The Washington weekly post., 1900-11-27

| Testament TO q poor dying man Let All
tn, gadahOuts for happiness know that In
kif duess and usefulness and self-abnega-
tIc1 are 10 he found a satisfaction which
= ~ gayeties OF the world aggregated
81 AFFORD.
4. ,,aong the race OF gadabouts are those
vhs neglect their homes in order that
thFy nay attend TO institutions that are
a., tly excellent and do not so much ask
fo. hep as demand It. / am acquainted,
as you are. with women who are members
of 40 many boards OF direction OF benevo-
lent institutions. and have 10 stand at
| booth In 90 many fairs and must collect
funds for so many OFpnanages. and pre-
side al so many philanthropic meetings.
and are expected to be in 20 many differ
ent places at the same time, that their
children are left 90 the care Of irresponsi-
bic servants. and II the little ones waited
! 10 say their prayers at their mother
I knee they would never say their evening
prayers al all. Such a woman makes her
cwn home 50 unattractive that the hus-
! band spends MS evenings at the clubhouse
I or the tavern The children OF that house
are as thoroughly orphan as any OF the
fatherless and m0theriess little ones gath
/ cred In the orphanage for which that gad-
| about woman Is tOiling so 1ndustriously.
By all means let Christian women foster
| charitable institutions. and give them as
much OF their time as they can spare.
| but the first duty OF that mother Is the
duty she owes TO her home.
Sacrifice of Home Duties.
Hired help Is g. advantage to the
homestead that car Vt, and we have
all had in our homes q. .-tellty on the part
| Of such employees as WI str our gratitude
/ as long as life shall lust. How they
watched in time Of silkness and always
gave the medicine at the right time. and
/ but for their vigilance there are members
Of our families now ivi..s who would long
ago have disappeared from the home
/ circle! Blessed tie 8hips that brought
| those employees TO our shores. Blessed
the day when they entered our house
holds! And who win ever do justice TO
those who were aHfeetionately called, and
! believe are still called the 'mammies' OF
/ the South? ] have had governors and
| Senator's of the United States with tears
in their eyes talk 10 me about those old
| colored women Of the South, who rocked
them in their cradles and bound up their
wounds when they got hurt. and wept
with them at graves, and looked in from
/ the hall door at the weddings, and greet
ed them home from college or from the
wars with motherly endearment Ask
| those who know them best about those
old mammies. We have all had In our
employment those so near and dear TO us
that we went 10 them in childhood and
| toih tiiClh al ouf SEltiS anu all Jul JOY -
and they sympathized with copious tears
and resounding laughter.
But no one can take a mothers place.
and 1t is an awful mistake that that
mother makes who sacrifices home duties
| for any church meeting, however impor
| tant, or any hospital, however merciful,
or any outside benefcence, however glor-
ious and grand. Not understanding this.
a. ffcf
as to how many Christians there are in
our churches and in the world. We under
state the facts We look over our church
/ audiences on the Sabbath or our week.
night service, and conclude that they rep
resent the amount of piety in that neigh
| borhood Oh, no. There are many most
| consecrated souls that are not found in
| churches. Look into those houses with
| large families Of children and little or no
hired help. For much of the year there
! is some one i'll, and a special guardian
care is requisite. How much time can
that mother give to churches and prayer
meetings when most of the family are
down with sacrlet fever or have colds
! that threaten now one kind Of disease and
now another? That mother watching at
| home as much pleases the Lord as. the
mother who at church takes the saera-
ment, or in the mission school tells the
waits of the street how they may become
sons and daughters Of the Lord Almighty.
| That mother at home is deciding the
destiny Of the state by the way she leads
that boy into right thinking ap1 scIing.
and is deciding the welfare of some
! future home by the example she is set
ting that girl; and though the world does
not appreciate the unobserved work,
heaven watches and rewards. On the
other hand, you have known women who
| are on at meetings humanitarian and
phllanthropic, planning for the destitute
and the outcast while their own children
went unwashed and unkempt, their gar
ments needing repairs. their manners i'm
pudent, and themselves a general nuis-
| ance TO the community In which they I've
Running About Breeds Scandal.
''fhe book Of Samuel gives photograph
of Mephibosheth lame in both feet. When
we see any one lame In one foot or lame
in both feet We always wonder by what
accident he was famed. Perhaps II may
have been in battle for his country, or he
may have been run over by some reckless
driver, or some explosion did the damage
So you wonder how Mephibosheth became
lame in both feet. The Bible. for a good
| reason, gives us the particulars. 1t tells
us that when a child his nurse dropped
him She must have dropped him very
hard, for he never again got over the eff.
/ feet of that fall Long after the accident
We find him at King David's table, but
still our attention is called TO the fact that
his feet were crippled. though so long be-
fore his nurse dropped him. And, mark
you, that to-day in all departments of life
there are those crippled in habits crippled
| In morals. crippled for all time The acci-
dent happened in this way: Their moth
ers were gadabouts and neglected their
homes, and the work of training them was
given over to incompetent nurses, and the
nurses let them fall into bad habits. told
them depraving Stories and gave them
wrong notions of life, and practically ruin
ed them. But as Mephibosheth was taken
by King David into the palace and seated
at the royal table, so by the grace of the
heavenly King these unfortunate ones
may yet be seated at the Kings table, in
the Kings palace, though the nurses did
drop them so that morally they were lame
in both feet.
&c re bad habit these gadabouts mascu-
line or feminine, are sure to get, and that
is Of scandal-distribution. They hear so
many deleterious things about others. and
see so much of wrong behavior that they
are loaded up and loaded down with the |
faults OF others, and they have their eyes
full, and their ears full, and their hands |
full, and their mouths full Of defamation. |
The woman who is endowed of gossip can |
so easily unite her bonnet strings and sit |
down 10 spend the afternoon. A man can
afford you cigar as a retainer if you will |
patiently hear all he has 10 say about |
those who cannot pay their debts, or are |
about TO fail, or are guilty Of moral mis- |
hap, or have aroused suspicion of embez- |
element All gadabouts are peddlers, who |
unpack in your presence their large store |
of nux vomica and nightshade. Such CAD
abOuts have little prospect of heaven. If |
they got there they would try TO create |
jealousy among the different ranks of ce-
lestials. and make trouble among the |
heavenly neighbors. and start quarrels Sc
raphic. and would be on perpetual run,
now down this street and now up that |
now IN the house or many mansions, and |
now in the chGiF or the temple anG now |
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