The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1907-02-07
EDITo RIAL
TO OUR MOTHERS |!

of olG Vermont was born
the little girl who was to be our
mother. We have never been there.
and perhaps our ideal is entirely
astray. but we have in our mind S
eye picture of the little village. the
deep snow. the dark green of the
pines. the roughly rising mountains.
the narrow valley with its ice-bound
stream. We seem to see the home
built farm house with its many sheds
and barns. The icicles hanging from
the broad caves. The wood corded
in great piles ready for the Fireplace.
We can see; too, the simple. Clearly
lives of those Green Mountain people.
Neighbors they had but few, books
were scarce. But what they had were
priced and they got more from that
little, than we do from our much.
1t was into this atmosphere, half
Puritan. half ''free thinking" like
Tom Paine. that the little girl was
born. Seveny-six years. yes-ever
so many years ago-for since that
time the world has grown old faster
than.it had for centuries before. At
three the little. girl was deprived of
her mother. and but for the elder sis
ter who mothered' and cared for her
throughsall her days, hard would it
have been. for the little one. We
see her living with relatives. in New
Hampshire. and finally going with
her father to cherries home out in
the great West. Michigan was then
a pioneer state. very near the end of
things. but here the little girl grew
to womanhood. She taught school
eight dollars a month. boarding
around dyspepsia and chronic in
validism were the results. She mar
ried raw German boy whose only pos
sessions were grit and brains. They
had high ideals. Together they
edited a paper, back in old German
town. Ohio. The files of that paper
we have yet. They were abolitionists
in the days when. the let the South
alone" policy prevailed as it does
to-day. They were republicans when
there were no republicans. except
themselves Need it be said that they
were unpopular?
They left the newspaper. and he
who was no farmer tried to farm.
1t meant sheer starvation. and
that was what the young mother had
to face. We have never felt jealous.
although we always knew that the
first horn held place in her heart
that we could never fill. One thought
of those days on the farm sufficed to
explain and justify.
Finally the stress of circumstances
brought republican victory. The zeal
of the husband was rewarded and he
was given an appointment at Wash
ington. Borrowed money took him
there and it was several drearl
months before enough could be savee
to transport the balance of the family
There is no need to recapitulate
no need to go over the life at Wash
ington or the final move to Iowa
where for several years the LITTLE
family were strangers in a strang'
land before their new neighbors learn
ed to love them in spite of the "east
ern ways" of the mother and TIN
German accent of the father.
We write to-day not so much o
our mother. but of mothers. Through
all the trials of life the good mother
come victorious. Doubtless the
know all the evil of the world. al
it's viciousness and wrong doing. bu
the mind of good woman acts as
moral filter. knowledge of the impur
may enter. but only the pure though
issues forth. How the good mother
watch over US. how they temper tn
harsh judgments of the world. no,
their memories bring out all tn
good there is in man? One never out
grows it. the mother love. it fall
like a mantle of charity about us
hiding the faults. finding excuses
sustaining. surrounding, unfolding
undying. None so sever in self-jude
ment. none so lenient with others
none so self-sacrificing. so self-effae
ing. Fair to see is the maiden. glac
some her eyes. tempting her sunl
face. but the mother, is the Made
sublimated. sanctifed. raised SO nea
the throne, that Heaven is but Iii
tie journey on. And while we hay
the face of our own dear mother bt
fore us as we write, and seem to fe'
the warm love-light in her eyes. ar
to hear again the caress of the foolish
tender. pet names she had for us. W
have in mind the ideal mother. you
mother. as we'll as ours. for, than
God, his mother is tn" ldeaP' mothe
to every loyal. loving son. God bles