Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1858-12-14
Make Home Happy.

I. Childhood is the season of greatest impressi
: bility. The perceptions are quick, the feeilhe
: sensitive, and the impressions moro deep ane
lasting than at any other period Of life. 1t oftel
{ happens that, in after existence the events o.
. yesterday are forgotten, while the scenes o.
, childhood remain vivid and fresh. Even in oio
age and second childhood the remembrances OF
early life crowd in upon the decaying old man
and form the happiness or the misery, to great
{ extent, CT his dying hours. The remembrance
of happiness is happiness; and the joys OF early
years thus become fresh well.spring OF JOY al
through life. They even make man constitu-
tionally cheerful, instead of gloomy, always dis,
posed to speak pleasantly and diffuse around
him happy and contented state of mind instead
of the reverse. When happy ourselves, we are
most benevolently disposed to consider now We
can contribute to the welfare of others; as II JOY,
like water, ever wanted to flow out and diffuse
itself until it raised all around it to its own level.
On the other hand, sorrow and unhappiness con-
ceal themselves, and segregate their possessor
from sympathy with the. world around. Inc
whole world, then, is thus made happier tor
lifetime, from every ray of happiness that once
darts across child's pathway and lights up lts
heart.
+ Make home happy, then and suppose not that
when the immediate occasion OF JOY Is gone,
that the good effects of your exertlons nave al
exhausted themselves. On the contrary, n the
effort has been wisely made, the results VIII last
longer than your life will continue.
We have thousand joyful memories tnas
come crowding up now as we write, sweeter ana q
more buoyant, perhaps, than any OF the last nat
dozen years. But the authors OF those pleasures,
where are they2 Silently sleeping under the
tba furf mother.
charmed us with nursery song, and the old
man, who benevolently made himself the JOY OF
the whole family circle, and let the children
tread upon his corns uncomplaiDingly-these
gray hairs may have descended into the grave,
in peace, but the happiness they conferred VIII
be the last thing in us to die. :,
But if the stock broker on the Exchange VIII
come home to scold the whole house and anni-
hilate the quiet joys of bis children in revenge
for losing day for him in the stock market-n
syery debt ard mercantile sin OF the father IN
Market street is to be visited on the children at
home, no wonder If they grow up cross ana sour,
or seek wild amusements, out OF doors in com,
pensation for the peaceful joys never bestowed
on them at home. "David returned 70 oiess nus
house." How many a man returns to curse ms,
simply by his sel6shness and i'll temper. lhis
sort of selfishness is, indeed, more hereditary
than any other.
No father will ever regret the struggle OF
thought or deed or self denial it he's cost him to
confer little happiness on the young folks at
home of an evening. 1t will give him another
lease of childhood and them an example OF last
ing utility. But hp.o to make home happy
that is the question. BY custards and coaxing,
cakes and candies, and costly luxuriesa A little
Of this sort of sugar.plum happiness may not be
amiss in its turn; but much OF it is not nappi-
ness, but most pregnant source OF misery
For luxury breeds discomfort, and makes every
thing less costly and luxurious, insipid and JOY
less. It is, moreover, the Incidence OF parents
that makes them seek happiness for their chii.
dren thus, as the readest and most easy way OF
getting rid of the troublesome question, what
Shall do to please the childrenf" ms iazlness
like all other, is sin and will bring It's own
punishment.
: Extensive amusements have great recon-
unendation in that fact. Apart from fhe saving
of 80 much money, the cheapest epjoyments are
generally of a more intellectual character. That
Is to saw, they excite the intellect OF the young,
or draw out some moral quality in them which
IS the source of interest. Real home happiness
is very little connected with expense. II IL
were, a family would be happy just in proper
ton to the dollars in their purses. But the poor
have, on an average, quite as much, It not more
happiness than the rich; because having to look
for it, not from external luxuries, but from the
cultivation of wholesome dispositions, their
sources of happiness never dry up. With order,
system, neatness and mutual affection, the mem.
bers of q family have all the sources OF endless
amusement aud daily Improvements within
themselves. That happiness which is dependent
on outward stmulants often reacts, makes ex-
pense necessity, and creates q craving never
satisfied -Philadelphia Ledger.