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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 3, 1905)
- --irtt Wr JT X -3j" 4 It NOVEMBER 3, IMS' The Commoner THE MAJESTY OF THE MOTHER'S LOVE Newspaper readers are quite familiar with the details of a recent divorce suit botween a couple conspicuous In the social life of the United States army. Charges and counter charges were made, and thevresult 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 his faith In his mother's inno cence, he publicly condemned the father for al leged brutalities, and, forced to accompany his father, he 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 homo where the mother is "the swee't rallying point 'round which affection and obedience and a thousand tender endeavors to please concen trate," he 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 bo 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, huian 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 has called me thy Angel in moments of bliss And thy Angel I'll be 'mid the horrors of this Through the furnace, unshrinking, thy , 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 used to describe trie 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 lova 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 alone in tho tragedies of lifo that tho mother love is felt; it manifests itself all along the line; and tho routino life of tho moth er is 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 tell, Or kiss tho place to make it well? 3 My mother." A VERITABLE SHERLOCK HOLMES Did you ever think of the endless and var ious little duties confronting the mother every day of the year? One hour devoted to the dis charge of these duties to tho children would drive the 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 largo sharo of her notice must be given to the 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 sho Is preparing the father for his daily journey to tho business district and in most cases this is no mean task, either and between steps, as it wore, she 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 tho 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 Insfinc tlvely 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 the 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 similar occasions, half a dozen nervous, impatient little ones? Perhaps she is carrving one of them in a tired arm, and holding another with a weary hand, while all the time she is keeping a watchfil eye on tho balance of the group; and all the time without a sign of weariness ajad 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.t enter his home so laic at night, nor so stealthily, as to avo' 1 his mother's notice; and the Innocent inquiry, "It 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 she can, though the mother of half a dozen, imr idfately 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 ham! of a healthy bov has been thrust into -the cookey jar. She can detect the ra'sehood whre tho father 'would see nothing but truth. 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 no much that tho father, conscious of his own shortcomings, must oftentimes stand abashod In her presonco. Ono of tho prettiest stories over told rclatos to tho devotion shown by a distinguished No braskan to tho memory of his boys' mothor. This gentleman caused to bo eroctad ovor that mother's gravo a stone upon which hlH own namo as husband, and tho names ,pf his boys as sons of that good woman, were inscribed. After tho stono had been put in placo, ho took his four boys to the cemetery, and kncoling at that gravo, directed their attention to tho fact that their names ban been highly honorod by bolng written on that slab of marble. Then, paying a high and deservod tribute to tho fine character of that mothor, tho father said: "Boys, if any ono or you over does anything to dishonor this memory, I will have his uamo chisled from this stone." It would bo a great benefit to all tho boya of tho world If the lovo and devotion shown for them by their mothers could bo ovor improsscd upon them. If tho boys would bo ovor 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 HI8 8WEET HEART Many years ago ono of tho best of mothers fell "asleep at the gates of light." All of hor children, of course, revered hor memory; but ono of them was the babo of war-timo birth, and owing to the nnxietios and excitements of tho period, and the continued absence of tho father, oxtraordinary affection and devotion 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 writo :-. sand or carvo on trees tho names of sweethearts dear, this lad would trace with knife or stick tho namo of his sweet heart his mother's namo. When but a boy he chose his sweet hearts namo as ono to be glvon 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 name ho loved so well. So, through boyhood's days this precious ' memory waB enshrined within his bean.; the p lr ity, tho devotion, the sacrifices, the sorrows of this patient, God loving and Gou serving woman was over before him, often deterrin; him from evil and sometimes inspiring htm 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 tho boys could only appreciate their loving kindness while they live, llfevould be 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 tho 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, be felt and expressed by tho living sons of living mothers. The boys of today who do not under stand the value of the 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. To still a heart In absence wrung; I tell each bead unto tho 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, r Sweet heart, , ., To kiss the cross." ' . - , HICHARD L. METCALFE. i! n n , 4 k t ! i i n l: i iSaamkgtAmtAldm.t .v. ,-,-e. ..f. tJH fjltffa r, i 1 1 1 1 ,' .' t run a. 6a "iUJMrJtrf!!-'', '---''