The true Democrat. [volume] (Bayou Sara [La.]) 1892-1928, 1917-01-27
OUR OWN WHO ARE STRANGERS.


HRtl' tN' tVIdliH " no HAtt bf8H bu
10 school. and who are returning
weighted down with blue rbtoned
diplomas, and au implicit faith tSat
they Hfe iucafHate wisdom. and that
nobody ever kueW SO much before
Many OF these young people have
come out uf What we call plain homes.
and arc going back 10 them. Their
parents did not have the advantages
Of education and culture that they have
given their children II is the man who
had no chance Of schooling In bis own
hard youth, aud who has felt the need
.of wider information every day of his
life, that Is most determined that hts
sons shall be college bred It Is the
woman whose own girlhood VAS bare
of accomplishments who Is the most
dcyout believer Ia the higher education
OF women, and Who moves heaven and
earth to send her daughters of TO
fashionable boarding schools.
So Jack and Mamie go of 10 college
and many. and many time. the price
of their education Is paid Ia pinchiHg
economies, aud heroic selfdealal at
home Fathers stopping shoulders
bend lower under the weight Of college
bills Mothers hair takes on fresh
streaks of silver over the anxiety OF
providing the girls with the things
their school mates have, but the old
people count the reward they are look,
ing for worth the price Of the sacrifices
they are making all, all will be- repaid
thousand fold when their children
come home to comfort and bless them,
At length the cyentfui day arrives.
Jack and Mamie have graduated with
honor at the head Of their class. They
are coming home. and nothing but that
wholesome fear Of our neighbours rtdl.
cule, which prevents us from making
fools of ourselves so often, keeps the
doting parents from meeting them at
the station with ii iorchiight procession
and a brass baud playing, Behold the
cunquertng hero comes The tall young
fellow. laden with golf sticks. aud the
smart young woman. the very cut Of
whose travelling gown makes mothers
rusty old black alpaca look antedelu.
yiau. are drawn across the threshold
by the trembling old hands There Is a
sifled cry of JOS from the old lips, a
moments cliariug Of the old arms that
enfoId their own once more, aud then
and then
And then II begins to dawn upon
both parents and children. slowly, sure.
~, @it with the dread chill Of certainty
ia Il. that they are strangers to each
other They have grown out Of each
others lives. and they have nothing Ia
common. neither IDEAS nor taste, nor
even the same language. nothing bat
thin habit Of efTcetion
The parents have educated their
children cut of their class Mamie
shudders when her mother artlessly
asks her. as she helps uapaek east Of
the Venus dc Milo" that has adorned
ManiIp's study walls, why she brought
a broken old thing like that, Jack
sueers at his fathers political opinions
and inability tn trace historical paral-
iels. The little Jones girl who lives
neat door and knows the gossip Of the
neigh hOfhuod IL more of Il comfort and
companion 60 mother than her own
daughter The ffcckle-faced bill clerk
v no has worked up from an errand boy
aud aho knows nothing on earth but
the grocery trade. is more eongeniaI 60
father than the sou he has shaved for
aud on whom he has built such hopes
This sort Of a family tragedy Ia SO
common among as that familiarity with
Il has robbed 1t Of its Significance. ~
but surely there Ia no other situation
In life more full Of fateful possibilities,