Daily Kennebec journal., 1879-02-26
Miscellaneous.
oVR HOMES.


r We bonds. are all good things to have, and
especially when the dividends I'll the ca
pacious pocket-book, and promise COM
fort, ease and luxury. But IL has been OBJ
served by thoughtful people that wealth is
not an unfailing source Of happiness; nay,
it has often proved an annoyance and even
. burden to life. There is often some-
thing that comes with wealth that mars
the Joys that should accompany it, and
,av before the owner is aware, it has snapped
: p his humanity, and he stands out soured,
vain and selfish, being to make angels
ase weep and devils laugh and chuekle. When
the Savior of men was upon the earth he
gave an impressive lesson to one who
came and inquired what he should do TO
have eternal life. He said he had kept
Is sss all the commandments from his youth up,
and asked: ..What lack yet?" The an
swer was ssGo and sell that thou hast
and give to the poor" The advice, we
are assured, made the young man ''sor-
rowful" But the further impressive
9 siawords were uttered: Il say unto you, that
rich man shall hardly enter into the king
dom of heaven. Under such teachings and
with the experience that wealth brings
many evils in its train, it seems strange
that the human family should jeopardize
u, every hope, and tire the limbs aud worry
the brain, and stain the hands in the eager
chase for riches. The question should
come to-day to the merchant on Change,
+ the business man in his counting-room,
4 the professional man in his wearisome
study: 'What am l striving for at this
"a opening of the year lS79P' Aside from
morals and religion, which we leave to
siler the pulpits, what ideas have we formed
b for years happiness We take it for
~ granted that our readers agree with us
that the world was made for happy men
and women. Its beauty and variety and
bountiful supplies of comforts and luxu-
ries teach us the fact more fOrcibly than
words can express it. Happy men and wo-
men are not found outside of happy
homes. .t...,.
4 fgs We pity the millionaire who smiles at
the simplicity of the proposition, and
equity the man who boasts in his pride
ssea that he can purchase with gold this prec-
ions commodity. 1t is something that
gold will not buy. and any amount of
f{a wealth will not prevent bankruptcy and
laiis its banishment from the home. If a sin
iiaas gle reader At the opening of the new year
fsl feels that his home is not the ideal place
aa he has in the years gone cherished and
~ anticipated, It would be well to stop and
aa inquire the reason.
Does the tired wife, shut up in the nur-
-gf sery, with annoying duties of domestic
na' life, for days and weeks. and months, light
i5 up with smile at your coming? DO the
I9 little ones stand at the window and peer
into the gathering gloom to note your ear
liest approach, and make the house re-
sound with Joy when the door swings to
admit you? No? Well there is something
wrong Husband and wife might well
81 stop and ask in all sincerity how shall we
~ make home happy the coming year?
5ms Wealth alone will not do it; the hOnors OF
So the world and the rounds of fashionable
crr<sx,r is,c;,.iA n,usf avar
= q turn 10 the home, whether paatial or hum
ias bic, 10 find this object of life
=as If there were some patent method for
obtaining it or it could be purchased, what
- demand there would be. And yet when
it lies at our doors, or is placed in our
hands, we hesitate to pick it up and fail to
grasp It. The fact Is, too many are look
ing for great things and great happiness is
almost wholly made up of the little and
fsai apparently insignificant things about us.
1t has been said that Familiarity breeds
contempt" This can only become true
bstwssn husband and wife and parents and
4 Ee children when the mobility Of manhood
and womanhood had been forgotten and
laid aside, and selishness and vulgarity
have taken its honored place.
II the occupants of some of the homes
who have seen happiness departing during
the past year would, in turning the new
lcal, TclucIuDtT sUHc VI tnt ltSsOnS tney
once well understood, the change would
be magical. Let the husband try for three
months to enter his house and leave it as
he did in the days of his wooing. Let the
wife practice the easy charms that won the
lover. Neither has forgotten, and there is
more than millions in it, 1t won't be
costly experiment; and if the trial of a
wear does not make every room of your
home, humble though it may be, ring with
happiness, then you may set it down that
the devil has a mortgage, and will likely
foreclose, and the sooner the better. But
do not give up too easily, for of all desira-
bic and beautiful things of this life, hap
py home stands first II is a kind of fore
taste Of the home beyond, whose gates
are never Shut and "whose glory man
can never estimate As our sons and
daughters grow up and 60 out from their
homes, although they may scatter to re-
mote regions Of earth, yet forever arises
before their minds the loved spot that shell
tered them, and the sweet Influences of the
homes Of childhood will protect them from
many an evil, and draw them with the
sweet voices Of the past to noble and he
roic achievements. Chicago Inter Ocean.