St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1885-04-09
The Farmers Home.
BY HON. FRANK LITTLE.

| 81 HON. FRANK
From Address at Farmers Institute, Augusta
r Home, in the true sense, is not
mere habitatiOn, a shelter from tn
storm, a den wherein to eat and slice
like brutes. 1t is not an architecture,
lunacy a revival of the sixteenth cen
tury Dutch style of house, building, o
the days of Peter the Great. Home il
not a medley of turrets, dOmes, angles
hiP-rOOfs, chimneys, pigeon lofts
weather cocks, corners, balconies, sheds
and gables. OF inside friezes, dad0s
frescoes, pOrtieres, Egyptian vases
bric-a-brac and gaudy decorations. OF
clumsy antique furniture for show and
not for use with all the thousand and
one other discOmfOrts that a vulgar
fashion, or capricious fancy has seen
fit to intiict upon mankind the whole
being, in the language of the period -
''just too lovely for any thingn
Modern 8stheticism, and the new
philosophy of trade demands some
thing primitive, costly, and pictur-
esque. Then let us restore the ancient
usages and customs throughout. Turn
the world backward two or three cen
turtles card and spin by hand, swingle
flax, weave and dye cloth in the house,
thresh with fail, and shell corn on n
| shovel Bring in the Dutch fire place
with its swinging crane and hooks ;
father in his shirt sleeves whiting
Ow-pins, and shaping axe-helves by
the evening tire-light; while the child
rem crack butternuts and relate wolf
stories, and the good mother cards
rolls, darns stockings, and patches the
family breeches
A man who had IL scolding wife, be-
ing asked his occupation, said "that he
kept hOt-hOuse." A house so tenanted
may be 1Cdrne, but otherwise not de-
sirable home. MOI Home is sancti-
fed place. 1t is built upon the fOun-
datiOn of cOnjugal fidelity and mutual
esteem. Filial reverence, obedience,
and love abide there. Outwardly and
inwardly it ministers to the temporal
and spiritual needs of it's inmates.
Where children grow up under whole
some discipline, and benign Christian
training and influences. Such a homo
it should be, that, at the end of life
of earnest endeavor and honest toll, rs
the bodies of the venerable parents are
carried out, the children and friends
shall reverently say :-"LOOk This
was their house. This was the cham
Der where they died ~ Another has
fifty said :-"Many a city man is thank
full that he was born farmers boy.
Farm life has n beneficent effect upon
character not attainable elsewhere.
Work is ennobled by the motive be-
hind it. There is abundant evidence
to show that the best manly strength
country. The great cities are recruit
ed therefrOm, and the character of the
people depends largely upon the early
training, habits of industry and disci-
pline received in the country"
Home should be an attractive, re-
fined, joyful place for both parents and
children-especially boys. Scientists
and philosophers have discovered
wonderful harmony of movement in
nature; IL correlation of hidden forces
and substances irresistible and sub
lime in their adaptation and work.
But the relation of boy to his home
is not 80 clearly defined or reliable.
1t would seem in too many instances,
that nature had failed to provide n good
place for Il boy to live and grow up to
manhood where he could be appreciat-
ed, happy, and out of the way. I'm
feelingly speaking, it is said, "that in
looking for. a boy, there are two places
where one is pretty sure to find him,
either i'm mischief or in bod" Buffeted,
scourged, and necessarily chided for
their faults, is it any wonder that boys
dislike home, and dread the approach
of night That they prefer the barn,
the hired man, the favorite colt, the
open air, the blacksniith's shop, the
village store; the companionship of
vulgar, vicious associates, to the chill
ing, keep atmosphere
| of the house Z
Good order in society, thrift, and in
telligent st-wOrthy citizenship, is
the sure and direct OutgrOwth of prop
er early moral and intellectual train
ing in the household while the envi-
rOnment, circumstances, and condi-
ton of the home of children shape, and
ineffacebly impress their peculiar in
tiuences upon character in after life
A manly, genial home-life, is "A better
educator of children than all the mul
tiplied textbooks of the schools even
as n broad and earnest Christian life
is infinitely better than formal church
organizations, church membership, oil
extensive libraries of ancient ecelesias-
tical history. In many communities al
| the present day, but a small portion o