" HONORABLE MOTHER. IN-LAW.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 6 September 1913, Page 9

" HONORABLE MOTHER. IN-LAW.

A series of "Chinese Love Letters," appealing in the Pail Mali Magazine, gives some delightful pictures or that important person, the "Honorable Mother-in-Law." A high-class Chinese woman is writing every seventh day to I her absent husband—though, ihodern education is not highly approved by the I authorities. 'Thine Honorable. Mother says it is not seemly to send conimuin'cation from mine hand to thine. She says it was a thing unheard of in her girlhood, and that we. younger generations have passed the limits of an modesty and womanliness. She wishes me to have the writer, or thy brother, send thee news of thine household." Very wisely, "however, the young wife continues to write letters which send "with each stroke ot her brush a part of her heart," and contain, besides household news, such pretty assurances as that "not at twilight nor at grey of dawn can I find happiness..without my lard, my own, and endless are the days as, trailing creepers." The august parent preferred to assuage young grief by nanding over the keys and the cares of the housekeeping. "She says a heart that is busy cannot mourn." So we hear of many hours full of interviews with cook, and steward, and gardener, before there comes a moment fpr thought. "But first of all, thine August Mother must be made comfortable for her afternoon sleep, and then the peace is wonderful iJKleed.". The, daughter and daughter-in-law assembled in the patriarchal household encourage one another "to bear the burden ,of the discourses of thine Honorable Mother. Not that she talks , too much thou understand," says the- anxious letter writer, "nor that her speech is not stored of wisdom, but —she talks —and we must listen." Then a more frivolous daughter-in-law arrived, expecting that all should give place to a new bride, the August Onewas so disturbed that she went out to tea in a far-ofi village, so luckily never learnt that the trousseau had actually included a new god for the kitchen. "Canst thou imagine thy. Mother's face if a god from a stranger family was in the niche above the kitchen stove?" This matter was firmly dealt with before the autocrat of the family returned. Even as it was, the "poor bride was in constant disgrace, and had to learn texts from Confucius every day for penance. But once the Honorable Mother met her match. A servant was dismissed, and before going, "claimed her servant's right of reviling us within our gate." She lay beneath the outer archMay for three long hours, calling down curses and reciting the misdeeds of the family; and as this was a recognised right, even the most august member had to bear it for three hours inisiience. "It nearly caused her death, for thou knowest the Honorable Mother has not long practised the virtue of restraint, especially- of the tongue." To soothe her, this time, 'it took a favorite priest, candles,, incensfc, and some .famous rose wine. On the whole, one can excuse the rerriark made after a lecture including, for the hundredth time, the Confucian adage. "Birth is not a beginnings nor is death an end." "In mj despair I said deep within my heart, 'I am sure it will not be an end for thee, 0 Mother-in-law. Thou wilt go to the River of Souls talking, talking, always talking—but the gods will be good to me. Thou must pass before me, and I will not hasten co as to overtake thee on the way."