Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1912-09-09
The Home Circle
Thoughts from the Editorial Pen

i Thoughts from the Editorial Pen I:
In the art gallery of the Worlds
Fair at Chicago there was a picture
before which a crowd usually stood
spellbound. On every side there were
works of art, many of them more
pretentious, yet no other picture ap-
pealed to the masses as did this one.
The subject was Breaking Home
Ties" Doubtless you have all seen
it, or reprints of it. 1t emphasized
an experience that comes into the life
of every mother when her boy leaves
home to seek what fortune has in
store for him in strange place.
The strongest instinct of the hui
man race is the parental one. The
love which more nearly approaches
the Divine than any other is the
mother love. 1t is primeval instinct
1t is the instinct which modern wom-
an shares with the cliff dwellers,
and with every species of animal.
Yet it is still more nearly divine than
that of any other instinct.
The time comes when the mother
bird teaches her young how to use
their wings. Every female creature
puts in few days or weeks or
months or years in training her
young for the part they must take
in life. 1t is the human parent alone
who is unequal to the task, because
selfishness enters so largely into the
composition of every human being.
What if the mother bird should
say, lowering flutteringly over her
birdlings, You must not try to fly
Stay under the shelter of my wings
yet little longer and father will
grub for you and bring you all the
fattest, juicient worms in the gar
den."
Every beast of the field and eyerv
fowl of the air knows that it is wis
young, that they may defend them
selves against any foe, whether it be
that of hunger, of hatred, of malice
or lust of blood.
1t is the human mother alone that
says to her young, Stay yet a while
in the old nest. Do not leave me.
will shield you from harm"
1t is heart-breaking task-teach-
ing our young to use the wings
which will take them away from us
Yet it is all part of wise plan,
and to go contrary to it is an in
fringement of law that will bring a
world of sorrow and regret in its
train.
There are, perhaps, few things a
mother is called upon to suffer more
painful than that of cutting the
apron strings that have bound her
children to her. Yet the Joy of find
ing that child has learned to stand
alone, mingled as it is with a vague
sense of loss, is sufficient reward to
the mother who has put self behind
her and considered only the best
good of the child.
1t cannot be unalloyed pleasure
that causes the mother bird to perch
on bough and carol joyously, when
she sees that her birdlings shave
learned to fly successfully and need
no longer depend upon her. She
knows that it is the beginning of the
end. She realizes that they will soon
be building their own nests, and that
she will never again have them in
the old nest, in just the same old
way.
Yet she carols, because she has
been obedient to the law which de-
mands the sacrifice of self She has
not yielded to the temptation to de-
lay the necessary instruction. In
stead, she has done her full duty to
her young. She has taught them to
| do without her.
One sometimes hears young moth
ers complain of being tied down by
the care of their children. To one
upon whom has devolved the i'm
mense sacrifice of teaching heI
young to use their wings, the blessed
period of being tied down seems the
most precious time of life.
AS the day approaches for breaak-
ing home ties, the most Spartan OF
mothers feels like drawing hel
young within the shelter of her arms
and holding them there.
Indeed, not to do So requires an
unselfishness that lifts a mother
higher in the scale which weighs
mortals to determine whether the
balance is on the side of the human
or the divine.