Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 3, 1905)
w NOVEMBER 3, 1105? The Commoner. "i .-- 5 THE MAJESTY OP THE MOTHER'S LOVE Newspaper readers are quite familiar with the details of a recent divorce suit between a couple conspicuous in the social life of the United States army. Charges and counter charges were made, and the .result was that the husband was given the decree with the possession of the two children. Among the black stories that emanated from that court room, there was one bright tale. Among the deeply interested participants there was one stalwart figure. The figure was the twelve year old- lad of the divorced couple, and the tale relates to the fidelity ho displayed to ward the woman who gave him birth. Given into the custody of his father this manly lad, upon the adjournment of the court, boldly and roundly denounced him for the charges he had made against the mother. Stout ly maintaining hiB faith in his mother's inno cence, he publicly condemned the father for al leged brutalities, and, forced to accompany his father, ho announced his determination to re join his mother at the earliest opportunity. That was at once a pathetic and a splendid scene. Some may imagine, but none can de scribe, the emotions that rocked the tender heart of this boy. In addition to being deprived of a home where the mother Is "the swedt rallying point 'round which affection and obedience and a thousand tender endeavors to please concen trate," ho was required to witness a foul stain upon the fair name of his first and best friend. "I KNOW NOT, I ASK NOT" In this view, the guilt or innocence of the woman need not be considered. Guilty or inno cent, the boy's faith was superb. Innocent or guilty, the boy's fidelity was magnificent. He may have heard things which he could not under stand; he may have listened t indictments which he could not explain. The central fact with him was that she was his mother, and to him and to his boyish innocence and faith "a mother is a mother still, the holiest thing alive." Whether his fine devotion was due more to love than to faith, he might have joined with Tom Moore in that sentiment which Poj said "em bodies the all in all of the -divine passion of love a sentiment which, perhaps, has found its echo in more, and in more passionate, hiL-ian hearts than any other single sentiment ever embodied in words:" "Here still is the smile that no cloui can o'ercast, And a heart and a hand all thy own to-the last. Oh! what was love made for, if 'tis not the same Through joy and through torment, through glory and shame? I know not, I ask not, if guilt's in that heart, I know that I love thee, whatever thou art. Thou lias called me thy Angel in moments of bliss And thy Angel I'll be 'mid the horrors of this Through the furnace, unshrinking, tliy steps to pursue, And shield thee, and save thee or perish there too!" If devotion such as this be shown for one whose name has, at least, been tarnished, what words may be UBed to describe tne loyalty due one whose name is a synonym for purity? THE WORLD'S BURDEN-BEARERS It will not do .this world a bit of harm for its men and its boys, too to be frequently re minded of the great debt they owe their mothers. From the beginning to the end of her own life as mother, from the beginning to the end of her children's lives, she Is the burden bearer of bur den bearers, and the wonder of it all is that in her delicate construction there is strength to carry the loads. The secret of her love and sacrifice was told by one who wrote: "Her first ministration for her Infant Is to enter, as it were, the valley of the shadow of death and win its life at the peril of her own. How different must an affection thus founded be from all others!" And how different, Indeed, from all others, is the mother's affection for her children! The majesty of a mother's love is indescrib able. In the language of another, "it shrinks not where man cowers, and grows stronger where man faints; and from the wastes of worldly for tune sends tho radiance of its quenchless fidelity like a star In heaven." But it is not alono in tho tragedies of Hfo that tho mother love is felt; it manifests itself all along tho lino; and tho routino life of tho moth er Ib one continual round of self-sacrifice, of at tentions great and small the greatest consequen tial to tho child's future and tho smallest indis pensable to its present day happiness. "Who ran to help mo when I fell And would some pretty story toll, Or kiss tho place to make it well? My mother." A VERITABLE SHERLOCK HOLMES Did you over think of the endless and var ious little duties confronting the mother every day of the year? One hour devoted to tho dis charge of these duties to tho children would drive tho average man stark mad. From morn ing until night, and in cases of sickness or of fretfulness sometimes from night until morning, this heroine of the hearthstone keeps ever at her task. With all of the boundless attention re quired by her little ones a large share of her notice must bo given to tho little necessities of tho father who, in many cases, is the greatest baby of them all. What a wonderful amount of work she is able to accomplish! How many things sho seems to do all at the same time! At one moment she is preparing the father for his daily journey to the business district and in most cases this is no mean task, either and between steps, as it were, sho is preparing, the children for school. In locating missing articles essential to the dress she is a veritable Sherlock Holmes. Did it ever occur to you that the boy's cap or the girl's scarlet hood has a mysterious way of hiding itself? And did It ever occur to you, also, that through some mysterious power the mother Is always able to locate the missing article? In such a search the combined efforts of the father, the children and the domestic would be unavailing, even though they extended over a considerable period of time, while the mother, who in the first place can not possibly have any idea as to the headgear's location, seems instinc tively drawn to its hiding place. This provides but a meagre description of tho wonderful capa bilities of the mother in the little things in house hold affairs. But these things arj familiar to every man who remembers the kind offices of his own good mother, and to every husband who stands uncovered in the presence of his good wife's ministrations to his own little ones. SOME FAMILIAR SCENES Did you ever notice the large difficulties under which a great, powerful man struggles when he escorts two or three children to a cir cus or a county fair? In tho parlance of the street, he Is "sweating blood," and you have no difficulty in imagining that under his breath he is singing, "A charge to keep I have." And did you ever notice how deftly a mother, per haps already worn and weary from her house hold work, handles, on simila'r occasions, half a dozen nervous, Impatient little ones? Perhaps she is carrving one of them In a tired arm, .ind holding another with a weary hand, while all the time she is keeping a watchfil eye on the balance of the group; and all the time without a sign of weariness ajnd without a display of im patience. How intimately a mother's sympathies and sentiments are linked with those of the child! The boy can n.i enter his homo so late at night, nor so stealthily, as to avo' 1 his mother's notice; and the innocent inquiry, "Ir. that you, Will?" is as familiar to the boys of today as to' the bovs of forty years ago. She may be in a far away room and yet during the dead of night when a little one who has, per haps, taken a cold sneezes sho can, though the mother of half a dozen, imr idlately distinguish the owner of the sneeze. She may be sitting in a room several rooms twav from the cookery, and yet she seems able to tell Instinctively just when the haria of a healthy bov has been thrust into the cookoy jar. She can detect the ta'sehood where the father "would see nothing but ti-uth. She can recognize as correct a statement which the father might auestion. She knows the weakness of every child, and to that extent Knows just how much should be forgiven. She accomplishes so much, loves so much and sacrifices so much that tho father, conscious of hlo own shortcomings, must oftentimes stand abashod in hor prcsonco. ' Ono of tho prettiest stories over told relatoft to tho dovotion shown by a distinguished No- braskan to tho memory of his boys' mothor. This gentleman caused to bo erected ovor that mother's gravo a stono upon which his own namo as husband, and tho names f his boys as sons of that good woman, were inscribed. After tho stono had been put in placo, ho took his four boys to tho comotery, and kneoling at that gravo, directed their attention to tho fact that thoir names nan been highly honorod by bolng wrltton on that slab of marble. Then, paying a high nnd deserved tribute to tho fine character of that mother, tho father said: "Boys, If any ong or you over does anything to dishonor this memory, I will have his namo chislcd from this stone." It would bo a great benefit to all tho boys of tho world If tho lovo and dovotion shown for them by thoir mothers could bo ovor Impressed upon them. If tho boys would bo evor careful lest they do somothing that, if known, would bring pain and sorrow to tho mother heart, tho futuro of tho world would bo secure. A BOY AND HIS 8WEET HEART Many years ago ono of tho best of mothcra fell "asleop at tho gates of light." All of her children, of courso, revered hor memory; but one of them was tho babo of war-time birth, and owing to tho anxieties and excitements of tho period, and the continued absence of tho father, oxtraordlnary affection and dovotion was, doubt less, lavished upon him Perhaps it was because of this that after tho mother's death, and for many years, thia boy never retired for tho night without placing at his bedside a chair, under the childish im pression that his mothor would occupy it and watch him to sleep. When other boys would write f- sand or carvo on trees tho names of sweethearts dear, this lad would trace with knifo or stick tho namo of hia sweet -heart his mother's namo. When but a boy he chose his sweet heart's namo as ono to be given to his own daughter; and when in later years ho wrote some tales of lovo and life, his heroine, good and true, bore with signal honor and renown tho namo ho loved so well. So, through boyhood's days thiB precious memory was enshrined within his heart; the p lr ity, tho dovotion, the sacrifices, the sorrows of this patient, God loving and Goa serving woman was over before him, often deterrin; him from evil and sometimes inspiring him for good. "Happy he with such a mother,! Faith in womankind beats with his blood, and trust In all things high comes easy to him." MEMORIES THAT BLESS AND BURN There are living today many such mothers. If the boys could only appreciate their loving kindness while they live, life Vwould bo sweeter to them. If those who now have the compan ionship of the boy's best friend could only know all they will lose when that companionship ends, the pathway of the mothers or the world would today be strewn with roses. The regrets for thoughtless acts and indiffer ence to admonitions now felt and expressed by many living sons of dead mothers will, in time, bo felt and expressed by tho living sons of living mothers. The boys of today who do not under stand the value of tho mother's companionship will yet sing with those who already know this song of tribute and regret: "The hours I spent with thee, dear heart, Are as a string of pearls to mo; I count them over, every one apart, My rosary. Each hour a pearl, each pearl a prayer, v f' To still a heart In absence wrung; I tell each bead unto the end, and there .. A cross is hung. ; 0 memories that bless and burn! Oh mighty gain and bitter loss! 1 kiss each bead and strive at last to learn. - - To kiss the cross, 0 Sweet heart, t . To kiss the cross." ' , -, IlICHAItD L. METCALFE. 11 I :L: zZrxit! jok- .iJt.it. .,r. A- UiUhmiu fchltt-ufrT---