Ceredo advance. [volume] (Ceredo, W. Va.) 1885-1939, 1906-06-06
BY MARGARET e. sANGsrER.

out. Very few household emergencies
Seem TO them of sufficient importance
to justify the slightest concession, so
far as this pleasure of theirs is con-
cerned. Illness in the family or af-
Fiction seldom interferes with the
regularity OF the maids visiting her
own people on the day that belongs
to her, and 1t is a very high-handed and
independent mistress who ventures
now and then to suggest a change in
the programme OF the people below
stairs. Indeed one cannot blame
Norah for insisting on her vested rights
IN this matter, for there is undoubted
monotony in kitchen work and domes-
tic servants get little opportunity for
fresh air and sunshine. even when
they are allowed a good deal of free
dom in the evening when the days
work IS over.
There is an aspect OF home life far
too little considered in the numerous
households where the presiding
genius is a woman whose tastes in
cline her to stay much indoors, and
whose ideal Of duty compells her TO
feel that whoever is absent, she must
always be on duty. When the chill
dren go to school the mother is at
the door to see them off and to watch
them as they tramp merrily and sturd-
lily down the street. When they rush
In at the noon recess eager for lunch
con, mother is on the spot and her
presence makes the noon hour the
brighter for her boys and girls. When
the husband leaves for business the
wife waves CHEEKY hand to him from
the window, and when he turns the
latch key at night and she hears it's
click, she is ready to receive him with
a smile and greeting. Her position
is that of monarch who cannot alb
dictate and who may not leave the
precincts of his realm. In another
phase 1T is like that of the soldier
who cannot desert his post for ever
SO short time under stringent penal
ties. Habit and routine have bound
this wife and mother with letters of
silk that are strong as iron. Nobody
sees any particular goo'ness or vir-
tue in the mothers devotion since it
is only what is expected of her, and
the sort of thing that has been ex-
pected from mothers for many a gen
Grafton.
/ am not alluding to the fashionable
mother whose days are a round of
brilliant functions and who delegates
her individual responsibilities to
nurses, governesses and needy rela-
tives. Nor am / thinking of the heed
less mother to whom duty is merely
name and whose selfishness leads
her to shirk any claim that she can.
In our country the vast majority of
mothers are self-sacrificing TO a fault,
forgetting and effacing themselves
that their children may nave the right
OF way in every department, in
amusement, in study, in comfort and
ease, in dress, and in the small lux
uries that are the embroideries on the
rough garment of daily usage
There are thousands of women
growing old prematurely, losing
health, beauty and elasticity because
they almost never have any relaxation
apart from their own households.
Once a week at least, the mother
should have her afternoon out. She
should take 1t as a part of her re-
ligion and should conscien iousIy in
sist for that time on being away from
the loved ones who are so precious
and yet so burdensome. Were the
mother snatched from her darlings
and laid to rest under the spring VIC
lets, the children would be Obliged to
live on without her incessant care and
brooding
Homes rise before me in thought in
which a few brief months ago the
mother was at once chief ruler and
servantin-chief. She is Zone. The
catastr )phe Of a sudden sickness and
swift death has -yrecked the joy Of
the place whefe the mothers smile
was the constant benediction. In
more than one instance mothers who
are thus lost to their families might
nave been saved had their vitality not
been saDped by too strenuous and too
unremittiDg toll and oversight. part
of which might have been shifted to
other shoulders.
Several years ago in large eastern
city a woman whose life was i'm
merely valuable to her husband and
childrel seemed about to break down
In nervous collapse. Her physician
said: You must take one day in
seven and drop the loads you are car.
rying, stay Out Of doors, go TO see pic.
lures, OF 70 hear music, OF spend the
time in visiting a friend, OF in doing
something agreeable away from the
atmosphere Of your home" The pre-
scription was followed to the rein
forcement Of the falling health and TO
the permanent advantage of the en-
tire household.
To secure this afternoon out may
mean little effort in the beginning.
Here the mother will require the aid
OF some one who owes her and who