The Savannah morning news., 1904-05-15
SAVANNAH MORNING NEWS: SUNDAY MAY 1904

both! At how many a reception given
ito Introduce my new daughter" have
we seen heart-burdened women grac-
ciously presenting TO their coterie and
family, hopelessly weak and selfish
young girls who they were certain We're
bringing sorrow nearer and nearer as
their marriage days approached? And
of these how large is that majority
which remains steadfast to the end?
The same loyalty that kept faithful
Through infancy and childhood, the
same defending instinct that hushed
the stories of youthful errors, now
responds gladly to the cali of an ILL
managed household and neglected
nursery for help and counsel. With
incredible outward serenity she an
swers inquiries and tells pleasant
things when they arise. Sometimes in
this supplemental maternal ministry
mother first receives her real award of
grateful, comprehending love. If she
his wisdom and self-abnegation enough
never to refer to the warnings she gave
in the days Of his mistaken courtship,
nor by any mischance to shaw that
she pities him, she may become to
her son his ideal of perfect woman
hood Never-not even when in de-
spair a disappointed married man pours
out the story of domestic trial-may
we safely venture to express pity.
He may freely compassionate himself,
but it will abruptly close his conf
dences If sympathy defines itself in
words which blame his wife.
There is something in the sense Of
his virility, his power to use the world
as his resource against the discon-
forts or loneliness of a faulty home
that makes an Unmarried son less
painfully distressing to us than the
sight and knowledge of a daughters
wretchedness. The determined, wilful
immovable choice of dear, even
though disobedient, girl to give her
self into unworthy hands is a trial
which is a thousandfold harder to bear
than the sight of her peacefully rest
ing with folded hands in her coffin.
God only holds the record of the
broken hours in which fathers
and mothers have striven to comfort
each other-to strengthen each other
to bear the knowledge that a child, a
gay, thoughtless, world-ignorant child
cannot be saved from some coming
misery and wretchedness. When a
man, mature in years and in knowledge
Of the evil, the sin, the complex wick
edness of his race. is forced by the
infatuation of his daughter-his "lit-
tie GIRL as she will always seem to
him-to either make a public scandal
by her clandestine marriage, or by
seeming consent to take her on his re-
luctant arm up a church aisle and APP
pear to give her up willingly, he has
reached a climax in human experience.
All that he knows-all that he has
himself eseaped-all the histories of I'M
worthy manhood welded to ignorant
deluded girlhood, rack and rend his
heart, and he must make no sign! If
there is in the category of human pains
worse agony than this, men do not
know it's name, and yet there are Spar
tans who every day stand, Wordless
and groanless and take their heroic
parts in ceremonies which are not less
than instruments of torture And
when the time comes to open them
again, their faithful arms are stretch
ed out to welcome back and shelter
their weary children and the little ones
they bring with them. Yea, like as
father pitieth his own children" even
divine inspiration could find no tender
er similtude for forgiving compassion
than this! There is no other compar-
ison that gives a broader, clearer il
Illustration of heroic love.
When by absolute perVersion of all
the holier instincts of humanity, faith
ers neither bear nor forbear, but dis
honor themselves through neglect or
desertion of their erring childen, they
have done worse than if they had
themselves committed the error. But
these are of the small ninority-the roll
call of heroic parental lives is beyond
our iteration; heaven alone numbers
and knows.