The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-03-02
EUening Chat
Then and Now.
BY RUTH CAMERON.

was upstairs, mamma, moving
my things said Susan, in fearless,
self-defending tone, which startled
Fanny. You know you lad but just
settled that my sister Fanny ana
should have the other room: and
could not get Rebecca to give me any
help "-Jane Austen.
Being not quite recovered from my
lazy, Christmas mood, L have
been rereading my beloved Jane Aus
tens books instead of acquainting my
self with something new.
The above quotation is from Mans
field Park and 1 have introduced it
here, because it illustrates that thing
in these books which struck me most
strongly at this time, and that is the
remarkable amount of fillal respect
and duty which was taken for granted
in this portrayal of the life of a CEN
fury ago.
Susan, of the quotation, defends
herself from an unfair accusation of
laziness, by giving an account OF what
she has been doing. 1t is difficult to
imagine any fourteen-year-old child
of today who would not thus justify
herself. And yet so far was such
way of speaking to ones mother from
the usages of good society, that, as you
perceive, the well-bred Fanny is
startled.
In Pride and Prejudice" as you
the ill-bred, silly mother of two
charming, well-bred girls, drives away
two desirable young men who were on
the verge of falling in love with her
daughters by her vulgar manners and
her indiscretion in talking to her
neighbor about the elder daughters
engagement before it had material
lied.
The girls are too sensitive and in
telIigent not to suffer constantly from
their mothers vulEarity, and yet in
spite of this and in spite of the fact
that the elder is almost heartbroken
over the loss of her lover, to whom
she was sincerely attached. it scarcely
seems to occur to them that they
might demonstrate with their parent.
On just one occasion. the time when
Mrs. Bennett is making herself and
her family ridiculous by talking about
the advantages OF James engagement
before the young man has proposed,
does Elizabeth, who is very fond of
her sister. say For heavens sake,
ma DAME speak lower" a warning
which is of no avail
AS the thing is happening in novel
instead of real life. the two lovers do
return, and in spite of the mothers
Stiffness and vulgarity. show them
selves anxious to marry the daugh-
tiers.
one would thirk that this time the
and gently warn her against offending
again. But no, though Elizabeth is
supposed to be a girl of unusual spi-
rit, she resigns herself without q pro-
test to this evil and finds her only
safety in the fact that Mrs. Bennett
luckily stood in such awe of her in
tended son-in-law that she ventured
not to speak to him, unless it We're in
her power to offer him any attention
or mark her Difference for his opin-
ior -
The contrast between then and now
is great, is it not?
One can just fancy how Mrs. Ben
nett would have been sat upon by her
daughters if she had had the misfor-
tune to live a century later. Indeed
most of us know some gentle little
mother with none of Mrs. Benefits
faults. who is constantly rebuked by
her children. lust because she isn't as
up-to-date as they.
One might not mind seeing the Mrs
BENEFITS rebuked occasionally. but
one could wish for the sake of more
deserving parents that a little more CT
the filial respect that protected her
were shown in the present generation
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