The Washington herald., 1911-07-25
If YOU OULDHAVE JUST ONE
WISH, WHAT WOULD 1T BE?
By JULIA CHANDLER MANI.
f you could pray you a prayer andA
By JULIA CHANDLER MANI.


have it granted for what would you ask?
If you might voice just one wish and
have some good fairy wave her mystic
wand across this day and hour of your
life granting that one wish, for what
would you ask her?
Readers Of The Washington Herald's
Page for Every Woman are invited to
answer this question in not more than
300 words, and are assured in doing so
that their names will not be divulged
where this request is made.
Down deep in the heart Of every man
and woman I believe there is some one
hope or prayer which dominates their
action and controls their emotions; some
one pulsating longing that overshadows
everything else in life.
The other day 1 went into a home
where, six months ago, death touched
the mother Of three young children with
his finger, leaving their father alone with
them.
There has been no lack Of financial
resources, and he has provided his chill
dren with everything except the one that
they most need.
The One Thing.
.If in all life 1 could have but one
thing" he said to me, 'if I could have
Just one prayer granted and know that
in gaining that one thing I would lose
all others, I would ask for the mother
of my children. Not Just a mother, but
the mother
I glanced about the beautiful room in
which I was seated and thought how
richly prosperity had blessed him, and
how fortunate were his little children
that poverty would not stand between
them and an education. AS If he read
nv thought the man waved his hand In
a gesture that took in his SURROUNDINGS.
1T is all as nothing to them In COM
Uarison TO their mother. l feel utterly
helpless, particularly when I stand and
watch them asleep in some still night
hour, utterly helpless to supply the one
thing that would fill their little hearts
with happiness-their mother.
wouId Make Human Document.
Il was after this that my brain began
to gather in the multitude of wishes that
I heard expressed by folks here and
there and everywhere, and it seemed 10
me that it would make an intensely in
teresting human document to learn the
wish or prayer closest the heart of man
kind. finding IL the trend of human -
sire is the same or II it differs widely.
And so 1 am asking you to tell me the
one prayer you would make If you had
but one.
Would it be for wealth, for love, for
beauty, for culture, for travel, or Tor
home?
met a sad little woman some months
ago who told me that the wish that lay
closest to her heart was to go back to
the home of her childhood. down in Ala
bama, for the passing of her later years
She said that all through her life home
sickness had assailed her heart. eating
its way into her vitals until She had
found il impossible tc be happy any
where.
There was a particular little stream
that ran ran through the Southern val
ley that sang it's way into her memory IN
her daytime hours and controlled her
dreams at night-a little brook whose
voice she had never been able to still.
1t had a hold on her life that she could
not shake off, and so it was that If she
could pray her one prayer and have 1t
granted it would be to answer the call OF
the brook that sings its way through the
valley.
Silly sentiment?
Maybe, but sentiment is the golden
thread of life that keeps it from being
all of sodden lead
Somewhere, some time, it lives in every
human heart and makes us all akin, and
is not a thing Of which to bsashamed.
So. II that dearest wish Of yours is pure
" a matter of sentiment let not the fact
deter your sending it to me, for you have |
my assurance that no signature will be |
attached to an article where the authors
name is requested withheld
Please write OF one side of the paper |
only and where possible limit your
answer to 300 words.