, 1876-06-30
A Family Journal.

In certain farm house, twenty years
ago, great blank book was Kept, and
labeled Home Journal. Every night
somebody made an entry in 1t. Father
set down the sale of the calves, or
mother the cutting of the baby's eve
tooth; or, perhaps, Jenny wrote full
account of the sleighing party last
night; or Bob the proceedings of the
Phi Beta Club; or Tom 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
description of the bridemaid's dresses,
and long afterward there was written,
d" This day father died" in Bob's trem-
bling hand. There was blank of many
months after that.
But nothing could have served better
to bind that family of headstrong boys
and girls together, than the keeping of
this book. They come back to the old
homestead now, men and women with
gr1zzled hair, to see their mother who
Is still living, and turn over its pages
reverently, with many hearty laugh,
or the tears coming into their eyes. 1t
Is their childhood 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 and inn
portant matterrin the management Of
household as the furnishing of the IL
brary or chambers in good taste, or the
accumulation of a bric-a-brac. One
most direct way is the keeping of ami
versaries; not Christmas, Easter, nor
the Fourth of July alone, but those
which belong to the home alone. The
children's birthdays, their mothers
wedding day, the day when they all
came into the new home. There are q
hundred cheerful, happy little events
which some cheerful and happy little
ceremony will make lifelong pleasure.
The Germans keep alive their strong
domestic attachments by Just such
means as these. 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 q mat
ter Of Indifference when his father and
mother were born. We know q house
in which it is the habit to give to each
servant q triAing gift on the anniversary
of their coming into the family; and, as
might be expected, these anniversaries
return for many years. Much of the
same softeniDg, humanizing effect may
be produced by remembering and
humoring the innocent whims and pc
culiarities Of children. Among hard
working people it is the custom too
often to bring up q whole family in
platoon, and to marshal them through
childhood by the same general, inhexi-
ble 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 concerned, let the rule
be inexorable; but when taste, charac-
ter and stomach only is involved, humor
the boy. Be to Toms cravat q little
blind; make VIII the pudding he likes,
while the others choose pie. They will
be surer of your affection than Il you
sentimentalized about mothers love
for an hour. Furthermore, do not grow
old yourself too soon. Boy chess
boards, dominoes and bagatelle; 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 at
tractive, that the children may be
ashamed Of neither.
"Why should I stay at home in the,
evening2" said q lad the other day.
Mother sits and darna stockings, or
reads jays Devotions; father dozes, and
Maggie writes to her lover. I'll go.
where I can have fun" Meanwhile
father and mother were broken-hearted
because Joe was going to ruin, which
was undoubtedly the fact.--Scri6nsr's
MOnthly.