Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1884-01-17

driving fine horses with expensive harnes
equipments is deemed legitimate, while the pro
position to buy frst-class cvclopedia tha
would bring its vast array of systemized fac
within reach of developing family, would b.
counted simply preposterOus; yet the prestig
secured by one outlay is as drop compare,
with the intellectual impetus possible from tn
other; homes in which many dollars 90 annual
iy Tor things tawdry in the beginning and absO
lutely shabby before the wane of three moons
yet five dollars would be felt an onerous burdt
expended in books. We see lavish expenditur,
in things TO satisfy but for season, while tina
which ministers to the higher interests is with.
held or grudgingly doled. Thus it comes thai
the youth rush from the opportunity of the
country TO the tancied opportunity of the city
where in the nature OF things but minor pro-
| portion can successfully compete with all tnat
must fest metal and quality before footing is
gained. So completely Eli the home with gen
eral satisfying interests that there is no room
for gnaWing unrest, and the superstructure
resting on well-administered cOuntry-life is
safe. Books, with voiceless tongues, speaking
TO every condition, enter our homes and mould
our lives. They take US by the hand and lead
US into new fields of thought. They touch the
fabric OF our dearest opinions and by a subtle
power unbalance them and they crumble to be
superseded by new fabric cunnngly substitu-
ted by this same subtle power. Influencing
thus they bring the Idle babbling of the trivial,
the hssty misconceptions of the impulsive, the
artful responsiveness of the SOphist, the blan-
dishment OF the fawning, the poison of the
vicious, the whole talseness OF the talsifers of
all thai make up the labaryntnian mazes of life,
as we'd =, the wisdom OF the wise, the truths
OF the true, the heights of the noble, and pearls
Of the pure. The Chautauqua idea of literary
and scientific hOme-study, with that of other
organizations of like character, are narrowing
the liability of hurtful entrance through the
book avenue, by placing in the hands OF those
associated, reading and study, carefully select
ed and arranged by those competent for the
work. The fifty thousand Chautauqua students
are largely in country homes. Their testimony
to the blessed help from this impetus to a sat-
istying growth in best things should inspire
the faint-hearted to join the march toward in
tellectual vantage ground. Wherever we find
men or women banded together for high pur-
pose, shoulder to shoulder, in such aims as
merge self in desire and work for the common
good, we find the narrow, the belittling, the
provincial yielding to the broad, the elevating,
the cosmopolitan. In her admirable, open let
ter, in the Century Magazine for September,
Frances E. Willard, president of the National
W. &. L. Union, saws of the outcome of the
nnions: ''The laws of health were never studied
by so many mothers, with such immediate
results for good on their own lives and those of
their children. The deformed waist and foot of
the average fashionable woman never seemed
so hideous and wicked nor the cumbrous dress
Of the period so unindurable as now, when,
from studying one poi, On habit, our minds, by
the inevitable laws Of thought, reach out to
wider researches and more varied deductions
than we had dreamed of at first. The econO-
mics of a simpler style of living never looked
so feasible as to hOme-makers who have learn
ed something about the priceless value of time
and money for the purposes of a Christ-like
benevolence." From the training and -atmOs-
phere of an intelligent farm-home this trail-
appearing woman has advanced, step by step,
till she is honorably welcomed from border to
border of the Nation. Her enunciation of the
Gospel testimony, .'The kingdom of Heaven is
within you" "The body is the temple of the
Holy Ghost" and ''He who destroys this temple
him shall God destroy" attains new signif-
canoe us head and heart apprehend that these
are no mystical statements.
Open the windows Of domestic life to the
light of cOnsecrated activity, whether it be in
art, science, literature or direct humanitarian
interest, for there is consecration in all, and
the home has adornment and beauty beyond
ought that money can bring without this en-
lightenment. Life may be seen above the dis
torring lens of political, UNCONVENTIONAL, sec
uonal or clique prejudice. The woman sees
not alone new purpose in her round of toll. but
what is useless waste of precious energy, and
best not done at all The man sows and gar
ners with eyes from which the scales have fall
len, and toll assumes a grace, q charm, fore
shadOwing when Bryant bids:
Come, let US plant the apple-tree
Cleave the tough green sward with the spade;
Wide let its hollow bed be made;
There gently lay the roots and there
Sift the dark mould with kindly care,
And press it DER them tenderly,
As, round the sleeping infants feet,
We softly fold the cradle-sheet;
So plant we the apple-tree.
What plant we in this apple tree?
Buds, which the breath of summer days
Shall lengthen into leafy sprays;
Sweets for the hundred fowery springs
To load the May-wind's restless wings;
Fruits that shall swell in sunny June,
And redden in the August noon,
And drop, when gentle airs come by,
That fan the blue September sky.
There is higher culture recognizing that in
simplicity lies true elegance; that suitability
must stamp every element tangible and intan-
gble before sound judgment can accept t'The
elegance suited to the farm is truly homely
elegance. But plain, honest simple wavs,
guiltless of parade or show, best suit those
whom we should most desire to win, and intem-
perate excess of whatever form, dress, food,
strength or excitement, paves the way for the
inrOads of that deadly intemperance whose upas
blight appalls humanity Comprising this fine
culture it matters little if material he plain,
since elegance is more in the way we use things
than in what we use; adornment more in fitness
than elaborateness, and beautiful results, de-
pend more on fnesense of harmony ard suita-
bility than abundant supply. Entrenched be-
hind it none need fear to be pioneers in break
ing the chains that often manacle in bondage
of not only senseless, but often most perncious
custom, that to the youth whose prosperity is
so sadly bartered a chance may be given to
build upon the rock of integrity and to expand
into thp full flower of man and yOma OhOOd