The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1877-04-26
The Rights Of Home.

OUR homes have certain rlgnt0 OF which
by strange Inconsistency in this age Of
fierce clamor for rights, individual and
universal, they are often defrauded. In
the first place they have right to us; not
only to our presence as an influence within
them. Everybody is aware of that dual
quality of the mind which gives it sort
of double aspect, and makes it quite pos
sib]e for q person to be In two places at
time. Apparently, for example, Mr.. Jones
has returned from business, it being five
in the afternoon. His coat and hat are
hanging in the hall, he has put on the
dressing. gown and slippers carefully laid
out for him by his wife, and he is sitting
in his easy chair, listlessly holding the
evening paper.
"Hush, children, pa is tired" whls-
pers Mrs. Jones as the children make .
noise in their play, and she casts COM
passionate glance at the tired face. 1t
would not be SO tired If Mr.. Jones himself
were there. The fact is that for the time
he is really absent, within calling distance
it is true, but 80 far as his true self is
The things that occupied him at noon, &C.
cupy him now: he hears a babel OF voices.
and sees anxious, Hurried faces, and
rouses with start and coming back to the
fact feeling that he is in his own parlor
only when the bell rings for tea.
Hundreds of men do this every day.
They have no time to get acquainted with
their children. They see in the general
way that they are clean and wholesome
looking, they pay the quarterly school
bills, and they grudge no expense IN the
matter of shoes and overcoats. They
tod
their wives, and said tender things in
pleasant parlors, where the cheerful gas
light shed its glow, or on moonlight eve
time for that has quite gone by, and they
were they to essay a compliment now to the
forgotten that home has its inalienable
rights, and among them first and chiefest
the right to their personal presence. Moth
ing rests q man or woman who has been
busy about one set of things better thar a
total change of employment or feeling. A
nap on the lounge is all very we'll, but
after half an hour of it, if the most tired
man will shake off dull sleep, and have a
rOmp with the children, or q game OF
bo-pcep with the baby, he will be rested
much more thoroughly than if he browse
away the. whole evening, as too many
weary business men do.
Our homes have a rightto checrfulness
There is no skeleton at the feast worse
than gloomy temper. We have known
households which we're always under an
eclipse, because some one member chose
to consider herself continual martyr. Il
was not slip of the pen that made us use
tile feminine pronoun there, for we say il
with all Difference to the gentler sex
women are given to the sulks far more
generally than men. A man flames uI
and is done with it, if he happens to have
an irascible temper, but woman nurses
her wrath to keep it warm, and it smOlders
away like a fire that means to be lOnG
time going out. Now, neither men mol
women belonging to family have right
however they enjoy it themselves, 10 weal
| long faces and injured looks, and funerea
aspects in the privacy of their dOmcsti,
circle. Be cross, if you please, anywhcr'
else, but at home be cheerful, patient ant
considerable.
Our homes have another right, too
which is sometimes lost sight Of. The,
are our castles, of course, but, unlike tn
castle of the middle ages, they are not snr
rounded by meats and approached b.
drawbridge and portcullis. They hav'
only thin door between themselves an,
the outer world, and it is we'll that tn
! magnetic tide of communication between
the world and them should not be inter
rupted. TO this end let them be floode,
with good reading. There is no extrava
gancc in taking several newspapers, il
having new books, and in buying picture
| and chrOmOs. When these shall b
thought necessities, and some of our pres
ent necessities in the way of dress an
food shall be called luxuries, our home
| will be pcrceptibly Observation-Disclosures
Weekly.