nclude admiration for all within his
kindred; nor will it, until the millennium makes all tempers perfect.
And, again, a man does not like to be dragooned into a filial feeling
for his wife's family. Many a man would like his new relatives better
if they left him with a sense of perfect freedom in the matter.

The main point is that men should put a stop to a traditional abuse
that affects every woman in every household. They can do it! Many an
honest, manly fellow would burn with shame if he would only consider
how often he has not only permitted, but also joined in, the silly,
unjust laughter which miserable punsters and negro minstrels and
disappointed lovers and other incapables fling at the women of his own
household. For if a man is married, or ever hopes to be married, his
own mother is, or must be, a mother-in-law. If he has sisters their
destiny will likely put them in the same position. The fairest young
bride has the prospect before her; the baby daughter in the cradle may
live to think her own mother a bore, or to think some other mother
one, if there is not a better understanding about a relationship which
is far indeed from being a laughable one. On the contrary, the
initiation to it is generally a sacrifice, made with infinite
heart-ache and anxiety, and with many sorrowful tears.

In the theatres, in the little circles of which every man's home is
the centre, in all places where thoughtless fools turn women and
motherhood into ridicule, it is in the power of two or three good men
to make the habit derogatory and unfashionable. They can cease to
laugh at the wretched little jokes, and treat with contempt the vulgar
spirit that repeats them. For the men who say bitter things about
mothers-in-law are either selfish egotists, who have called trouble to
themselves from this source, or they are moral imbeciles, repeating
like parrots fatuous jests whose meaning and wickedness they do not
even understand.

Good and Bad Mothers

The difference between good and bad mothers is so vast and so
far-reaching that it is no exaggeration to say that the good mothers
of this generation are building the homes of the next generation, and
that the bad mothers are building the prisons. For out of families
nations are made; and if the father be the head and the hands of a
family, the mother is the heart. No office in the world is so
honorable as hers, no priesthood so holy, no influence so sweet and
strong and las