The Washington times., 1920-08-14

the fiercer loves have yellowed ana
scared.
1t is the core of life, mother-love.
and those whose hearts are holy with
it have looked. deeply into the mys-
terry of being.
Mrs. Kantor, in "Humorcsque," who
loved her genius-child. Leon. and her
imbecile child. Mamie. alike. is not
only sublime in her motherhood, she
is sublime because of her UNIVERSAL
ity. Hers is not the kind of mother
hood peculiar to her race, 1t is the
motherhood UNIVERSAL to Jew and Gen
tile, black and white.
Our drabby. tired old world is glor-
flied with mothers like Mrs. Kantor.
The East Side, the West Side, the
North Side, the South Side of the
cities and hamlets, the highways and
the byways of the world swarm with
'her--suckling the men of tomorrow.
Sacrificing for them. Toiling. moil-
ing. Bearing them in pain and pow
erty that the world may be better
place to live in because of the KIND
of sons and daughters she has given
it.
Ours seems to be a day and age OF
the parting OF the generations. so to
speak.
We hear much Of the newer gem
Grafton spoken usually with note
of regret for the good old days"
which since the beginning of time
have always somehow lurked just be-
hind the present.
AS If the regretted newer genera
ton" which dares to think for itself
(even il differently from the genera
tion that has gone before) did not
by that very differentiation stand for
the inevitable forward march Of
civilization.
In the eyes of many Mrs. Kantor's
Is the good old-fashioned mother.
In my eyes she is the glorious new
fashioned mother, who can vision be-
yond the confines of her own limited
experience into wider vistas for her
child. Demanding for him, in the
face Of the impregnable opposition of
tradition, the right to be himself, and
not his parents prototype.
/ doubt very much If the kind of
social environment Leon Kantor's
genius afforded his mother brought
her as many satisfactions as Leon
Kantor the brass dealer, would have.
Mrs. Kantor attained the peak Of
her happy motherhood in the cotton
stuff uniform of poverty. Something
of her Old Testament simplicity OF
soul must have writhed under the
complications of her position as
mother of a world-famous virtuoso.
She was a rather sad. a frightened.
and i'll at ease old woman in the pal
ace of the King-her personality
fainting.
And yet it was from the Allen
street tenement that this mother
willed the palace of the king for her
son: demand ed that his like transcend
T.. At.
roots of her being were torn cut Of
soil native to them.
Abraham Kantor, with dreams Of
his son succeeding him in the brass
shop, must more than once stormed at
his wife as "new-fangled" in her
superb struggle to make OF herself
human trelis upon which her son
might climb toward the light
And so /. too, call Mrs. Kantor
modern mother who dared, her way
lighted by the white flame of her
maternity. to defy every tradition of
an ancestry of small merchants and
snatch from the jaws of a brass shop
destiny a future world-famous violin
list.
The spirit OF Mrs. Kantor. demand
ing his rights in the face OF every
opposition shown through her son. IL
Illuminating him to genius.
But again think how universal Is
her type of mother to motherhood.
Not all who bear children are doomed
or destined (as you willy to be the
parents of genius. But the gift of
the magic goes with every type OF
motherhood-the love that passeth
understanding. be Il for the little
imbecile Mamie Kantors of the gem
ius of the Leon Kantors.
Greater gifts than that love hath
no man.