New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1876-07-05
CHANGES IN TUE HOUsEHoI y.

No no. II there be one thing thai has grown soidity
and grandeur in richness and purity and rcfncment 1t
has been the American household. On there we're here
and there notable mansions here and there notable
households of intelligence and virtue in che Olen day.
But we are concerned with the averages and the average
American household is wiser, there Is moro material for
thought for comfort for home love- TO-DAY in the Ordi-
pary worLmans house, than there was hundred years
ago III one of hundred rich mems mansions and buid
ncs. For among us ia so poOI-unicss he drinks
whisky too much-no that ia well born among us
and 20 he well born It necessary first TO have been born
at all and secondly have been born ont OF yrtuous
parents who set him good exampe-no man has been
well born this land who needs to stand at the bottom
Of the ladder 90 The labOrcr ought to DE ashamed
OF hmscfOr 10 find faut with Providence tia: s!intcd
bin when be was endOwod-who in 20 years doe. not
own the ground on which hi5 house stands, ald
that, too an unmortgaged house; who has not
IN that house provided carpets for the rJCms,
who has not his China plates, who has not
his ehromos who has not picture or portrait hang
ing upon thc walls. who has not some books nesting on
the shelf who has not there household that he car cal
his home the sweetest place upon the earth This s not
the picture OF some future time, but the picture o. t.
day. picture OF the homes OF the wOrkr NncD OF Amer
1ea. The average wOfkngmGn lives better now IN the
household and in the family than he did hundred years
ago But we have come to it stealthuy without re- ora
Or observation Vet it is the less true that the
average condition OF the household for dome tic comfort
has gone up more than per cent fo every year o. tho
hast 100 years.
But that is rot all The members OF the household
have also developed, and chiefly she into whose hand
God put the rudder of time. For IL Eve plucked the
apple that Adam might help her y eat it, has been
beforehand with him ever since and stccred him. The
household that has bad woman may have angel for
ahusband bI, he IA helpless The household that has
brute for husband is safe II the woman be Gods
own woman. Franklin said that man IS
what his wife will let him be. * is more
than roverO. that the children arc what the mother
makes uem She the legislator OF the household she
Tic judge that sits upon the throne Of love An sever
i comes IRON love IN mothers hand hc is the odu-
Gator she also the atonement when sins aad transgres-
mons have Drought children shame Tao altar OF pcni.
fence Is at the mothers knee and not tc heart OF God
knows better how to forgive than does .a II vo,n,r
hood has down, woe be to the richer We are The
stronger We are. the worse we are And II woman has
eone up In intelligence, in influence in virtue and In rc
gon then the country is safe, though s fleets were
sunk and It's cities were burned, though fla
crops were mldeged and blasted. Fox oasv t.
recovery whore the head forces are sound: but
Where there IS corruption at the central point Of powor
a outward helps are in vain. declare that IN the Inst
one hundred years woman who before had brooaed and
oossolaed Ia arstoeratic circles has to bios
som through democratic circles and IS in America today
uhspued and uncOnradicted what before she has been
eoWed 70 be only when she had cor0nct upon her brow
or some scepor OF power in her hand Not only is she
unTaed, not only is che permitted 10 show her face
Were men most do congrcga.e not only Is she power
Ia thc silence u the house. but In The church teacher
faui iroa thousand years ago may in vain row say.
Leu not your wonloD teach In the church" They cannot
oooe there without being teachers aud silent letters
ny orc tue books and epistes known and read Of all
men They hs7e GENE to that degree OF knowledge, they