The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1893-07-20

do in sounds of their own family of
birds. The boot of the owl, the clat-
ter OF the magpie, the crow of the
chanticleer, the drumming of the
grouse, the laugh of the loon in the
the scream of the eagle, the croak
OF the raven, are sounds be-
longing to each particular fami-
ly; but when you come to those
which have real songs, how suggestive
that it is always family song. All
the slSylarks, all the nightingales, all
the goldfnches, all the black birds, all
the cuckoos, prefer the song of their
own family, and never sing anything
else. So the most deeply i'm
pressive songs we ever sing are family
songs They have come down from
generation to generation. You were
sung to sleep in your infancy and child
hood by songs that will sing in your
soul forever
| Where was it, my brother or sister,
that you heard the family song-on the
| banks of the Ohio, or the Ala bama, or
the Androscoggin, or the Connecticut,
or the Tweed, or the Thames, or the
Raritan? That song at eventide, when
| you were tired out-indeed too tired to
sleep, and you cried with leg ache, and
you were rocked and sung to sleep
you hear it now, the soft voice from
sweet lips, she as tired, perhaps more
tired than you, but she rocked and you
slumbered.
oh, those family songs! The songs
that father sang, that mother sang,
that sisters and brothers sang. They
roll on us to-day with Renaissance
that fills the throat, as well as the
heart, with emotion. In our house in my
childhood it was always a religioussong.
do not think that the old folks knew
anything but religious songs; at any
rate, l never heard them sing anything
else. 1t was; "Jesus, Lover of My
Soul" or Rock of Ages" or ''There
is Fountain Filled with Rood" or
MARY to the Saviour's Tomb"
M others, be careful what you sing
your children to sleep with. Let it be
nothing frivolous or silly. Better have
in it something of Christ and Heaven.
Better have in it something that will
help that boy thirty years from now
to bear up under the bombardment of
temptation. Better have in it some
thing that will help that daughter
thirty years from now when upon
! her come the cares of mother
hood, and the agonies of bereave-
ment, and the brutal treatment of
one who swore before high Heaven
that he would cherish and protect. Do
not waste the best hour for making an
impression upon your little one, the
hour of dusk, the beach between the
day and the night. Sing not doleful
song, but suggestive song, a Chris
tlan song, song you will not be
ashamed to meet when it comes to you
in the eternal destiny of your son and
daughter. The oriole has loud song,
and the chewink long song, and the
bluebird short song, but it is always
family song, and let your cleaning
song, to your children, whether loud or
long or short, be Christian song
These family songs are about all we
keep OF the old homestead. The house
where you were born will go into the
hands of strangers. The garments
that were carefully kept as relies will
become moth-eaten. The family Bible
can go into the possession of only one
of the family. The lock of gray hair
may be lost from the locl1et, and in a
few years all signs and momentoes of
the old homestead will be gone forever
But the family songs, those that we
heard at two years of age, at five years
of age, at ten years of age, will be in
destructible, and at forty or fifty or
sixty or seventy years of age will give
us a mighty boost over some rough
place in the path of our pilgrimage
Many years ago a group of white
children were captured and carried off
by the Indians. Years after mother
who had lost two children in that cap
ture went among the Indians. and
there were many white children in
line, but so long time had passed the
mother could not tell which were hers
until she began to sing the old nursery
song, and her two children Immediate
ly rushed up, shouting: Mammal"
Mammal! Yes, there is an immor>
tality in nursery song. Hear it.
all you mothers, an immortality of
power to rescue and save
What an occasion that must have
been in Washington, December II, 1859,
when Jenny Lind sang "Home, Sweet
Home" the author of those worda,
John Howard Payne, seated before
her. She had rendered her other IA
vorite songs, "Casta Diva" and her
"Flute Song" with fine effect, but
when she struck Home, Sweet Home"
John Howard Payne rose under the
power, and President Fillmore and
Henry Clay, and Daniel Webster, and
the whole audience rose with him.
Anything connected with home ran
sacks our entire nature with q hoIv
power, and songs that get well started
in the nursery or by the family hearth
roll on after the lips that have sung
them are forever silent, and the ears
that first he ard them forever cease to
hear.
Saint Francis d. Assist preached a
sermon to birds and pronounced a
benediction upon them. but all birds