ican mothers, who have suffered untold tortures from neglect,
indifference, and lack of appreciation?

What a pathetic story of neglect many a mother's letters from her
grown-up children could tell! A few scraggy lines, a few sentences now
and then, hurriedly written and mailed--often to ease a troubled
conscience--mere apologies for letters, which chill the mother heart.

I know men who owe their success in life to their mother; who have
become prosperous and influential, because of the splendid training of
the self-sacrificing mother, and whose education was secured at an
inestimable cost to her, and yet they seldom think of carrying to her
flowers, confectionery, or little delicacies, or of taking her to a
place of amusement, or of giving her a vacation or bestowing upon her
any of the little attentions and favors so dear to a woman's heart.
They seem to think she is past the age for these things, that she no
longer cares for them, that about all she expects is enough to eat and
drink, and the simplest kind of raiment.

These men do not know the feminine heart which never changes in these
respects, except to grow more appreciative of the little attentions,
the little considerations, and thoughtful acts which meant so much to
them in their younger days.

Not long ago I heard a mother, whose sufferings and sacrifices for her
children during a long and trying struggle with poverty should have
given her a monument, say, that she guessed she'd better go to an old
ladies' home and end her days there. What a picture that was! An aged
woman with white hair and a sweet, beautiful face; with a wonderful
light in her eye; calm, serene, and patient, yet dignified, whose
children, all of whom are married and successful, made her feel as if
she were a burden! They live in luxurious homes, but have never
offered to provide a home for the poor, old rheumatic mother, who for
so many years slaved for them. They put their own homes, stocks, and
other property in their wives' names, and while they pay the rent of
their mother's meagerly furnished rooms and provide for her actual
needs, they apparently never think what joy it would give her to own
her own home, and to possess some pretty furnishings, and a few
pictures.

In many cases men through thoughtlessness do not provide generously for
their mothers even when well able to. They seem to think that a mother
can live most anywhere, and most anyway; that if she has enough to