The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1878-04-11
The spring. of social Life.

uS CTOWu IN CitN snOANS CohpoAo-
lively little interest when viewed simp-
ly as a crowd. But when we resolve it
into its elemeRts and think that every
drop OF that stream is conscious per-
sonality-that in some shape the uni
verse is reflected in it-our deepest
sympathies aie touched. Whence come
all these people and whittier do they
go9 At night each one of this throng
retires to some spot called home. For
some the sweet word is associated with
more than oriental magniticence. Man
and nature wait upon them there, in
every conceivable form and service.
Lifting Its palatisl walls, and kindling
with brilliant lights, it stands there as
the completest symbol of material re
tinement and civilization. These are
the abodes of the children of fortune.
But none the less enviable, and perhaps
much more so, are those retreats where
comfort waits on moderate means.
While contentment imparts to these an
unpurcbasable efficacy, where, blended
with those infirmities and liabilities
which are common to palace and cot
tage, the domestic affections flourish
and the dearest treasures of life are
kept. Thousands of such homes there
are. What lights, what shadows
unseen fall upon the hearts OF
that homeward streaming throng-
love from gentle eyes; shadows
of childreH's playful forms; light OF
affections 10 which thers are no decay
and no deceit; lights of JOYS wtrfy5-r
this worlds storms cannot utterly
ouench; ehadows of sorrow arounn
sick beds, and in vacant places, that
still make home the dearer as the
arena of esrth's purest discipline aud
of its most triumphant faith. Why
need we delineate the home whose
most significant word is priCGtiOn,
where cheerlessness and hunger and
desponding toll or hopeless apathy
brood continually Think what home
is to hundreds, and, therefore, how
life looks to them, seen through this
atmosphere of disease and want, with
starvation by the hearth and death at
the door, and misery everywhere.
What forms of humanity, with lungs
and nerves and hearts and every ca
pacity of uffering-scraping the means
of subsistence from the barest rocks of
life and struggling every day through
an avalanche. And yet, when the
mighty power of love and faith Is re.
membered, we should be thankful
that the highest ideal, the richest sane
titles of home are not dependent upon
mere outward conditions.
And then, too, there are homes
where want and ignorance are min
| gled with vice and crime; where want
and guilt strip away the masks of civil
ization and bring out the essential saw
age in mans nature. Within these
moral tombs, where huddle the demons
of violence and cunning and de-
bauchery, and from whichithey issue =
within vast Hades of social evil
where the best ideals have NJ type,
and the purest sentiments scarce 9
name, where even God is rejected, al
that Is fair in womanhood is DISNEY
elled and transformed, childhood il
christened in infamy, and man becomes
a type of the devil. Yet common in
terest envelopes all these and link
them all together, when the great
shadow comes and envelops mankind
in sleep. 1t is then they all rest q
the bosom of common Providence
that beare them all up, as he bears the
planet up on which they repese
But in the morning all thes
diversitIes break forth again, eacl
pouring its influence in the genera
stream. And who does not perceiv
how much the character of that infiu
!, ence must depend upon the condition
4 ~f-IhOAo- hnmes2 Who does not sc
that no. only the interest of commo
a humanity, in its most intimate expert
. ence, attaches to them. but the inseres
of the community? Not only are the
the reservoirs of individual power an
t p. culiarity, but they are the springs Q
social life.
The noblest privileges, the creates
= duties find their basis in our bone. an
q the influence of this Institution upo
r all other fields of human action, pr
vate or public, is too obvious to mer
0 ton. All life flows from the cent?
v outwards, and the citizen who desire
n order and purity OF the communit
In which he lives; the philanthropii
. who, under all conditions, regards th
J, highest welfare of his race, and th
, Christian, who urges the secret cultuI
:. of the soul, must look with peculis
=. solicitude to this institution. 1t is Cr
whose importance is demonstrated :
the strength of the instinct which cr
ates it and always clings to it-an II
stinct which associates the most GEM
D Inc happiness with its sacred enclosul
e of affection, however rude or poor ii
. spot may be. How bitter the destitr
tion, how dreary the isolation wit
that one word, Homeless" AS
= the city we seek some inclosure OF oil
e own-some place of shelter for ol
!. heads, of sympathy for our hearts,
respecting the destiny of the soul.
r spite of mans philosophy, he is spti
% fed with the conception of mere in
material essence floating hither sr
: thither in immensity. The iDtelle
+. looks eagerly forward to a boundle
t and txcursive state, but the affection
o the sentiments, yearn for some local
? ty-some spot of residence and repoI
: that may be the future Home.