Smyrna times., 1869-09-08
HAPPY HOMES.

1t is the wholesome ambition of every young
man that is worth anything, to be some day
the joint proprietor of happy home. If his
hopes IN this respect are not duly realized, the
fault will be almost invariably his own. l. is
shame to put, as we too often do, the blame
OF the domestic infelicity we see upon the
weaker side of the house. We are tired of
this endless clack and clamor against the girl
OF the period going to seed. Said girls doubt
less bad enough in any stage of her existence,
but she, at least is not responsible, in one case
out of ten, for the unhappiness of homes.
Hardly the worst or the weakest woman is.
Home is her realm, her throne, her ALL She
Will not voluntarily abdicate her prerogative.
The woman who knows nothing else, knows
enough to make, to the extent of her unaided
/ feebleness, her table and fireside attractive TO
her husband and her children Even the most
unmitigated periodical girl has generally both
the disposition and the capacity to become an
affectionate, unselfsh, cheerful, and tolerably
successful wife and mother.
Let the man contribute as much, and his
home will be happy enough. Where you see
unhappiness in home, look to the husband.
Men are naturally or, we would say, unnatur-
ally, more or less tyrants and brutes in the do
mestic circle. And we don't mean essentially
bruitish men, either We are not including
, that indispensable class of the community who
keep local newspaper agOing by making theil
wives and children's heads the raw materla
Tor police ltems-not sOts, nor churls, nor pc
cullarly blood thirsty heads. We mean tha
: unfortunately vastly larger class of eminently
respectable brutes who are exemplary in thei
r business, in society, in church and the prayer
e meeting, who, in their homes, are only imperi
Gus, stern, stingy, unreasonable, frcttish, o
+ treakish They may possess any single one o
t these traits, or any combination of them, bu
e they are brutes all the same. Theirs are no
a happy homes. Their children brighten oh
e how sadly, as they leave home in the morning
e and scud for bed before they come home q
N night. Their wives, who give them their live
J. and thoughts and bodies, are afraid to Civ
d them the butchers BILL The family Bible
stained with tears from young eyes that eann(
learn to read by reason of them. The holes
\. place on earth, the hearth, is desecrated
~ the unspoken and underlined curses of yoI
e hearts embttered by sense of injustice wi
= messed and suffered Such husbands are love
, often by those they make miserable, who, poi
a. things, must love something yet their hOm
- =, are not happy ones. The stroke that fells ii
- u head of such house would be mourned as
g calamity, but it would be felt as a relief The
- are tragedies at many breakfast tables th
90 morning which are not read from the paper
ar Tragedies enacted by monsters who are go(
J citizens, and in the main good men-the trag
Ibo ob God forgive the man be he otherwise sinner
ba saint, who has allowed trivial foible in
nj own character to wreck the happiness Of
~ ~ home No wonder the sons of so many go
NO men and reputable families grow up scep
~ III and scape grace. No wonder that we'll bo
~ daughters acquire an unholy taste for fashio
~ able dissipation, and horror of home.
of wonder that wives wilt and perish witho
ID ID visible maladies No wonder that our stree
er 'er are filled at night with homeless women a
of precOcious boys-that our prisons TEEN wi
~, ~, human wrecks. They all come from the ha
81 ~ py homes that ought to be, but are not.
." Young men of high hopes and an uHseal
bo future; would you make yourself hap
ne rse homer You need not be advised to be ind,
,r ,ro trious, affectlonate and faithful You will
M that anyway.
Ius AS you value the attainment of your am
nc ton, the realization of your hopes, the succ
al of your life, your own happiness of your no
W Learn to keep your emper.-Ten.ple Bal