The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1892-02-25
THE HOME CORNER.

| unCn Oh your Dreatn'
~
That was all of the sermon, but 1t
was long enough. If it had lasted an
hour it could not have said more.
~
have been led to believe, of late
that something is radically wrong
with all our systems of education.
We have fine schools and colleges
eyeryw here, [ know, and they are,
every year, turning out great num-
bers of graduates. 1t is worthy OF re-
mark, too, that the girls who are grad
uating now have had better advan-
tages and are much better versed in
many important subjects than their
less fortunate sisters who greeted the
commencement days ten or twenty
years ago. And yet, with good deal
gained, | am sure something is lost,
too. In some of the magazines and
in most of the daily papers, figure pic
lures of American beauties, with ac-
coplpanying comments. The pictures
are gotten up in various styles of art,
and sometimes represent the "beauty"
as anything but beautiful; while the
writer in his sketch proceeds to de-
scribe the "beauty'sn various charms,
her wealth, her accomplishments, and
her multiplicity of admirers with as
great GOODNESS as though he were
Jockey, showing off the "points" in a
fine horse. Listen to this, the descrip-
ton of Chicago lady, taken from a
leading Chicago daily: "Though petite
in stature, her dignitied bearing and
rather refined manner compensate for
the lack of height. She is exceeding
ly popular with large circle of gentle
men friends, no one of whom seems to
stand higher than another in her good
graces, unless exception may be made
of q young physician who was de-
votedly at her side during the recent
opera season. Miss Ross appears to
best advantage in full evening costume
and often wears white gown of classic
drapery, displaying a very pretty
bust.n
To think that the name of any pure
young girl should be banded about
through the daily press in such way
as that! To think that her picture
should become a mere matter of pub
lie possession, something that all the
world has seen, something that has
been TESTED about by every coarse and
irreverent brute in the land! Are all
the old ideas about maidenly purity
and modesty completely obsolete? Is
this part of the new education? For
the sake of our homes and of the
young girls that are growing up in
them, let us have no more of the
"American beauty craze. Every
ripI oh 10 IN
thrown before the public in that
bold, immodest way, and the father
whose daughter was so treated should
hold the author of the outrage strictly
to account.
x*#
All the lights were aglow in the
city. The streets were filled with We
hicles, the sidewalks were thronged
with merrymakers, for it was the eve
ming of great banquet, and hun
dreds of citizens and guests were NOV
ing in that direction. Hurrying foot
steps, smiling faces, prosperous men,
elegantly dressed women, eager and
happy children-these were at every
turn, and the air was filled with
pleasant conversation and merry
laughter.
But suddenly something else fell
upon the night air, so strangely out of
chord with the many jubilant sounds
of merrymaking that it almost made
ones heart stand still. A woman sat
at the corner, in the very midst of the
glazing lights and hurrying feet, in
tinitely removed in many ways from
the light-hearted throng, for she was
poor, and blind and beggar. She
steadily turned the crank of the little
organ that rested on her knees. A
tin cup stood upon the organ, and this
mute appeal was all. But as she sat
there, and the crowd passed, she sang
an old song, that has upheld many
fainting heart when the way was
long, that has saved many a half.
wrecked life when the storms were
rough.
GLOW firm foundation, ye saints of the Lord"
Oh, that old song! The passing foot
step paused and something that was
like the shadow of a sweet and touch
ing memory rested for moment on
every face. Time and space became
90 hoIhllS w lhS WOudu OF society,",
the hardened man of the world. The
illuminated streets fled away, and in
their place stood some little old
church away in Georgia, or Alabama,
or New York, and the old congrega-
ton with voices joining in the we'll re-
membered words, while the gray
haired pastor lined the hymn. The
pastor has been sleeping his quiet
sleep for many years, and the con-
gregation, where are they? Scattered
as by the breath of whirlwind. Yet
they all come back, from the infinite
distance of separation or the still
more infinite distance of death, and
even the tender mother comes UP
from that buried past and sings with
the others. The streets became sud-
denly filled with ghosts, as the wan
derers went back through the wears
and heard again
AT home and abroad, on the land on the sea.
AS thy days may demand shall thy strength
ever be-" v"
And the singer! Along what thornv
roads did she come, 1 wonder, to sit
there at last on the street. in blindness
and poverty? Where did she learn
that sweet old song that rung ont so
plaintiyely on the evenino oino n