The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1891-01-23
NO PLACE LIKE HOME.
Once and Shop AffI,irs should be RigldIy
Excluded.

ONCE and Shop Affairs Should be RIgidly
Excluded.
Happy the man that can lay aside his
business cares with the overcoat he
hangs upon his home rack when the day
is done. Too rare, indeed, is the man
whose latch-key's jingle in his front
door is the signal for dropping the cur
tain of forgetfulness upon the cares that
infest the day, and who can put on a
spirit of light-heartedness with his
dressing-gown. For him and for his
household the home fulfills its highest
and sweetest significance, and the
''shop'' is relegated to the dim back
ground for at least twelve hours. For
him and his family the long winter
evenings are too short, yet long enough
to bring peace and rest and happiness
which nothing else can give. The COM
forts of religion appeal, unfortunately,
to the minority only; the benefits which
wealth brings in its train are but super
fetal. and have their burdens. But the
faculty of closing ones own door so
as to shut out care and anxiety
as completely as winters snow and
makes life worth living and ones
home worthy the title, in the highest
acceptance of that term. The need of
such hours of cares effacement is be-
coming greater every year in every man
and every woman's life. In particular
are such periods needed by the business
man of the present day and generation.
A state of continued high tension is the
normal condition of the American bust
ness man. 1t is become SO by reason of
the fierce competition which exists in
nearly every branch of business, and it
is intensified by the growing worship of
wealth. The latter condition is, in its
turn, the natural outgrowth of the fact
that at no time in the worlds history
has money been more potent to com
mand luxuries that make life pleasant
and desirable than formerly. TO graft
fly Il refined taste one must possess
means. Not to be able to do so is tor
ture. Thus goaded and stimulated, the
business man of the closing years of the
nineteenth century gives himself up to
a strain that knows no cessation day or
night. His cares cling to him like the
shirt of Nessus. They follow him across
the threshold of his home and come be-
tween him and the faces of wife and
children. They pursue him to the
sanctuary and they are his close COM
panions during the brief midsummer
holiday at the resort or in the forest
depths. 1t is not strange. therefore,
that gray hairs and wrinkles come to
him early in life. Or. worse than those
outward signs of care and enthronc-
ment. there comes to him mental i'm
pairment ere middle age has run its
course
1t is therefore. necessity that a re-
solve should be made and kept bearing
upon this question: resolve TO Danish
business care when within sight of
home; to cast aside worries when the
latch-key comes out, and to be divorced
from the shop when the home tireside
is reached. The middlc-agcd veteran of
lifc'S battles may not be able to do this.
But the younger business men may at
least set about making and keeping this
resolve and cultivating this faculty.
One of the seven wise men of Greece
was once found engaging in play with
a group of boys. On being questioned
he remarked laconicaIly: The bow
that is always bent will soon be
broken" About 900 business men out
of 1000 are bows always bent. That
they are broken is self-evident. They
grow old before their time and live IA
grabbed old age, or meet a swift death
amid the forties, as the penalty they
pay to outraged nature. TO the younger
men. entering active business life, and
soon to bear the full burdens which
such life entails, it is said: Let there
be one place where your cares and wor-
ries dare not follow you. and that place
your home. Pittsburgh Bulletin.