The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1905-10-13
WHERE CHOICE
is IMPOSSIBLE.

awarded one chilli to the father anC
the other to the mother, providing
THAT the mother and plaintiff il
this action is hereby awarded the
choice as to the child sac may de
termine to have in her custody
We are told that the mother wa!
never sble to express h choice. Doubt
less the court was ac,usted hy the best
OF motives yet is there in all the
world a good mother VINO will say that
the privilege of choosing the child
would be greatly preferable to a judg.
nent that would deprive the mother
not only of ali chci 70 but of both
children? What a heavy task that
New York court placed upon that New
York mother If any other than q
mother could appreciate the enoImity
Of that task 1t is the father whom
spite of the tact that in popular discus
sion Father 1--we is forgotten in the
tribute paid to mother love has al
least some acquaint nee with the devo-
Ion of parent to child.
Is it auy wonder that this woman,
! admittedly good mUther-Ons with
our fault and yet between whom and
her husband dissension arose such as
to ms Ike divorce proceedings seem
necessary-was unable to avail herself
of the privilege conferred upon her by
the New York supreme court? What
great task 1t was What an uninvIt
ing assignment Parents generally
will have an idea of the conflicting
emotions that ragged in the breast of
| this New York mother, and there are
throughout the world thousands of
parents whose experience particularly
qualified them to deeply sympathize
with this good woman's unhappy stu
alton.
Parents whose family circle has been
invaded by death; parents whose hap
piness has been bllghted by the dissi-
patton of loved enc; parents who are
not yet able to remove their minds
from the vacant chairs at their hearth
stones, even though the vacancy was
made years ago; parents who love and
struggle, by day and by night, all in
the effort to build a worthy future fol-
their children; parents who always
and best remembe their offspring as
infants, even though the girls are in
long dresses and the boys are wearing
bealds-these will know something of
the struggle that ragged within the
breast of the New York woman con
corning whom the supreme court of
that state said: Tine mother and
plaintiff in this action is hereby
awarded the cnoice as to the child she
may determine to have in her Gus
tOdy." 1t was an Impossible choice.
No grave was ever SO small but that
its digging left scar upon the parent s
ueart.
There Is something wonderfully
elastic about parental love. How ever
often the stoIk may visit home. there
is always room for one more" room
for one moro at the fresids; room for
one more at the table: room for one
more participant In the many little
things and IN the loving things that
20 to make up the sum of happiness
in domestic circles; room for one more
In the parents Affections; ana those
fathers and mothers who have been
deaied the privilege of choice, but
who have been required to surrender
one of their loved ones in response to
deaths sun mons-they know how
difficult it would be to undertake the
task of choosing the child !" How
ever poignant the parents grief might
%, however wont they might be to
dwell upon the striking and admirable
traits of the loved and the lost, they
could not turn from the dead to the
living ana III their neaIt of hearts say
This one, md net the other. -
One of the best mothe whom God
ever gave to man, being asked which
of the chIl lren she loved the most
promptly replied: The one that Is
sick. :" The is volume in that brief
sentence. Every parent will under
stand it at glance. We love them
one and all, and the measu!eless atfec-
tion which we bestow upon all of them
is given to every one of them. The
rhetorIcian may not understand his
statement; the parent will have no
iitficulty in Interpreting it.
In THE Reign of Law" James Lane
Allen, The novelist. lsaCs his hero
through mas of doubt and unbeliet.