The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1901-06-28
They spread out their wings to fly.


They spread out their wings TO Nv.
We American parents are spared the
sense of inevitable separation which is
integral in English homes. Our broader
land, our newborn industries. orr yet
formative condition, leave us a hope that
our boys may find work near at hand.
We do not begin to sum up our chances
OF influence in India and Africa and Can
ada while curly heads vet lie on the mrs
cry pillow and to define suitable ed
ucatlon' for this or that Service" while
the little ones are still building block
houses on the floor. After maturity il is
a rare thing in England To lind a son I'M
der his fathers roof, still rarcr thar
from a large family there are not many
cihiErahtS. and II is Il climax of fansly
JOY IL once in 20 years father and
mother can see their living children gath
cred about their table, united ucrhaps nj
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 a vacant room
in the lately ovcrcrowdcd homestead and
change in the mothers life and heart
chamber, hardly large enough for the
strong, active lad to move about in. the
pace hitherto so hard to keep tidy and
orderly looks desolate enough now that
ne has gone to school: the old worn can.
picked up a thousand times in unlikely
places, hangs from the peg. a sort Of
mark of ownership, while for nine months
out of - he is living under new infu-
ences and learning to he CHEEKY and han
Ply and overlooking with wholesome inter
cSts forgctful of what once made M TO
him the sum of his desires.
lie will love ONO years hence perhans
love better than ever before the roof I'M
der which he was born and the mother
VINO gave him his life-but his place in the
home nest is vacant. Hcnceforth home is
an incident, not the center of existence.
school college. work, marriage-so the
future unrolls its plan. Mother NAV knccl
beside the narrow boyish bed and carry
INN, as mothers will, forever in her heart.
but Jacks room is only his in name.
And his sisters, so united. vet so
strangely unlike in taste and looks and
predictions, how hard to realize that
they are gone. The elder mothcr-sistcr
tive and so strong to influence. without
whom nothing was complete, nothing de-
clded, can it be that she will only come
back ms a guest and the family life 20 on
without her? And fair, shrinking Allegro.
always timid and unwilling to take re-
sponsIbility, how impossible TO believe
that she has assumed the headship of a
strangers household and taken upon her
self without tremor the control of n
family of her own. And stormy Kate. the
mastertul 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
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-
i'm 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 uaught accuse;
Her lot to bear, to nurse, to rear,
To love-and then to lose.
In yet another way silent chambers are
created in the old house Still, indeed. is
the place where the august and all power
full angel has stood, tender yet inhcxible;
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 a chill fills the once warm
nest. Yet it may be that the outgoing of
young life, up borne by the strength of
the divine messenger to-as the broken
heart bclicves-places of unutterabc beau
~ and peace, leaves less sorrowful Lone
illness in the home than when willing feet
flee away joyously to walk in carth's
rough paths, so full of possible msadven-
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" OF this child no
anxious thought can ever arise.
Most parental hearts count themselves
but faint types of the eternal Futherhood;
the happiest Of homes are but reflections.
dim and imperfect, of the paradise where
love has no imperfcctions. The silence
made 10y the death angel is not without
occasional Interruptions of sweet echoes
Of unearthly music soothing and full of
pence. The emptiness of the chamber
from whence he has borne a child has
often n spiritual fullncSs which comforts
a mothers grief. There comes times
when her strained ears hear soft rus
things Of angelic wings. The spot from
whence her child's 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
fair lot that maidens choose"
So far on the side of those who lose.
but it is not all which we can see TO
bear, to nurse, to rear. to love"-yeS. all
true and yet as true the poets pathetic
close, which has 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 oCr 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 all, surely
not to hold back a soul ripe for sinless
activity in sorrowless world.-New
York Post.
Girl Life In France.
The programme of what French girl
may or may not do is drawn up very pre-
cisey." declares Th Benton Mime.
Blanc) in The Ladies' Home Journal.