Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1875-11-13
HOME.

There is no word il the English Ian
cuaee SO full of thrill and intense
meaning as the word Home. 1t is en-
twined around the tenderest cords of
the heart, and sweetest repembrances
of the past. We carry through life
the pictures of its scenes, hung around
the chambers of the memory. We
remember the bright faces of those
who first fondly greeted us; the win
dows through which we first looked
out upon the world spread out before
our young minds like fields of Eden
beauty. unscorched by sin. The trees,
flowers, and green lawns where we
first sported in childhood remain fresh,
hanging on the background of mem
Ory's walls, like pictures of cherished
beauty.
When we take walk during the
twilight of some quiet balmy evening,
while the gentle, soft winds bring to
our ears the last notes of the warblers,
as they sit on the branches along our
pathway, we see many things that
bring to mind fond. recollection Of
Home and childhood 1t is then that
the mind runs down through the chang
ing events of the past, surveying at one
glance the many scenes through which
we. by the goodness of God have been
brought unhurt. But when looking
back over the stream of life, as we fast
~ recede from the shores. we are ready
TO adopt the language of the poet:
when young Iife's Journey began,
The glittering prospects charmedmy eyes,
] saw along the extended plain.
JOY after joy successive rise.
but soon / found IL was all a dream.
And learned the fond pursuit TO Shun;
Where few gained their purpOsed aim,
And thousands daily are undone.'
When we meet with flowers far from
Home that were favorites in our faith
ers garden, they seem to recognize and
smile upon us. They tell US that the
same kind Father Who made the
flowers of our early years made them
also, and that the same omniscient eye
that watched over our infancy, will
watch over US to the end Of life.
Sometimes as We pass over the stream
Of life we fall in with families whose
friendly Inequalities remind us at once
of Home and its sweet association, and
because they are Home-like we, at a
glance, almost instinctively form strong
attachments for them which follow US
through life. Home is one of the
blessings that has escaped the runs of
the fall. Ii is the oasis in the Sahara
that sometimes surrounds US. A green
spot in the midst of life's desert, where
Pleasures bud and bloom through
winter and summer. Home is the
morning star of the dawning of our
existence, and the evening star of our
declining years.
The word itself, is n rainbow upon
the storm-cloud that tells Us of quiet
retreat from thetempest of misfortune
aud calamity. Oh how pleasant it is
for the man of business 20 retire to his
home and family, after passing through
the tide of trade. He feels that there
is a sure, calm retreat whose pleas
ure remains when all other resources
of worldly happiness are dried up.
The love aud sympathy of home and
family continue when all besides seem
Geld and Indifferent.
Home where love exists has many
pleasures for husband, wife and chill
dren 1t is sweet to children because
mother is there and to them it is
place of security, because their father
protects them, and to father and moth
cr it is place the dearest of all earthly
places, because their children are
there. Home is the one place in all
this world where hearts are sure of
each other. 1t is the place of conf
dence. 1t is the place where we tear
off the mask of guarded and suspicious
GOODNESS which the world forces US TO
wear in self-defense, and where we
pour out the nnreserved communica-
tions Of full and confiding hearts. II
is the spot where expressions of ten
derness gu>h out without any sensation
of awkwsrinesS and without any dread
sf ridicGle.
One of the great requisites of hsp-
piness at home is cheerfulness. When
the husband returns home all gloomy /
and sad, there is little happiness for
the wife. Then. whe there wife greets
the husbands return at evening with
a frown OF discomfort, there is little
happiness for him but when he re-
turns to his hearthstone cheerful, and
meets with the same feeling 10 the
other members of his household, he
may truly say, there is no place like
Home This cheerfulness must be
mutual and reciprocal upon the part
of all the members composing house
hold.
Some one has said, "A mans house