The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1902-10-31
The UndyiDg Influence of Great
Poets aud Great Painters.
SOME AMUSING ANECDOTES RELATED
story Of His Norwegian Friend Vine
Reformed Suddenly, and whos'
Two Boys "ouest" Thor
evil Ways and Became
Good Men.

Goldsmith. in a short and pretty pre-
face to the Vicar Of Wakefield" says:
oThere are a hundred faults In this
thing and a hundred things might De
sa,d 10 prove them beauties. A book
NAV be amusing with many errors OF
II may be dull without a siAgle aosuru'
tv The hero in this story unites IN
blmself the three greatest characters
on earth-the priest, the husDanuulan
and the father Of family.
Strange that the author could WFi1o
such a charming story about the very
three characters he knew least about |
for he had no fitness for nor expert !
ence in either. It is not recorded
that he was ever in love or sought the
D comnanv Of virtuous young ladies, yet
AZ his ballad of the Hermit In the Nlcai
~ Of Wakefield" Is admitted to be inc
tehderest and most perfect LIE poem
ever written. My father made me
commit it to memory when l was
Young and there are at least dozen
verses in it that can cry over no"
and II does me good. 1t is a comfort 10
wAen over these sad, sweet things
Ianghorn wrote a verse about poor
"a woman with babe at her breast huRt-
Ming over the battle field of Mlnden
lor the body of her husband, and when
NJ she found him she knelt by his sac
and the big tears fell upon the face OF
her child and mingled with the mix
he drew. "a child of misery baptized
70 in tears" A painting was MADE OF IT,
VI Dand Walter Scott says the only time
he ever saw Burns he was looking at
that painting and crying Ike chlla'
To read the lines and imagine the
nainting is enough for me. But IL !
had been Goldsmith l would have set
down the mother Of a family as great
or than the father Evan Howell SAID
he would not vote for eurteW' Ioi
- his observation was that If the fathers
VI would stay at HON eat night the boys
I would and that song Of Where IS my
wandering boy tonight?" would no
have been written. But the fathers
are wanted at the store, the once, tn
oauntlng room, for on them depend
~ the support of the family. But man,
~ n tired mother can sing Where is "A,
wandering husband tonlght?" Alas
toe many can be found at the club, a
the pool room or the hotel, while IN
mother is training her mind to unfair
ela that hard sum, "If A and B ca
build a house in thirty days and
can build it in forty-fve days, no
~ long will it take A to build it?"
Take it all in all, it is the mother
who are the hope Of the World-tf
4 sayfours of the children. They ce
tainly save the girls, for nobody nj
4 vet sung where is my wanderir
4 girl tonight?" If the fathers wou
D do their half and save the boys
4 would be all right Oh, but for Il
mothers and wives and sisters, wh
would become of us without theI
since | have been sick sometim
awav in the silent watches OF t
a night when, as Job says, Deep
j lence falleth upon man, 1t does
! fall upon a woman for l feel her q
d tie touch arranging the cover and re
) ing whether am breathing or
So. Since I have been sick l have neV
ePs caught her fast asleep, and the OIL
M night she got hurt with me becaus
~ slipped out in the hall and called
n girls down to make fire and h
some water, for was sick and sun
ing. and there was no hot water In
boiler. 1t is just as Scott wrote:
when pain and anguish wiring
brow,
ministering angel thou"
n And as Coleridge wrote:
"a mother is a mother still;
The hottest thing alive"
may have written it before
will write it again, that one nigl
agreed TO stay with two dear Il
t iris while their father and mo
went out to tea at neighbors.
LIZ pleased me. for am always happ
their company, and they IN =
when bedtime came undressed I
and they knelt by my knees ana
their prayers; one Of them was
osleep but the other fingered ana
"cran,na when papa comes
rlease tell him l love him. II
- win" said 1. What must tell
mammal" She closed her eyes