The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1921-05-27
THE WHY OF MOTHERS DAY

Last Saturday, on small branch
line railroad, sat in the coach oppo-
site young mother with two chill
dren, one babe in arms, perhaps a
few months old, the other a girl app
parently three or four years Of age.
The mother was CARRIED in the hum
BILE habiliments Of the poor, md she
was anything but beautiful as the art
lists term such. Her form was more
than full, it was round beyond plump
ness and her, shoulders were bent,i
likely by excessive toll, for she looked
as one hailing from the back hills,
Her hair had been hurriedly dressed
and withal she was just one of those
ordinary folk that Abraham Lincoln
said God thought so much of he made
many of them.s But she was neat with
that neatness that poverty affects to
try to conceal it's real depth.
4 The older child was FESTIVE and try
ing to the maternal patience, and the
very patience she showed the recalci-
trant youngster drew her to my at
tention. With softly spoken words Of
reproof and gentle restrain she at last
conquered the girl, who fell to sleep
on her mothers lap.
AS both little ones slept, / noted
the look of maternal tenderness she
cast on her sleeping children, and then
saw a tear steal into her eye, and
then another, and then another, till
her cheeks were wet with the dew that
only sorrow leaves as remnant and re-
minder of storms that sweep through
our lives after nightfall.
The older child awoke, and gazed
up at its mother who quickly turned
her head away to hide her tears and
when she turned back to the child her
eyes were dry and her face transcend
emily radiant with a smile as sweet
as that, methinks, the Madonna cast
on the Son of God, when the wise men
of the East laid at his feet their gifts
of gold. As gazed on the sudden
transformation, l thought of "The
Face Illumined," and the rugged, rus
tic face of that common mother be-
came to me the most uncommon, won
derful thing in sight.
The incident started train of re-
Election, and | said within myself, 20,
wondrous motherhood! How much the
world owes to you! Childhood's shield
as well as surcease from sorrow. With
gentle words of sympathy and love
you calm our storms Of petulence,
bearing our i'll behavior the while you
hide from us, your children, the hard
er hurts your own hearts feel. y
"No wonder the God of the Universe
glorified you by making you the door
way of Divinity into this lower life
Of ours. No longer need niAnkind
erect temples to house the shrines, or
niche them along the highways for
men to pass and bow in memory and
reverence to the Mother of God! In
the home Of every mother Of men there
dwells Madonna, deserving the war
ship and love Of him or her she has
borne, For her there be no flowers too
fair or rare, no chapIet too grand, no
crown too radiant and rich.
"The wells of our love and tendef-
ness may be bottomless, yet every
drop they contain is.none too much TO
pour out as the libation due to regal
motherhood, the only lasting picture
of God left hanging in the halls Of hui
man memory.
30, Mother! One day of the year we
make universally thine, when every
day of time belongs to thee, and time
Itself is naught except as it may mean
that it is ours because in love thou
didst touch Deaths garments hem
that we might come to be thy ever
lastingly unworthy ward. Whether
thou livest here or yonder thou must
wait till the hands of thy children are
; fit to handle that coronet woven by
angelic fingers to grace the brow of
Heavens most worthy, and when we
see thee, know thee as thou truly art,
thy conoration shall be fitting and
complete. Dexter Statesman.
IN REMEMBRANCE.