Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1871-03-16
Cheerfulness In the Household.

EVERY evening, when the sun sinks in the
west, and the light of lamps or gas is
needed to enable us to continue our en-
ployments, hundreds of thousands of busy
men cease from labor and turn their steps
homeward. To the women of the family.
this return of father, husband, or brother
is one of the events of the day; but how
diverse the influence these workers bring
with them, and how varied the reception
with which they are nett If it were poss-
ible to lay aside business annoyances with
our hats and coats when we enter our
homes how we would rejoice to be with
in that charmed inclosurel And yet thus
it should be. Life is battle, of course, and
those who bear their part in it must expect
to give and receive blows; but even pro-
fessional soldiers do not fight without cessa-
ton, and the doughtiest warrior must have
some breathing spell when he can lay
aside his armor. Home may be made a
sanctuary, to which we can flee when sore
ly pressed by the rude assaults of trouble
and disaster, and from which we may issue
refreshed and strengthened; but it is too
often just the opposite.
When John arrives at home. he expects
his dinner at once, and good one too, for
has he not been working all day to earn
money enough to pay the bills? As he is
tired and hungry, he has no pleasant word
for any body; but if the food is under-done,
or over-done, or does not suit his taste, or
is lacking in quantity, how he does scold!
Susan, for her part, has had a hard day of
it. The baby kept her awake good deal
last night, and has been very fretful during
the day, refusing to be queit unless on
mothers knee. Like many American
women, she is excessively nervous, and af
ter such trying day as she has passed,
Tnhn'c ind anl crn1Iiror 1ittIo
more than she can stand. So she answers
him sharply, word for word, and the re-
suit of the angry contest is that each passes
dreary evening, and finally they retire to
rest, wondering why the world is so full of
trouble, and why they were such fools as
to get married.
There are, however. other people who
live very differently. Harry means to ex-
tract happiness from life, and does. He
likes good meal as well as any body, but
he is as reasonable before breakfast as he
is after it; and if perchance his dinner is
not to his liking, he does not vent his
spleen on Jane, his wife. He carries sun
shine with him wherever he goes; and
as he always tries to make the best of cir
cumstances, he is welcome wherever he
| goes, and nowhere more so than in his own
| home. Would there were more like him,
so that there might be less sad-eyed women
and more cheerful, sweet-tempered wives
that there might be fewer men who prefer
the club, the counting-room, or almost any
place to their own homes, so called. 1t
would perhaps be unfair to select any class
of men or women as particularly neglecting
cheerfulness at home, and yet we think
farmers, as class, fail to appreciate its i'm
portance. They have their frolics and en-
| joyments, to be sure, but the average
| A m farr, 10 har 10 hn coll nd a
| Jolly or even cheerful parsonage. In the
busy season, he rises with the lark, trudges
all day as faithfully and often more labor.
| iously than his team, so that when night
comes all the snap and spring is out of him.
He does not make any effort to interest his
wife in conversation at meal times, nor she
him; and if, when the day is over, she has
any troubles to talk over, he is too tired to
be very sympathetic and attentive. Sc
they plod along, living hundrum sort OF
life, which their bright children mentally
resolve to avoid by going to the city. AL
farmers, it is true, do not live so, but many
of them do, and that is one reason why SC
many farmers wives break down. They
have too much work and too little cheer
fulness, and it is more than they or any
body else can stand.
A cheerful household, however, is pc,
culiar neither to the city nor country. II
is found where those who reside beneath
the same roof recognize the obligation OF
each to contribute to the happiness of all
the rest, and where love is the ruling
spirit. A determined effort, coupled with
much forbearance, is necessary to produce
this result but when once it has been at
tanned, it will well repay every effort, and
the home thus graced by cheerfulness and
love will ever be cherished as indeed the
dearest spot on earth. Hearth and Hon7t