Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1872-02-22
After.Suprer Talk,

. "After-dinner talk has been thought
of great importance. The expression has
passed into literature, with many records of
the good sayings it included. Kings and
ministers condescend to make efforts at it;
poets and philosophers greater than kings
and ministers-do not dlsdain to attempt to
shine in it. M s.,rg
But nobody has yet shown what "after-
supper talk !" ought to be. We are not speak
ing now of the, formal entertainment known
as "a supper;" we mean the everyday even
ing meal in the everyday home-the meal
known heartily and commonly as supper
among people who are neither so fashionable
nor so foolish as to take a fourth meal at
hours when they ought to be asleep in bed.
This ought to be the sweetest and most
precious hour of the day. II is too often
neglected and lost in families. It ought to
be the mothers hour; the mothers opportu-
nifty to undo any mischief the day may have
done, to forestall any mischief the morrow
may threaten. There is an instructive
disposition in most families to linger about
the pper-table, quite unlike the eager haste
which Is seen at breakfast and at dinner.
Work is over for the day; everybody is tired,
even the little ones who have done nothing
but play But father is ready for slippers
and comfortablei chair; the children are
ready and eager to recount the incidents of
=
cheered, rested, and also stimulated by just
the right sort of conversation, just the right
sort of amusement. itsIaT e.9r9atD III agf4g
The wife and mother must supply this
need, must create this atmosphere. We do
not mean that the father does not share the
responsibility of this, as Of every other Hour.
But this particular duty is one requiring quail
tiles which are more essentially feminine than
masculine. 1t, wants light touch and an
~
the ideal home evening" 1t must not be a
bore. 1t must not be empty it must not be
wholly like play; more than all things, lit
must not be always-no, not if it could be
helped, not even twice-the same! II must
be that most indefnable, most recognizable
thing, "a good time" Bless the children for
inventing the phrase! 1t has, like all their
phrases, an uncommon touch of sacred in
| spiration in it, in the selection of the good
word "good, which, coming from God, lays
peculiar benediction on all things to which it
is set. 4y3axv 3o
If there were no other reason against child
rem having lessons assigned them to study at
home, we should consider this a sufficient one,
that it robs them of the after-s.Ip hour
with their parents, Even if theirbrains could
bear without injury the sixth, seventh, or
eighth hour, as it may be, their hearts cannot
bear the being starved. Il '1]il"..4" a1s s#,Lj
| O In the average family, this is the one only
hour in the day when father, mother, and
children can be together, free of cares and
| inhurried. Even to the poorest 1aborer's
family comes now something like peace and
rest forerunning the intermission of the
night. IA. .ua.l .aa ue-u g. .auili aFaa ~
, Everybody who has any artistic sense reeog-
niZes this instinctively when they see through
the open doors OF humble houses the father
and mother. and children gathered around
their simple supper. Its mention has already
passed into 'titeness IN verse, SO inevitably
have poets felt the sacred charm of the hour.
Perhaps there is something deeper than on
sense of pleasure one has in this sight; also,
in the universal feeling that the evening gath
ering of the family is the, most sacred one.
Perhaps there is unconscious recognition that
dangers are near at hand when night falls,
and that in this hour lies, or should lie, the
spell to drive them all away. % nj ,sesIa .ta
There is something almost terrible in the
mingling of danger and protection, of harm
and help, of good and bad, in that one thing,
darkness. God "giveth his beloved Sleep
in it; and in it the devil sets his worst lures,
by help of it gaining many soul which he
could never get possession of in sunlight. -,
Mothers, fathers! cultivate after-supper
talk, play "after-supper games;" Keep
latter supper books take all the good
newspapers and magazines you can afford,
and read them aloud "after-supper Let
your boys and girls bring their friends home
with them at twilight, sure of pleasant and
hospital welcome and of a good time ''a after
supper" and you may laugh to scorn all the
temptations which town or village can set
before them to draw them away from home
for their evenings. i'- s't''. .'.-f- '.5. '-...1
These are but hasty hints, bare suggestions.
Rut if thew arouSe one heart tn n new rpa liza.
they have not been spoken in vain nor out of
season. y |'.'..s."I '..- ~ ".'. -..-. B. I'D