The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1859-06-08


if they could go-and God forbid they
ever shouid-nto some of the daily
haunts of our metropolitan youth aud see
with what practiced ease their children,
like brood of young serpents, are gid
;ng through the Shiny ways of vice.
Who are the frequenters of the hotel
bar-rooms, the drinking, billiard and oys-
ter saloons, and the more hidden resorts
of worse vice9 They are mere boys in
age, though full gaown in wickedness.-
Ere they have hardly learned to utter a
prayer at their mo,h - knees, these man
nikns throw off all domestic control and
strike out boldly into the dark depths of
the world. Those fac;la in temper and
weak in body, tasked beyond their strength
sink at once; those of more robust ma
tire become hardened by the struggle,
and so strengthened by self-indulgence in
the savage sefishness of vice that, soon
throwing off al obedience to law and Cos
pei, they defantly hoist their black flag
and proclaim themselves those mercilesS
corsairs who prey upon the virtue of soci-
ETY.. Ruin to health, and death to socia
morals, are the inevitable consequences of
the premature initiation of our youth into
the ways of the world.
1t is not without reason that some o.
| our moralists have mourned over the loss
Of that good cheer which once gave such
glow of warmth to the domestic freside
| Our privacy has been usurped by the
'troiing players of fashion, who have
turned our homes into so many theatres
for the show of tinsel drapery, and thu
exhibition of the trickeries of artifca
manners. We have given up our homes
t, strangers, and we throw out our friends
and children to the mercy of the world
| Let us welcome back love and friendship,
and shut our doors upon fashion. Lei
us also forget not the good example taught
| in the best of books, and kill the Stated
calf" for the prodigals. Home must BE-
made comfortable, cheerful and happy
Let us have more couviviality. 1t is not
necessary to bring back the punch-bow
to the sideboard, nor the decanter to the
dinner table, but there is not Il parent, we
are sure, who would not wish that his son
should take his glass of wine at home,
with gentleman, rather than gulp down
his dram with blackguards 1t the bar
room. The wine, however may be dis
pensed with, and is only now alluded tx.
in Illustration of tue necessity of q certain
'legree of innocent conyivial indulgence.
We have known the mere dread Of the
Whit of of cigar reaching the sensitive
| paternal nostrils to drive lad TO a hote
or a worse resort; and we know of one
f the best of homes, where father SOC
and friends unite daily in a friendly smoke
such as would almost smother concavc
IF Dutch burgomasters. You apologize
to the balf-sutfocated dame of the house
hold, and, with true maternal self sacrifice,
she answers, sneezing rs she speaks, 81
lon't mind a good cigar; I'd rahEer they
smoked at home than that my sons should
| 20 out, [ know not whore, to smoke
Tobacco, too, we do not insist upon, any
more than on the black b;ttle or the de-
ean:er. All we urge is that home should
| be made so comfortable and so Cheerful
that our youth, finding it to be so happy
a place, will not care to look elsewhere
for a happier.