The mother’s rights are real and comprehensive. They are something not
to be disputed. Hers are the greatest in the family. These rights her
children may not in early youth be able to fully realize, but these she
must teach to them simply and must insist upon. She has rights, very
clearly defined, to be accorded by her husband, and if he hesitates she
is most unfortunate and he is most unworthy. Her dues from him are the
greatest of all. They are the greatest in the world. If she has borne
him children she has done for him the utmost that one human being can do
for another. She has, literally, given him herself. Well has it been
said that a man’s duty to a faithful wife can never end while life
lasts. “When she consented to be his helpmate and to virtually transform
every organ in her body that his lineage may not die out, that he may
have children, healthy, happy and able, she has done more for him than
he can ever repay in a lifetime of service. She has taken the chance
gladly and risked her life for him.” Under what more tremendous
obligation could she place him? She has established a right which covers
all things.
These greatest rights—those of the mother from the husband—are so
numerous, so all-comprehending, that they cannot be given in detail.
They imply simply that he should look upon her as a part of himself and
show it instinctively and as a matter of course. She has the right to
claim from him that he should always be to her as he was before
marriage, save that the relationship is closer and more familiar. What
proportion of husbands remember this? How often does there come a time
after marriage when the husband forgets that they are one? How often
does he show unmistakably that he thinks his family is a drag upon him,
that he is bearing a burden, that he deserves especial credit for
bearing it and that what he pays out for family expenses he is “giving?”
There would be short work were he to assume such an attitude toward his
partner in a business venture, yet he is, literally, in partnership with
his wife in the greatest business this life affords and that she put in
by far the greater part of the capital in the beginning!