Show cw by ELMO SCOTT WATSON X alday may 8 the heart of america will be quickened at the thought of one word mother for that Is mothers dav an annual event which Is generally observed not by to presidential proclamation tte enactment or church dictum t int because sentiment decrees that tho jm in may of each year hall be the day upon which we honor att the women who gave us birth aj mothers day this year has a t salk because of at least two aa distinct projects which are under way to honor one of the most heroic tap a li t motherhood the world has ever known the pioneer mother of amer tacit lea and in the aaa win be done in memorials of ever last P ing bronze one of Is alie announced pur vt pose of E W marland Marln nd an oklahoma 22 oil millionaire of erecting a heroic tt statue of the oman on 2 the famous cherokee strip in oua 2 homa the last government land opened to homesteaders twelve of the leading sculptors of america have pai model 9 from which he Is to ame eeck one for the completed work an aih bit of these models Is being sent ris to various cities throughout the mid le est and far cst and the public 1 to be given a chance by popular rote in each 0 o aid mr marland ft in maln his selection by which it li coped the model best interpreting 1 the pioneer woman will be chosen 5 the pioneer mother Is to be im w in bronze in another west ws ni city when the monument by that name shown in the illustration above ay la unveiled in pena valley park in ans s atty this this bonu cent lg the work of A I 1 proc or noted for his statue of col ebeo tolore loosevelt noo sevelt as a hough rider witch stands in portland ore as well a for several other tine pieces of arlt in other cities it will be pre tented to kansas city by howard van SQ who as a baby was carried TB la the arms of his pioneer mother from kentucky over a westward trail to the indbjo lands of kansas la just tich a manner as that depicted in 1 rectors statuary group K it Is especially appropriate that this ff memorial should stand in kansas city alth the face of the pioneer mother liaa turned to the great trans missouri west for the site of kansas city la n historic ground in this vicinity were s eastern termini of two great high ays the santa pe trail and the orea ton trail over which the stream of A migration poured into the last amerl an wilderness the santa re trail ft vu primarily no artery of commerce 5 amt e oregon trail was a home seek rs highway to the gold fields of cal forkla and to the rich of ore ton and washington the epta of the oregon trail has been written many times and in many different ways so that the picture of the women of the nsw naw covered wagon era Is as clear in bbb aldia a that of the men of those hayg bat it should not be forgotten eliat the mothers of that period were not the first to be cadt in heroic bolea tn t mighty drama of the westward H H H I 11 n n n n the prairie mother she came to rock the radl of naw empire adventure culls to men but duty summons women and BO when the alma was ripe to breed new tr for th flaga he et forth from maine atad ohio and killarney loveliness and her swedish village and her fjord hour to mother the wilderness only god and she know the fullness of her to the youn northwest she lived in aad houses aad hay roofed huts with the newest neighbor often a day trudge away she had no decencies she did not even know the luxury ot floor or fireplace her meal was ground in a hand mill and her range was a makeshift oven ID the yard she in the fields at the plowing and the sowing and he helped to alythe the crop and bind the sheaves she watered stock and agun and knitted and tailored she made a arden garden g and preserved the n inter food milked her cowa and nursed her children the sleepy eyed sun found her already at her tasks and the mid moon heard her croon the baby to rest her beauty sleep began at ten and ended at tour year in and year out she never had an orange a box of sweets or a gift of remembrance she ought drought and dearth and savages and savage loneliness her sunday bests were calico and illsey woolsey she grew old at the rate of twenty four months year at the grubbing hoe and the washtub and the churn she lore her baarns alone and burled them on the frozen prairies but she asked no pity for her broken arches her aching back her poor gnarled hands or tor the wistful memories of a fairer youth in sweeter lands she gave america the great northwest and was too proud to quibble at the cost of the stalwart sons to whom she willed it she mothered MEN herbert in the minneapolis glnn tribune I 1 I 1 I 1 1 H I 1 I 1 J 1 I 1 I 1 ah HII lh l H push of the dominant white race ills lory full of the pioneer fathers hut except for n few outstanding incidents and personages it has cald little about the pioneer mothers to trace their history it Is necessary to go back SOO years to the first settlements on the stem and kocl bound coast of new england and to remember that every privation every buffering from cold and hunger every danger from hostile red men which the pilgrim fathers endured was also endured by the pilgrim mothers ibe first american frontier was the gloomy woods which fringed the shore of the atlantic seaboard and held the first settlers close to the waters edge this first frontier produced alie amer lean frontiersman one of the handiest hardiest har diest types mankind has ever known and if produced too the american fron who was a fit mate for such a min she did her share in making a home and when it was necessary she could handle the rifle and the ox to defend that home ho hag not the oft repeated tale of hannah dutten or Dust anthe massachusetts heroine of king philips war in isea angland who proved with her good right abia apia the heroic quality of the pioneer mother defending owr cau dren when the frontier wa pushed back to the 0 the appalachian mountains the pioneer mother stood beside her man and looked down into the fertile ohio valley and with him the vision of their future home she also faced the unknown terrors of the dark and bloody ground of kentucky and helped him holof it against the frenzied attempts ot the indiana to eject the white man from hl best loved hunting ground in that dark period of 20 years from the outbreak of the revolution to the time of mad anthony onynet victory over the con federated tribes of the northwest when the fate of the white settlement in the mississippi valley hung in the balance it was the pioneer woman quite as much as the pioneer man who decided the issue but not all of the courage of the pioneer kotlier was shown when it came to a hand to hand encounter so long as Kentuck lana repeat the stories heard at their mothers knees so long will they tell of the women of abryants bryants Br station these were the women who when the station was surrounded by indians volunteered to go to a spring nearby and bring the water which the defenders of the fort would need BO badly when the battle began the indians were lying low preparing tor a surprise attack it the men went tor water the attack would be precipitated it the women went as usual the savages MIGHT refrain from revealing their presence by attacking the water bearers again they might not it was a tearful chance those women took but they look it walked steadily down to the spring conscious all the totne of snakelike snake like eyes glittering at them from the bushes close at hand filled their buckets and walked stead lly back to the safety of the nails and they spill a drop of water 1 that was the type of courage these pioneer mothers possessed but hostile indians were not the only terror which the pioneer mother faced and conquered she faced and conquered the terrors of loneliness in isolated caban of starvation of bitter winters and sultry summers whose stagnation brought sickness and death to her and her family with no doctors within hundreds of allea too often was it true that my mother he wa merry and brav and 80 she came to her labor with a tall preen fir for a doctor and a stream for a comfort lne neighbor the ballad of william sycamore benet when the american frontier crossed alie mississippi and the last westward push began in the forefront of that long una of historic fleuren which make up the splendid beant ee ant of the west was the figure which dominate the croup by proctor the figure ot the pioneer met her her baby in her arras and her face turned toward the west forgetful of the terrors she had known in the forgets of the east she braved the terrors of the great plains and mountains of the west flooded ahers prairie fires snow filled moun tain passes indian attacks hunger and thirst and sickness could not hold her back her face was turned to the west and when she had followed the star of empire to her goal she bad helped build a nation |