Exactly 114 years had passed, one speaker made this well crafted speech before the public about a mother and a wife. Here is a portion of what he aptly said then which still holds true of our modern day mothers and the wives of today. By reading this aloud, one can imagine, this could be an oracle, long forgotten, chimming from the remote unknown yesteryears:
“But the term “gown” is appropriate to some; is appropriate to the mother, whose watchful care over the beginning of our lives, and whose kindly nurture first started us on the journey of life. The mother whose words of consolation have assuage our many griefs, and whose admonitions have saved us from many a wrong; whose tear-stained cheek was more eloquent than words that might be uttered; the mother, who, living, we regard with the most reverent respect, and, whom, dead, our treasured memories are the choicest possessions of our lives. It reminds us, too, of that other one of the female creation, the wife, who, in the early beginning of our lives, linked her fate and fortune with ours, and confidingly put her hand in ours, prepared to go on through the storm and through the sunshine; who has been by our side in all of our trials, in all of our sufferings and in the hour of triumph; whose patient endurance has been to us of the utmost value; whose words of consolation have poured balm into the sore and bleeding heart, and whose words of commendation have brought added pleasure to the exquisite joy of our triumph. The wife who now, when the bloom of youth is gone, and frosty fingers have turned the raven tresses of that early time into a snowy crown, still stands, by our side, and, steadily looking forward, goes with us down into the narrowing vale, where the branches, bending lower and still lower above our heads, shut out the view and keep us from observation of the realm beyond. For her no gown is too rich or costly that human fingers can fashion, no gems of loving thought too priceless for which our human tongues can frame a setting.”
This is a portion of speech made by Lewis E. Carr before the annual banquet of the New York State Bar Association in Albany, N.Y., January 17, 1900. I found this speech from a book called Modern Eloquence and published in 1923 by Modern Eloquence Corporation, Volume 1 After Dinner Speeches, page 227. It was true then, it remains true nowadays. Lynn Rosaroso, a local artist has immortalized this song Inay, dedicated to all mothers of all ages.