Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1858-12-01
For the Spirit of the Age.
The Happy Home.

Reader, come with me to yon quiet street,
and let us enter that neat brick house, for we
are privileged ones, yousand /, and see what
is taking place within its quiet walls. No
sound of mirth or gayety is there, but the
careful housewife is spreading the snowy lin
en- and placing the teathings on the table. Once
in a while she stops to give the cradle a rock,
or to glance with a smile at her husband who
sits with his feet to the glowing CRATE, read
ing the evening paper.
Two r~osy-cheeked, fair-haired children play
about the room, laughing, dancing, watching
the table andoccasionally peepingat the Sleep
ing babe. AT last they gather around the
pleasant tea-board. SEETea is finished a.they all
kneel, and with claspcd hands thank God for
his blessings. 'Tisa lovely sight, thus to see
the old and the young, gather around the
mercy seat and with the firm voice of man
hood and:the lisping words of childhood, ap-
peal to their Maker and. their Saviour.
The little ones arc soon slumbering in their
cots, and the old folks sit hand in hand by the
warm fire, cheerfully conversing. With this
pleasant home scene on our minds, let us look
back, say five years, and view the situation of
this same family.
In the fourth story of a tenement in the
lower part of the city, sits a woman sewing
she does not look old, but pale and weary
As she bends over her work the tears trickle
down the sunken cheek, over the worn fin
gers to the coarse work in her lap. In the
next room sits q boy Of one or two summers
playing even in his face, with it's sunny
curls floating round, there is a sad look which
betokens want.
Heavy steps are heard on the stairs, and 9
species of humanity which might once have
been q man, staggers into the room, and with
horrld oaths strides up to the care-worn figure
and with one blow lays it on the cold floor
and without needing the face which looks SC
convulsively up to him, he enters the othel
room, and Selling the little boy, hurls hin
against the wall the blood gushes from hi
forehead, and the house is filled with hi
screams. The poor mother drags herself t.
her child, bathes his head and by her gentl
c~aresses gradually soothes to sleep.
The cause of all this misery and unhappi
ness, filings himself on the bed and sleeps tn
effects of his debauch away. His bioate,
49, "HN NoiiGiSN MANI iAS IlSIiOl OGdTu ali
tattered garments, render him one of the mos
desticable objects to view he looks indee,
like one of the votaries of intemperance.
mot one morsel of bread is left in tn
house" thinks the poor woman. 81 hav
toiled day and night to get something for m
and my boy, while my strength lasted, bu
now that's gone, and we must suffer-" Blu
an All-seeing God beheld them from O
high, and some of His children came to com
ort these suffering ones. A warm fire wa
soon built and the table spread with whole
some food, by kind hands. How that poo
woman's heart glowed with gratitude, as sh
knelt by her bedside that night, to Civ
thanks to her Maker and those kind ones
who remembered Der in her poverty.
But this was not all the Sons of Tempel
dnce came, andreclaimed that lost one; the
trod with him the paths of peace and virtue
they held him up when he was about to fall
they called him brother, and carried him
their meetings, where he was cheered an
encouraged to. persevere; they it was VIII
made the man we saw sitting by his comic
table fire in his happy home. How grei
shall be their reward from all quarters
the globe shall com the blessings of mob
hearts upon them. Oh! but drive this ru
curse from our land, and we shall be a ha
Ply people in a happy land. SUSIE.