The Republican., 1900-08-23
The ChiIdIess Wife.

In the house where there are no
children. what are the holidays, with
all the joyous preparation that be-
longs to them in other houses; what
are birthdays, Sundays, storytelling
twilights, bedtimes; what the glad
morning hour? Surely it is dreary
place without the shouts and cries,
without the outside interests, inno-
cent, fresh, amusing, that children
force upon it; and that is a forlorn
woman who has none of the strange
ly wise questions to answer that chill
dren ask, none of the dear condolences
to receive, none of the happy excite
ment of training a young spirit as she
would train a flower, of shaping a
life, Of seeing herself perhaps repro
duced with the chance of correcting
and obviating her errors. The
mother with her baby on her knee,
showing him his first flower, his first
picture, watching his first hearing of
tune, his first rapture oyer bright
colors, over another child, the first
expression of his tenderness, will tell
you that there has been no interest
and no Joy in her life comparable to
this, and will wonder at you if you
smile, and will pity you if destiny
has left you without that experience
Even the mother who has lost her
child has an interest that is deep and
vital, and in way satisfying in fol-
lowing that child's spiritual growth
still with her thoughts. in feeling
that she is not without child nor is
the child motherless.
That there are women who look
with disinclination upon the idea of
bringing this great happiness into
their lives seems incredible. 1t means
to them the dropping of year out of
their active pleasures, out of dining,
driving dancing, bicycling, horse
back-riding; it puts bar to the
parading of possibly gorgeous toi-
lettes, limit for the time being, and
perhaps for time afterward, to So
cial gayeties. They are not afraid of
sickness and pain--very few women
fear pain excessively-butt they want
the pleasure of the passing moment,
and they do not want care and re-
sponsibility. They entirely forget
that much of the sanctity of marriage
depends upon the presence of chill
dren in the family; that health is
preserved by obedience to natural
laws; and that, if the purpose of the
universe is the gradual perfection of
the race, then they are contravening
the divine intension when barring
the extension of the race so far as
their power goes. A woman whose
husband is a drunkard or insane may
feel that she has no right to continue
that awful inheritage; a woman in
poverty may hesitate about a larger
family than she can clothe and
educate-very often the hesitation is
not on her side; such women anyway
are greatly to be commiserated. But
the unfortunately childless women
in better circumstances have no idea
of what they deprive Themselves
happiness to which no other pleasure
is comparable. They make for them
selves desert, middle life without
companionship, and an old age with
out love. And they rob themselves
in the heyday of their health and
strength of the embrace of little
arms, of the kisses on velvet cheeks,
the watching over dewy sleep, the
adoring worship of tender newborn
souls, the ineffable delight of loving
something infinitely better than they
love themselves Harper's Bazaar.
Beckman.
Nature is in all her glory after the
refreshing rain.