Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1872-04-19
Home Life in,America.

cit was different when we we're young"
they say: and it was better" they gen.
orally add. The old time is always the
good time, with the old, and We suppose
will be. The poets have done much to
bring about this opinion, for they are
never weary of singing about :" The days
that are no more" 1t was so in Greece
and Rome, and it was so in England
"When this old cap was new" every
thing was as it should be: and every vir-
tue under the sun was impersonated In
/" The Queens Old Courtier," and "Fine
Old English Gentleman" 1t was pity
that these WORTHLESS had to die before
their virtues could be found out; but
they had to all the same. We do not
agree with the poets in this matter, and
never shall. But we are willing to agree
with them, if they will agree with U.s.
We will admit that the old time is the
best time, but they must admit that no
time is so old as the present time. 1t is
the fact, whether they admit it or not,
and it follows, therefore, that it is the
best time. And it ought to be; for peo-
pies, like persons, "live and learn
Were it otherwise, all the battles that
have been lost and won, all the great
men who have lived and died-every-
thing, in short, that was, and is not,
would have been to no purpose. II u
the crab that walk backwards-no man.
The race advances it does not recede.
Not to philosophise on SO evident
truism, however, let US look little into
the simple matter of home life. Forty,
thirty, twenty years ago. the Home Life
of America was very different from what
it is to-day. 1t was less expensive, and
| it was less comfortable. The man of av-
erage means lived within his means, but
it was at the sacrifice of something. He
did not deny himself the creature COM
forts" but he denied himself the luxury
of books, and his wife and daughters
the luxury of dress. Fifty calico dress
es we're worn then where one is worn
now; while books, which now run through
twenty editions, we're long time then in
creeping through one. Whether there
are not too many books, and too few cal
leo dresses, now is not the question it is
the fact which we are considering
/ Thirty years ago the cost of good brick
house in pleasant city street, was about
equal to the yearly rental of such house
now; at any rate, it was not much
greater. To be sure, there we're draw
backs to those houses, which no longer
Iexist. We have ventilation where we
had none; we are warm where we were
cold; in other words, we have comfort
where we had discomfort This has coss
US something, but it is worth what it has
cost US. Who will may wish back the
close chambers, the windy passage-ways,
the hard, BLACK hair-cloth sofas Of forty
years ago. We would as soon wish back
the uncarpeted floors, and the wooden
settles OF our ancestors. These were good
enough, perhaps, for the old time, but
they are not good enough for the older
time. We have lived-and learned.
There is no royal road to learning"
, is an old axiom, but the average Ameri-
can will not be convinced Of the truth Of
, it. 1t is hard to convince him of the
truth of any thing, which it is to his in
terest to believe the contrary. He can
find, or make, royal roads anywhere. And
! he does, though many of them are paw
ell with any thing but good intentions.-
S :" Get rich, my son, get rich, honestly if
' you can, if not-ges rich" 1t was not
D a Frenchman who said this, although
!. one might think 80. but member of
: that plain-speaking sect-the Quakers.
e The average American does not speak
( out in meeting he is too smart for that
he merely puts his intention in prac-
i tice. 1t is not SO much his fault, per-
e haps, as the fault of the period, that he
s makes haste to grow rich. Everybody
4 does SO. The standard of morals is no
longer what it was. Many things have
j conspired of late to change it; among
s others the success which follows those
r who violate it most audaciously. 1t is
o no matter how they get rich--if they
e only get rich enough!
q Plate sin in gold
And the strong lance OF justice hurtless breaks
e Arm 1t IN rags, pigmy's straw doth pierce IT'D
The passion of America, to-day, is the
! passion for wealth, and its weakness is
! the weakness for display. Both are bad
. no doubt, from moral point of view
!. still, both are productive of good. But
for the first we should be content, as we
4 once were, with stage-coaches and sail
. ing packets, and for the last we should
/ be content with the old, worn-out homes
of our ancestors. Now we are content
with neither. The change which has
come over us in regard to our home-lifa.
| rs an evidence that wa boya ~.o.