The silver messenger., 1906-12-25
Mistress of the Home.

was admitted, dwelt continually on the
incredible fact that she was regarded
with constant affection by one so bril-
liant and commanding as her boy.
This mental attitude is of course en-
tirely wrong and much to be depre-
Gated
Experience has been richer and
more profitable feature to mothers
than schools and colleges have been to
their children. The right management
of home imparts to woman who is
responsive and receptive, sympathetic
and enthusiastic, something quite as
useful as university education.
l heard not long ago a story that
seemed to me full of the sweetest
sentiment and the most practical sug-
gestiveness. A daughter who had
been graduated witt high honors came
home with her diploma and spent her
first vacation in becoming intimate
with her mother. In the four years Of
separation the two had drifted little
apart; not in love but in acquaintance
with those common affairs that form
the staple of life in thought and oon-
versation. The daughter did not go to
her room or her hammock and spend
hours in study and reading that would
have been exclusive, though delightful
but Immediately took hold of the daily
work with a will. In every possible
way she lightened her mothers burden
and when after her mother and herself
had passed many pleasant afternoons
together over books that to the mother
opened a new world of culture the
daughter planned course of study
that they might pursue together
Their home was remote from neigh
bors and they had plenty of time. Re-
sisting the inclination to go abroad
and find a congenial field for study or
professional work, the younger won.
an stayed by the elder and awakened
her to new youth
The saddest thing in life is to wit.
ness the disbursement of a woman
who having accomplished her task of
educating her children, finds herself
solitary and neglected, the return for
her devotion being that she is over
looked. while they are absorbed by
ambition and their own business or
their new relation. Sons and daugh-
ters marrying early seem to lose
identity as integral parts of their old
home. Their parents do not enjoy the
training in patience which is theirs
when at Thanksgiving and Christmas
John and Mary find it impossible to
come home, and when they are made
to feel that their convictions and opin-
ions are of little account with the sec.
ond generation.
After a woman is so years old she
may as well die" was the bitte-
speech of a mother who realized that
so far from taking the first place with
her children, she had become a cipher
in their estimation.
Naturally, when children have left
behind them schools and school mas
ters and are confronted with the prob
lens and situations of maturity they
have a right to independence. They
must take the responsibility for their
own actions. They are not unlike the
birds that have learned to use their
wings and get their own food and that
no longer need the supervision that
was once so untiring in the days of
the nest. Yet it were well for most
grown up children to delay too much
training of their parents. How shall
we train our mothers would best be
answered in most instances, by an
emphatic order to let them alone Let
mothers dress as they please, set their
tables as they like. hold fast to little
provincialisms in their dialect, un-
checked, and be old-fashioned if they
wish. There are endless varieties of
roses in these days, but the white
rose that blooms in the old-fashioned
garden is sweeter than any of the
newer productions.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1890