The Press., 1886-11-18
SOUTH COVENTRY

Rev. O. A.. Farley gave the first of series of lectures on recent evening be- fore the Young Peoples Mutual Improve ment and Helping Hand Society, on "Weavers ard Weaving; or the Web of Life.
 The speaker was introduced by the president of the society, Miss Annie Free man. He began by giving some interest ing reminiscences of his early life, referring to his humble home in the northern part of the Green Mountain state, certain un finished room called mothers room" where stod her loom, at which she toiled early and late, weaving clothing for her family and others, model of which loom, made by the speaker, be exhibited as an illustration of his subject. -
 Since the time when our first parents made aprons of fig leaves, how to clothe the body has been the great problem of life, and various modes of weaving cloth for this purpose have been invented, the first real practical weaver on power looms being the celebrated Jacquard. Yet the model used by our mothers in- wolves all the general principles of weaving at the present day, thus verifying the truth uttered by the wise man, "There is nothing new under the sun.
 The first weave room in which the web of life is formed is the home. Not simply a dwelling place, for the beasts aud birds have this, but a true home, where mother is the central heart, where color and quality are given for life in this web, where the mother is building character for God. '' @''
 As the warp is the principal part in the loom, so the physical frame is the warp, and the mental faculties the filling woven in ak -.c,l,k the children, that the weaving may be well done. And, as home is the first form of society whose special office is to lay the foundation for life, we should seek to lay it we'll by first securing implicit obedi- ence. There is too great lack of home obedience, which endangers national life. Anarchists and socialists are not made from obedient subjects. The question arises, how shall we lay this cornerstone of character building? There are two ex- tremes which should be avoided, viz law without love and love without law. The first is harsh and tends to harden the heart. A blacksmith, who was in the hab- it of whipping his boy for every trivial of fence, was one day endeavoring to harden piece of iron. His boy noticing his fu- tile attempts, said 2: "Whip it, father :; and if that won't harden it nothing will 1" The second extreme produces soft and careless subjects of independence of mind, with no strength to assert it, in short, weddings.
 We must take care of this human loom, and not let the frame get weak and rick ety, for strong frame makes better weav- ing, and thus makes more perfect the web of life. As the boys and girls are soon to become weavers themselves it behooves us to learn them to detect the filling all about them, and to discriminate between the good and the bad, and thus go out inc to the world safer and stronger.
 The weave-room next door to the home is the school-room, which is the founda- ton stone to the national republic. The teacher should seek to better understand the child's real nature and then weave in the intellectual filling necessary to the formation of true character
 The home parlor is an important room for character weaving. It is the outer door through which the world comes in i; where the hollow forms of fashion are adopted and the art of deception often lear d !; where choice of companions are mat and matrimonial alliances formed, Tn s web be sure that this golden thread is in woven "Love never faileth. !"
 Az the child goes out into this world of busy strife and competition, if good foundation is laid, then commences the real work of building up themoral struct- ure. Have a purpose and will to do it, for rpurpose and work are the chief elements of success. As there are sometimes im- perfections in cloth that mar the beauty so in the web. of life there are things that tafhish and shame, viz, the billiard sa- loon, the gambling den or the rum shop, immoral literature, &c.
 There is a wide contrast between the weaving of primitive days and the pres