Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1876-03-15
A Family Journal.

In q certain farm mouse twenty years
ago great blank book was kept and la
beled Home Journal. Every night some
body made an entry in it. Father set
down the sale of the calves, or mother the
cutting of the baby's eye-tooth; or, per-
haps. Jenny wrote a full account of the
sleighing party last night; or Bob, the pro-
scrawled Tried my new gun. Bully.
Shot into the fence and Johnson's old cat"
On toward the middle of the book there
was an entry of Jenny's marriage, and
one of the Younger girls had added de-
scription of the bridesmaids dresses. and
long aiterward there was written, This
day father died." in Bob's trembling
hand There was blank of many months
after that.
But nothing could have served better to
bind that family OF headstrong boy sand
girls together than the keeping of this
book They come back to the old home
stead now, men and women with griZzled
hair, 10 see their mother who is still liv-
ing, and turn over its pages reyerently
with many a hearty laugh, or the tears
coming into their eyes. 1t is their child
hood come back again in visible shape.
There are many other practical ways in
which home ties can be strengthened and
made more enduring for children, and
surely this is as necessary ana important
a matter in the management of house
hold as the furnishing of the library or
chambers in good taste or the accumula-
ton of bric-a- brac. One most direct way
is the keeping Of anniversaries; not
Christmas, Easter nor the Fourth of July
alone, but those which belong to that one
home alone. The children's birthdays,
their mothers wedding day, the day when
they all came into the new home. There
are a hundred cheerful, happy little events
which some cheerful and happy little GER
emony will make a life long pleasure. The
Germans keep alive their strong domestic
attachments 10y just such means as thcse;it
seems natural and right to their children
that all the house should be turned topsy-
turvy with Joy at Water or Mutter's
Geburtstag; while to the American boy
or girl it is matter of indifference when
his father and mother were born. We
know house in which it is the habit to
give TO each servant a tritling gift on the
anniversary of their coming into the fam
lily; and, as might be expected, these an
niversaries return for many years. Much
of the same soitening, humanizing effect
may be produced by remembering and
humoring the innocent whims and pc
culiaritles of children. Among hard
working people it is too often the custom
to bring up whole family in platoons
and to marshal them through childhood
by the same general intleXible rules.
They must eat the same dishes, wear the
same clothes, work, play, talk, according
to the prescribed notions of father or
mother. When right or wrong is con-
cerned, let the rule be ineXorable; but
when taste, character, or stomach only is
involved, humor the boy. Be to Toms
red cravat little blind make Win the
pudding that he likes, while the others
choose pie They will be surer of your
affection than if you sentimentalized
about mothers love for an hour Fur
thermore, do not grow old yourself too
soon. Buy chess boards, dominoes, baga-
telle; learn to play games with the boys
and girls; encourage them to ask their
friends to dinner and tea, and take care
that your dress and the table be pretty
and attractive, that the children may be
ashamed of neither.
Why should l stay at home in the
evening"" said lad the other day.
Mother sits and darns stockings or reads
Jays Devotions; father dozes, and Maggy
writes TO her lover FL go where | can
were broken hearted because Joe was
going to ruin, " which was undoubtedly
the tact.-.Scr9bner's Uonthly,
The Laburnum, known in our gardens
as the Golden CHAIN seems to be a
dangerous beauty. The British Hedtcd.
Journal reports that fifty-eight school
boys, deceived by the similarity of the
taste and smell to the licorice-root OF the
drug stores, ate considerable quantity
and all became sick Their sickness,
however, took only the form of siupefac-
ton. Two of them were only with ex-
IRENE difficulty aroused. After being
walked about the yard for ten hours, they
would still fall asleep on the slightest ces-
Sation. II is stated that upon careful
inquiry il was found that these boys could
not have chewed more than half an ounce
OF the root these BOYS" probably
meaning the two worst cases.