The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-12-25
WE MOTHERS
AND OUR BOYS

Along about any time of the year, it
is always proper, it seems to me,-hu-
man nature being pretty much non.
variable quantity in season and out
for some of those whose ewes and ears
are not prudshly shut TO he wavs OF
me world TO sound q note of warning.
Mothers; take care Of your Boys!
Mothers, take care of vour--your
=. what? Why. as ! live. it ought
do YOU suppose I meant by changing it
about in that silly fashion? Was it lust
fooishness? Or might it. maybe. be
something nightly like an inspiration7
] wonder. Yet, honestly, when YOU
come TO think about it, almost believe
II was Inspiration.
Take care of your boys" Because
~ we mothers do that. If we take care
OF our BOYS, If we have been taking
care OF otr boys all these years before,
ever susee we had them, the girls won t
need any taking care Of whatever, They
will be perfectly safe
Think of how nice that would bc-to
Know that our girls were Just as safe
as could be. no matter where they were.
nat theX didn Z need the strong hand
OF the policeman on the corner TO take
care OF them. That we had somehow
managed it that girl s brother and his
Trend and all the other girls brothers
and their friends would take care of
girl so that ber mother might be per-
fcctly safe and at ease about her
But right here might as well give it
as my opinion that we can t do any
thing like that if we go around day
after day and year after year saving:
Tommy. now don Z YOU do that, if
do j II tell your fawther.
Tommy, don Z you dare be saucy to
your nav, nobody but naughty little
boy is saucy to his nav"
' Tommy. You stay right here-uoyv.
Tommy, didn I, tell You TO stay right
here? What do You mean by chasing
away like that?''
Now. Tommy, don t YOU know how
wicked it is to fight? Only rude little
boys fight, and God won't love little
boy that fights.
And then on top of these offeuses TO
say: 81 can Z do a thing with Tommy
Tommy not seven years old, And later
on: ,philosophically; ''0h, | suppose boys
will be boys. And then-last and
worst: 'She is bold girl, and | have
no doubt whatever that she led Tommy
on. She g as old Ms he is, and YOU
know girl is always so much older for
her age That Is, if it is your son.
But If IL is the other mother's s son-ah,
then, woe is YOU for your sweet daugh-
Ter!
No, If we keep on doing things like
that, we can { really take care Of cur
girls Nor of anybody else Is girls And
when YOU come TO look at it right, the
takin" care Of somebody else s girl is
Just as importap. as the taking care of
our own, because if the other girl is al
twisted and warped, how do we know
she won I begin to twist and warp that
Tommy of ours2 Aud spoil the little we
may have left unspoiled of him7
Things work Just as perfectly as any
hit OF mechanism you ever saw in YOUR
hfe. Some mother starts one little
thing-Tommy all spoiled and left about
like that for other people to stumble
overland there we have mighty near
an endless chain of things that we
would rather not have. See7 No
mother lives to herself alone, and
ueitI.ar does Tommy
So. If we will persist in doing things
like that, how can we expect to bc able
to take care of our girIsl
No, m not crazy. ! mean just exact
ly what ] say. | think IL we mothers
would take care of the bows the girls
would have u perfectly lovely time
They wouldn't have to be everastingly
So 'lded and told to ''Don - You
know that what we ought to say to
Tommy when we take care of him ism u
"D Don t - at all. II is "Do.'
Be honest and square, we should
say TO Tommy. ''and obey the law. 1t
is required Of everybody on eartL