DIVINITY OF FATHERHOOD.

White Ribbon, Volume 6, Issue 65, 1 October 1900, Page 10

DIVINITY OF FATHERHOOD.

A l’Ai’KR Read Before the Texas Mother's Congress, at Dallas, ht Mrs J.L. \ redenburuh, Austin, Texas, and Published is the Texas “ White Ribbon.” I rejoice that the topic assigned me and kindred subjects are being discussed in our magazines, our clubs and Mothers’ Congress. The time has arrived when silence upon the most important ottice in life that ot parenthood—is considered criminal by thoughtful people. We have heard all our lives that the crown and glory of womanhood is moth*rhood ; that “ the hand that rc-cks the cradle rules the world.” Our ears are weaiied with the monotonous strain of these platitudes, partly true under certain conditions as the tirst may be, and wholly false as the last most certainly is. I assert, here and now, that “ the hand that rocks the cradle ” does not rule the world.” It does not rule in many cases, the kingdom of home, where woman is supposed to reign as queen. Ev*n where she reigns supreme in the home, her authority and rule reach only to the front gate, and only for the tirst few years of a child’s life. Plastic as the mind of a child is, and important as early impressions are, the teachings and influence of these few yeais are opposed and counteracted by the influence, the teaching, the example of the world of men outside the home, and, in many cases, by the example of ihe father inside its raertd piecincts. To hold the mother reaponsP le for the welfare of the child, while depriving her of all power to rermdy evils existing beyond the contin* s of the home, is unjust in the extreme. It is time that we stopped quoting “ the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.” Too long, without a protest, has this grievously false saying obtained, because it tickles our ears and Hatters our vanity. The taunt that is so effectively used by men, “ tied to his mother’s apron strings,” proves conclusively that the apron string rulesnot and should not in men’s opinion—extend beyond the home. Woman, for ages, has been placed upon a pedestal far above man in theory, while, in

reality, she has been degrade*! below the beasts of the field by having unwilling motherhood thrust upon her. Because men have possessed this power, fatherhood has lost its d.vinity in the thought of mankind. Nothing can le said to prove that the crown and glory of womanhood is motherhood, that is not equally applicable to prove that the crown and glory of manhood is fath*rhood. Who will deny, however, that much of fatherhood is thedeaire of lust, rather than of a pure desire for this sacred office ? Little is the responsibility realized of thrusting a soul into life by the large majority of mankind; still less is it realized that the creative power is a sacred trust a divine gift. That crime and criinin ility, defective children, idiocy, insanity, »*pi epsy, and the raging tire of syphilis and scrofula taint, are increasing at a fearful ratio, statistics, as well as the multiplication and enlargement of hospitals, i asylums, reformatories anti penitentiaries ! prove. • We are told that forty percent, of the young men are becoming unfit for the marriage relation ; unfit for fatherhood, with the law’ of heredity in full force, with the sins of the father —mark you, it is the sins of the father —still being visited upon the children to the third and fourth generation. We are t >l*l that “ father,” in this verse means “ parents.” A 8 it is not so interpreted in other parts of scripture I refuse to accept this rendering in this particular case. Children partake of the nature of their parents, morally and physically, and a depraved father cannot bring forth a perfect child. Every generation ought to be an improvement upon its parents Miss Muloek says . “ She who makes a bad man the father of her children is little better than a murderess. It is a sin against heaven to condone sin even in one’s own husband, she must think of the children to whom the father’s sins descend, generation after generation.” We are told that, in Sparta, when a hoy committed a crime his father was punished. If this law ol tained today would not strict justice fi nemany fathers to exchange places with their boys in reformatories and penitentiaries ? Why has fatherhood lost ils divinity ? Why has this saertd office been sea t* red heedles-ly and recklessly, its duties shirked, its heavy responsibilities not equally shared with the mother ? Why is motherhood laudel as divine, while fatherhood is considered of the earth earthy ? There must be a cause. Have you ever thought that in our method of training cur boys and girls, that the one is train* d toward, motherhood the other a tea y from fatherhood ? We talk of maternal instinct—if it an instinct, it is largely a cutivated one. The little girl’s first toy is a doll, yet if given to a little boy it is just as eager y grasped. The girl is taught to love, to nurse, to attend to all the supposed needs of her baby. When her mischievous brother holds it up by one f*>ot and pretends to w hip it, her distress is genu ne, as with leais coursing down her cheeks, she pleads tor her baby. We women, old and gray, have not forgotten our tavourite dolls aud the love we bore them. This love for dolls is maternity in euibiyo, aud maternal love, through dolls, is cultivated in tue girl. I§ paternal love likewise cultivated iu the boy ? The boy that likes to play with dolls, as a rul , is ridiculed, culled a “sissy boy/’ laughed at by thoughtless parents, until growu sensitive, he is ashamed to show

the instinct of paternal love—a love as natural, in the beginning, in a boy as in a girl. Another difference is in the way we gmrl the girls, safely proteetei in the home, from evil influences, while out in the stree*, we throw their full force up >n the Iny. The longer I live, the more I believe tint the majority of our men are more sinned against than sinning. 1 believe they have been cheated out of their birth-right— the right to give a pure husband to a pur** wit'*- ; the right to give their children a noble inherita’ce ; the right to live a pure, white life. Rubbed of these rights our men have certainly been. Who is to Blame P Who has defrauded them P Who, but the pa ents that brought them into existence P How do boys first learn of the sex relation ? How are their first idevs of the beginning ot life gained ? From a pure or impure source ' From a source that elevates and teaches the sacredness of all life, or from a source that degrades and aniuializes ? Have fathers aid mothers wisely taught them th *se solemn truths ? Are they taught that their bodies ar»* Hod's thought, fearfully and wonderfully made in His image ? Ninety-nine men out of every bundled will tell you their knowledge was gained from vile beys and still viler men. Impure stories, vicious literature, vile pictures, were potent factors in degraded hands that soil** 1 and marred the purity of souls as sweet and unsullied in the l**ginning as were their sisters. ! * ven as little boys, vile habits and practices were taught them—habits that in later years were to rob * hem of the strength and pow er of manhood. They have lived on the edge of a precipice with no warning placard telling of the danger, the pitfalls, the snares and quicksands sur, rounding them on every side. How few ever think that these vices once entered into, thn.ire will cling forever to their hitherto white souls, and life in after years made one long remorseful memory of “ what might ha e been.’’ So true is it that “ of our pleasant vi* **s Hod makes whips to scourge us.” How different it might have been had they on'y l>een forewarned by those whose duty it was to teach the sacredness of life, pure and undefiled.

Mon often than women dream of, do men in later years cry out with aching heart, and bitter is the moan, as the results of a wasted life confront them : “ If I had known, if I had known, I would have gone another way I would have chosen a fairer day, And precious seed more wisely sown, If I had known, if I had known.” If we women who see only the result of his temptation and sin, “ Only knew how the man we spurn Had fought temptation by day and night If we only knew, would we so turn And cast him off as a loathsome sight ? Ah me ! instead of the sinner’s brand We’d gladly help him the right to do . Wed lift him up with each honest hand’ If we only knew—if we only knew.” The saddest pait of all is the fa-t that it ithe fathers of the land that permit these evils, these dangers, these boy anti mau traps to exist. It is the fathers a 1 one that make th** law’s ; the fathers that license the saloons and brothels ; the fathers having the power and

knowing from sad **xp**ri>'nece the evils on every side—having been themselves their victims — who will n »t, will not des'roy the ev.is that are throttling their sons. Is it any wondt r that man’s l»elief in physical necessity grows stronger with each generation, induced by th » “ d >wnward direction of Creative fore** through the unregulated des res,” and through ignoraiceof the lasting and tar-reaching effects of indulgence in sensuality ? Is it any wonder that fatherhood is nibbed of its divinity and is only an incident to him ; that marriage is so often esteemed •a jest and lightlv entered into as only a licensed avenue for unbridled lus* ? Ts it any wonder that the r spon*ibility ot’ children is Hirust upon unwilling mothers and childho »d robbed of its first birthright—the G*>d-given right to be welcome and well born ? Thousands of unwelcome childien are born every year—children conceived in sin and shapen in iniquity—both in and cult of wedlock. Often they are the f nit of a drunken father’s ungovernable passion. In one case “of three children horn of a drunken fa'her, one ha i the rickets, the second was the victim of melancholia, an 1 had violent insane *»tticks, the third was a megaecphaluus idiot.” It is said that five thousand little babes are b.»rn every month in tno United States having n »legal father—five thousind deserted mothers a d little homeless Ini *es, sixty thousand fatherless children a year ! Of these thousands of uuw inted children, it is only the mother of an il egitimale child w t ose claim to her child is absolute— the father in this case wanting no claim, has none. In unn< of the States todiy, and in all of ti.em until recent years, the lawfully born chill belongs to the father, the law giving him the light to will away, to si rangers, his unborn child. Let the women who have all the rights they want, never foiget that the repeal of these unjust laws and the e jual right to their own children which the law now gives them, in me of the States, have been made possible by tae uprising and the agitition of women in the last ft rtyy«ais. Let our women not forget, abo, that what is needed now, in Texas, is a law making the father responsible for the support of his illegitimate child ; a duty that has 1 ug been shirked and laid upon the mother, who alone is made to suffer for the sins of two. l et the women of Texas nsver rest until this just law is obtained. How can the divinity of f itherhood be impressed upon the f ithe -s of the future, for it

is to them we must look, if there is to be a higher standari ? First—Let our hoys an! girls be equally trained for parenthood, and taught that an epial responsibility rests upon both father and I mother. Second—Never excuse in a boy what you would not in a girl. In the home the double stand ird of morality is started, and here is where it should be stopped. Third Let the office of fatherhood be glorified by our sons !>eirg taught from a pure mother’s lips its sacred trust. Let mothers teach the boys the sacredness of their bodies, the terrible and lasting effects of secret habits, and tin* purity of the sex relation as God intended it. The physical director of a Young Men’s Christian Association told me that of one hundred fif y-six hoys examined, only thirteen were found to he virtuous. These one hundred forty three boys were the sons of the best families in the city, and *1) under sixteen years of age. Think what this means ! Yet if the majori y of the mothers ot these b >ys were told the truth tin y would not believe it. Fourth Let them be taught that the birth chamber, where is settling down upon two souls the great responsibility of pirenthood—a responsibility that must be accounted for at the judgment day—that the birth chamber, where a soul is coming into life rather than the death chamber, when* a soul is going out of lift*, is the most solemn and sacred of all places. Fifth—L t it be thoroughly impressel upon the mind of every boy and man that some day he will have to answer at the judgment bar ot God tin* question, “ Where is thy child, the immortal soul entrusted to thy keeping r”— regardless of w’ho was the mother, regardless of whether she was white or black, pure or impure, wife or mistress. Sixth—Above all the wife must be the sole owner of her body, and husbands ask as a favour what they now demand as a right. Let us remember that the “ people perish for lack <>f kn iwledge ” in these days so near the Twentieth century, as surely as in the days when the prophets walked the earth. Let us not forget that while the mijonty of men do not recognize the divinity of father* . hood, then* is a minority who believe there is no sex in God’s laws ; who believe in a w ife’s ownership of h*rself ; who keep their bodies under ; who realize the responsibility and divinity of fatherhood, and who “ live up to their best and not down to their worst.” For

such men, let us thank God and take courage. Upon woman devolves the work of teaching that fatherhood is divine. A heavy responsibility rests upon women f>r having tor centuries permitted and encouraged the double standard of virtue t»v receiving int » their homes and heirtsa fallen man. while closing the door on a fallen woman ; for having countenanced legal prostitution by selling themselves in wedlock f ir a home and to be supported ; for having permitted men who are slaves to the tobicco, cigarette and drink habit to become fathers to their children. While we know the economic dependence of woman has led to this deplorable state of affairs, still this does not less#;i the responsibility of awakened womanhood. It docs not change the fact that parenthood and womanhood have been cheapene 1 by the ignorance, indifference and criminal neglect of woman herself. “ She who may On her own sweet self set her price, Knowing he can not choose but pay— How has she cheapened I’aradise ! How given for naught her priceless gilt. How spoiled the bread and spilled the wine, Which spent with due respective thrift Had made brutes men and men divine !’» This is a severe c .arge against *»ur sex, but we cannot forget that every impure man is the son of some mother. Even if tht* mother did her full duty, she failed < lily because her teaching was counteracted by some woman s pernicious influence. Man and woman rise and fall together, neither ever fell without the aid of the other. The ideas presented here for the elevation of fatherhood are not Utopian, to j strain* d and far-reaching to be practical. All ideas that will add to the happiness and betterment ot mankind should he aimed at and striven for, and, if never attained, the standard ot life will at least he raised, all life will be held more sacred, our homes and the marital relations purified. Upon the santioty and purity of the homes depend the real life of the nation. If you forget all ebe 1 have said to-day, r*inember one thing, carry it to your home and teach it to your children and to your children’s children, that the grandeur of motheihood depends upon the purity of fatherhood. Only when this is pure, to the question, “ Is it well with thee ? Is it well with thy husband ? Is it well with thy child ?” can the ai »ther truthfully and joyfully reply, “ It is well.”