Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1901-09-25

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| were grown
| They spread out their wings to fly.
| We American parents are spared the
sense OF inevitable separation which is
integral in English homes. Our broader
land, our newborn industries, oar yet
| formative condition, leave us a hope that
our boys may find work near Mt hand
| We do not begin to sum up our chances
of influence in India and Africa and Can.
ada while curly heads yet lie on the nurs-
cry pillow and to define a suitable ed
ucation" for this or that Service" while
the little ones are still building block
houses on the floor. After maturity 1t is
a rare thing in England to find a son UNI
der his fathers roof still rarer that
from large family there are not many
emigrants, and 1t is climax of family
| Joy il once in 20 years a father and
mother can see their living children gath
cred about their table, united perhaps at
some dear festival. -
Yet without this impending certainty
Of absolute separation hanging over us
the family circle breaks all too soon. and
from that moment there Is vacant room
in the lately overcrowded homestead and
Il change in the mothers life and heart
which Is TO remain always. The little
chamber, hardly large enough for the
strong, active lad to move about in, the
place hitherto so hard to keep tidy and
orderly, looks desolate enough now that
| he has gone to school; the old worn cap,
| picked up II thousand times in unlikely
| places, hangs from the peg, n sort of
mark Of ownership, while for nine months
out of II he is living under new infu-
enees and learning to be CHEEKY and hap
by and overlooking with wholesome inter
csts, forgetful of what once made up to
him the sum of his desires.
| He will love ONO years hence perhaps
| love better than ever before the roof I'M
der which he was born and the mother
who gave him his life-but his place In the
home nest Is vacant. Henceforth home Is
an incident, not the center OF existence.
| School, college, work, marriage-so the
| future unrolls its plan. Mother may kneel
beside the narrow boyish bed and carry
him, rs mothers will, forever in her heart,
but Jacks room is only his in name.
And his sisters, so united, yet so
| strangely unlike in taste and looks and
predictions, how hard to realize that
they are gone The elder, mothers sister,
so helpful in family crises, so authorita-
tive and so strong to influence, without
whom nothing was complete, nothing de-
cided, can it be that she will only come
back as guest and the family life go on
without her? And fair, shrinking allegro,
always timid and unwilling to take re-
sponsbility, how impossible to believe
| that she has assumed the headship of u
| strangers household and taken upon her.
| self without tremor the control of a
| family of her own. And stormy Kate, the
| masterful victor on SO many fields, how
| strangely her trophies look as they hang
upon her wall. How dearly she loved
] them, those tokens of triumph on many
a hard won field! Yet now she is content
| with decorous drives and walks and no
longer courts the brown cheek which the
sun kissed. Softly the mother goes from
room to room and closes the doors after
her The dear old house, so recently too
| full to offer hospitality, has abundant
! guest room now \ tender wonder rises
in her heart. Allegro does not send for
her once dear pictures nor for the mando-
| lin hanging disused. Kate bids her divide
| her sticks" and rackets among the chill
dren. Yes, they are gone!
| The mothers lot, my dear,
| She doth in naught accuse;
| Her lot to bear, to nurse, to rear,
| To loye-and then to lose.
In yet another way silent chambers are
| CTculcu III 'tut Olu HOuSt. GUN, luuttu, 10
the place where the august and all power
full angel has stood, tender yet infexible;
he whom no man may resist. Who shall
say what that departure is to the man
and woman who called that child their
own? What chill fills the once warm
nest! Yet it may be that the outgoing Of
n young life, up borne by the strength Of
the divine messenger to-as the broken
heart believes-places of unutterable beau
| ty and peace, leaves less sorrowful lone
illness in the home than when willing feet
flee away joyously to walk in earth's
rough paths, so full of possible misadyen-
ture. No danger of i'll tidings of error or
of misfortune coming back from that far
shore. OF one the heart may say, For
him feel no fear" or this child no
anxious thought can ever arise.
Most parental hearts count themselves
but faint types of the eternal Fatherhood;
the happiest of homes are but reflections,
dim and imperfect, of the paradise where
love has no imperfections The silence
made by the death angel is not without
occasional Interruptions of sweet echoes
of unearthly music soothing and full OF
peace. The emptiness of the chamber
from whence he has borne child has
often spiritual fullness which comforts
|
when her strained ears hear soft rus
things of angelic wings. The spot from
whence her childs soul took flight has
ever sense of companionship to her.
This room is not like those others from
which her girls went out to share the
flair lot that maidens choose"
So far on the side of those who lose,
but it is not all which we can see. ITO
bear, to nurse, to rear, to love'-yes, all
true, and yet rs true the poets pathetic
close, which has q sound Of tears in it
ito lose!' But what would we have?
Given our choice, what would we ask
What is the sum of our endeavor? What
the ultimate end of our travail and strife?
Surely not to keep the lives, brought to
fully perfected strength and development,
in abortive confinement in the inclosure
of a too narrow space. Above ally surely
not to hold back soul ripe for sinless