The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1901-04-05
A MOTHERS INSTINCT
SHE WHO HAS 1T DOESN'T NEED
HELP FROM CONGRESSES.

Such n Mother Is Not Tied Down to
n System In Rearing Her Children.
What Do We Recall When We Look
Back at Our ChiIdhOOd:
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 a tacit confession that the mother in
stinct is not inboPn 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 a
more thoughtful view of their response
bilities
The mere fact of bringing young into
the world does not bestow the mother
instinct. Many a childlcss wife, many
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 a
curious study to the observant. She
was completely wanting in that pro-
tective instinct toward her young which
is usually 50 strongly developed in the
hen. She had always a preoccupied and
fluttered 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 incf
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
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 done
instinctivcly. But the truth is any sys-
TEN for the training of children must be
a very elastic one and vary to suit the
individual. The mothers sympathy gives
her wisdom to deal with diverse tempcra-
ments and dispositions, and if there is
anything in these alien to her own nature
her love bridges the difference-that love
which follows her offspring no matter
how far they may go, so that her heart,
as Nine de Sevigne expressed it, is al
ways on the highroads" If a child of
hers is crippled in mind or body, homely
of countenance, dull of wit or broken in
fortune, around that one is her affection
protectingly cast, because he needs it the
most. Her heart is the unfaiing refuge,
the sanctuary that cannot be violated, the
one place of all where even the erring and
the defeated will not be judged but
loved. And though all the rest of her
children may be happy, honored and sue
cessful, her love is forever wandering
away after the unfortunate who has fail.
ed and fallen short of her teachings-out
into the cold, through the rain and snow,
over the dreary stretches of the highway,
like beseeching angel pleading with him
to turn homeward. But whether she is
happy or unhappy parent, her love is not,
like the passionate egotism of the animal,
limited only to her own. For their sake
her heart is tender toward all childhood,
and her pity embraces the little ones who
are orphaned and unchershcd.
In one of Coleridge's poems he tells Il
strange story about Il woman who set her
affections upon her daughters sutton and
finally invoked Il curse upon thep both
because they had baked her passion.
Thenceforth nothing prospered with
them They were beset by misfortunes of
all kinds, the curse being so active be-
cause
mother is a mother still,
The hottest thing alive.