The record-union., 1898-04-02
NO APPEAL TO MAKE Fur PEACE.
A MOTHER WHOSE SON WENT
IN THE MAINE
Willing That Another Of Her Chill
dren Die to Save the Cubans
From the Fate Before Them.

CHICAGO, April 1.-Side by side in
| the Chicago Tribune" tomorrow Will
appear the letter from Mrs. Ellen Hen
rotin of this city, who, on behalf of
! the WOInen's clubs of the United States,
wrote to President Mckinley urging
HI to take the way that leads to peace,
and q statement Irom Mrs. Shilling
! ton mother of Harry Shillington, who
went down with the Maine.
| Mrs. ShilllDgton was shown Mrs.
! Henrotin's letter, and asked if she
! thought it spoke for all the mothers
of America. Mrs. Shillington could
Lot read any further than the line:
On US war will fall the heaviest, for
| we must give our sons"
| I've already given one of mine," she
said, my Harry. But with one boy
| buried in the mud of Havana harbor,
and another on board a United States
cruiser that may be the first to be
sunk in case CT war, 1 have no appeal
to make to the President for peace. 1
am a mother, and 1 have suffered as
perhaps not many of the mothers who
| have joined in Mrs. Henrotin's appear
have suffered. but 1 do not shrink at
the mention of war. We must think of
could have thought more of her boy
! than I did of the one who died on the
Maine.
But there are mothers in Cuba who
must be thought of-mothers who have
seen their little ones starve to death
by their sides. Their homes have been
destroyed and families sundered, and
men and women and children allowed
] tho fn MI n
| these things Of course, / know the
money interests of the country are en-
titled to a full share of consideration,
but 1 believe, too, in honor. believe
it, and l taught it to my children, and
| think they learned the lesson for the
officers of the Maine have written to
me that my Harry never swerved from
the strict line of his duty. He never
shran1 from what was right, and
neither will l, and 1 can give my other
! boy to my country, if need be, as l did
my oldest son.
Charlie sailed on the Government
cruiser Alliance to-day. His last letter
to me said that now he had but one
thought, and that was revenge. He is
only boy of II, and the death Of his
brother filled him with hatred for those
who caused it. / do not feel, of course,
the same about it as he does. l do not
feel any spirit of revenge. l only want
to see the honor of the country vindi-
Gated, so that my boy, who is sailor
| on board United States ship, can walk
the streets of a foreign city and feel
that the blue uniform he wears is re-
spected and that if he dies, his Govern
ment will demand atonement, and that
he is something more than the iron guns
or the plating on the side of the vessel
that an be left buried in the muddy bot
tom of harbor and forgotten.
Il have no criticism to make on the
women who have joined in Mrs. Hen
otin's petition. They want to be spared
the loss of their loved ones, and ] pray
| God that they may be. But he should let
them suffer as l nave suffered, If it is toi
! The sake of the dead and dying in Cuba;
/ if it is for the sake of our country a!ln
h,r flag and for the sake of the boys
who were killed on the Maine, l can only
| say to them, as 1 say to myself a hum
Gred and a tho usand times day. 1t had
| to be. it had to be. There was nc "thel
way" "