The Washington herald., 1907-04-07
LACKS OF THE MODERN HOME
Bishop Potter Thinks What Is
Wanted Is More "Mothering."
Social Organization Bnnishing II
from Family Life-Instance OF
Maternal seIashness.

A1aailab 44tAiff u IetttE N EAaffs AaAaf
Mrs Nassau Senior, the wife Of an emil
nent Englishman Of letters, was once
taken into an orphan asylum in Liver
pool, where some 400 little girls went
through their physical drill or exercises
and recited their memOrized verse with
mechanical accuracy and parrot-Iike pre-
cision. When the exhibition was con-
cluded the matron, elated with her sue
cess and the rigid accuracy Of the whole.
turned to Mrs. Senior and said, do you
see anything here, madam, that Is want
ing2' NO, replied Mrs. Senior; moth
ing-but a little motheringt" Precisely;
and it is that priceless element that
mechanism and insututonalism and what
we call social organization are Danish
ing from the modern home!
Il is at this point that there arises the
question. What IS the effect Of all this
upon the home itself, and upon those
who live In IL? I do not see how We can
escape the conclusion that its effects upon
parents is TO make them impatient Of
the "exactions, as they call them, Of
children. and disposed 10 purchase i'm
munity from them at any price. I shall
never forget the shock with which
walked away from q childs funeral. in
my early ministry. when at the door Of
the house in which it had occurred I had
encountered the family doctor The dead
little one had been a most winsome child,
and knowing that he was intimate In the
household, ! had turned 20 the doctor,
not unnaturally, for some expression of
sympathy with the bereayed mother.
Imagine my horror when, turning to
where. in the distant and darkened room,
she sat he said: Il am NOS sure that 1
ought not 10 have given her into custody.
Do you know how many bottles Of" Il
viii not mention the benumbing medicine
that he named, which, I believe, has Sig
nalized its triumphant career as a
'quieter of babies by several suits at
law were found under the bed this
morning. The poor child was drugsed TO
death"
Il would be interesting at this point to
inquire of mental analyst what he be-
lieved in such a mother 20 have survived.
It Is impossible to suppose that any ma
ternal instinct or impulse that had in II
the quality Of self-sacrihce could. have
survived: for here. plainly. was a Wo-
man who, rather than endure a broken
rest, could fatally stupefy her own off
spring And It must also be plain TO any
one who reads these lines that such
wantOn heartlessness in one direction
could not exist as an isolated character
istie. The legal aphorism. falsus in anO,
faisus in omnibus. has here its precise
parallel. II a woman is heartless, selfish,
self-indulgent in her care Of a little child,
her treatment of her older ofspring-if
they are so fortunate as 20 survive her
neglect and grow up TO manhood or wo-
manho0d-will be apt 10 be consistent to
the end. Stop now and consider what it
means to grow up in such a home.
Every now and then, in the cruel story
Of human warfare. We come across the
trail OF some heroism, the splendor Of
which consists not so much in the sub
lime audacity Of its courage as in the
sublime splendor Of its self-efTacement
Where did the hero learn it but in the
home in which mothers love and sac
rifice had long before taught the beauty
and the nobility of -efacement? In
the history Of every people there come
times when neither numbers. nor strate-
save a nation, but only personal heroism;
and the fountain OF that heroism must
have been in the breast Of some brave
woman who could die for her children.
but to spare herself or save herself could
never desert themi We remember that
New England stage-dTiver who. making
his way over his accustomed route with
q seornful foreigner on the box seat. be-
side him, was challenged by the foreigner.
who had noted the hard and inhospitabIe
soil on every hand, with the cOntemptu-
Dus question; What do you raise here?''
and who answered. crisply. I'VE raise
men," Does it occur 20 US that nation
cannot survive that does not raise men.
and that al our cleverest systems of
merely mental culture are in vain unless
somehow We can rear race Of brave and
sons and daughters?