Evening star., 1933-05-14
BY KATHLEEN NORRIS.
IFE and time and wisdom and
science, which so cunningly
withdraw the meaning and sig
. nificance from almost all other


withdraw the meaning and sig
IL nificance from almost all other
words, can only add enrichment
and beauty to this simplest and home
hest of them all: Mother"
Youth-suCl magic word Tor
while-turns out to be only a dream,
blown away between yesterday and to-
morrow. Love- another glamorous word.
gets itself tangled up with rent and
reason, stupid pride and stupid words,
uncomfortable relationships with
strange mans strange family.
AS for those other words with which
we have always played--pos1tion and
pedigree, fame and wealth, diamonds
and white horses, travel and palaces
and princes-why. their substances turn
out to be only Alices Pack OF Cards.
As we slowly, painfully awaken from
our dream they clatter sharply down
about our ears and lie useless and taW-
dry in the dust.
There remain the few real words
the true words And one of these Is
Mother" Nothing in the bewildering
rush of our days. the amazing, breath
less changing and improving and in
venting and discovery, is more aston
ishing to me than the TACT that the
more and more sophisticated world. far
from pushing her from her old place,
can only glorify and dignity more COM
pletely the woman who gives children
to the world. 1t has not always been
so. It is a heartening thing to realize
that there is this saving grace In the
march of civilization that sometimes
frightens us, that seems to be leaving
the old sweet, sober ways SO Tar behind.
Every year motherhood grows in i'm
portance: every year children are rated
as more precious.
Crowded old barbaric countries
China and India-continue to pour out
their wealth upon sacred animals and
the shrines Of stone gods; continue to
let their children die. America. for
whose philosophers they profess to en-
tertain such contempt, has discovered
is slowly discovering-that her real gold
lies in her children and as we more and
more value our children We understand
and marvel more and more at the great
miracle OF life-the royal prerogative OF
bestowing life.
Formerly Pitiable Person.
Even so short time ago as my own
childhood the mother of many children
was considered to be rather pltlable
person. Other women made little tut
tutting sounds when they heard that
poor Lizzie was going to have another;
young mothers answered deprecatingly
the superior questions of unmarried
friends.
Everything else was valuable in those
days, but not children. Bamboo furn1-
ture and rickrack frames. brass bed
steads and fringed mantel draper1es,
.ife-size statues Of Nubian girls and
lamps dripping beads-theSe were the
I'D ruhn
strove and agonized That was the
generation that introduced the coarse
ness the Stupidity, the short-sightedneSs
of the theory of childlessness. Many a
bride, in the early years of this CEN
tury, was warned by her mother against
Motherhood; many and many mar
riage was kept deliberately fruitless.
Now comes the saner, finer attitude
the sanest and finest that women ever
have been permitted to take. Mother
hood Is coming into its own again with
the rising generation of young wives
because they have had wiser training
than their mothers and grandmothers
had; because they know that nothing
that life can bring them compares In
exquisite beauty and value with the
richness of having sons and daughters.
Three children-five children-seven
children-the big family Is here again.
only instead of being unwelcome, each
child is regarded as separate acquisi-
ton.
schools, scientists. doctors. society
all have changed their views; there
is no more talk of martyrdom-of
turning women into cows. Years ago 1t
used to be the old maid who answered
"by choice" when she was asked why
she did not marry; now 1t Is the mother
who adds the same phrase when she
announces the coming Of a new baby.
Joy In Coming Years
It is good to see it! It is good to
realize not only that the small girls
and boys are more welcome, more in
telligently handled and much, much
more happy, and to know, too. that SO
many young fathers and mothers are
building joy into the coming years.
My own life has held more than half
q century of good years. But there were
only q few-l5 or 16-when they were
crowned with glory. Not all the money,
the travel, the pleasant fame and in
terest and thrill that comes to the
writer can compare with the exquisite
time when the girls and boys were
small, when bread had to be buttered
and hands washed, when country
ranch was rich with small voices. with