Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-06-29

tiers. School was closed for the summer
and his daughter was restless and lonely.
She had asked for permission to go to the
other side of the city to spend the night
with a girl friend of her own age-about
ftteen-and had been very properly refused,
since it was late and she would have to go
unattended.
You might stay at home with US one
evening"" interposed the mother gently, as
her daughter moved GROSSLY about some lit
tie duties. The only reply was slamming
about of chairs, and a hasty, II hate this
dull old house at night. Papa Is never at
home, the boys have to go out on the streets
or be snubbed and fused at for making a
noise, and the girls all have some place to
go where there is some fun. But you just
make me stick here till bed time, with not
a soul to talk to. 1t wouldn't be so bad
if there was some one who wasn't above
talking to just girl"
Then the mother sighed like a martyr,
the father laughed at Lauras ebullition of
temper, while the daughter, only a child in
feeling, went off to have a little fretful
weep all by herself. 1t was then that the
father referred to the decadence of home
life, and l thought about it long after we
had all separated for the night.
His boyhood was a sheltered one. There
were but two children, end they were both
studious, fonder of book than ball bat
more interested in science than street
scenes, and devoted to father and mother
whose sunlight of existence they were
Their life was ideal, in its easy round of
quiet pleasures found between the four
walls of home
Away From the Home.
Marriage with Village belle" gave life
new side for the studious man, and he
rather liked the change for a time, but
soon got tired of it, and leaving social du-
ties to his wife, he began to seek quiet in
his office which could not be found at home
Sons and daughters came, six in all, and
the fashionable mother became a fashion
able invalid who must not be worried" SO
the older girls began to look out for them
selves; the boys, glad to be freed from home
restraints, found congenial companions in
the street, and the last of the flock, so
many years the junior of the others, pettish,
spoiled Laura, was the only one left to
them, the others being old enough to select
their own companions and pleasures. as
American young men and women are large
ly left free to do after certain age.
1t was rather late in life for that man
to find out that his home though hand
somely furnished. was not all that was
necessary to make pleasant abode for
tractive to his children, because never in
his life had he tried to interest one of them
in a single book on its shelves. He had
taken pains to have them well educated
desire for them. That is plant of an
other growth entirely.
His parents had read, too, and with him.
nearly everything that was worth reading
and their interests became his, but he rel
fishly chose to read his own books and
think his own thoughts undsturbed by the
superficial questioning of the unframed
minds Of his children or the profane inter-
ference of the new class of thinkers with
his preconceived and settled opinions and
beliefs His fine piano was seldom used, ex-
cept to show off the mechanical perfection
of his daughters, who were brilliant
players, but utterly lacking in sympathetic
execution.
His mother had been a good musician,
and listening to her perfect Interpretation
of great masterpieces had been one of the
delights of his boyhoods home. His wife
also a good pianist, but she stop
ped pratice when the first baby came, and
the girls got no stimulus from her, and the
one sentiment they held regarding her was
to keep her out of the way, and not make
her nervous or spoil her rest by undue
noise, or excite her with contention.
Domestic Life Neglected.
Now, you know that is not healthy
kind of atmosphere for children to grow up
in. If the boys and girls of whom 1 have
spoken had been at all viciously inclined