The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1935-05-03

sorrows have softened in the telling IN her later
life and her rugged endurance has meIlowed
with the fading memory; but TO US there lives
that thrill of conquering peace which wish pos
terity TO remember.
BURT BROWN BARKER"
On each side of the base is bronze tablet
depicting in bas-relief typical scene Of emf
grant days. In one yoke Of oxen under the
lash of the driver, tolls painfully up a steep
slope, dragging the heavy wagon in which sits
the sun-bonneted pioneer mother surrounded by
her brood of future citizens Of the common
wealth-thatis-to-be. In the other, within the
circle of wagons camped for the night, little
group of men and women stand with barred
heads beside an open grave. II is a scene that
needs no such title as The Prairie Burial" to
tell its story of one who was destined never TO
reach the promised land where rolls the Ore
gon"
The erection of memorials of stone, however,
has not been the only way in which these pioneer
American mothers have been honored Several
years ago a wellknown writer, Herbert Kauf-
man, paid tribute to "The Prairie Mother"
which has been reprinted so often as to become
q newspaper classic. 1t follows:
THE PRAIRIE MOTHER
"She came 10 rock the cradle of new en-
pire. Adventure calls to men, but duty sum-
mons women. And so, when the time was ripe
TO breed new stars for the flag, she set forth
from Maine and Ohio and Killarney's loneliness
and her Swedish village and her ford home to
mother the wilderness.
only God and she knows the fuIlness of her
giving TO the young Northwest
'She lived in sod houses and hay-roofed huts,
with the newest neighbor often days trudge
away.
-She had no decencies. She did not even know
the luxury of floor or fireplace Her meal was
ground in hand mill and her baking range
was makeshift oven in the yard.
@She helped in the felds-at the blowing and
the sowing, and she helped TO scythe the crop
and bind the sheayes.
'-She watered stock and spun and knitted and
tailored She made garden and preserved the
winter food MIXED her cows and nursed her
children The sleepy-eyed sun found her already
at her tasks, and the midmoon heard her Groom
the baby TO rest
Her beauty sleep began at ten and ended at
four. Year in and year out she never had
orange, a box of sweets or a gift of remem-
brance.
'She fought drouth and dearth and savages
and savage loneliness, her Sunday bests' were
calico and linsey woolsey. She grew old at the
rate of twenty-four months year at the grub
bling hoe and the washtub and the churn.
+She bore her BARNS alone and buried them
on the frozen prairies
But she asked no pity for her broken arches
her aching back, her poor, gnarled hands. Or
for the wistful memories of a fairer youth in
sweeter lands.
'-She gave America the great Northwest, and
was too proud to bubble at the cost Of the
stalwart sons TO whom she willed it.
-She mothered MEM"
Since the World war, America has had an
other group of mothers TO be honored-those who
lost their sons in that great conflict One of the
first states TO honor its Gold Star mothers was
Illinois and more than 1000 of them were pres
ent when beautiful memorial was dedicated at
the Illinois Centennial building In Springfield
the state capital
The inscription on it reads: In honor Of those
mothers of Illinois who in giving their sons to
fight on alien fields for liberty and right armed
them with their own steadfast courage and be-
lief in righteousness I91T-191S"
A tribute of different kind was paid to the
Gold Star mothers March 2 1929, when con-
gress passed q bin authorizing an appropriation
of more than S5000.000 TO cover the expense Of
taking the mothers and wives Of service men who
died in France for a visit to the place where
their soldier dead were buried The War de-
partment was then directed to make the neces
sary arrangements for the Gold Star Mother
pilgrimages and invitations were sent out to
11-630 of these women TO be the guests Of the
United States government on such trip.
OF that number nearly 5000 went during the
summer Of 1882 and the remainder the follow
ing summer. There was singularly appropriate
touch to the departure Of the first contingent
They sailed from New York on May s. which was
Mothers day that year and the ship which took
them to their rendezvous with their dead was
the s. s. America
Gv Western Newspaper Union