The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-02-17

Isabel w. Ball, in washington Star.
\ celebrated writer has given 1T as
his opinion that the best time to peSh
the education of a child is at least one
hundred years before 1t is born. ms
is the all mbracing idea of what Is
going to be undertaken by the delegates
to the national congress OF mothers,
which copvenes in the Arlington hotel
on Wednesday, Feb II. If the IDEAS OF
the thoughtful, earnest women VINO
have worked with such untlaSging zeal
to convene this congress of mothers
could be embodied in one single sem
tence, it is probable that one quoted on
their program would cover the ground.
character cannot be talked into or
taught into a child; it must be llVed
into him."
Doctor Clara Bliss Finley, one of the
bright progressive Washington women,
Who is particularly interested in TINS
congress, believes implicitly in this the
)rv. And she thinks that what mothers
must have before they can become tit
led for the cares of motherhood is prac-
tical education for it's duties. 1t is as
good as a whole course of lectures on
hygiene and health to hear her dis
course on what mothers ought to know
about children" but it would scarcely
be safe to print all that she thinks the
most of them do not know, or, at least,
the Indifference they display in putting
the little knowledge they possess into
practice.
Il think sometimes that most mothers
look upon children that come to them
as an incident. or accident in their lives,
rather than part of Gods great plan
to people and improve the world" she
said, 'and till wives come to regard the
advent of children as the GROWING
glory of marriage, we cannot look tor
much improvement in the morals OF the
home, or place great faith in the StaDll-
ity of the government. Weak mothers
and degenerate fathers wrecked imper-
ial Rome when she ruled the world. The
same iniuences-immodera love of
wealth, ambition to shine as fashion s
arbiter, love of display the longing to
sway society, the greed for power in the
political world, the accumulation of
tremendous fortunes for self-aggrand-
i7ement--all these aided in the downfall
of Rome, and they might lead to the
downfall of our own grand republic If
the canker of worldlinesS We're permit
ted to eat into the hearts of our Ameri-
can men and women any deeper. We
don't want it to get to the point where
ii is perceptible, and so we propose to
begin in time. This first congress of
mothers is the first step in the grand
scheme. We are hopeful that out Of it
great good may come"
ORIGINATED IN WASHINGTON.
The inception of this movement was
evolved from the brain of a Washing
ID., tl,A
happy mother of nine children. 1t has
''widened with the process of the suns" ;"
till the whole world has been set talk
ing about it, Truly "a little child shall
lead them" when Europe wakens up
to send delegates to this congress, and
men of science all over the United
States rise up and tell these devoted
women that they have struck the key
note of heroism at last, and wish them
God speed For three months thou
sands of ministers have made this
mothers congress the text for innum-
cradle sermons. A paragraph from one
old pastor serves to show how deep the
plea for this congress has sunk into the
hearts of those who have lived long
enough to appreciate the good that
may come out of it. "How glad I am, -
says the writer "to have lived until
this day when such a convention as
you have set for February is possible
and prospectively a realization. Won
derful! l date from the days when
Samuel Adams. Thomas Jefferson and
Alexander Hamilton We're the great
persons and actors. ] was born before
the United States had any history
when 1t was not big enough to go out
doors alone and had to have bar OF
I
held America, even so much of what is
now our best, and cast her shadow sc
far over to our outer boundary that
the memory of our danger awakens g
gloomy and also a grateful emotion
Then the writer says that, if age die
not incapacitate him, he would be glaC
to "blaze out upon this glad occasion
In both sermons and prayer"
Letters of encouragement have poured
Into the offices of the committee by
the hundred from ministers and moth
ers, fathers, and many people who
are neither. The letters in themSelVe!
would be a magnificent symposium o
bright thought and suggestion if they
rould be printed, and would doubtless
hid many a struggling mother to bet
her light on the subject of child rear
Ing.
MRS. HEARST'S BENEVOLENCE.
This congress is unique in many ways
1t is little like Topsey,it just "growed,
and, like big snow ball, has gathered
substance in its travels, till it has gon,
beyond the widest hopes of the mother
who first thought of it. Mrs. Theodore
Birney, who is president, was calleC
away by the illness of her husband
tuSt when her dearest dreams of success
for lifelong project We're about to b.
realized, and the management of tn
enterprise had to be placed in othe
hands. Those hands happened to be
long to the first vice president, Mrs
Phoebe Hearst, whose name has grow
to be one to conjure with when philan
thropic deeds are to be done. Wit
great wealth at her command, Mrs
Hearsts sole idea of its value is to US
1t in making the world better and happi
er One day it is a musicale for he
society friends, the next it is in estab
fishing kindergarten for street waif,
Here it is a girl who has brains, bu
no money to cultivate them, and tomoT
row it is perhaps to be a youth VIII
has latent within him great inventiv
genius, and, like a patron saint Mr.!
Hearst gives him the Chance" tina
may one day make him famous. Thi
congress of mothers appealed to Mrs
Hearst at once, and the money that ha
made it go, has been given as freely a
though it grew on bushes, and she ha
but to pick it. The office of the bus
ness end of the congress is close to he
home, and she has been constantly cor
suited Without her material assist
ance IL never would have reached IN