New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-10-02
TIE HOME CIRCLE.


Now. while Autumn hurries rapidly By, deepening
into Winter, and the freside becomes the center OF
social enjoy 1t especially behooves parents aud
"besds Of families TO give particular thought how
best 10 make bone attractive to the young by provd
ing nesrs Of social recreation for the long Winter
evenings. In this providence hes ole OF the most
important secrets Of the successful training CT children
especially when of an age to form enduring habits and
associations.
Parents so fortunate IS TO possess the faculty OF
making home more Agreeable than evil or equivocai
resorts be- need have fear for the future OF son
or daughter Nssic, of oil tbiogs TO refined family
is the innocent and erdeaing of in door recrea-
iions-no. the mere boarding school stunning o.
snowy trash for display abroad but the cultivation OF
old "cbsmber " music for its own sake and the pure
pleasure it inspires. In Germany, where honeasso-
Citations perhsps stronger than in any other part OF
the world. such music hardly need say is unver-
aaly cultivated with ardor and forms the strongest OF
family tes. Dancing, too, is mos. heathia chesr-
full b delight; and TO whstever objections the
modern polka, waltz and schottisch may be justly
liable, pursued in the whirl and rush and fury OF
Mrs. Potphars routs, the most severe den ,uucer
could regard only with pleasure the forms OF young
children moving in hsimony with spnghtly Music,
their merry eyes and hightensd color attestng their
delight es well the health giving character OF the
exercise.
Notwithstanding their marvellous convenience and
comfort we cannot but depore the modern improve
melt" Of furnaces, which has banlshed the CID
fashioned genial blaze and made the freside al altar
as completely ideal as the Lar who presided over 1t.
Who so fortunate as 10 have lived when there were in
reality fresiees does not recall the Unreasonable
peace and Joy Of winter nghts-the curtains drawn
clt sely TO exclude the roaring blast, the generous
logs piled on the clio wing enbers the sof. and easy
chair and the centre table with its books and assral
lsmp wheeled up in semi-circe about the dancing
fame-when Mother and sisters to their accustomed
seats came with their work sskets and pre.y netting
While Father read some pleasant bork, or told long
stories 10 the ounger ones who between his feet we're
roasting apples or ohestnuts by tie fire. And then
when bedtime came when curly heads nodded aud
bright eyes winked YEARLY, how sweeter than the
whole hight long in wsrmest bed Of feathers were the
five nib es Of contraband sleep between the Oft re-
peaed assertion that il was time to go to bed and the
going.
Now in "gentee" families all that sort of thing has
kent pace with the general march of improvement;
Augustus Frederick and AraInints excluded fcom
the psrlor-the young gentleman until he has gradu-
ated at college and dole his tour, the young lady till
she is "out" Children sre noisy and Troublesome
and given to asking such tireeone questions Mamns
ard Psps 90 10 the play to the opera, or are at
home" TO their dear five hundred friends; they have
French bonnes for their tender offspring and nursery
for the use of both-what more could they, or any
of their SET" Go for their comfort and advantage
The very lights at home in these nights have pub
lie glare; French people smile, and say we light our
drawing. looms like Stores-and indeed many have
oil the appearance Of fancy curiosity shops; the heat
too has en- artificial hot bed influence, taking away
all the pleasant show Of warmth 80 pcturesquey COM
Portable in contrast with the seet and snow without
The very satin and gliding of the chairs and tteees
and bergtres now sdays have touch-me-not com
"paDy" air about them, none Of the indulgent, inv-
ing homey solidity of old-time furniture which chill
dren barring the penknves) couldn't hurt, and which
from it's accustomed corners generations spring up
about ts Enthusiastically twisted egs-itsslf as immuta
be as the walls of the old homestead, ard as fondy
endeared to the inmates old or young.
But in this age of quck-step Improvement - OF
breathless demand for never-endng change in one 8
house dress, furniture, everythiDg-there Is no time
for the forming Of ome-associatons like trees or
flowers repeatedly trsnsplaned, we cannot take root
in any soil. and we fade and droop in sicky decay
without having experienced the generous, vigor-
ous hesth-givitg force of firm hold upon the native
and NAL influences in the midst of which we
sprang into life. We have homes, 50 to speak, only
elegant residences and these rapidly changed for
as poor Mr.. Potphar meditated, Z" one can't live
amorg shops; when Pearl street comes to Park
"place Park.place must run for its life up to Thir-
tieth street9 that the most digent Directory can
scarcely keep pace with the movements OF the Ultra
fashionable. What we of the present generation
lose in this sort of unsatisfactory, migratory existence
forget in its excitement and restessness, till some
rare relic OF long time ago sits among US and talks OF
when was young" and at such times, notwith-
standing all the presept advantages of merely SEN
susl convenience and comfort in our luxurious dwell
irgs we are disposed to question whether all this be
not at best but sad change, since it has involved
the loss Of so much true, heathful happiness.