PLAIN WORDS ON A HOMELY SUBJECT.

Clutha Leader, Volume I, Issue 27, 14 January 1875, Page 7

PLAIN WORDS ON A HOMELY SUBJECT.

— & . Sometimes one. meets in the streets a little child, seemingly well cared for, with a face so painfully old, that it seems as if the little thing must have lived through some stormy existence, before enti ring upon this, .so devoid is it of any tra.ce of joyous unconsciousness, so settled is that hard look of passive endurance which one notices in adult years, who have outlived emotion, and to whom -the future can. bring neither j->y nor sorrow. Mow can one account for this ? It is a very terrible sight to me, to whom the prolonging of childhood, by every possible postponement of life's benumbing experiences, seems a thing- mo.«-t earnestly to be wished. May it not proceed from an inheritance of sorrow? Every mother j should certainly ask this question.Mother did I say 1 Alas, every parent: for there should be no sex to limit the broad humanity of this subject. A late • French w.-ite.r, despire bi.s sentimentali isms, has uttered some grave truths re j spec ting this, which apply to every , latitude where woman is to be found ; In truth the rough-shod way iv which { most men interpret, or rather misinterpret, woman's nature, does as little j credit to their hi-arrs as to their understanding-,. Be it here understood that I I have no endorsement for the agony : caused by broken china, sick poodlej dogs, or a misfitting dress or bonnet. j Having said this, it still remains that then; are women all ever the land with hungry hearts. Not one man in ten makes any allowance for the nervous organisation of woman. Alas for the blunt words spoken at moments when woman is least physically able to bear them ! Five hours after, when the world's waves have washed every trace of it from a man's thoughts, deep down in the sands of a woman's memory those words lieengrrved as freshly as if just written. He " can't understand it.'' The question is, ought he not, to understand it ? Ought not the father of a household to consider it a subject worthy his attention ? I think so. Meantime, for lack of this, the sufferers by it turn away, some to lean on the little hearts, too weak to bear the heavy thought unspoken burden without darkening all their childi-di years. Others seek their assuagement in a ceaseless round of visiling; while your beprai-«ed woman, who " never mm da ?uch trifles," had better be closely looked after by those who wish her well. That a great deal of misery might be prevented by a little study of this subject, by those who. are accustomed to deride every pang that is not caused by rheumatism or a lack . of something nice to eat, 1 am well convinced'! There sre natures which can no more endure this* heart-hunger-ig-norinp; withou* perishing, than could a babe the piercing snows of a winter midnight when torn warm and happy from its mother's breast. Is it a marvel that such heart- aches' should be perpetuated .in unnatural lines, on childish faces? that from out those young eyes , there - should .look a mother's troubled soul 1 Business men, I believe, consider it important to understand thoroughly the natures of their business 7 partners. , It is of less importance that a husband and" father should understand thoroughly and humanelj r the mother of his children ? When their physical wants, are provided for, is his mission ended ? Is that all that was included in the whispered words that -won his wife to a place by his side ?— Fanny Fern.