The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1879-01-30
Our Homes.

>>OSSA~0
bonds are all good things to have, and
especially when the dividends fill the
capacious pocket-book, and promise
comfort, ease and luxury. But it has
been observed by thoughtful people
that wealth is not an unfailing source
of happiness; nay, it has often proved
an annoyance and even a burden TO
life. There. is something that often
comes with wealth that mars the joys
that should accompany it, and, before
the owner is aware, it has Slapped his
humanity, and he stands out soured,
vain and selfish; q being to make an
gels weep and devils laugh and chuckle.
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 all the Command
ments from his youth up, and asked:
"What lack yet?' The answer was:
$50 and sell that thou hast and give
to the poor" The advice, we are as
sured, made the young man "sorrow-
full" But the further Impressive words
were uttered: 81 say unto you, that
a rich man shall hardly enter into the
Kingdom of Heaven" Under such
teachings, and with the experience
that wealth brings many evils in its
train, it seems strange that the hui
man family should jeopardize every
hope, and tire the limbs and worry the
brain, and stain the hands in the eager
chase for riches. The question should
come to-day to these merchants on
Change, the business man in his count
ing-room, the professional man in his
wearisome study: "What am striving
for at this opening of the year 1892"
Aside from morals and religion, which
we leave to the pulpits, what ideas have
we formed for years happiness? We
take it for granted that7Qur readers
agree with us that the world was made
for happy men and women. Its beauty
and variety and bountiful supplies of
comforts and luxuries teach us the fact
more forcibly than words can express
it. Happy men and women are not
found outside of happy homes. We
pity the millionaire who smiles at the
simplicity of the proposition, and
equally the man who boasts in his
pride that he can purchase with gold
this precious commodity. 1t is some
thing that gold will not buy, and any
amount of wealth will not prevent
bankruptcy and its Punishment from
the home. If single reader at the
opening of this new year feels that his
home Is not the ideal place he has in
the years gone cherished and antici-
pated, it would be well to stop and in
quire the reason.
Does the tired wife, shut up in the
nursery, with annoying duties of do
nestle life, for days, and weeks, and
months, light up with q smile at your
comingP DO the little ones stand at
the window and peer into the gather
ing gloom to note your earliest ap-
proach, and make the house resound
with joy when the door swings to ad-
NIT your NoP Well, there IS some
thing wrong. Husband and wife might
we'll stop and ask in al sincerity how
shall we "make home happy the
coming yearp Wealth alone will not
do it; the honors of the world and the
rounds Ut fashionable life soon grow in
sipid, and we must ever turn to the
home, whether palatial or humble, to
find this object of life. If there were
some patent method for obtaining it, or
if it could be purchased, what a de-
mand 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 looking for great things and great
events, when the sum of human happi-
ness is almost wholly made up of the
little and apparently insignificant
things about us. It has been said that
familiarity breeds contempt" This
can only become true between hus-
band and wife, andparents and children
when the nobility of manhood and
womanhood has been forgotten and
laid aside, and selfishness and
vulgarity have taken its honored place.
If the occupants of some of the homes
who have seen happiness departing
during the past year, would, in turning
the new Leaf, remember some of the
lessons they once well understood, the
change would be magical. Let the hus-
Il L. 49, n L. A. 3