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Show .' '' i.. . -V ' :' -v; ' , ' p rh, v'iv v V f' By ELMO SCOTT WATSON ,m. , -N SUNDAY, M:iy S, the in' heart of America will be ff, quickened nt tlie tlioug'.it 'Sifaf of one won! "Mother." JTT For that is Mother's day, 4i nn annual event which is tlf generally observed, not bv I'residenrial proclamation, legislative enactment or church dictum, but because sentiment decrees that the second Sunday In May of each year shall be the day upon which we honor the women who gave us birth. Mother's day this year has a special significance because of at, least two distinct projects which are under way to honor one of the most heroic types of motherhood the world has ever known the pioneer mother of America. Amer-ica. And in both cases the honoring will he done In memorials of everlasting everlast-ing bronze. One of them is the announced purpose pur-pose of E. W. Marland, an Oklahoma oil millionaire, of erecting a heroic statue of "The Pioneer Woman" on the famous Cherokee Strip in Oklahoma, Okla-homa, the last government land opened to homesteaders. Twelve of the leading sculptors of America have submitted models from which he Is to select one for the completed work. An exhibit of these models is being senr to various cities throughout the Middle Mid-dle West and Far West and the public Is to be given a chance, by popular vote In each city, to aid Mr. Mariand In making his selection, by which, it i hoped, the modl best Interpreting the pioneer woman will hp chosen. "The I'ioneer Mother" is to be Immortalized Im-mortalized in bronze in another western west-ern city when the monument by that name (4mwn in the Illustration above) is unveiled In 1'enii Valley purk in Kansas city this spring. This monument monu-ment is the work of A. l'liiinisler Proctor, Proc-tor, noted for his statue of Col. Theodore Theo-dore Roosevelt as a Rough Rider, which stands In Portland. Ore., as wW! ns for several other tine pic-es of work In other cities. It will be pre-Fentcd pre-Fentcd to Kansas City by Howard Van-I'erslice, Van-I'erslice, who, as a baby, was carried 1 In tl.e arms of his pioneer mother from Kentucky over a westward trail lo the Indian lands of Kansas, in Just such a mariner as that depicted in 1 'i 'ni-tor's statuary group. U is especially appropriate that this memorial should stand in Kansas City with the face of the pioneer mother turned to the great trans-.Missouri West. For the site of Kansas City Is historic ground. In this vicinity were 1iie eastern termini of two great highways high-ways the Santa I-'e trail and the Oregon Ore-gon trail over which the stream of emigration poured Into the last Ameii-i;.n Ameii-i;.n wilderness. The Santa Ke trail was primarily an artery of commerce, l.ni the Oicgnn trail svas n bemeseek-c's bemeseek-c's highway to the gold fields of Cnl-f Cnl-f rnla find to the rir-li valleys of Ore-g. Ore-g. a and Wnsblri; I on. The epic r,f tj,,. ' i-ego:i Irail has been written many t-,-s- and in in: ny different ways so C at liie picture of the women of the "Covered Wagon" era Is as clear In ie. i- minds us that of the men of those days. I'.ut It Fhould not be forgotten that tl.e mol hers of that perlorf were not the first to be cast In heroic roles In the lolghly drama of the westward The Prairie Mother She came to rock the cradle oi a new empire. Adventure calls ' to men, but duty summons worn- " " en. And so, when the time wa . ripe to breed new stars for the ', flnpr. she set forth from Mnlne .. and Ohio and Killarney loveli- ness fir.d her Swedish villpe and " ' her fj.rd home to mother the . . wtlderntrss. On ly God and she knows the fullness of her giving to th - ; youner Northwest. " j I She lived In sod houses and .. hay-roofed huts, with the newest noi-rhbor often a day's trudge H away. T She had no decencies. She did not even know the luxury of - A floor or flreplnce. Her meal was " J prrouni In a hand mill and her ' ' baking range was a makeshift " oven Ip the yard. She helped In the fields at the plowing and the sowing, and she I helped to scythe the crop and bind the sheaves. J. She watered stock and spun nnrl knitted and tailored. She - " made a garden and preserved the ' winter food, milked "Sier cows !.. and nursed her children. The " -. sleepy-eyed sun found her al- -- ready at her tasks, and the mid- 4 moon heard her croon the baby j" to rp3t. T Her "beauty slep" be can at X ten and ended at four. Year In -j-; and year out she never hnd an j " orange, a box of sweets or a gift T I of remembrance. J ; She fought droucht and dearth .L i and eavnge.v and savaee lonelt- -r 1 ness, her "Sunday bea's" were J en 1 ico and I in wonUey. Slie .. prew old at the rate of twen'y- .. four months a year at the grub- . -- bir.g hoe and the washtub and -1 'hp ch urn. She t-ore her bairns alone and , ' .. buried them on the frozen pral- S. ries . Rut Fhe asked no pity for her 4- " broken arches. hr a-hing ba.-k. j , her poor, gnarled hands. Or for Tj the wistful memories of a fairer j youth in pweeier lands. X Shf B.ive An-ertca the (treat " N'onhwt-st, and was too proud to T M quibble at tl; cut of the ntal- T wart ons tn whom she willed 't. T 'Shf mnihf-rrd MiiN ' Herbert -j- Kau i man iri the M in nea polls !-i !-i i.Minn.j Tribune. t i J-5-H-I !! ! 1 1 1 ! 'l-l -1 -i-H-r-H-l-r-H--iush of the dominant white race. History His-tory Is full of the pioneer father, but. rxeept for a few outstanding ltnM-rtts and personages. It has said little about the pioneer mothers. To tra'-e their history It Is necessary to go hack .'Mill years to the llrst set I lenient on the "'tern and rock-bound coast" of New laiLdand and to remember that every privation, every suffering from cold and hunger, every danger from hostile red men which the Pilgrim l-'inliors eridutfd. was also endured by the Pilgrim Pil-grim Mothers. The llrst Anu'riran frontier was the gloomy woods which fringeif the shore of the Atlantic seaboard and held the first setlb'is close to the water's edge. Tills first frontier produced the American Amer-ican frontiersman, one of tin" hardiest types mankind has ever known. And It produced, too, the American froti-llerswoman froti-llerswoman who was a (it mate for such a man. She did h"r share In making mak-ing a home and when It was necessary she could handle the rllle and the nx to defend that home. Who has not lieiirif the oft-repealed tale of Hannah Imst'ii (or I mstan) I he Massachusetts heroine of King I'hlllp's war In .New I'.ngland who proved with her good right arm the heroic oualily of the. pioneer mother defending her children? chil-dren? When the frontier was pushed brick to the summit of the Appalachian mountains the pioneer mother Blood beside her man and looked down Into the fertile Ohio valley and saw with him the vision of their future home. She also faced the unknown terror of the "Dark and llloody Ground" of Kentucky and helped him holif It against the frenzied attempts of the Indians to eject the white man from his best-loved hunting ground. In that dark period of "0 years from the outbreak of the Revolution to the time of "Mad Anthony" Wayne's victory, vic-tory, over the confederated tribes of the Northwest when the fate of the white settlement in the Mississippi valley val-ley hung In the balance. It was the pioneer woman quite ns much as the pimieer mac who decided the Issoe. Hut not nil of the courage of the pioneer mother was shown when It came to a hanii-to-han.l encounter. So long as Kent uckliins repent the stories heard at their mothers' knees, so long will tle y tell of the women of I'ryant's Station. These were the women who, j when the station was surrounded by I Indians, volunteered to go to a spring nearby and bring the water which the ' defenders of the fort would need n ; badly when the battle began. The In- j dians were "lying low" preparing for . a surprise attack. If the men went for water the attack would be precipitated. If the women went as usual, the sav- nges MICH IT refrain from revealing their presence by attacking the ' lor-hearerR. A'-'aln they might not. It vas a fearful chance those women took. Hut they look It, walked steadily down to ihe spring, conscious all the time of -snake-like eves glittering at tbeui from the bushes close at band. ) tilled (heir buckets and walked steadily stead-ily back tn the safely of the stockaded walls. And they didn't spill a drop of enter! That was the type of murage these pioneer mothers possessed. I'.ut leisille Indians were not iheonlv terror wbb h (be pioneer mother faced and coniiieied. She faced and con j ipiered the terrors of loneliness In isolated cabin-' of starvnllon. of bit ter winters am sultry snmmer-i. 1 hose stagnation brought sickness an I death to her and her family with no doctors within hundreds of miles. Ton of! en was II '.rue that I My' niotlmr phe wan a. Try and bravo Anil o Mir camp In tur tnbor With a lull tTPcn flr for n doctor Krnvi J And A Mrcam for a conifortlna ndrrlilior -"Thi Hullnil of. William Sycnmor" lli-ncl. When the American frontier crossed the Mississippi and the last westward j push began. In the forefront of I bat , long line of historic figures which make up the splendid i ageani of Ihe I West was' the llgure which dominates ihe group by Proctor- the llgure id ( the pioneer nielher. her baby In her arms and her face' turned toward Ihe west. Forgetful of Ihe (errors she had known In the forests of Hie Fast, she -braved (be terrors of Ihe great plains j and moiiiitaliiH of the West. Flooded rivers, prairie lires, snnw-lllleil inoiiii- ! lain passes, Indian atiacks, hunger and I thirst and sickness could not hold her hack. 1 1 it face was turned to the west and when she had followed tin "star of emplie' to her goal she had helped build a nation. |