The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1874-10-22
Let Your Homes Be Attractive.

IF the man who grinds out his own life
and the lives Of his family in the accu
mutation Of wealth-albeit that the mo-
tive may be that his children shall have
money after he is in the grave-if this
money grubber could come back after a
few years and see that his hard earned
wealth had been misused or squandered
he would realize what he should have
discovered in this life-that wealth ac-
quired or inherited without a knowledge
of its proper use is a detriment to its
possessor.
If liberal portion Of ones earnings,
whether those earnings be much or little,
be employed in the education of the fam
lily, and in making pleasant the home
and its surroundings, we should hear less
often that one generation acquires
wealth for the next to squander. Our
rural population would be drawn less
and less to already over-crowded cities;
there would be fewer leaving the old
home to crowd into overstocked genteel
employments," failing in obtaining
which they soon become disheartened,
lose their self-respect, and dwindle into
mere aufomatons, if they do no worse.
We have previously called attention TO
the fact that every dollar intelligently
spent in identifying and adding, indoors
and out, to the attractlveness of our ru-
raj homes was so much capital added to
I ho 1ar ,afa -a1, # he "a
is or should be a still higher motive
which, when understood, will certainly
be appreciated; and that is, that these
embellishments, while they add to the
are constant and vital sermons, elegant
as nature herself, by which friend
neighbor or stranger cannot fail to be at
tracted; and, studying, they may chance
to ask themselves the question: Are we
making our own homes pleasant?
1t matters but little how simple these
surroundings may be. Mere wealth can
not give that true enjoyment which
comes of thrift. Riches may, indeed,
feed man beautifully, luxuriously; they
may clothe the individual in the finest of
clothes, or in the most brilliant of colors
In an animal sense, wealth may crafty
its posscssor, excite the admiration of the
unthinking and the envy of the ignorant;
rative of supposititious virtues of its de-
ceased owner. Eventually even these
monuments perish.
Not SO he who rears living monuments; .
who grades a slope, builds a roadway,
digs or improves sylvan lake, covers
with emerald the lawn, beauties it with
flowers, plants trees whose growth the
century living crown" will watch when
the planter is dust-under whose shade
and GOODNESS children and grandchil-
dren and their posterity will sit and bless
the aforementioned one who spent his
leisure in keeping and identifying the
garden under his care. These will re-
main when marble has crumbled into
dust, and the names of those whose
ashes it had covered shall have been long
forgotten. Trees will grow and gather
strength year by year; the seeds that the
flowers SOW about them will spring up
season after season, typical of the resur
rection and the life hereafter; vines and
beautiful foliaged creepers will cover
trunk and limb, contrasting with the yer
dure Of the support; birds will seek the
shade and security to hide their nests
and rear their callow young. The tree
will increase in stature and wax strong
century after century, and at last, when
it must fall, its boughs will furnish fuel
and its trunk may build other homes, or
as highly-wrought furniture, may give
comfort to others thousand years
hence.
Why not, then, beautify the home? Do
you neglect this because you cannot ac-
complsh 50 much as your richer neigh
bors? Remember that the measure Of
merit is gagged by the ability of the per-
former. The widows mite given in
thankfulness weighs heavier than the
rich gifts of the wealthy, grudgingly
given. So the flower, or vine, or tree,
planted near the humblest dwelling,
may give more satisfaction to the owner
than do the palace and the broad parks
to the millionaire ennuye.-Wstern Rurol.
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