On the Altar of Motherhood

ON THE ALTAR OF MOTHERHOOD BY SUSA YOUNG GATES. The sweetest flowers are not always those which glow richly or noisily by the highway. Often the quiet blossoms, sheltering beneath the oak, or climbing in quiet beauty to the mountain steeps, are rarer, sweeter and of higher worth. So some of life's holiest women have dwelt quietly apart from the public gaze. There should be honor for the brave hearted ones who face the storms on the public highways; yet there should be equal remem- bering for those who flinch not while breasting the winds of life in quieter places. Only those who have plucked and worn a flower from life's most sheltered and carefully trained recesses, can know how doubly prized such blossoms are ! Only those who have loved and lost a cherished spirit of quiet yet exalted character, may know the aching void which silence and separation press upon the soul of him who is bereft. Louie E. Shurtliff Smith was the daughter of President Lewis W. ShurtliflP, of the Weber stake of Zion, and only daughter of her mother, Emily Wainwright She was born June Shartliff . 16, 1876, in Plain City, Weber Co. At the time of her birth her father was bishop of that place later the family moved to Ogden, ; and, as is well known, her father was chosen as the spiritual head of the Weber stake. Louie's school training was received in the public schools of Ogden, finishing her high school course in the Weber stake academy, graduating in 1894. She entered the University of Utah, in September, 1894, covering a four year's course in three years, and graduating in 1897. It was while boarding at the home of President Joseph F. Smith that she became acquainted with her future husband. She was domiciled at his mother's home, and the exacting relations of a long, inti-

ON THE ALTAR OF MOTHERHOOD. 541 mate acquairtance under these circumstance only served to bring out in brighter measure the beauty and charm of Louie's refined and intelligent nature. An abiding affection sprang up between the eldest son of the home, Joseph F. Smith, Jr., and the young girl student from Weber. Returning to her Ogden home, Louie taught school during the year 1897-8, and on April 26, 1898, she became the wife of Joseph F. Smith, Jr. The ceremony took place in the Salt Lake Temple Louie Shurtliff Smith, Wife of Joseph F. Smith, Jr., a member of the General Board Y. M. M. I. A. and was performed by President Smith. The young couple dwelt under the parental roof for a few months, when the husband was called on a foreign mission. During the years 1898-1901, while he was on a mission to Great Britain, Louie lived with her parents, taking a position in the Ross book store. Who may com- pute the heroism of the women who toil and sacrifice at home

542 IMPROVEMENT ERA. while their husbands are out upon the firing line with the gospel message? We would revolt at the necessity for such cruel exper- iences, only that we see ever the splendid consequences in the rich fulness and noble breadth begotten by these sacrifices, in both the missionaries who go out and in their wives and mothers whom they leave behind. Once more settled happily in her home life with her husband, Louie engaged in the work of redemption for the dead, her recent past having expanded her sympathies for the helpless ones behind the veil, for whom she could open the door of salvation. She therefore engaged in temple work in the Salt Lake Temple during the years 1901-2. Since that time she devoted her tender sympathies and her efficient labors to the comfort and rearing of her family. She was not a strong girl, physically, and her sensitive soul was never more at rest than when ministering to her loved ones in the home circle. She was the mother of two httle girls, Josephine, born September 18, 1902, and Julina, born February 6, 1906. After her husband was called into active public life she was proudly content to redouble her own efforts to make her home the haven of rest was for it both happy children and busy husband. As one Church of the historians, as a member of the Y. M. M. . A. General Board, and as a member of the Salt Lake Stake High Council, her husband's life was necessarily fraught with much sacrifice of home-life and personal comfort; yet his good wife, like hundreds of her sisters in this Church, rejoiced in that renunciation, fully conscious of the blessedness awaiting them because of that labor, both here and hereafter. We have spoken of Louie as a devoted wife she was also, a ; most exemplary mother. She not only proved that devotion by years of toil and sacrifice, but she offered up at the last her life upon the altar of motherhood. Shall not such be numbered with the martyrs? For several months her health failed under the added burden of a longed-for future blessedness; nerves and body failed to respond to a willing and patient spirit; and for some inscrutable reason known only to the Discoverer of all secrets, Louie Shurtliff Smith was called to her Father's home on the 30th of March,

ON THE ALTAR OF MOTHERHOOD. 543 1908. Her mother was passionately devoted to this lovely and devoted daughter; the tender comradeship between these two was an inspiration to those who knew them best; Louie was the pride of her parents, and the joy of her father's friends and associates; during those last hours the mother's presence at her daughter's bedside soothed much of the pain and softened many of the pangs. Not for long were these two parted, after Louie was stricken with her mortal illness. If she was precious to her husband, she was no less the priceless treasure of her mother's heart. And so, it was a broken household which awakened to the loss of this young wife and daughter. The funeral services were held at the Seventeenth Ward chapel, under the direction of Bishop Tingey, on Thursday, April 2, at 11 a.m. A large company of mourning friends came down from Ogden to attend the services. Among them were President C. F. Middleton, John V. Bluth, the stake clerk, ten members of the High Council, Bishops John Watson and Robert McQuarrie, a rep- resentative of the Ogden press, and many relatives and friends, and they were joined by many former Ogden friends now residing in Salt Lake City. The following is taken from the account of the beautiful fun- eral services, in the Ogden Examiner. At the chapel there were in attendance of the general authorities, each member of the first presidency, seven members of the council of Twelve, several members of the first council of Seventy, Presiding Bishop C. W. Nibley and others. The speakers were Bishop John Watson of Ogden Fifth Ward, the deceased having been a member of his ward for many years before moving to Salt Lake City, though his association with her had been mainly in the Sabbath schools; Elder David 0. McKay, Elder George A. Smith, and Elder John Henry Smith, all of whom spoke of the example she had set as a true wife and a noble mother, of her purity of life, and the self-sacrificing devotion which had been such a marked characteristic of her married life. Particularly touching were the words of cheer and comfort to the bereaved husband whose loss was accentuated by the exceptional qualities of the beloved companion who had left him and her two babes for the great beyond. In the hope of a reunion to come where there shall be no more parting, no more sorrow she was one of God's beloved, lay the and no grief, and in the feeling that grief- stricken strength and the comfort of the words of consolation offered the husband and father. Salt Lake City, Utah.