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About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (May 12, 1912)
L) " 7fV ' nv1 ' i: U.ctioXV - VX-' - v x PORTIAND, 0nCGON SUNDAY 'WQRN1N0,; MAY 42 1913 mmu .1. if mm m . m . - .... V '. t f - r -. t f fc 1 I .JII I i I & I " I -v- v-r"i it ;' r. ml 'X- , iXAixx'vi.n X " All'A, ' r , i II a i0 u, rL I J . - - ' .I'."--. I. - - 4 ', r y. ' u., ' .... V. . ' . . ' i.itrr J ' '---t;ft. mW How Artists, Poets, Slalesnien, Plulosophers and Other Great Men Have Given the Best of Their Genius to the Expression of Maternal I7ave!in witness - 1 HE may be the poorest, the meanest of out i kind, but give her her child in her arms, - and iter features assume a dignity, a beauiy of love's expression that seems a transfiguration. She may be haggard, tvrinkled, decrepit; but let her only be seen through her children's eyes r her. but appear to the world with one of liioin beside hernd a halo of such sanctity invests her as a saint might wear, in the reverence of the faithful. It is because ' she is a mother; that is alh No trappings of wealth, no vanities , of adornment, not the widest tumult of any popular acclaim, can give to a woman that one sacred beauty, or even an approach to it, If nature, or herself, has denied to her the highest office of .her sex. Her mater nity, rdvishingly fair though she may have been may be thaifr ordeal of su fering has len t to Tier charms a deeper, more abiding luster, as it ; viously unrepealed. It may be that within her r thel abides,through wal and woe, the sublime consciousness that she, at her appointed stage in the destinies of the race, has been the chosen vessel : for creation's latest miracle in the evolution "of mankind It may be the sintpk happiness of her. ; exquisite mother love that transforms her humble 'humanity into something that partakes of the 4 . . " mt w w - a m - A u confess the power of inatxameiess, tnae scribable beauty; all yield homage to its inherent ZTrH'hw however ill-favored the wopan herself may be, we find her, as the mother, .' -, beautiful. virn: -yf 'x - V ' V " : ' "v ' " ,'- ' ' , . r;;.1 - v ..;..- : "T7 AM OUS artists have exerted their highest akilf . . M Lin the- endeator to portray, maternity; in it jL true-lovelinesa and splendor.' .' . - More often, perhaps, than that other favor . ite subject of tha brush, romantic love, the world's. great canvases have borne art s tribute to lova!s" f ru ' ition; and religion itself, in art, is inseparably bound r the Madonna which represent the loftiest aspiration ' ' -w 1 1 wl . 1 i , . m : v ",'.:,.. ' 7 -77.7' ' O'i If' ''''' r" ' ' - , t ..':vS-j! 1 -a. -MlHSv? - " I ! 1 j It.:; .'.1! . T ... .-11 ri IM" ., .ww- : , . i . , - i ,,.r" . :x x- "1 j, - M j V7 " '' ,V'- iff. i i '7 wtfss.JyGgpf1. Mcrs of art through feneration after generation and oentury after century. Even when cynie aave tired of faith, when art itself rebelled against the tyranny of the one. eternal toplo that , seemed to weigh on its development like tome crippling; incubus, the love of maternity endured, although Madonna, for the time, went out of fashion, Men felt, in their jaganaouls that there must always ' be something near, something infinitely dear to them, in pictures of the mother with her child, Then, as now, that artist was sure in his appeal tv . the heart who could paint, limply and truthfully, the scene of the mother and babo who could paint; into the features of a woman seated alone that mystical,' intangible expression which tells one she has borne a child. Today the highest honors belong to those who still devote their genius. to that old. old story. No. need to vary it; the mere grouping; of the twain of the woman " with her offspring suffices to fill the popular eye. ' Sergeant Kendall, Oeorge de ForTcst Brush, Mary Oas satt any and all of them need only to put the baby at the kneer and a crowded gallery patwer-to- admire. If Gari Melchers surprise a peasant mother crushing' on -an infant cheek one of those kisses of intense affection . which mothers alone can gire, no eye can see the pie -ture without involuntary tenderness of thought and !' feeling. If a Whistler display the courage that dare a portrait of his own, old mother after the years have widowed her,, have dispersed her sons, have left her seated lone, communing with herself none may gaze ' upon that serene - countenance without realizing the ; presence of some halo that needs no brush to paint it ' CORE OF RELIGIONS Some of the oldest, mightiest of religions .that Kav influenced humanity have had for, their very1 core the . principle of motherhood, Small marvel that art which in its essence, seeks ever, to express what man holds best, should find in maternity its most beautiful inapi ration; small marvel that poetry should rejoice to sing 4 the mother's praW side by side witU.its hynms to ' woman's charms and its laudations of wedlocfB 5oys. 4 . " Those three the allurement of the maid, the bliss of marriage, the ripe blessings of offspring are insep -arabry bound in- a trinity of human' happiness from which not one may bo withdrawn without "disaster t the rest Venus herself could, not be imagined, by the ' lovers of bid, apart from her son ; love, in its earliest, fiery essence, has over been nothing' mora than the call . of tho uncreated child. There live few women per haps noner"who, having known all ef life except mater -nity, can account themselves perfectly happy J or; in the eyes that look out, still unlearned in life's simplest yet " highest mystery, upon tho world about them, can show " the satisfaction of souls aware of sympathy for alL' ' . , She who is a mother forma one sacred. tie wita' humanity, opens one gate, of wisdom whickno-books' . can teach, smites in the rock of selfishness one fount ef r generosity that never fails. Until the day of her death," she is consecrated to the elf-sacrifice .which - is its own . munificent reward, conferring upon her a plenitude of intimate, i thrilling joys only dimly suspected by the , " ! child who is the object of her jdeyotion. ;r : '-- ; w ' L ;"The tie' which links,: mother ands child" wrote , -Washington Erving, "is, of such' pure and immaculate strength as to be never violated, except by those whose feelings are withered by vitiated society.' Holy- iunplej t , and beautiful in its construction, -it isthe emblem of " "all we can imagine of fidelity and,truthj it is the blessed -tie whose value we feel in the cradle, and whose lo we lament on tho verge of the very grave, whers tmr mother Moulders in dust and ashes. , . In all 6ur trials. nrnid ajf our afflictions, she is still by bur sidj; jf we ,, gin, sjae reproves more m sorrow tnan in anger , nor can ' v (CONTINUED ON INSIDE AOE) Hobe r s.yf " v v X:, .; vi, . - :'r :::xfX',-!''-;-.-:,Xx- . . - Gerortic v . r :,X VT ; !- : X- -r? X , I -