Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 January 1880 — A Mother. [ARTICLE]

A Mother.

A touching incident occurred a few weeks ago at the distribution of prizes in the English School of Sciences and Arts at Keighley. The Bishop of Manchester gave the prizes. To the pupils and most of the large audience, the Bishop occupies the place of a father to his children; not' only revered as a man of God, but as a liberal practical thinker, one. of the leaders of opinion in England in all matters which influence the elevation of humanity. Surrounded by the boys and-their parents the good Bishop suddenly was led to speak of his own mother, and told the story how she, “ not a clever, managing woman,” had been left a widow with seven children; how her love and trust in God had helped ier to live, sacrificing not only luxury, but comfort; to make a home, bare of all but the most meager necessaries, bright and happy as that House Beautiful, whose chambers were called Peace, and from which could be seen the hills of Heaven. Most of her children, through her efforts, have risen to positions where they could help to make the world wiser and better. “ She is now,” said the Bishop, with broken voice, “in my house, paralyzed, speechless and helpless; and when I looked at her sweet face this morning, I thanked God, who had f'ven her to me. I owe to her all that am.” . ; Goethe, it is said, always declared that to his mother he owed not only all his genius, but his strength. There is a period in the life of most boys when they feel themselves immeasurably wiser than their mothers; the little knowledge they have acquired from books intoxicates them like new wine. Probably they find the good woman at home, who gave them life and has sacrificed herself for them dailv, is ignorant of their hobbymathematics, or Latin, or base-ball—-and they are too apt to shew heir contempt in rude disobedience. When a man reaches the position of Goethe or the Bishop of Manchester he is wise enough to appreciate a mother’s unselfish love at its real value.— Youth's Companion.

—The late Mrs. Eaton told the following story of blunt old President Jackson: She was once visiting at the Hermitage, where among the guests at a dinner party was a Judge of the Court of Tennessee, with a wife whose head had been turned by a season in Washington. Present also a brother of the lady, who had been a tailor, which fact was carefully ignored. The lady’s airs and graces grew insufferable, and finally General Jackson pricked the bubble of her pride by saying to the brother, “ You know I really never have had a comfortable coat on my back since you quit tsttoMng.” —A short time ago a boy of sixteen years, in Washington, D. C., had one of his fingers crushed in the cog-wheel of a “ merry-go-around,” or flying hones, at the National Fair Grounds. The injury seemed to be slight at the time, but lockjaw set in, ana he died.