The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-06-27
American Mothers.


cred girl in the world might conceive
an unwise passion, but the maternal
instincts, if properly alert would be
aware of it, and the maternal sympa-
thy and sOlicitude would avert it's Gull
minating in a tragedy.
L confess that a good, strong sent1-
| ment of disgust mingles with nv pity
when read Of some distressed mother
OF an erring daughter who declares
| that she was not aware that her
| daughter even had an admirer.
| ny do parents so quickly forget
their own youth? 1t is incredible that
the sweetest and most romantic part of
life should fade from memory so wholly
as 1t seems to do with the majority Of
married people. 1t is because the pas
| sion Of youth in a sort Of intoXication
| which, like the drunkenness Of wine.
| blurs the memory.
have observed that it is not infre-
| quent for men who have sowed a full
| crop OF wild oats to show both amaze
ment and indignation when a daughter
! even indicates a propensity to admire
| the opposite sex. Yet the laws of ma
ture are constantly proving that daugh-
| tiers more frequently than sons resem-
I bic their fathers. One would think
| that a man who had passed through
the Whlrlwinds Of passionate youth
might consider it a sacred duty to care
| fully guide and tenderly protect his
| children through a similar period, not
| by keeping them under lock and kew.
! but by giving them well chosen associ-
! ates and talking with them freely and
wisely regarding these associations.
| Really, the American fathers and
| mothers are dron beings. One would
md them very. amusing were it not
! that the farce they play so often ends
| in a ragedy
| L met beautiful and highly cultured
young woman not many years ago who
impressed me as girl with a secret
d, OF history She lived alone with
! her' mother, who confessed to me that
Marie had always been a strange girl
! who was hard to understand She
| fancied she had passed through some
! love affair while at school which had
| prematurely saddened her, though she
| had never mentioned it."
One day [ invited the young lady to
| dine with me. [ was quite alone when
she came. Before she had been fifteen
minutes in my warm rooms I discover
| ed that she was too intoxicated to sit
| up. Several hours passed ere she re-
| covered her senses sufficiently to tell
me her history. A kind hearted but
unWise old lady where she boarded
| while at school taught her to take a
hot whisky today when very tired
with her studies. She had acquired the
| taste for intoxicants, and the habit had
| become a fixed one.
| Il think mamma suspects that I take
! stimulants at times" she said, but
| she has never spoken of it to me, and
have never had the courage to tell
| her about it or to ask her to help me
| to overcome the habit"
| The girl made me promise solemnIy
/ not to tell her mother of the occurrence
in my rooms, as it would unnecessarily
mortify her. L gave the promise only
| after the girl gave me her oath not to
| touch stimulants again. l lost sight
| Of her for nearly a year Then she
drifted across my path again, a ruined,
| desperate creature, crushed with the
most awful tragedy that can come into
! a young Womans life-a tragedy di-
rectly due to her habit of using slim
| ulants. Of course, l was sorry for the
| mother. And yet is pity due mother
who could live under the same roof for
| two or three years with a daughter who
was a victim Of drink without suspect
ing it, or, if she suspected, who felt the
matter was too delicate a one to men
| ton?
Another young girl whom l knew fell
i'll Of a terrible complication of liver
maladies.
How could you let your daughter
get into such a state?" asked the ply
sician of the mother.
Really, DOCTOR the mother replied
with great dignity, Il brought up my
| daughter to be too modest to talk to
any one-even to me-of stomachs, liv-
ers and digestive organs"
| So the daughter died, but the modesty
of the family was sustained.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox