New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-09-11
Eme Shannon ON
M other Love as
Shown i'm "DetOur''

Effae Shannon, whose remarkable per.
fcrmance a. tho mother who longs for
finer things than the soul-killing daily
struggle with the soil In Owen Davis's
"The Detour" at tho Biiou Theater.
has some very decided ideas on mother
love, its altruism and It's sacrifices,
and not infrequently its utter selfish
ness.
$50 much has been said about mother
love-" says Miss Shannon, chat no
one would be justified In adding to
it II a great deal of what has been
said were not absolute foolishness.
Mother love is marvellous and n
lovely thing, but most people, and
men especially, have been prone to
look at one side of it only,
"The role play in Tho Detour'
seems to me to combine all the best
that Is in mother. Her own life has
been disappointment from frst to
last. A woman of naturally fine char
acter, with a yearning for the finer
things of life, she married totally
materialistic, unimaginative digger of
the earth, and one by ono saw all her
cherished ambitions disappear. And
presently the woman she hoped to be
Is only q memory, and her life is
hcdged about by the hopelessness, the
drudgery and the grinding toll of life
OF y little farm, where a living is
wrung from the earth grudgingly, and
then only by fighting for it during all
the farmers waking hours.
ain her only daughter she fondly
imagines that she sees an exceptional
talent-a throw-back to her own youth,
only bigger and better than ever moved
in her. She is determined that her
daughter shall not hurry herself as
her mother has done; she vows that
she will devote her every waking mo-
ment TO developing that talent, and
save and scrimp enough money to send
the girl to where she may mature IN
congenial atmosphere and never know
the hopeless yearnings and the heart
aches that have been the portion of
her mother. The mother does not sue
ceeded in her ambition, but it is no
fault of her own.
"That is an ideal sort Of mother
love; but there is another and a
wholly sinister sort which seems just
as natural to many mothers. A good
many women assume the silly attitude
that daughters are responsible for
their mothers instead of the mothers
Gas is perfectly obviously being wholly
responsible for their daughters.
"This view is altogether selfish, pre-
vents the child from developing along
lines most congenial to it and really
does the mother no good. All the am
billions, aims and predictions Of the
child must subserve the ends of the
mother. If they coincide, this Is all
very we'll. If they do not, it is ruinous
to the child. And the whole attitude
is excused by the mother on the ground
that she knows what the child wants
better than the, child This may be
true Wnen tH0 SUI OF daughter 40 q
mere infant. When they have grown
to years Of discretion 1t is purely folly.
None of US can read the heart Of another
and none of US can ever really know
another. The mainsprings Of our &C
tions are AZ a closed book to all but
ourselves, and for q mother to attempt
to live her child's life is the highest
form Of injustice. 1t is nothing but
pure wrongheadedness and selhshness.
1t Is not the ideal mother love-"