New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1915-09-15
SOMETHING TO THINK ON.

II you have an old mother be good
to her. Tell her that you love her.
Kiss her faded old lips. Hold in yours
the work-knotted hands. Scatter
few Of the flowers of tenderness and
appreciation in her pathway while she
is alive and can be made happy by them.
Don't wait to put all your affection
and gratitude and reverence for her into
ton of marble inscribed: Mother.
Don't wait to throw all your bouquets
on her grave. 1t is mighty doubtful
whether an angel in heaven takes any
interest in cemeteries, or gets any salts
faction from revisiting earth, and con-
templating a flattering tombstone; but
it is utterly, certainly certain, that you
can make your old mothers heart sing
for Joy by showing her while she is alive
just one 1.-THE of love and appreciation
that you would heap upon her when she
is dead. Duty to ones mother is not
enough. A little example to more fully
bring this out. A certain man, middle
aged and prosperous, is married and has
a lovely home. He is a good man,
highly respected and he hasn't an idea
but what he is doing his full duty by
his mother, who lives in his home and
whom he supports. He supplies her
wants. She eats at his table, is sheltered
by his roof, is decently clothed by his
care; but that is all.
He neglects her. He never says a
word of affection to her. He never
pays her any little attentions. When
ever she ventures an opinion he cuts
her short with curt contempt. When
she tells her garulous old stories as
old people will, he does not even try
to conceal how much he is bored.
In a thousand unintentional ways
the old mother is made to feel that she
is cumberer of the ground, an i'm
pediment of the household, an old
fashioned and useless piece of furniture,
which every one will be glad to get rid
Of. Under this GOODNESS and neglect
the poor old mothers heart is breaking.
If could only say to such a man: "Give
love as we'll as duty to your mother. Give
her the wine of life as well as the bread.
Don't forget the one who never forgets
YOU" OF course this man, as many
others will say, is busy, 'overworked,
care-burdened; that he has the claims
of wife and children upon him. This
may be so. But your mothers life
has not been easy. She worked not the
eight or ten-hour day of the union, but
the twenty-four hour day of the mother.
She cooked, cleaned, scrubbed, patched
and nursed from dawn until bedtime,
and in the night was up and down,
getting drinks for thirsty lips, covering
restless little sleepers, listening for
croupy coughs.
She had time to listen to your stories
of fun and triumph She had time to
say the little things that spurred your
ambition on. She never forgot to cook
the little dishes you liked. She did
without the dress she needed, that you
need not be ashamed of your dress.
Stop and think what life would have
been to you if you had been treated in
your childhood days as you are treating
your mother in her old age? Is Esss:
Suppose there had been no soft breast
on which you could weep out your
childish sorrow, no clinging arms to
enfold you and comfort you when the
things in your little world went wrong?
Would it not take away the memory
of that which is best and sweetest in
life? The most forlorn figure I have
ever seen is the old mother, who is IN
loved by the children raised, and who is
doomed to the last years of her life in a
glacial atmosphere of neglect; her de-
votion, her labors, her sacrifice for
gotten.
Remember then, now while there is
yet time while she is living, to pay back
to her in love and tenderness something
on your account, this very day.
Go home, if you can, and put your
arms around her, kiss with a real love,
instead of a peck on the cheek. Tell
her that she is the best mother that
could ever live. It will cause her very
soul to leap with Joy, and make the :
world place of circling joy-if she
doesn't drop dead with surprise.
The best that is in us we owe to our
mother. Our dads may have been all
right; in fact, as men 60, most of them
were. But they didn't cuddle us or
kiss our bruises or pillow us on loving
hearts to sob away the grief of the day
or make us forget the fears of the stormy
nights.
When it comes to the fundamental
love, the kind one looks for when in
trouble or distress, it will never be
found after we have laid away our
mother. We may turn to our helpmate