19th-century abolitionist progressive Julia Ward Howe, founder of Mothers' Day
Maybe I’m weird, but I always thought the Howes of 19th century Boston were the coolest family – the mother, father, and daughter. Julia and Samuel were tireless 
progressive activists, and Samuel spent most of his time working with the blind, creating America’s first Braille institute. But their greatest passion was abolitionism – doing whatever they could to end slavery in the US. Julia is remembered most for writing the words to the classic anti-slavery anthem The Battle Hymn of the Republic:
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword…
When the great War Between the States was over, Julia’s pre-occupation became pacifism. Pacifism and women’s suffrage. She was the prime mover behind starting the Mothers’ Day we celebrate every year, which was always intended as an anti-war observance. You may or may not have heard her 1870 “Mothers’ Day Proclamation” she wrote for the occasion, a clarion call to end all wars; here’s just the beginning of it:
Arise then…women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
“We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.” (there’s more)
So far, you may be all, OK this is wholesome but boring. What I love is that their daughter Laura Elizabeth Richards grew up to write really weird freaky poems that were my favorite when I was a kid (along with Alice in Wonderland.) She called them “nonsense verse” and collected them in a volume called “Tirra Lirra” that is now out of print. People my age and older may remember poems like “Eletelephony” and “The Poor Unfortunate Hottentot.” I think the reason the book has fallen out of usage and out of print may be because some of the poems and the goofy illustrations are so politically incorrect to modern eyes. She was obsessed with distant lands and other races, and to me sometimes sounds like Rudyard Kipling on acid.
Over the years I’ve set eight of her poems to music for children’s choir and piano, which I call “Tirra Lirra Suite.” I wish I could put a sound file of them up here for you, we’ll get that figured out some day. Maybe next Mothers’ Day. For now, a couple of her more famous poems which inspired me to write beautiful melodies. that have been sung by many childrens’ choirs…
Laura E. Richards, mad genius of 'Tirra Lirra' and Vern's muse
Eletelephony
Once there was an elephant / who tried to use the telephant
No no! I mean an elephone / who tried to use the telephone…
Dear me! I am not certain quite / that even now I’m saying it right.
Anyway he got his trunk / entangled in the telephunk.
The more he tried to break it free / the louder rang the telephee…
I think I’d better just drop this song / of elephop and telephong.
Harriet Hutch
Harriet Hutch,
her conduct was such,
her uncle remarked it would conquer the Dutch.
She boiled her new bonnet,
and she breakfasted on it,
then she rode to the moon on her grandmother’s crutch.
Nicholas Ned
Nicholas Ned,
he lost his head,
and he put a turnip on instead.
But then ah me!
he could not see,
so he thought it was night and he went to bed.
And that’s all I have to say tonight, about the Ward/Howes of 19th century Boston. Happy Mothers’ Day!
Arise the smart the bold and the brave the Mother!
Happy slaves day!
From the Queen:)
Grand Mothers’Day story. I’ll be at the HB Pier noon to one tomorrow rallying for the original mothers’day meaning and I’ll not have to wear the motherless red corsage. And I shall try to abstain from writing “nonsense verse” and I despise turnips!
Hey Vern! Nice blog about Mother’s Day with a twist as always. Mentioned the anti-war observation connection on Facebook. How about a Freeway Blogging day in the next few weeks? Any message that will touch on all the crazy stuff going on now especially the oil spill and moving off of fossil fuels for good?
Mothers and Pacifism. You commie.
Not to mention abolishing slavery and getting the vote for women – those people were RADICALS!
Is there an Unwed Mothers’ Day? I think that would be VERY popular in Santa Ana. Or how about “Dia de la Union Libre!”?
Unwed mother.
What city do you live in? Do you even own a mirror? Your comment today is inappropriate
I trust that Unwed mother is yoking?
Oh and Larry? Spaz down dude.
Oddcat, “unwed mother” was engaging in an offensive stereotype of young Santa Ana women. As most of those are Latino, some would also call that a racial slur.
I appreciate Brother Larry’s old-school Republican gallantry.
But we let worse comments pass every day, so, ¡ándalé!
Vern. Perhaps we shouldn’t permit worse comments on the blog.
Mea Culpa! I thought something so blatantly racist and impossibly stupid was a really really bad joke. No excuses but I thought I was on a progressive site.(this word is getting on my nerves. Even morons THINK they are “progressive thinkers”). It figures, following the month I’ve “enjoyed”,that I would step into a pile of shit!
Nothing takes away Vern’s Mothers’day excellent piece. Kudos to Vern’s mirthful musings.
Nice MD trivia Vern. Glad to see Larry freaking out over that post. I hate to say I do the same and then wonder if the poster was trying to be funny – it was a progressive blog after all. So I guess Larry and I will have to console ourselves that if you are trying to be funny and don’t let us know expect to have someone jump down your throat if you are inappropriate – or if we are high and misunderstand you.
Anonymous.
Freaking out? Well. This was a Mother’s day post. My reaction was to a comment , not the post itself that I should take the time to read before adding comments. Yes, I did not read the post as this has been a rather busy week for me.
Ano It’s wouldn’t be beyond the realm of possibility were I both. ;-}
NOW I have to explain what my old friend anonyms meant. Like many juice commenters, he erroneously uses “post” when he means “comment.” He was HAPPY that you “freaked out” about the “single mothers” comment, because he ALSO did. He agrees with you and is happy to be agreeing with a Republican on something for once!
WAY too much feedback for one stupid comment (#6), which by the way obviously WAS supposed to be funny, but funny like an a-hole prick not the other kind of funny. No doubt that commenter is sitting in his mom’s basement right now, laughing, drooling, masturbating, and feeling important for getting all this attention. Enough!