Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes Co., O. [Ohio]) 1870-1895, 1874-01-22
THr RIGHTS OF HoNE.-our homes

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have a claim on us which we are bound
to respect. What are the rights of home
They have certain rights, Of which, by
a strange inconsistency in this age of
fierce ciamor for rights, individual and
universal, they are often defrauded. In
the first place they have right to us.
Not only to our presence in the house
hold room, OF at the dinner-table, but
to our presence as an influence within
them. We are all aware that the mind
has a quality which gives it dual as
pect and makes it quite possible for a
person to be in two places at time.
For example: Mr.. Jones has returned
from business in the evening. His coat
and hat are hanging in the hall, or in
their usual place; he has put ON the
dressing-gown and slippers carefully
laid out for him by his wife or daugh-
Ter, and he is sitting in his easy chair,
listlessly holding the evening paper.
"Hush, children, pa is tired" whispers
Mrs. Jones, as the little ones make
noise in their play, and she glanees
compassionately at the tired face. What
makes that face look SO tired? 1t would
not be so if Mr.. Jones himself were
there. The fact is that for the time he
is really absent, within calling distance
it is true, but so far as his true self is
concerned, he is away amid the cares
and perplexities . of business. The
things that occurred during the day,
occupy him now; he hears a babel of
voices, and sees anxious, furried faces,
and rouses with start to the fact that
he is in his own-parlor, only when the
bell rings for tea. Hundreds ofmen do
this every day. They have no time to
get acquainted with their children.
They see in a general way that they
are clean and wholesome looking; they
pay the necessary bills, and grudge not
the expense of shoes and overcoats.
They dimly remember that once they
courted their wives and said tender
things in pleasant parlors, where the
cheerful lamp or gas light shed its glow,
or on moonlight evenings under rust
ling leaves. The time for that has gone
by, and they would feel as bashful as a
schoolboy reciting piece, were they to
essay compliment now to the lady at
the other end of the table. They have
forgotten that home has its inallienable
rights, and that among them, first and
chiefest, the right to their personal
presence. Nothing rests a man or wo-
man who has been busy about one set OF
things, better than q total change of
or feeling. Let HIM have
a short nap if he is very tired and must
have it, and then let him shake off
drowsiness, and have a romp with the
or game of bo-peep with the
baby, and he will be rested much more
than had he slept away the whole even
ing, as too many weary business men do.
Our homes have also right to cheer
fulness. There is no skeleton at the
feast worse than a gloomy temper.
Neither men nor women belonging to
family have a right, however they may
enjoy it themselves, to wear long faces
and injured looks, and funereal aspects
in the privacy of their domestic circle.
Be cross, if you please, anywhere else,
but at home be cheerful, patient and
censiderate.
There is one other right that must
not be overlooked. Our homes of course
are our castles. Not like the castles of
old, however, guarded by bitches and
approached by drawbridges and port
cullis. They have only thin door be-
tween themselves and the outer world,
and it is well that the magnetic tide of
communication between the world and
them should not be interrupted. To,
this end let them be flooded with good
reading. There is no extravaganza
in taking several newspapers, In having
new books, and in buying pictures.
When these shall be thought necessities,
and some of our present necessities in
the way of dress and food, shall be
called luxuries, our homes will be per-
ceptibly elevated.