Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-12-20
Unselfsh Mothers.

OF late there have been written an
unusual number of stories, slightly
didactic in intention, and of essays
plainly moral, to grown but unmarried
daughters was Il hard one. The unset
fish mother-and for the purpose OF ar
prn,ent il might be as well to concede
that this term embraces all mothers
is rerresented in this literature as a
much imposed upon being, unless. in
deed, she is plutocratic person. She
washes the dishes after the tea parties
which her hospitable offspring give;
she makes the dresses in which they
shine abroad, wearing herself mean
| time anything but distinguished looh-
| ing garments. and so on
Now, it frequently happens that
traits and disposition descend from
parents to their children Iherelor'
| it is not an absolutely unknown thlhS
that the daughter of devoted motaef
should have IN her own makeup some
OF the elements of unselhshhess. Spe
grows up sufficiently like her mothef
not to be entirely self-centred.
She grows up-though this the hr3t
place where the unselfish mother VIII
concede. when she has to, that her
daughter is So or 40, but the concession
is merely verbal one. The mother Is
in the habit of waiting up TOR the
Young girls of her housenold. one
waits up as determinedly for the elder
by spinsters. Imagine the feelings Oh
a woman of 3c-odd years who comes III
from the theater and an after theater
SINNER party to find her unsellsh
mother waiting for her.
The unselfish mother sits opposite hef
daughters at brea kfast ard entreats
them to eat the last slice of toast ana
the last egg There is no scarcity Oh
food in the house and no deHcacles.
But the unselfsh mother in her
eager desire to forego something
for the sake Of her children, leaves un-
touched her share of the good Things
and then presses it upon those VINO
have already had all the good Things
thew want. 1t seems foreign to her
conception of her children to assume
that, II there were any shortage IN the
larder, they would derive as much
pleasure from giving up to her as she
could possibly derive from giving up 10
them. Indeed, her conception OF her
children seems to be gained from the
stories and essays aforementlohe1,
the children themselves.
The mother who never goes any
where while her daughter is constant
Iv .cadding:" the mother who sits IN
drab by the family lamp while her
daughter, in rose color, is dining ana
dancing and playgoing: the mother
who stitches, stitches eternaliy upon
furbeIows for her frivolous offspring
while her own garments grow nearer
and nearer the ragbag ideal; the
mother who lunches on cold bread and
Clipped beef while her daughter has
specially prepared chop; the mother
whose aging eyes are deprived of their
need of sleep while they are propped
cpen for her daughters return from
festivities-this mother is chiefly. the
baseless fabric OF a dream which
some didactic souls have had concern
ing the seIfishness and brutality of the
present generation Of daughters. And
in SO far as she does exist, she is the
beloved bane of her daughters exis-
tence, the dear thorn in their sides,
whose vagaries. persisted in despite
their RACES and their labors. give them
an exceedingly and undeservedly bad
name in the community. For no
mother loving and unselfish enough to
care to perform all these tolls for her
children ever bore children blindly sell
fish and brutally unloving enough TO
accent the sacrifices.