Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1871-09-14
Home Life.

Yin true home the whole house ought
to belong to the family, and be occupied
by them. There ought to be spare cham
bers for the guests, and room for hOspi-
tality, but there should be no shut cham
bers or shut parlors, sequestered from all
domestic use. There should be no mys.
teries in the home, no place of oracle
there. Every part of the house, from
cellar to garnet, should be open and known,
not only lighted and ventilated, but visited,
too, by every member of the household.
In real home the family always use the
best part of their house, and live in the
whole of It, They go in at the front door,
as we'll as at the back door; they go up by
the wide staircase as well as by the mar
row staircase, and they use the soft cush-
ions, the damask and the velvet, as well as
the cane seat and the straw mating. In q
genuine house no part or appeudage OF
the house ought to be too good for those
who are members OF the family. It's well
in the home that each member should
have his own retreat, his own chamber,
the daughters and the sons and the SER
wants, but not well that there should be no
feeling of common right in the house.
And good home is not within the
walls of the house. The first home OF the
first family was not in house ut all, Dut
in garden. To realizo the home now
there ought to be garden attached to 1t,
some space open to the sky In which green
things and bright things may grow, and
the family may enjoy Gods sunlight TO-
gether Some kind of garden every
true home ought to have. a clear space IN
| front or in rear or around.
Every well ordered home will have
| library Until this In some form comes
! into the house II has not the tight TO Do
called more than a lodging house, or an
eating house, however sumptuously II may
be furnished. How many books are ne
cessary to make library we shall not
venture TO say, or whether the old Puritan
measure Of the Bible, the dictionary and
spelling book is TO be taken as the unit,
or rather rinity in Unity. Books enough
to meet the ordinary need of intercourse
and conversation aud reference, "the stand
ard works." enough to give the impression
of culture and intelligence; home must
have these, even if it has TO spare some
physical comforts TO get them. Books in
the house are binding influence between
members Of the family, the means Of dis
persipg the clouds, making rainy days
useful, and enlivening hours OF solitude.
And In true home the library will not
be slowed away" In q closet or dark
room, but will be In the center of the house,
in the meeting place of the family, whore
the young and old together catch inspira-
ton in its gathered hoard In the true
home the library will be the favorite "sit
ting room"
Music there ought TO be in every home;
not only the music Of mother 'singing
TO her clean, fat rosy babe" which the
Radical Goblet so much glorifies, but the
music Of consenting voices and consenting
harps. The head OF the house may be q
good steward without any musical know
ledge, but the true father will know more
than the two tunes between which he
cannot decide, when he hears his daughter
strike the keys. The best sentiment OF
home connects itself from infancy to age
with the voice Of music.
And home Is more fully realized when
ell the family are together. There is q
painful absurdity In talking of the pleas
ure of home when the children Of the
| house are scattered, or the parents are con-
| tinually absent. A father who spends all
his time 10 his shop or In his club, except
the hours of the night In which he sleeps,
tor the minutes which he gives for meals,
knows nothing of the satisfaction of home.
This Is one Of the solecisms Of American
life, that men of wealth lavish 80 much
upon their houses, but are In these houses
so little. The children, too, are sent
away TO boarding schools or to Europe,
and three-quarters of the great house re-
main unoccupied. OF course, in the pas
sage Of life and the changes of fortune, il
Ia inevitable that the family circle should
be broken up. The lone widow, whose
children have gone away from her as they
married and settled in life, may speak Of
her "home as the place where she his
lived 30 long, though now no one Ii with
her there. The forms Of the departed ara
there in her thought, and she has society
In her memorial But while the children
are yet in tender years and in leading
strings, home implies that they are togeth-
er In the house, and are not scattered In
foreign and uncongenial abodes. For .
good part Of every weekday, for largo
part Of every Sunday, the parents and chill
dren ought TO be In each Others close so
ciety. II Is more important Tor man Of
business to be In his home than TO provide
merely for Its enlargement. Ihe club"
Is no place for one who has wife and chill
dren; It is an institution for the refuge Of
grim and forlorn celibiates, and even for
them it Is of doubtful value. Genuine
home-life implies hearty love for the 60
ciety In the house, which will hold this q
close and 40 long as the children are will
ing to remain. Home Is place for men
as much % for women, for the Sons =
much a. for the daughters. And no one
has true home when there ID any placs
that he loves better to be in than his home.
- Herald Of Health.
THE tomato vine, 1t Is stated by the New
York Epening Post, ID covered with col
orless dust or dye, perfectly undistin-
guishable by the eye, and only to bAs
recognized after immersion In water, 10
which 1t communicates dark green color.
After picking few tomatoes, the hgAds.
though In contact with the vines, Will sp-
pear perfectly clean. II the hands, how
ever, be washed the water, It II stated,
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