The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-03-09
TALK OF MOTHERS LOVE
MRS. GEORGE GOULD WRITES FOR
A WOMAN'S MAGAZINE
Another Woman Critic Says That
There Is No Mother Love Among
the Highest or the Lowest-Gener-
aIizations of This Kind Are DAN
qerouss

A discussion about mothers and chill
dren has been raging in some of the
New York papers anent an article,
which, it is said, Mrs. George Gould
wrote on that subject for the Club
Woman, an organ devoted to women's
club work and the issues of the gen
eral federation. Mrs. Gould takes the
ground that society women make just
as good mothers as any other women,
and says that being a society woman
and laring in social distractions is in
no W Ky incompatible with domesticity.
To this a woman who is member OF
the Gerry society, of New York, an
organization naturally coming in con-
tact with the abnormal replies that
there is. no mother love in the highest
rank of life, nor in the lowest, and that
the fashionable mother neglects, her
children more than the mother>who is,
depraved and the victim of abject
poverty.
Both these statements appear to be
somewhat exaggerated. Mrs. Gould
seems to be right to a degree, for
surely mother love or the mother in
stinct is a thing rarely touched by af-
fluence or extreme poverty. 1t is ma
ture and that is above accidental cir
cumstances. 1t may be true that your
fashionable mother finds little time to
devote to her children, if she is wrap
ped up in society as are some women,
but to say that the woman of wealth
does not love her children, is a base
and ridiculous libel. There are many
cases where a woman of fashion finds
it inconvenient to have children and
rebels against it, but to say that she
does not love them once they are here
is absurd.
Children of fashionable mothers are
often given over to the care of sery<
ants or paid attendants more than
those of poorer women; but the moth
er who is haraSSed and worried to
death by ways and means and making
a small income do for a large family,
is hardly in a state of mind to do her
best by her children. 1t is more a
question of money than of mother love.
Mother love rarely fails in any class.
The woman, too, who has to go out
washing all day to keep soul and body
together and roof over the children's
heads, IS mot the ideal mother, though
through no fault of her own. The
children of the rich undoubtedly have
happier memories of early home life
than the children of poverty. But this
Is IlOl BECAUSE OI d greater love, DuI
because of the ability of their parents
to make their way smooth.
Persons have a way these days of
thinking that in order to do justice to-
the poor il is necessary to abuse the
rich. Because a poor woman loves her
children unselfshly is not saying that
the rich mother does not love them Just
as much. There are many instances
of unnatural mothers who do not ap-
pear to love their own, but it is doubt
full if these cases are more common on
Fifth avenue than in the slums
concentrations are dangerous. To
say that one class of persons does this
and another that, proves nothing. For
in the ultimate analysis it is what in
dividuals do that counts. To say that
mother love has died out of the hearts
of rich and fashionable women would
be as untrue as to say that it no longer
existed in the hearts of abjectly poor
women. There are unfortunate in
stances in every class of society of de-
PRAYED women, but they are no more
among one class than other Condemn
Ing people in bulk or classes or ma
tlonalities is equally absurd Every
woman stands on her own feet. and is
individually responsible for her acts
In spite of the dire Demonstrations
OF the women who have announced
that mother love is dying out among
the highest and the lowest, it is, we be >
Heve, one of the great elemental pas
sions which will stand as long as the
world stands among rich and moor
alike