Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1878-05-15
Mems Part In Home.Making.

realm of home. Their forte lies IN
breathing and enjoying the atmosphere
after somebody else has made it-and
not few can't get along and make
known their authority without raising a
breeze" in it. Men are too busy, too
much pre-occupied, too impatient and
thoughtless, and-:t must be said OF
them too selfish to do their fair share
of that pre-eminently millennial work,
the creating of happy home, wherein
love reigns supreme, and amiabllity, at
lection, cheeriulness, JOY and peace are
the natural conditions Of family life.
Now IN certain things man has been
a constitutional shirk from the time OF
Adam-if the scientific gentlemen have
left us any Atam-down to this day
Men will fgut for their homes. and
make slaves of themselves to their
business to maintain them; but like the
proverbial man who would die for a
woman, but would never bring up a
scuttle of coal, they can't tell what their
children are studylng at school, who
their mates are, what they are learning
of good or evil, nor hardly anything
else that father ought 20 know con-
cclning his offspring. 1t Is so sad a fact
as to spoil the satire, when it is said
that many father finds his Sundays
and holidays too few to enable him to
become acquainted with his boys But
we maintain that man who hasn't
time to be father to his children. with
all that includes, has no right to have
any. He wrongs them, robs himself,
puts an unjust responsibility upon the
mother, and neglects his highest duties,
human and divine.
There so many ways in which a
father may contribute to happy home
life that it seems strange the number OF
houses should greatly exceed the homes.
1t takes so little to make children happy
at home, that it is wondrous pity So
many little ones are miserable, or I'M
easy, or Disconnected If for an hour
after the evening meal the father should
give himself to his children, would the
mother wear out so fast, or the children
be so lawless. troublesome and un-
comfortable? W hat a ministry for good
TO both parties Is a papa's froLc with
the babies What an interest is added
to the books, the drawings. the games.
or even the studies if the father enters
into them!
Aside from the children. and in homes
where haply there are none, men still
have a more oirect part than most Of
them are ready to bear, in making the
daily life pleasant. We hardly need
say that a man should set the example
for the family in patience, cheerlulness,
courtesy, forbearance, and all the
amiable moods and graces that are the
soul of home happiness. The sort OF
men who display all their suayity aud
politeness on the street or at their bust
ness places, and save the storms, and
sulks, and sourness, and all the evil
brood of deyeliSh dispositions that they
characterize by the convenient euphem-
ism of mood" well, We have our
opinion of them and if they will come
within range, we don't mind expressing
it privately; but we are afraid 1t
wouldn't lock well in print.
The whole tribe Of home tyrants-
men who make the entire household
revolve around them as the center !;
whose tongues are cnronically "lurrcd'
in the morning, and nerves SO upset in
the evening that the family must keep
silence while they read and smoke :;
who cant bear" the noise Of Innocent
ana natural mirthfulness who have to
be toadied and tended and humorcd {;
they ought all of them to be doomed to
pass their days in shabby-genteel
boarding house, without sight OF wife
or chlldren-with hash for breakfast,
warmed-over pancakes for lrnch, aud
lean mackerel and centennial hens for
supper, with the lodger overhead al
ways learning the trombone and ser
want girls that steal the hair-Oll. They
don't deserve a home, and no man docs
who will do nothing TO make it. For
mans rights do not include the right 10
all the comforts of home without any
of the work. or worry or self sacrifice,
or thOughtfulness and wcll-dong lncl-
dent 10 its creation and maintenance.
A god many men think they have
done their iull duty lfthey pay the bills,
more or less eIudgingly. But one might
as we'll try to warm Il room with Il ire
place and a par OF silycr-plalcd and
irons, aud no iucl or lire, us TO make Il
home with money. The money SIMPLY
makes place for the home to COM
plete it the man must put III himself,
and the best part OF himself at that
The ists o. INLET,
Millet has often been recommended
49, =, t,ra.,. miami I'm. NIft.t a. il.t- -Uttili