Daily Republican. [volume] ([Wilmington, Del.]) 1874-1890, 1885-05-20
THE BATTLE.GRY OF TIRE PEG.
PIE.

Reform. like charity, begins at home.
Starting in that inner, sacred circle, H.
widens TO embrace tho world. No out.
side movement begins to produce It's
legitimate effect until 1t Eliminates in
the household. Whatever good fails TO
make itself felt there, fails every where.
No reform really makes better citizen
that does not at the same time make
him better son, husband or father.
The same change IN conviction and
purpose under which woman bee omes
IA IN IRE useful agent I'll the missionary
fields, in home philanthropy, o: in the
temperance cause, makes her also a bet
ter daughter, mother and wife.
Since, then, in one form or another
the home relations are always in exist.
ence for every mar, woman and child,
and since the refGrmers are made OF
men, women and children, instead of
these being made of reformers, 1t would
be wisdom on the part of those most
interested in human advancement, to
put a great deal OF reform timber into
the structure of the home.
How this may best be done IL q nes.
ton in which all good mt n and women
should have part, and one on which We
invite everything in the way OF helpful
suggestion. Our space does not allow
to day of much beyond hint
1t is a singularly elastic wori this
that tho world seems TO have 1opted
as battle cry-Reform. To many
| minds it means only destruction OF
what is, with no adequate conception OF
what ought to be, aud any change is
looked upon as Improvement.
To others it means planting good
seed on soil already rank with weeds
building strong structure on totter
ing foundation; or, worse still, striving
to rear a lasting edifice by building
dow inward from turret aud roof 10 the
ground. Such reformers are ever active
and produce rare projects on paper, and
the only objection to their strongholds
for the protection of good against evil
is, that they are castles in the air.
While the elastic word admits the
work of all these and more, it takes in
also every plan by which human b.ings
are made better or happier, every pro,
ject for diminishing the worlds weight
of evils and Increasing its good No
man, woman or child who can help
ever 30 little TO make brighter tires,de,
or happier sad heart, or better way
ward life, but is a true apostle of reform.
Every mind that once grasps the idea
that lite's great end is such betteriug of
human conditions, aud enters upon its
own share OF the beautiful works, be-
co,nes a gracious power for good. But
The beginning should be with those
nearest, in the home if home there be.
Women especially find no lack OF op-
portunity here, since all the wide range
of sanitary and hygienic reform Is
| 1,v - -, Ia. l.. /.
to substitute nourishing food for the
wretched apologies for nutriment now
so common on our tables. She has the
nation Il digestion in her hands, and
since we are, as George Eliot rays, so
largely the creation of our secIetions,
she has the brain and TEN per of the ma
ton in her hands as well. Her province
includes not only what we shall eat but
what We shall wear, and largely, since
the pure.air question is under her CON
troll, what we shall breathe and what
we cat, wear and breathe, far more po-
tently than we suppose, controls what
we think and feel and DO.
To uproot from the homes every evil
to the body of Its inmates field
for reform Ia here Ard ita border
touches and overlaps the field of the
mind and the soul. Give us good
motherhood first, and, we had almost
said, good journalism second, as fac.
tor in the work Of making homes what
they might be aud ought to be in a
land as blessed as ours. Give us iourn.
alism without the faint or touch of sen
sational vulgarity upon it, with highest
ideals of the highest welfare oil the race,
with wide, strong views of national
possibilities, with moral sense of respon.
sibilities of citizenship, with penetra.
tive comprehension OF real needs, with
practical suggestion az to methods OF
| meeting those needs--give us these two
noble and sensible motherhood, and
| noble and sensible journalism, and We
have not far away The regeneration OF
| the homes, and, therefore, the redemp
| ton OF the land FROM the evils that art
| cursing 1T to day.
The country ii full of mother, read y
to help make such homes NJ shall vel
come and profit by such journals as WE
| need. When tho mothers of people
unite to uplift its homes, and the jour,
mails of a people unite To put down every
evil that conld lower them, the ultimat,
virtue and prosperity of country ar.
secure. Is not the day ripe tor an eflor
to secure both !?