The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1919-04-12

which it was the duty of the young
son of the house to refill every even
ing after school. Think of the big
back yard with it's swings and apple
trees and dove cots and chicken
houses. There were no forbidden
games because of the noise in this
yard, although in the front, where
mothers flower beds were filled with
old-fashioned flowers of every variety,
you had to behave with decorum. In
the back yard you could "ring-around-
the-rosy" as you pleased, and build
and dig and run and throw to hearts
content, without breaking a window
on every side.
No Moving Pictures in Those Days.
There were no moving pictures in
those days to lure the family away
| for their evenings entertainment.
Children sat at the table, studying
their lessons for the next day, while
father read the evening paper find
now and then with mother, who sat
sewing and mending and darning and
stitching and singing. Sometimes the
children popped corn and roasted APP
pies, and finally came the good old
fashioned family prayers.
Are there still many such old-fash-
toned. aye, such real homes today?
| The modern home spoils them and
in a comparatively few years all will
have gone. Home life is disappear
| ing and with it children will not have
the same tender glowing memories
that their good parents have of dear
! Old-fashioned homes. Homes today
are merely dwellings for eating and
! sleeping and storing ones goods: all
| the time that is not spent at work is
| put in at the countless clubs, the I'M
| wholesome shows, at the nightly
| Whirl at the dance, or in pursuit of
some other pet amusement till the
morning hour, while the good old
father and mother sit around the good
old stove alone, wondering how the
change could have come that they are
| now so lone and forsaken and where
| luelI lulSuI De.
Mother means love, but how often
do children spell ingratitude No man
or woman, no matter what love, what
consideration, what tenderness, what
money they lavish upon a good moth
er, can ever repay the debt they owe
her: and this debt is trebled when the
mother is poor woman, because then
everything that the mother does for
| the child is personal sacrifice.
What a Good Mother Does.
A good mother lays down the foun.
dation of her children's success in life
with her own hearts blood. In order
that her growing boys and girls may
have the food they need, she eats
often sparingly. In order that they
may have the advantage of education
she missed, she goes in shabby
clothes. In order that they may pre-
sent creditable appearance she tolls
over the wash tub, and the sewing
machine far into the night.
If they are sick it is Mother who
watches beside their beds with tire
!, less devotion. If they bring home
prize from school it is Mother who i!
proudest and most rejoiced over it
If when they go out into the worlt
5 they fail, and come back bruised AM
| beaten and sin stained, it is Mothe
who received back the prodigals will
) open arms, and asks only to bath
their wounds with her tears.
7 Mother works, not the eight or ten
: hour day of the union, but the twenty
| four hour day of the poor wife an
; mother She cooks and cleans an
scrubs and patches and nurses fror
> dawn till bedtime, and in the night i
up and down getting drinks for thirst
lips, covering restless little sleepers
| listening for croupy coughs. She ha
time to listen to the stories of boyis
fun and frolic and triumph. She ha
. time to say the things that spur one
l ambition on. She never forgets t
cook the little dishes you like. Sh
y does without the dress she needs, tina
. her children may not be ashamed c
. their clothes before their companions
O The home that Mother made wa
E never too small nor it's larder to
y scanty, not to have room at any tim
. for her children, no matter when O
! how they returned.
There is not a mother who does nc
p deserve to have her children cove
p her work-knotted old hands with dii
monds, and to have silks and velvet
and laces hung on her poor stoope
shoulders; and if they cannot do thi:
the least they can do is to make he
4 the honored guest in their homes an
, lavish upon her the affection and al
) probation that is even more preciou
v in mothers eyes, than jewels an
:, fine clothes.
5, Duty of Children.
There are few children mea
:, enough to actually begrudge an oil
= mother her support, but there are
great many children who think the
: are repaying their debt to the
mother when they pay her scant
= board or provide merely for physic;
: needs. This is not enough any MOI
than it would have been enough fe
. the mother to have simply clothe
Z and fed her children.
. She gave them more She CAV
Il them love and tenderness and toe
) interest in their small affairs. ST.