Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1915-05-14
Mothers Sacrifices
The Woman Who Goes Without Ordinary Comforts in
Order to Give Son College Education is Doing
Injustice TO Him as Well as Herself.

sess, and which renders them incapable
of seeing what is best for their children,
and makes their piteous sacrifices as use
less and impotent as any ever offered up
by heather before a stone image.
There is no other virtue in the world
that is so overloaded as self-sacrifice.
Oftener than not it is either sheer idocy
or, crime and a curse instead of
blessing to those for whom II was made.
To take the specific instance recorded
i'm this book can any sane person really
think that the boy was the better for
the sacrifices, heroic in themselves, that
the mother made for him? Could such
fnmolatioh of herself for rim dc any
thing else but make him aybEutal. selfish
egoust? Ard what a bounder "a, boy
must be WHO would be willing to let his
mother starve that he might feast. TO,
Permit her to so shabby that he might
have silk ties and sox that exactly
matched. ~
Wouldn't this hoy, Or any other boy in
the. world. have made finer man. a !
moro useful citizen, and have had really
a-better chance TO make a material sic-'
cess in life. II he had borne his part of
the, family, burden, II he had been raised
hIs0t tovthtAIg he must havA the best az
eVeSything, but TO have ahsl Imp assionetii
and ciiiyafrfc desire to care FOR his
mother, and give her the best r..
In his biography Andrew Carnegie says,
that his first impulse toward making
money was in order to take care of his
mother, Barrie tells the same thing. and
that, hTs,one cry to his mother when he
was even a tiny lad was. wait until
I'm mans Then you shalt have every;
thing" And thousands of lesser men
have been driven along the road that
leads to big things by that same noble
impulse-to make life soft and beautiful
for a mother who has had hard life.
1t is understandable why a. mother,
should be willin gto make great sacriI
fees to try to educate her. son. but there
Is one point that these mothers are slav-
ing themselves to death to send their
boys TO college. should remember. That
| liz, that there is one thing a million times
better than a university degree. and that
is character.
1t is far. better that lads alma mater
should be the mother who bore him than
1t is for it to be pile Of bricks and
mortar. The boy who hustles out and
helps mother make a living, nine times
out Of ten, will go further than the weak.
selfish, lazy loafer. who let's mother worn
i'her fingers TO the bone TO send him off
TO college ar 81
And mether's sacrifices are equally dis
astrous when they are made for girls
Mother makes of herself a burnt offer
ing over the kitchen stove In order that
Mabel and Gladys may keep their hands
I =.
shabby that her own daughters are
ashamed to speak to her in the stree
that Mabel and Gladys may have tn,
latest freak hat and dress from Paris.
And what is the result? She raises vi
women who are monsters of selfishness
and utterly useless to curse the men wht
marry her, They have seen mother sac
rifice TO themselves ever since they weT,
born. They have been taught by moth
er's attitude that they. an dthey alone
are the ones TO be considered; that the!
have a right TO the best of everything
: and the world was created for thei
7 pleasure. and when they find that thei
husbands have no idea OF following
mothers example and making doormaL
. Of themselves, there's trouble in IT,
! family.
II you could trace back every divorc
you would almost invariably find tina
Emother should be named as the real co
respondent. 1t was mothers unselfish
ness that created the Frankenstein. NAL
, or female, with whom nobody else codi
] Awe.
Surely the very angels must weep owe
. the self-sacriflce of mothers It is $
5 bitter, ana 1t does so much harm 70
3 a woman to immediate herself for her chi
5 idren IA immoral There Is nothing gran
and noble about IT, and the sooner "
recognize this the better