
woman is the win
dow through which
/" man sees life !"
NJ Nothing could be
~ truer. I have observed
that sons and hus-
bands regard the world very much as
their mothers and wives regard it. They
see first with the mothers eyes, after
ward with the wife's. have known
hopeful, happy men to become despond-
ent pessimists after marriage, and vice
versa. This is fact which it would be
well for women to mediate upon. The
girl who is at all uncertain of her yoca-
tion in life might use her time to excel
lent advantage by polishing up the win
dows Of her mind and keeping them free
from dust and cobwebs and frost for the
benefit of future husband and son who
will see life through them. If the hus-
band and son never appear, the labor is
not lost. If they do appear, the benefit
which she is bestowing on the world
may prove far beyond her imaginings.
Women nowadays regard themselves
of far too great Importance in every
way except the right way.
Their real Importance in the scheme
of the universe they seem to ignore.
Recently ! heard pretty, pampered
young wife whose husband gives her
everything which love and money can
furnish declare her ambition to "put
men down, as she expressed it, on
general principles. "They get the best
of everything, she said, "and would
like to see them suffer little more
Our baby has never kept us awake a
night yet, and sometimes / wish he
would just to give my husband little
Of the trouble Of bringing up child.
He is away all day and never sees any
of my trials with it, and SO think he
ought to be worried nights. Men have
altogether the best of things Well,
yes, men have the best of things when
they have agreeable. faithful and sensi-
Bile wives, and only then. Young,
wealthy and popular as this husband Is,
1t does not strike me that he has "the
best of things. would not like to
look at life through the window Of that
wife's mind.
There is nothing else on earth SO de-
hghtful as an agreeable and optimistic
woman. I wonder more young girls do
not choose to develop themselves along
those lines. believe the 'samiable wo-
man" went out Of fashion some years
ago and was put away with crinoline
and other old styles. She was supposed
to be devoid of spirit. But there never
was greater mistake. Real amiability
springs from spiritual repose and men
tai refinement and often accompanies
the highest intellectual qualities Wo-
men give the atmosphere to home and
are windows for it's occupants OF
either sex.
remember period Of my life when
I was obliged to associate with some in
tellectual women who despised the
word amiable.'' = They gloried In their
own aggressive qualities and in what
each deemed her positive individuality.
recall my experience with these
people as one recalls a painful dream.
It seems to me viewed life through
clouded windows while in their atmos-
phere never think of the association
without remembering heart bruises.
In recompense life has since given me
companionship with two adorably ami
able women. One of them has recently
passed on to new phase of existence
God rest her sweet soul She lived IS
years to prove herself a benediction to
every life which even temporarily
touched her own. She was q fragrant
flower in the garden of girlhood. AS o
wife she transformed respondent, rest
less and discontented man into an agree
able and optimistic husband. Children
who were nervous inyalids she gave
cheerful views of life and caused them
to laugh themselves into good health
Even with poverty and sickness in her
home the house was haven of rest and
peace to enter, SO permeated was it with
her beautiful spirit. She had sympathy
and affection for every one who appealed
to her, no matter how burdened with
her own cares. I regard her as the
greatest woman have ever known.
A little foreign widow who speaks
our language imperfectly and who is
working hard to educate four children
dependent upon her expressed great as
tonishment the other day to learn that
any educated or brainy people were re-
ligious. She said she had come to the
belief that religion was merely ignorant
superstition and that education was the
only divine power in existence.
confess could not help feeling
greater pity for the woman on account
of her views on this subject than for
her loneliness in strange land.
There is always something shocking
to me in an absolutely irreligious wom-
an. Faith belongs to a woman as nat
urally as skirts. An atheistical woman
in bloomers is the acme of the inartistic.
All the education this poor little
mother can bestow upon her children
can never recompense them for what
they are losing in spiritual training, for
the spirit needs its methods and time
for practice quite as much as the mind
or body.
/ think child who learns the princi-
pies of spiritual concentration is better
equipped for the battles Of life, even
without education, than the most learn
ed materialist. He who learns how to
look into his own spirit and finds It's
close connection with deity will obtain
more useful wisdom than the greatest
bookworm who ever lived and believed
only in human intellect.
It is the mother who should be the
first spiritual teacher. She need not
necessarily teach her child creeds, but
let her train the young mind tendril to
cling about something greater than hu-
man intellect if she wants to confer .
lasting benefit upon it.
The need Of the day is religion
whose cornerstone is kindness to all
created things. Nothing more horrible