Clarke courier. [volume] (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997, 1907-10-30
The BOTHER as Defends: Of the RAGS.
Published by Reques,l

OF her kind, in that faroff time of
Dragons OF the prime
That tore each other in their
slime. /"
The remnants OF that dismal
age, /" says John Fiske, have been
left behind in great abundance. and
from them. we can easily recon-
struct the loathsome picture Of a
world of dominating cgotiSm,
whose redemption through the
evolution of true maternity had
not yet effectively begun. OF all
kinds of altruism the mothers was
no doubt the earliest: it was the
derivativc source from Which all
other kinds were by slow degrees
developed"
With the developments of this
altrusitic love came a mighty con-
fl CT against the dragons. reptiles,
and other horrid creatures which
''ad so long preyed upon all living
things around them. "The results
of that struggle" continues Mr..
Fiske, ARE registered i'm the
Eocene rocks. The ancient world
had found its Waterloo. The un-
couth and dreadful brood was
vanquished from the earth. Never
in the history of our planet has
there been more sweeping victory
than that of the mammals"
The lesson OF the ages, therefore
is that the mother is the true de-
fender. IL is written upon the
rocks as well as upon the human
heart and in the human mind.
Her instinct for protector guided
the animal world through all the
tempestuous epochs and vast con-
fiicts of prehistoric times. And
when the real mother, the human
mother. came, TO her was given
the promise Of protection for her
posterity. Thy seed shall bruisc
his head" She was not to be a
mother without the promise of
power and victory over the serpent
and dragon and the whole brood of
destroyers.
And so is the mother to the
world, The first knowledge which
each human being gains of the
world is the fact of a mothers S
brooding care. 1t is a beautiful
and blessed arrangement. The
babe is placed in its mothers arms,
and those arms underneath are all
the earth 10 it. and the face up into
which it looks, all the heavens
above; the smile of love, sunlight;
the eyes, stars; the voice ,,all music.
and the wooing and the caressing
like the brooding of spirit over
an unfortunate world.
But the child goes out of the
mothers arms and then comes the
conflict. For whatever monsters
may have been vanquished in the
Eocene age, there are still dragons
and serpents In the earth, and
they hunt for the precious life.
Every mother must fight the battle
over again, just as though all gen
erations of mothers had not been
fighting it since animal existence
began on the earth. And unfor-
tunately too many male members
of the race have not yet learned
the lesson which all the ages have
been teaching, that there is nothing
SO wise, SO true, so loving, so loyal
TO the welfare of our kind, as the
maternal instinct. So that much
of the battle must be waged not
only with the gambler. the rum
seller, the sorccrer, and the keeper
OF every den of iniquity, but alSt
with the magistrate, the legislator,
the statesman and even the minis
ter-that is, the New York minis.
teri But as Henry Ward DcechcI
used to say, Every man has a
menagerie in him; stir him up and
Lyou will find every kind of animal
there" Strike down into the men
who are opposing the mothers OF
the land in their attempts TO save
their sons from the saloon and the
brothel, and you would probably
find some remaining specimens OF
the predaceous tribes of the past.
i Bat others are learning thelessor
and the whole nation will learn il
as time goes on. We have main,
tanned protective policy for al
, | industriesJw have built up manu-
factures and promoted all forms ot