Milford chronicle., 1921-02-11
The TIES THAT BIND THE
GIRL TO HER MOTHER
By Otis P. Jefferson
~ Jus L cSAAS@SS@-
Prin. of the Dagsboro Public School


Prin. of the Dagsboro Public Schoo
The human begins in the family
The child at first can do nothing TO
itself. Everything it needs must COM
from someone else. 1t would die bu
for the help it has from others. 4
mothers love, a fathers care takei
it in it's helplessness and tenderl!
provides for all its wants. The girl'i
first tie to her home, therefore, is 4;
thankful heart. 1t may take her Ions
to learn how great the pain and Ia
Dor she has cost, but as she grows il
knowledge she should grow il
thoughtfulness and thankfulness to-
ward those to whom she owes sc
much.
A dutifuI girl will trust her parents
She will be frank and open hearted
toward them. She will let then
teach her She will obey her father
and mother and honor them in all
things. She will be careful of theiI
good name. If they are weak, she
still will honor them, because they
are her parents and will let no one
reprOach them. She will seek out
ways to please them and will always
show them love and tenderness. This
should last as long as life. The girl
who needs her parents care no long
er should care for them. In their de-
clining years she should be comfort
to them. She should love and labor
for them as they have done for her.
The second tie, which binds a girl
to her home, is brother and sister. A
brother means a bearer while sis
ter has been said to mean a source
of gladness. Brothers and sisters
should be bearers of each others bur-
dens and fountains of each others
joy. They should be kind and help
full to each other at all times and
thus fulfill the law of love.
The law of love is the law of life.
The family is like a living body in
which, if one member suffers, all
the members suffer with it, and if
one member be honOred, all the MEM
bers rejoice together. It is like a liv-
ing tree, where the trunk supports the
branches and the branches give their
strength also to the trunk while both
trunk and branches feed the ripening
fruit until it falls.
After the parents, brothers and sis
ters, the next tie which binds the girl
to her home is her home life. 1t is
right that she should have amuse-
ments. Everybody needs them, but all
amusements are not right, neither
are they right at every time and place.
Play has its place in life as well as
work, and we should keep it in it's
place. The joy of play is a jewel
which one need not be ashamed to
wear, but one does not wear his jew
els all the time. A girls pleasure is
true wealth. Pleasure ought to do her
good, it should refresh her. In every
pleasure she should be finding a re-
neWal of strength. 1t should be a re-
creation, for a pleasure which harms
body or mind must be wrong.
With Keats we would say: "a thing
of beauty is a joy forever" and so it
is with the girl. Beauty is a necessity
in every girls life. She must have
beautiful surroundings, so beauty
must be one of the ties which binds a
girl to her home. This does not nee
essarily mean costliness, for often the !
most costly things are the least beau |
tiful. Beauty means taste in har-
mony and color. A girl should fa-
miliarize herself with the highest |
things in beauty, truth, and goodness,
and turn away from what is ugly, |
false, and wrong. 1t is beauty which |
makes good.
She must have a home of which |
she is proud, where she can enter |
tain her friends, and this must also |
be a home of kindness where all are |
welcome. Kindness, perhaps, is the |
link which binds all these ties to- |
gether. We have not done our duty |
to others when we have not been kind. |
Kindness seeks to supply the needs |
of others. 1t has sympathy for ev-
cry sorrow. Kindness from each hui
man being to all, and from all to each |
is a duty, which needs no proof. If |
we are truly kind we shall do all the
good to others that we can. We shall
be watchful for occasions when we
can render others help. If we see a
danger to another which
he does not see, kindness would
prompt us to guard him from it as
we would ourselves. Kindness would
lead to much more careful treat
ment then justice requires of the per-
son, property and reputation of an
other Kindness guards all rights as
carefully as does justice itself. But it
gives its help beyond what any rights
can claim. True kindness is true char
ity, and charity never faileth.
How shall we then best fasten these
ties which hold girl to her home?
How shall we best aid her to walk in
the right path? We need to remember
that it is only the good which makes
good. Evil produces evil. She will
not learn to do right by doing wrong9
She may make a mistake and meet aI1
which having suffered
once she may thereby learn to avoid
the second time. It is a misbehavior
which weakens the will to do right, :
and makes it easier to do wrong than :
it was before. To do wrong is to lose
strength; and even if it could ever
teach one anything, her wrong doing :
would lessen her power to follow the
More important than all others, a /,
daughter and mother should be the
most intimate companions. The girl {
should never be afraid to make con- :
ident of the one who should be her q
dearest friend. In her younger days
she should be guided largely by her ;
mothers suggestions but as she grows i,
1lder and perhaps becomes well edu- !
Gated she should be helpful to her {
mother by making useful suggestions
n the daily routine of life. No SEN
,ible mother will resent this and thus
hey will be mutually helpful. A
Il.