By Mrs. Alec Tweedie
(English contemporary. Author of “America As I Saw It,” “Mexico As I Saw It,” “Sunny Sicily,” etc. From “Women the World Over.”)
The ancient mother and the modern mother are two very different beings. The very ancient mother fought for her child like the tigress for her young cubs. The mother of past generations gave her entire life to her children to the absolute neglect of her husband. The modern mother, although she sometimes neglects her children for her fads and frivolities is really a much more sane person, for she lives three lives; one part she gives to her husband, one part to her children, and a third part to herself. Instead of entirely obliterating herself, as the ancient mother did, she believes in self-culture, self-advancement, and is a thinking, human being; she is therefore more of a companion to her husband, and more capable of educating her offspring.
The Mother
By Mrs. Emmaline Pethick-Lawrence
(In “Votes for Women.”)
In a small room, dimly lighted, sat a woman making collars. Above the humming of her sewing machine the clock of a neighboring church struck ten. The woman lifted her head, and, gathering up her work, folded it together. She crossed the room and looked down upon the faces of two boys sleeping. “Christmas Eve!” she sighed.
She went back to cover up the machine. Sitting wearily, she leant her weight upon it and her head sank upon her arms. Last year it had all been so different! She had to be both father and mother now, since the bread-winner had been cut down by the hand of death falling with an awful suddenness. And within her body there slept, soon to waken to life, a child. “Pray God it be a boy,” she moaned. “If not, pray God it may die! It is too terrible to be a woman.”