Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1905-11-18

her own hands, and she thought SO
much of that dress that she kept 1t all
her life. After she was dead and we
were going through her things | found
1t. The lace was just as you see 1t
there. She must have thought good
deal of me to put so much work on
that dress when she had so much to do.
And there IS my picture taken just aft
er my long attack of typhoid fever
NV. | look sick there, don't |? They
tell me she never left my room for six
long weeks. The doctors gave me up,
but she never did. They say l would
have died but for her And further
more they say that it was her devotion
TO me that broke down her health and
made her lifelong invalid"
Then you turn over another page of
the old album, and you say: Here Is
NV picture when | was a college boy.
We were having a hard time financial
". and | used to get awfully discour-
aged. but mother was my support.
She used to write and keep on writing
70 me. She never lost heart, no matter
how black the clouds were. And when
| think of her now l can say that a
nobler. purer, better or more self sac
riGcing woman than she never lived.
All that | am is the result of her sac
rifices made in the crises Of my early
life" "Oh," you say, Il had good
mother. She certainly did for me what
she could"
EuIOGy of Mothers.
Cannot we all say that our mothers
have broken for us the alabaster box
of ointment Of spikenard very pre-
cious upon our heads, and that they
did what they could? Cannot we be as
eulogistlc of our mothers as Sir Thom-
as More was of his? When Thomas
More was a very little boy his mother
went off on a visit. He wrote to her
his first letter and ended it thus:
Your absence all but Ill endure,
And none so i'll as Thomas More.
As he grew older and came to great
fame he still seemed to feel that he
could not do anything unless he had
first gone and told her and asked her
advice. He wrote every detail Of his
life to ner He wrote to her almost
every day of the week. At her death
there were found over 1000 letters
penned to her by her noble son. And
one of the last acts which he did be-
fore she died was to send one OF his
books to her with these beautiful
words written upon the fly leaf: For
her who was the critic Of my first in
FAINT productions | have transcribed
the few little essays that follow. Inc
critic praises from the head-the moth
er praises from the heart With one II
is a tribute of judgment-with the 9TH
or II is a gift from the soul" was
not that tribute of England's great
statesman to his mother most beauti-
ful? Yet cannot we all give our moth
ers the same tribute? Was there IN
our youth any worthy or meritorious
/ act that was not Of her suggesting or
inspiring?
Is not our position in the world to-
day a tribute to her for what she did
for us? A great cave, like the Man,
moth cave of kentucky, has lately been
discovered in Tasmania. Travellers
tell us that after the torches have been
nut out some of the cayerns of that
cave are ablaze with light from the
millions Of glOwworms which are KIN
ding their phosphorescent lanterns up
on the walls and the roof Of rock. 30
every place in the dark corridors Of the
past is ablaze with the lights or ma
ternal self sacrifice. We see these
lights at the cradle; we see them bril-
liant at the sick bed; we see them al
college hall and afterward in the strug'
giles of our professional and mercan'
= tile careers. Wherever we went, as
long as our mothers were alive, we
knew that they were doing for US the
best they could. All, many and many
IS the time they broke for us the ala
baster box Of ointment Of spikenard
very precious! Today we lay our gar
lands of tribute upon the graves OF the
beloved mothers who cheerfully dlC
for US what they could.
Rut next to our mothers / would
sneak of the mothers of our children
AS | praise the sweet faced woman wh'
bent over our cradle l would now say
q few words in reference to the wives
who have stood by us so faithfully
land nobly during our struggles o
young manhood and middle age ana,
hone. will continue so to do in our olC
age if God will let them live until thel
: hair is whitened and their step become
infrm. When | look into the past
5 see how awful might have been tn
results if we had had bad mother ID
l. stead of q good mother. In the SAM
i way shudder as think of what ou
o livos would have been if our wives hat
y been selfish or lazy or unworthy IN
stead of being the self sacrificing, de
L voted women whom God has given US
e influence of wives.
$ The older grow and the more Sc
q Of men the more l believe that the
n are. to a great extent, the outgrowth
u of what their wives have done 10
II them. Every husband, as a rule, al
Il pears to me the representative or
d wife whom perhaps have never seer
When Victor Hugo reached his sever
'e tieth birthday his friends from all owe
n A. .orId cont to him Gifts of flowers
1t His home was simply deluged wit
y them. Showing one of his rooms nile
1t with flowers to friend, he turned an
re said: FLOWERS to me have an indlvl'
Of ual flavor. They speak the peculia
Is language Of the people who send then
ls Now, most Of the donors of these nov
o. ers | have never seen, and yet frol
er the flowers themselves l can tell WI
le nv friends are. That magnificent III