The Weiser signal. [volume] (Weiser, Idaho) 1890-1904, 1901-06-13
A MOTHERS INSTINCT
She WHO HAS 1T DOESN'T NEFD
HELP FROM CONGRESSES.

such a Mother Is Not Tied Down ia
system In Rearing Her Children.
what Do We Recall When We Look
Back at Our ChiIdhoodY
If one judged from the mothers CON
crosses and the lectures, articles and
books on the subject of the rearing and
training Of children, it would seem that
IN no other era have women been so in
tent upon fulfilling properly the duties
OF parenthood. 1t might be taken also
as tacit confession that the mother in
stinct is not Unborn in every woman and
therefore that which does not come from
the heart must be learned from books.
There is no intention here to disparage
such a movement. In some quarters it
has been overdone and has become ac-
cordingly ridiculous, but it has its uses
and has doubtless been productive Of
good In awakening certain women to d
more thoughtful view of their RESPONSE
bilities
The mere fact of bringing young into
the world does not bestow the mother
instinct. Many q childless wife, many q
lonely spinster, has the true mother
heart that may be lacking in the mother
of ten children. Dumb animals even
vary greatly in this respect. There are
dogs and cats just as averse to the duties
of maternity as any frivolous fine lady.
One hen will rear successfully all the
chicks she has brought off the nest,
while another in the same flock will lose
her whole brood successfully by care
lessness and neglect. One topknoted
denizen Of the poultry yard afforded
curious study to the observant. She
was completely wanting in that pro-
tective instinct toward her young which
is usually so strongly developed in the
hen. She had always preoccupied and
futtered air, as if there were far more
serious problems to be solved than ma
ternal ones. If she scratched for her
chicks, it was in a desultory and inef-
fective way, and in the meantime they
went astray, became entangled in the
long grass or fell into holes. Sometimes,
as if in absence of mind, she would even
stand with a claw planted firmly on a
member Of her brood regardless of its
peeps" and struggles, meanwhile utter
ing one of those raucous soliloquies to
which hens are addicted. Perhaps she
was airing her theories upon the proper
rearing of young chickens.
A woman with the real mother instinct
does not need to attend mothers con.
crosses or lectures or to study books. We
see her in the most simple and natural
manner possible bringing up good
healthy, happy children who are to be
the bone and sinew of the nation. If one
should ask her upon what system she pro
ceeds, she could not tell, for it is all don'
instinctively. But the truth is any sys
TEN for the training of children must b'
a very elastic one and vary to suit thu
individual. The mothers sympathy gives
her wisdom to deal with diverse tempera
ments and dispositions, and if there il
anything in these alien to her own natur
her love bridges the difference-that Low,
which follows her offspring no matte
how far they may go, so that her heart
as Mime. de Sevigne expressed it, is al
ways on the highroads." If a child o
hers is crippled in mind or body, homel
of countenance, dull of wit or broken il
fortune, around that one is her affection
protectingly cast, because he needs it tn
most Her heart is the unfailing refuge
the sanctuary that cannot be violated, tn
one place of all where even the erring an
the defeated will not be judged, bu
loved. And though all the rest of he
children may be happy, honored and SUE
cessful, her love is forever wanderin
away after the unfortunate who has fai
ed and fallen short of her teachings-or
into the cold, through the rain and snow
over the dreary stretches of the highwa.
like beseeching angel pleading with hi
to turn homeward. But whether she is
happy or unhappy parent, her love is no
like the passionate egotism of the ANNA
limited only to her own. For their SAX
her heart is tender toward all childhoo,
4 a, xxl
are orphaned and uncherished.
In one of Coleridge's poems he tells
strange story about woman who set h'
affections upon her daughters sutton an
finally invoked a curse upon them bot
because they had baked her passion
Thenceforth nothing prospered wit
them. They were beset by misfortunes {
all kinds, the curse being so active b
cause
A mother is mother still,
The hottest thing alive.
The more modern view, however,
that there is nothing holy in maternl1
per Sc. 1t is the individual who ennebl'
or degrades it, and the woman who snow
herself unworthy of motherhood is not
be an object of honor simply because 81
has brought forth children. There a
women. and mothers, who actually dlslll
children, and, apart from these unplea
ant paradoxes. some there are who lo'
their children accordingly as the latt
minister to their pride and vanity. IL
cleverest and handsomest are the favo
ties, because they reflect glory upon Il
self seeking parent, and the less credit
BILE ones are pushed into corners and ke
in the shade as much as possible. This
rather q mans than womans way
loving, and yet there are famihes
which the tenderness comes all from [
paternal side, and the children are act
ally "mothered" by the father. In
there are the mothers who in the purs
ance of some fixed idea thwart the
children, stunt their aspirations and pl
vent the gradual unfolding Of their Il
lures. .
"Etre savant c'est quelquechose, sa
a French writer; ''etre tres bon, c'est :.
= core mieux'-and one fancies that Il
is true where mothers are concerne
Does any child think more tenderly OF
mother because she has written
markable book, painted fine picture