The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1869-03-11
Home Attractions.

One of the great neglects of parents,
is in not making home attractive. The
influence Of pleasant homes upon the
children of the family is of incalulcable
Importance. Whatever beauties, sdorns.
and renders inviting, the paternal abode,
will repay ten-fold the cost, by restraining
the wandering propensities of the young,
and making them content and obedicnt.
There is in these times an inordinate pas
sion to amass wealth, to be invested IN
stocks, real estate speculations, or other
enterprises for money making. If the
ambitions of the father of the family,
were more devoted to home adornments,
and in providing more ample scope for
home amusements, the moral atmosphere
would be greatly improved, and the sum
of happiness much increased, A dreary
cherries home, has driven many boy
from the paternal roof, to seek recreation
and amusement elsewhere. A family
dwelling may be large and the owner be
the possessor of many acres of valuable
real estate, or other desirable property
yet it may be gloomy and repulsive
abode
Where everything about the household,
is only managed with q view to utility and
pecuniary profit; where every seed sown,
and every shrub and tree planted; every
improvement made, is only with the in
tent of realizing an equivalent in dollars
and cents, the true object of life is entire
| ly mistaken. Thousands labor from year
to year, with q cold self.denyiHg, rigid
economy, to amass money, they know not
for whom. Every father of a family
should devote portion of his income to
embellishing and identifying his dwelling
and furnishing his boys and girls with
the means Of home amusements Plant
flowers and cultivate love for them, for
they are the emblems of innocence and
purity. Adorn the walls of your dwell
ing with well selected pictures. for they
are suggestive of historic interest and in
structive. No home is properly furnish
ed unless it has some instrument, or in
struments of music. There is power
in music to charm, to dispel gloom and
melancholy; to elevate and refine, and to
make life pieasurable. Moreover let
there be found in every house, a good
number of books, and in no case is it ex-
cusable, 10 dispense with the newspaper
A family of boys and girls, who are not
posted on the current events of the day,
which are only to be gathered from the
we'll conducted newspaper, is lily fitted
to mingle in the social circle.
| Where there is a failure to provide
home attraction, there is strong liability
for the young, to seek pleasurable enjoy
ment elsewhere. Parental restraints will
be overleaped, and boys will seek
abroad, what they are denied at horne.
And it is in this rambling away to graft
fy one the natural instincts for amusement
that evil associations are formed and bad
habits contracted. Whatever reasonable
aspirations the boy finds repressed at
home, he will naturally seek to indulge
abroad. In multitude of instances pa
rents. are responsible for the sins and
waywardness of their children. Very ma
ny of the abandoned men and women of
this country, have been driven TO become
what they are, by the criminal neglect of
parents. By a penurious commission to
provide home enjoyments, they have
sought the street and places Of low resort;
have strayed into "by and forbidden
paths" for the want of that recreation
which was essential to their nature, and
to their ultimate well being.
" EWEV e. DTT0n