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For Woman's Work.
THE BIRD-SONG.
Out In the sunshin* a bird-voice I hoar,
Though th* air hold* its wintry sting.
How the singer is swelling har littla throat,
With thrilling and carrolling not* after not*!
For ah* cornea to ua, heruld of spring.
Out in the aunshine the aits on a bough.
Nor h*eda that the air’s keen and chili.
But warblea a promise *f balmier hours,
Os *xpanding buds, and unfolding flowers,
Os verdure-clad vale and hill.
Down in my heart, hope sings, as the bird,
And the melody softens my pain.
For she heralds the dawn of a happier day,
Os a morn when gloom-mist will vanish away,
And joy will return to hold reign.
Sylvia Silykrthornk.
For Woman’s Work.
THE HIDDEN LIFE.
BY MKLKN C. MOLLOY.
“Our lives are nobler than they seem,
To those who scan our word and deed;
Our highest longings are reserved,
A page for Goa alone to read."
No human being can judge the life of
another. We cannot judge by words, for
how variedly may they be interpreted, and
how unwittingly may we miss their true
meaning. We cannot judge by deeds, tor
who can know the motives and inner.r.ost
workings of another heart?
W« all have a hidden life, known only
to self and God. Our deepest thoughts and
feelings cannot be given to those who would
juigeus; they cannot know the reasons
and impulses that move within us and
mold our destinies. Then why should we
judge each other in our short-sighted, hu
man way, causing many a pang to a sensi
tive heart by the injustice of being mis
understood ? We cannot know all, and is
it not better to draw the vail ofsweet chari
ty over the words and actions that we do
not understand, and let only Him judge
who can? We only know the outward
life, and what good there may be in the
hidden, to counter-balance what does not
seem to us commendable, wa cannot tell.
This we do know: our fellow creatures
have hearts like our own, that throb and
quiver with the pain that this world-lite
must bring; that we all are struggling,
groping blindly after some balm—a restful
happiness-trying to quell unsatisfied yearn
ings, to find joy tor the present or to build
up hopes of what the future may bring.
And some—ah, God pity them I —in the
mystery and sorrow of living, have a great
heart-lonliness.
" 'Tis not given to all
To feel a heart responsive rise and fall—
To bend another life unto its own."
Knowing this, can we not be sad. and
not angry at sin, and judge not? Instead
of trying to mete out justice, be generous
with love ; much is needed, and it is never
thrown away.
And who knows? Some day may not
those who are now scorned and spurned
with contempt, when their hidden Utt is
revealed in the light of eternal justice, grow
fair and stainless from the purifying fires
which have so long burned in the inner
soul ?
Thackery says:—“Every star above
shines by itself; and each individual heart
of ours goes on brightening with its own
hopes, burning with its own desires, quiver
ing with its own pain.”
And this must needs be so; but the hopes
may grow brighter, the desire seem nearer,
the pain be soothed, if we withhold our stern
condemnations and instead give sympathy
and love, for we cannot know the hidden
life.
Let it be said of you:—
“Ah, with what love was he endured!
Whose heart so much for all could feel.
Who would not wound, but sought to neal I”
For Woman’s Work.
TO “HARRY.”
Noble vouth! Reading your letter to
day, in Woman’s Work, my heart throb
ed in sympathy and respect for the youth
who is but three years older than my own
son—my son who passed to higher life
when but two months of age, but who is
seventeen to-day.
Harry, I have taken you to my heart as
you request the lady readers to do; have
asked God’s guiding angels to guard you
from all temptation and place your feet in
paths that will lead you, even here, to walk
as upright and manfully as my son Over
There is walking. Believe that loving eyes
look down on you all the while and long to
aid your worthy efforts.
Eat an orange each morning before break
fast to remove the craving.
Yes, kindness is the wand that gives en
couragement: may you receive it freely
from humanity, but, if at times you meet
with sneers, brave boy, stay not your steps,
but by will power climb the ladder higher,
and higher, surmounting difficulties and
overcoming evil. Cultivate good and pure
thoughts,for thus your soul will be develop
ed. God and good angels abide with the*.
Your Friend,
Alli i Lin may Lynch.
Memphis, Tsnn.
For Woman’s W-ork.
CONFIDENCE.
Did you ever think of the fact that a
mother could have too much confidence in
her son ? The writer has taken particular
note of this by seeing it and being con
vinced ot it in different ways.
The object of this article is to cite
mothers who have this fault of too much
confidence. To arouse them to the fact that
every day their sons are being led away;
that when they least expect it, they are
frequenting saloons and dens of vice, going
in company with bad men, learning bad
habits and becoming morally corrupt.
Now, this confiding mother will say,
“I always know where my boy is.” This
is one of the impossibilities, unless he is
kept tied to his “mother’s apron strings.”
After a boy once attains the age of six or
seven years, his mother can only keep up
with him to a certain extent. She knows
where he is at meal time, and bed time, but
this is all. Our great world has become so
bad that we can not go on the street a half
dozen blocks, but that we hear or see some
thing defaming. This is rather strong
language, but it requires something strong
to touch the right spot.
Our saloon keepers, as a general thing,
have no regard for the laws of our land.
Why? Simply because they are left to go
unpunished and untried. They allow lit
tle boys to drink beer over their bars, when
the boys are so small, that they must stand
on a stool to reach the top ot the glass. Do
the parents know this? iiol a thousand times
No/ for if they did, they would surely take
steps to prevent the ruination of their sons.
Some time ago a mother said to me:
“Well one thing sure, my boys do not
drink, because if they did 1 could smell the
fumes on the.r breath. They couldn’t fool
me.” Just the night before I had “chuck
ed” a game of dice and drank beer with
the elder of her two ions, and the same day
the younger, (8 year old) begged a chew
of tobacco and drank beer in an ice house
near town. This too confiding mother, is a
member of the church and a Christain
lady with good common judgment. H«r
husband isof the same confiding nature. 1
have known his son to go into his fathers
store when he was full of liquor,(he is 18
years old) His father would not notice it
on him. but i f some other mother’s son had
passed into the store, he should have no
ticed it in an instant. Too much confi
dence.
How much better it would be if the pa
rents would think of their sons astheyfooA:
at the sons of other men I Take their boys
by the hand and lead them into these dens
of vice and point out to them the folly and
the fearful consequence that must surely
come if they frequent these places.
We hear some one say: “Our sons will
be led into those places soon enough, with
out our leading them there.” Yes, but,
dear reader, would it not be much better
tor a father to point out the catch holes of
vice, to his son, than lor him to blunder
into them headlong? Give this question
some th-ught.
Had 1 a boy, I should take him to a city
and show him all the vice I could scare up,
and teach him from the start to shun and
bate these places as he would hate Satan.
I can point out to you instances where my
plan has won, and it will win nine times
out of ten.
I should like to see a man or woman who
is not a "Moral Coward,” just to see what
kind of a person he or she would be. You
find plenty who say : “I’ll show you what
I’ll do.” But they fail to materialize when it
comes to the pinch. You know it might hurl
her husband’s business ; or if it be the hus
band, it might lose him some custom, if he
should report the saloon * keeper who sold
drinks to a minor. Ah, the almighty dol
lar is taking a firm stand in too many
otherwise Christian hearts 1
I wish I could, or dared to,stand up and
say “I am no moral coward,” but I can
not. If I should act as my conscience dic
tates, I should have every saloon keeper in
my county arrested for selling drinks to
minors.
As I remarked in my article in January
Woman’s Work, “I am ready to take
the drunkard by the band and if possible
reform him by kindness. But, I should
like to see the parents start at the root, to
kill the evil. Rather than think your son
does not drink, think he does, and then
teach him the result if he continues. But
do not scold him; if you do ten chances to
one he will drink, all the more on the sly,
“Just to beat the old man, you know.”
Pardon my rude expressions, but you can’t
scare the Devil out with a straw, you must
roll a big log on him.
If any one wishes to communicate with
me, send your letters to “Woman’s Work”
and they will be forwarded to me. You
will see my articles signed “Harry,” as in.
January Woman’s Work.
I will substantiate every assertion I
make if any one desires evidence, but it
must be of a private nature.
Your friend and co-worker.
Hamby.
For Woman’s Work.
WOMAN.
Pope has said, “the proper study of man
kind is man.” Certainly his most agreeable
study is woman. This, perhaps, is a sub
ject which demands the delicate tact of
poetic inspiration for its perfect delineation.
Its finer features cannot be adequately
grasped or conveyed by the material ele
ments of prose. A study so varied in its
phases, so beautiful in its suggestions, so
absolute in its i nterest, requires no choice
rhetoric, no display of elaborate eloquence,
to commend it to our consideration. It
dominates the reason, it delights the fancy,
it captivates the imagination, by the mere
force of its inherent excellence.
The influence of woman is the most po
tent factor in molding the character and
shaping the destiny of the human race.
The pages of history, the records of revela
tion, the light of reason, bear a unanimity
of testimony to this end. Our highest
aims, our noblest efforts, our sublimest as
pirations, are created, developed and per
fected in the genial warmth of woman’s
approving smile. In struggling along the
rugged pathway of life, she is the guiding
star that lights our faltering steps to purer
spheres and securer havens. In solving
the problems of life, in fighting its battles;
in all our trials, our triumphs, or our de
feats, her sympathy is our highest praise
and our sweetest reward. Whether rest
ing in the sunshine of fortune, or wrecked
in the storm of adversity, woman is our
safest refuge and our dearest consolation.
She is the arbitress of our earthly destiny
and holds in her fair hands our title-deeds
to immortality.
This susceptibility to feminine influence
may be regarded as one of the fairest tests
of masculine merit—a sort of graduated
scale, on which to measure his capacity for
accomplishing great and glorious things
I think we may venture to lay it down as
a law, that no man, who is entirely insensi
ble to the pure influences of the fairer sex,
has ever achieved a noble action, or uttered
a beautiful or enduring sentiment.
It has been ass' rted that marriage is the
ultimate aim ot the sex, and though women
have refused to acknowledge the truth ot
the statement, it is certain that they
naturally gravitate toward matrimony.
This disposition is impressed upon the
constitution of tne sex, and inculcated by
the combined force of education, authority
and inclination.
As this is the most important step in a
woman’s career; as she here determines her
chances for a life of happiness or of misery,
so it is here she displays her peculiar talent
for making blunders. Unsuitable marriages
are undoubtedly more prolific of distress
to the female sex than all other causes com
bined.
Who has not witnessed the spectacle of a
pure, resolute and high-minded girl, united
to some glittering puerility who imagines
that beefsteak and coal, and balls and par
ties, and dresses and jewels, can constitute
the whole of a woman’s lite. Or see a wo
man, upon whose features the patent of no
bility has been stamped by the divine band
of nature herself, yoked to some soulless
clod, the incarnation of groveling instincts,
whose sole ambition is to accumulate money,
whose ever recurring question is, “Does it
pay?” whose only standard of rectitude is a
matter of profit and loss, who measures
every act and impulse of humanity by the
degrading criterion of dollars and cents
W hen a woman discovers that the idol, upon
whose shrine she has laid all the wealth of
her virgin affections, is but base clay or gild
ed loam, ah! who then can picture the depth
of her anguish? who can explore the abysses
of her woe ? who can realize the desola
tion ot her despair ? We may not see it.
She may go into the world with a firm step
and smiling mein; for such women are
splendid in suffering, magnificient in en
durance. But were it permitted us to rend
asunder the veil, which conceals her heart
from the gaze of an inquisitive world, what
a scene would be there disclosed ! Crushed
hopes, shattered love, womanhood in ruins! I
Let me, with reverent hands, draw the
veil of compassion over the sad scene, and
cover it from sight forever, forever.
Carl Berne.
LET YOUR MOTIVES BE GOOD.
It is the motive, that renders an action
good or bad. However fair an action may
seem, if the right motive be wanting, it is
hollow; if the motive be a bad one, the
action is unsound to the core. Who cares
for an outward seeming, or show of friend
ship or affection, unless the heart is in it?
Who does not prize a rough outside, when
it covers an honest nature, more than the
most fawning fondness from one who is
cold and false?
Thus it is right to insist on the principles,
because they give value to the actions, and
not the actions to the principles—for they
are but dross.
A GOOD MAXIM.
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