The Brandon news., 1902-10-16
The Undying Influence Of Great
Poets and Great Painters.
SOME AMUSING ANECDOTES RELATED
Story Of His Norwegian Friend Who
Reformed Suddenly, and Whose
Two Boys "Queet" Their
Evil Ways and Became
Good Men.

'Ihere are nuuuESu Aauiee An S
thing and a hundred things might be
said to prove them beauties. booK
may be amusing with many errors, or
it may be dull without single absurd
ity. The hero in this story unites in
himself the three greatest characters
on earth-the priest, the husbandman
and the father of a family.
Strange that the author could write
such charming story about the very
three characters he knew least about,
for he had no fitness for nor expert
ence in either. 1t is not recorded
that he was ever in love or sought the
company of virtuOuS young ladies', yet
his ballad of the Hermit in the Vicar
of Wakefield" is admitted to be the
tenderest and most perfect love poem
ever written My father made me
commit it to memory when | was
young and there are at least a dozen
verses in it that | can cry over now
and it does me good 1t is comfort to
weep over these sad, sweet things.
Langhorn wrote verse about a poor
woman with babe at ler breast hunt
ing over the battle field Of Minden
for the body of her husband, and when
she found him she knelt by his side
and the big tears fell upon the face of
her child and mingled with the milk
he drew. "a child OF misery baptized
in tears" A painting was made of it,
and Walter Scott says the only time
he ever saw Burns he was looking at
that painting and crying like child.
To read the lines and imagine the
painting is enough for me. But if |
had been Goldsmith l would have set
down the mother of family as great
er than the father. Evan Howell said
ne would not vote for curfew, for
his observation was that if the fathers,
would stay at hom eat night the boys
would and that song of Where is my
wandering boy tonight?" would not
have been written. But the fathers
cC%'t all stay at home at night. They
are wanted at the store, the Office, the
counting room, for on them depends
'fhe support of the family. But many
a tired mother can sing Where is my
wandering husband tonight?" Alas,
too many can be found at the club, at
the pool room or the hotel, while the
mother is training her mind to untan-
gle that hard sum, "If A and B can
build house in thirty days and B
can build it in forty-fve days, how
1~x, roJ- 4o
Take it all in ALL it is the mothers
who are the hope of the world-the
saviours of the children. They GER
tainly save the girls, for nobody has
yet sung where is my wandering
girl tonight?" If the fathers would
do their half and save the boys it
would be all right. Oh, but for the
mothers and wives and sisters, what
would become Of us without them?
Since l have been sick sometimes
night when, as Job says, 2Deep 81
lence falleth upon q man." 1t does not
fall upon a woman, for | feel her gen
tie touch arranging the cover and feel
Ing whether | am breathing or not.
Since / have been sick | have never
caught her fast asleep, and the other
night she got hurt with me because |
slipped out in the hall and called the
girls down to make fire and heat
some water, for | was sick and suffer
Ing, and there was no hot water in the
boiler. 1t is just as Scott wrote:
when pain and anguish wiring the
brow,
A ministering angel thou"
And as Coleridge wrote:
"a mother is a mother still;
The holiest thing alive"
I may have written it before, but
will write it again, that one night |
agreed to stay with two dear little
girls while their father and mother
went out to tea at neighbor's. This
pleased me, for / am always happy in
their company, and they in mine.
When bedtime came | undressed them
and they knelt by my knees and said
their prayers; one of them was soon
asleep, but the other fingered and said,
@'Gran'pa, when papa comes home
please tell him | love him. Yes,
will" said l. "What must tell your
mammal" She closed her eyes and
said, "Nothing-she knows | love her"
That expresses 1t. That child's faith
ser loves those little girls dearly. but
he keeps a drug store, and is the pre-
scription partner. He goes to the
store before his children get up. He
has but an hour with them at noon,
and has to return to the store soon af-
ter supper. No wonder these little
girls want him to know that they
love him. Boys are very different and
when they get up in their teens moth
ers lose their influence Some say it
is bad associates. OF course that has
something to do with it, but Cain
didn't have any that we know Of, and
yet he killed his brother. Environ
ment is a big word. but ii covers ey-