Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1872-02-28
The Childless Home.

Many newly-married people consider child
lessDess peculiarly fortunate circumstance
1t relieves them from many cares. annoyances
aud yexatons. 1t abolishes the nurse, sleep
less nights, good Mrs Winslow and the era
die. 1t gives opportunity for parties, balls,
the ppsfa, ani suadry tgipato the mountains
and seashore, which would be exceedingly in
convenient if a little trouble-maker had been
taken along or left behind There is nobody
to litter the floors, turn the show-articles up
side down, and make confusion generally; and
there are no sobs or squalls, which those may
call emusic who have an ear for such
sounds, which our ohildless people have not
And then the landlords are so civil when
told, " No children - that is the 4" open ses-
anne to any desirable suite Of apartments or
love of a cottage Indeed some Of our newly
married folks look upon no children as the
universal panacea for the ills Of life, and the
infallible recipe for connubal, and indeed all
other happiness.
But after a while the brightest and most
engaging couples tire of receptions theatres
concerts and the like The appetite becomes
sated. The relish for artificial enjoyments
gets cloyed The desire for comfort and
quiet takes the place Of the feyerish craving
for active pleasures. To sit down at home
over an entertaining book to break the
monotony of an evening by pleasant chit
chat, few touches Of music, or an amusing
game to be warned off to bed by velvet
footed dreams stealing over the senses and
filling the fancy with drowsy delights these
things invariably come in time. Then comes
ysarning for something the heart has not a
looking for what the room does not contain, a
feeling after what no provision has been made
for. But the cradle docs not come.
The aversion to care, infantile cries, and
confusions Of all sorts, has become chronic
but little Two Shoes is tyrant, and whore
ever he sets up his despotism insists that the
" laws of disorder" shall prevail The de.
sire for somebody to pet and play WITH and
dote upon, grows to a hunger, which, alas,
does not feed itself, and only gives way to the
more painful need Of that sympathy, affection,
friendship, solaco and support which none but
child can supply.
There may be wealth, yet who but child
shall keep at bay that great brood of yultures
and cormorants which peck remorselessly at
"a
be social position and even fame, but how
empty and barren are all honors that must
dissolve with the breath of their wearer. The
home may be palace, but its splended halls
will be cold and cheerless as the forecourt OF
sepulohre, if they are not made the portals
Of heaven by the praltle, the merry laugh and
innocent hilarity Of children, through whom
tlse-sAipire Paternity bestows perennial youth
and hope and earthly Immortality upon pa
rents here.
OF all cherries, unnatural places in the
world, childless home is the most uncom-
Portable. There is something oppressive in
its vacancy Its stiffness is sitting. The
heart faints and cries for what is not there
The home into which the Great Father has
once placed one of His little ones, for however
short a stay, is transformed by that visitation
and can never lose the charm of that mys-
terious coming, nor the light that streamed
through the door Of its noisess departure
The door is open aud no hand can shut it
and Just on the other side the unseen child
engages in gambols, or is busted with tasks
which il needs but little imagination, blend
ed with faith, for parents heart to hear.
No home can ever be the same again into
which one immortal being rose to conscious
life and saw heaven Of love in a mothers
eyes. Birth is the great sacrament. But
the home that has had no such baptism, cold
dull and dreary is it at the best, with none oi
the poetry of life in it, no legends of angels
trailing about it and no star shining over il
to indicate that it is favored Of Heaven -
The Golden age,