Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1895-07-24
NOW AMT 1T so!
That It's Mighty Hard to Improve on
the Old Home!

That It's Mighty Hard to Improve on
the Old Home!
In my travels over this great country
from State to State and city to city, it
has been my pleasure to be entertained
in many of the most elegant home Of
the country, and to become more or
less acquainted with the inmates.
When a man who started poor attains
riches, nothing gives him more pleasure
than to talk of his former poverty, to
tell how he worked and toiled in the
humber walks OF life. A man is proud
that he was raised poor till he becomes
rich, but generally ashamed of his poor
kin. Almost every mansion in this
country has companion; companion
building in the old log or frame build.
ing where the owner Of the mansion
was born and reared.
Not only were such millionaires az
Andrew Carnegie, John d. Rockefel-
Ter, George M. Pullman, Russell Sage,
John W. Mackey and Austin Corbin
born in humble circumstances and
struggled through poverty to riches,
but 1t is strangely true that most of the
brainy men of this country came from
Its humble homes. Not only do Lin.
coin and Garfield and Andrew johnson
and others of the prominent men of the
country go back to the log cabin for
their organ, but the majority of the
great men in law, medicine, theology
and science look back to the humble
country home for the place of their
boyhood.
The little picture that Will Carleton
draws of the old and new house ia
very common picture. "Out of the old
house Nancy moved up into the new,
and the hurry and worry is just as good
as through" gives little picture that
las touched many human heart. NV
mind runs back to the old double log
cabin of my grandfather, to the old
lanyard that stood near it. 1t was
royal place to my childhood days. 1t
seems very humble as look back on it
now. But the honest toll that charac.
terized its inmates, the old familiar
Bible, the old family prayer altar, the
old fashioned songs that still ringin
my ears, the sweet, quiet hush of the
holy Sabbath, the enforcement of the
rules OF the old household, early to
bed and early to rise; time for prayer as
we'll as for bread, quiet temper and
honest toll; busy days and restful,
peaceful nights; the love of God aud
humanity with the practice of the gol-
den rule. Ah, me; that old double log
cabin will live in the lives of the chill.
1ren, grandchildren and great grand
children and the children for century
to come.
Who is it that does not 90 with the
poet occasionally back to the happy
scenes of his childhood, "the orchard,
the meadow, the deep tangled Wild
wood" and all the enchanted grounds
of his youth; or in the old barn on
rainy day where he turned somersaults,
played hide and seek, jumped and
wrestled, hunted hens nests, or for O
lost knife. Down there is the creek where
he knew every swimming hole for three
miles up and down. There he learned
to swim and dive and shoot water to
the face OF his companion.
There is the orchard whose every tree
he knows, the sweet and sour fruit and
the seasons they ripen. Many a race
he has run with his brothers through
the dewy grass to capture the first ] une
apples, whose blushing coat shone on
the ground from the distance. There
were the horses and cattle, sheep and
hogs and chickens, all named and
claimed among the children of the
home. The offspring of each were
greeted with great joy by the mother
horse or cow or hog or chicken, and
was looked upon with childish envy by
the other boys.
The holidays given for extra tasks
will never he forgotten. Fishing, swim
ming, marbles, ball. Many were the
sports planned and enjoyed in those
hours Of rest from the days of toll.
Those happy days haunted only by the
fact that stove wood is to be cut, the
garden to be worked, the churning to
be done, and, the hardest of all, each
is to take his turn in minding the fles
while the others eat.
How many man has left his bow
hood home to amass the wealth of the
world, dreaming as he started out that
If the time should ever come when he
should own city residence, be sur.
rounded by servants, carriages, horses
and the luxuries of city life, should be
the proprietor of a great busin ess, the
owner of large fortune, carry fine
watch and drive fine team and have
all the candy he can eat. he would be
the happiest man on earth.
But as he struggled through the years
and attained every ambition that thrill.
ed his boyhood life, numbered with
cares. harassed with business, burdened
with his possessions, he has looked
back upon the old home and his boy.
hood days and longed for the appetite
that would take cabbage stalk or a
raw turnip followed by a square meal