The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1909-12-04
A Royal Mother to Mothers.

l
doms, that of flowers and animal life
| Therein they learn to love beauty and
| to be kind hearted.
| Almost from the day they were born
my children have lived in the open. Not
for hours merely not by way of out
| ings by carriage or on foot at stated
| times. No, they are in the open from
morn till night, when the weather is at
all favorable, and if it rains they play
| in open halls in the garden or park.
| Bodily they are projected against the
wet or cold, but they are never allowed
to breathe stuffy air. Every breath they
| draw is fresh, untainted.
| If l were a woman in moderate cir
cumstances, forcel to live in close
quarters, l would still find ways and
| means for giving my little ones the
needed sunshine and fresh air. Do not
tell me that the arrangements of tene-
ments, or similar living quarters, for
bid. They may-on the surface-but CO.
operation can surely overcome the diff
Guilty somehow.
Let several mothers combine, hiring
a back yard or an unusued building lot
for all their children to play in. Every
great city has a great many philan-
thropists; they will help along such
schemes. Every small town has few.
In winter only a roof is needed, on
stout beams, for the children to play
under, either with sand or snow. If
your means permit construct a little
sun parlor in one corner. This may be
used as sort of day hospital, if stove
is added, when child is ILL.,
My two little girls and my small
boy never knew what it was to be re-
strained in the enjoyment of nature.
They run barefoot at the seashore;
the ocean, with proper restrictions, of
course, is their tub. You should see
them roll in the hay at our farm, or
watch them in the green, or in the snow,
at the Quirinal gardens.
Few mothers, thank God, are too poor
to allow their children similar ineXpen
siye luxuries There are many cities,
towns and hamlets by the sea, still more
stretch along the banks of rivers, others
have brooks near, and a romp in fresh
hay can be enjoyed almost everywhere
in city and town. If it's out of the
question for the children of the poor,
then the cities should provide haystacks
in the public parks.
L see to it that my children are
happy as larks from morn till night.
They are as healthy as any children
in the wide, wide world. They seldom
ask for playthings not provided by ma
nature, and the little ones are fully
convinced that heaven and water fruit
and flowers, birds and pebbles, their
animal friends and the insects in the
grass and in the air were made by the
good Lord for children's special benefit,
their natural playthings.
| often watch them from the WIN
dows, or looking up from my embroid
cry. There they are, their little
hands on their naked knees, looking
at a flower newly poisoning or
watching a nestful of tiny birds with
open beaks, crying for food.
One day small cousin came to
visit them in the country. He was a |
willful boy, boasting Of his prowess
and strength.
He asked my husband for the gift |
of a riding whip, and after luncheon
ran ahead of my children into
blooming meadow and began flashing
the daisies and buttercups and the |
high grass right and left
My children were at first benumber |
with establishment and terror. Then |
they came running to me to stop Car |
los and asked their papa to take the |
whip away from him.
ooh, how the flowers and tall grass
must have suffered by the whipping |
that bad boy gave them" they said,
and repeated the words again and |
again.
One day last winter 1 was sitting
in my study reading, when little UNI
berto came running in. He played |
about for while, then pointed to a
blossom that had fallen from wall
bouquet upon the divan.
Little mother" he said, "do let
me climb upon the divan. See, the
mamma flower has lost her child
There it is upon the cushion. 1 want
to restore it to its mamma"
The little fellow finished his charita-
ole mission, not without spelling costly /
piece of furniture with his dirty boots
Then he said: THAT baby flower need
40 longer cry. 1t is happy now with
is mamma. Elena, in the Cincinnati
Enquirer.