The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1886-04-08

ton, How pleasant IL Is TO renearSe the
victories and the surprises and the attacks
of the day, seated by the still camp fire of
the home circle.
Yes. life isa stormy sea. With sbivered
masts and torn sails and hulk aieak, we
put in at the harbor of home. Blessed
harbor! There we go for repairs in the
dry -dock of quiet life. The candle in the
window is to the toihng man the light
house guiding him into port. Children go
forth to meet their fathers as pilots at the
"Narrows" take the hand Of ships. The
door of the home is the wharf where
heavy life is unladen.
There is the place where we may talk of
what we have done without being
charged with self-adulation. There is
the place where we may lounge without
being thought ungraceful. There is the
place where We may express affection
without being thought silly. There is the
place where we may forget our annoy
ances and exasperations and troubles.
Forlorn earth pilgrim no home? Then
die. That is better. The grave is brighter
and grander and more glorious than this
world with no tent from marchings,
with no harbor from the storm, with no
place of rest from this scene of greed and
gouge and loss aud gain. God pity the
man or the woman who has no home.
Further, remark that home is a politi-
cal safeguard. The safety of the State
must be built on the safety Of the home.
Why can not France come to placid re-
public? Ever and anon there is a threat of
national capsize. France as nation has
not the right kind of Christian home.
The Christian hearth stone is the only
corner stone for q republic. The virtues
cultured in the family circle are an abso-
Lutte necessity for the State. If there be
not enough moral principle to make the
family adhere. there will not be enough
political principle to make the State ad-
here. "No home" means the Cloths and
Vandals, means the Nomads of Asia, means
the Numidians of Africa, changing from
place to place, according as the pasture
happens to. change. COMPOUNDED be all
those Babels of inquiry which would over
tower and destroy the home. The same
storm that upsets the ship in which the
family sails will sink the frigate of the
Constitution. Jails and penitentiaries and
armies and navies are not our best de-
tense. The door of the home is the best
fortress. Household utensils are the best
| artillery, and the chimneys of our dwelling
houses are the grandest monuments of
| safety and triumph. No home, no republic.
Further, remark that home is school.
| Old ground must be turned up with sub
| soil plows, and it must be narrowed and
| reharrowed, and then the crop will not be
| as large as that of the new ground with
| less culture. Now, youth and childhood
| are new ground, and all the influences
| thrown over their heart and life viii come
| up in after life luxuriantly. Every time
| you have given smile of appreciation, all
the good cheer of your life will come up
/ again in the geniality of your children.
And every ebullition of anger and every
uncomfortable display of indignation will
be fuel to their disposition twenty or
thirty or forty years from now-fuel for a
bad fire quarter of century from this.
You praise the intelligence of your child
too much sometimes when you think he is
not aware of it, and you will see the re-
suit of it before ten years of age in his an
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. You praise his beauty,
supposing he is not large enough to under
stand what you say, and you will find him
standing ON high chair before flattering
mirror. Words and deeds and example
are the seed of character, and children are
very apt to be the second edition of their
| parents. Abraham begat Isaac, so virtue
is apt to go down in the ancestral line; but
Herod begat Archelaus, so iniquity is
transmitted. What vast responsibility
comes upon parents in view of this subject!
o, make your home the brightest place
| on earth if you would charm your children
to the high path of virtue and rectitude
I and religion. Do not always turn the
blinds the wrong way. Let the light which
puts gold on the gentian and spots on the
pansy pour into your dwellings. Do not
expect the little feet to keep step to dead
march. Do not cover up your walls with
such pictures as Vests death On Pale
Horse" OF Tintoretto's "Ma' sacre of the
1nnocents." Rather cover them, if you
have pictures, with "The Hawking Party, .
and "The Mill by the Mountain Stream
and "The Fox Hunt" and The Children
Amid Flowers" and 'The Harvest Scene,'
and "The Saturday Night Marketing"
Above all, my friends, take into YOU,
homes Christian principle. Can it be that
in any of the comfortable homes of my