The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1867-03-27
The Old Folks at Home.
REV. JOHN TODD, D. D.

Liz Ulu IOlKS al home.
REV. JOHN TODD, ID.
am now thinking Of an aged couple
/ who are called the old folks" who have
lived together husband and wife, in the
same house over fifty years. They came
there young, sanguine and utterly unable to
conceive what they would pass through in
fifty years, orindeed that there could be an
end to halfa century. They have reared
carefully and properly educated a large
family of children. These have all gone
from them now, have families of their own,
and are filling, each, an important place in
society, and some of them high posts of in-
huence.
/ They are all members of Christ's church
in the order of their parents. And so " the
old folks are left alone, just as they
started in life. they have long worn
4 glasses; but at the hour Of family Worship
they take each family bible, and read in
course alternately two verses, just as they
did when they read with their children.
Then they sing the old hymns, though the
voices are not so sweet or the pipes Of the
organ as perfect as formerly. They live, it
is plain, from incidental remarks, III the
past, the present and the future.
There are certain things that they seldom
speak of, even to one another. They keep
all the play-things which their children
once used, ostensibly for their grandchil-
dren when they come to visit them but
the forms they see playing with them are
those of their own dear children who have
gone before them, but who left their image
in their memory. The little books, and
even the little shoes Of their bright and
early dead ones, are carefully laid up, and
though they never speak of them, each
knows that they are precious mementoes Of
the past.
But to see how careful they are Of each
other. The fires of passion have all burned
out, the beauty and freshness of life have
all passed away, and the rich harvests of
time have all been garnered. But no low
ers could be more tender towards each 9th
err. If either is absent, the time is anxious
y measured till the return and the foot
step on the Threshold may not be elastic
as it returns, yet the ear that bears it and
the heart that feels it are awake. They
seem to understand each others thoughts
without words, and each feels that life
would not be life without the other. They
think over the past much and often, and
realize that they have together toiled, and
together struggled and shared all the bur
dens and sorrows of life. Every memory
of the past is equally vivid to each. They
don't say much about their separation, SO
certain to leave one or the other SO DESC
late, but it is plainsthey think much about
it; and from hints occasionally dropped, it
is evident that each is contriving and plan
ming how the other can be made comforta-
BILE when thus left alone, each expecting to
be first to die.
| And when they think of the future, even
carrying their thoughts into Heaven, they
seem to have an unexpressed fear that
Heaven will not be all that they desire, if
they can there be to each other no more
than old acquaintance. Itseems as if they
must carry something of the tender feeling
which the sorrows and the experience Of
life have given them, into that world, and
as if they must go hand in hand forever.
And the thought that they must soon
separate, and the one must be left to walk
alone in the rooms, sit alone at the old Ia
BILE, kneel alone at the altar Of God, 60
to the house of God, gives an ineypresible
tenderness to their treatment Of each other.
They never, even in the days Of youthful
courtship, lived more in each others
thoughts than now.
Time has covered Thorough places of life
over which they have walked, and years
have healed the wounds they have suffered,
leaving only scars but the rough winds Of
life have only bowed their heads, and you
see not the sturdy oak, but the soft weep
ing willow. Memory brings up pictures of
the past, some of them recalling sorrows
heavy as humanity can bear, but mellows
them down in her golden light; and hope
comes still, not to sing Of earth, as she
once did, but of Heaven and the over open
ing future. And faith, showing nothing to
the eye, contrives to exert her powers over
them by mingling her voice in the songs Of
hope!
They will not be with each other long;
but while they do live, no part Of. their life
has been more full of tender regard, genuine
respect, unaffected kindness or deeper love.
The young world cannot understand the
old folks )" but never go into their dwell
ing, without seeing some of the most puri-
fed, refined and exalted traits of human
nature, which to me are inimitably beauti-
full. And il what have said shall lead my
reader to feel more kindly towards those
who are all around us as g the old folks" l
shall have gained my object in writing.
Let me add that few things are more repul-
siye to refined heart than to have such
couple as | have described called " the old
folks by way of derision.
TO DESTROY THE Boil WoKs.-We pro-
cured eighteen common-sized dinner plates,
into each of which We put half a gill Of vim
egar and molasses, previously prepared in
the proportion Of four parts Of the former
to one Of the latter. these plates were set
on small stakes or poles driven into the
ground in the cotton field, one to about
each three acres, and reaching a little above
the cotton plant, with a six inch square
board tackled on top to receive the plate.
These arrangements were made in the
evening soon after the flies had made their
appearance; the next morning we found
eighteen to thirty-ive moths to each plate.
The experiment was continued for five or
six days, distributing the plates over the
entire field, each days success increasing,
until the number was reduced to two or
three moths to each plate, when it was