Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1904-05-28
HEROISM OF PARENTS.
and Marriages of Children-NO
Middle Road for Mother.

One great source OF suffering to par
ents comes through the loves and mar
riages of their children. whom they are
doomed TO see either deliberately or pre-
eiptately prepare for themselves bitter
potions of which they must drink deep
and often as the years pass over them.
Out of Il bevy of bright girls, inspiring
helpful, clever. some young man will find
not one who kindles the least ray of love,
but will be attracted by Il bewitching pair
OF eyes, a fascinating manner, or the
mere allurement of deliberate coquetry,
ana md himself married to Il wife who
Is not congenial.
How often does some devoted mother
ind no middle way between complete
separation from the son who she knows
VIII ere long. be SO disappointed and
lonely as to need her as he has never yet
done. and the acceptance without rcmon-
STRANGE of argument of what his decision
brings upon them both. At how many
Il reception given ito introduce my new
daughter have we seen heart-burdened
women graciously presenting 10 their CO.
telle and family. hopeessly weak and
selfish young girls who they were certain
were 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 call of an ill-managed household
and neglected nursery for help and
counsel. With incredible outward seren-
NY, she answers inquiries and tells pleas
ant things when they arise. Sometimes
IN TINS supplemental maternal ministry
mother first receives her real award of
grateful. compromising love. If she
has wisdom and Self-abnegation enough
never t. refer to the warnings she gave
in the days of his mistaken courtship,
nor by any mischance to show that she
piticS him, she may become to her son
has ideal of perfect w0manhood. Never
not even when i'll despair a disappoint-
cd married man pourS out the story of
domestic rrial-may we safely venture
TO express pity. He may freely compass
slonate himself. but it will abruptly close
his condolences If sympathy defines itself
in words which blame his wife.
There IS something III the sense of his
Eil1llty, his power TO use the world as
his resource against the discomforts or
loneliness Of faulty home. that makes
an Unmarried son less painfully distress
ing TO us than the sight and knowledge
Of daughters wrctchedness. The deter
mined. willful, immovahlc choice of a
dear, even though disobedient. girl to
give herself into unworthy hands is n
trial which is a thousandfold harder to
bear than the sight of her peacefully
resting with folded hands in Ter coffin.
God only holds the record of the heart
broken hours in which fathers al moth
crS nave Strlyen to comfort each other
to strengthen each other TO bear the
knowiedge that child. a gay, thought
less, World-lgnorant child. cannot he
mis- atDl
wretchednesS. When 4 man. mature in
years ana IN knowlege of the evil. the
sin. the complex wickedneSs of his race.
is forced by the infatuation of his dauch-
ter-hiS little girl as she VIII always
seem 10 him-to either make a public
SScahdal by her clandestine marriage, or
by seeming consent to take her on his
reluctant arm mp church aisle and ap-
pear to give her mp willingly, lie has
reached climax in human experience.
All that he knowS-all that he has
hmsef e>caped-all the histories of un-
worthy manhood welded to ignorant.
dcluded girlhood rack and rend his heart.
and he must make no sign, If there is
III the category of human pains a worse
agony than this. men do not know its
name, and yet there are SpartanS who
every day StanG. WordlcSS and groanieSS
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 stretched out to welcome back and
shelter their weary children and the lit
tie ones they bring with them. Yea,
like as father pitieth mis- own chill
dren;" even divine inspiration could find
no tenderer Similitude for forgiving com
passion than this! There is no other
comparison that gives a broader clearer
illustration of heroic love.
N~har al ,,nys,~arsf,t, Of al -,
boiler instincts of humanity. fathers nei-
Their bear nor forbear. bur diShonor them
selves through negiector desertion Of
their erring children, they have done
worse than if they had themselves com
mitted the error. But these are of the
small minority-thc roll call of heroic
parental lives is beyond onr iteration:
hhaNen llnnn mnnlhers and knows Vow