The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-07-02
EVENING CHAT
BIZ RUTH CAMERON.


People always say that mothers
love for her children is so much great
| er than theirs for her. Now 1 have
the sweetest mother in the world, and
| love her SO dearly that 1 am sure
| that she cannot care any more for me
write and say that it is not at all an
1nyariable rule a young girl wrote
me the other day.
| Perhaps she does care as much for
| her mother as her mother does for
| her. Or perhaps she just isn't old
enough to have learned how great love
can be. Of course, I can't judge.
But am going to tell her and any
one else who has any doubt about
| the difference between mother love and
child love. two little stories.
| They were told me the other day by
Mary Boyle O'Reilly the famous wom-
an prison commissioner.
A woman lay dying in Sherborn
prison. She had left a good husband
/ for another man, then left that man
for the life of the streets and had
dragged her husbands name in the
foulest mud of the gutter.
| When the woman was dying Miss
| O'Reilly sent for her husband. When
| he came he brought with him a girl
of about fourteen who had been put
into convent at the time of the trou-
| bic and had been brought up there.
| Miss O'Reilly took the girl under
ward her mothers room. The girl
| looked about her in surprise and said:
What queer looking hospital"
| Naturally it didn't take the quick
what that meant. The daughter had
never been told of the mothers shame
and the father was still making a deS-
perate effort to hide it from her.
| OF course Miss O'Reilly tried to CO.
| operate and the girl might never have
| known if a squad of prisoners in pris-
| on garments had not come down the
corridor at just that moment. The girl
started and shrank back and then be-
fore the commissioner could stop her.
! ran straight up to one of the squad.
| What place is this ?" she demanded
/ This is Sherborn prison, Miss" an
swered the prisoner. With cry the
! girl turned and ran straight back to
| the office. The father who had been
as terribly wronged as a man could
be. made up his mind to forgive and
went to his wife. She sent back a
message pleading with the girl to
come.
But the girl refused.
And the woman died without seeing
| her
| The other story isn't quite so sad.
| Or maybe it's sadder. I'm not sure
| which.
young country girl had drifted via
the life of the streets into Sherborn
| prison.
| She was obliged to undergo an OPP
Grafton and was very i'll. Her mother
knowing nothing of all this came
down from the country in search of
| her.
She went to Miss =O'Reilly's private
| office. '.They tell you know where my
girl is she said Il do said Miss
AS they started off in the motor
| someone called after Miss O'Reilly by
her prison title, commissioner"
/ The woman looked up quickly,
''What did he call you?"
| commissioner said Mis- O'Reilly.
| The woman thought a moment. Il
| never knew but one commissioner
| missioner
THAT is what l am said Miss
| O'Reilly, and was ready to comfort the
! woman.
But the woman did not weep. Nor
during the forty miles to the prison
did she say word about her daughter.
/ Only when Miss O'Reilly had
| brought the woman to the door of
her daughters room. she took the
commissioners hand and said slowly:
you have done a good deal for me.
I can't thank you. / can only pray as
the best thing that can happen to you
And then she turned and went into
her daughters room smiling.
! And never once did she speak a
word of reproach or blame of her.
There is a difference, you see.
4
The design from which this frock for
a 6-year-old is made, is an excellent
one to use as a foundation for several
little dresses This is a good idea for