Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1895-07-23
THE OLD HOME.
Sam Jones' Entranoing Picture of
Childhood's Happy Hours.
What This Nation Owes to the Simple.
Substantial Rural Homes - Success
Sui Men Who Were Reared in
Humble Surroundings.
ICoPYRIGHT, 1881

less acquainted with the inmates.
When 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, he is then proud of his humble
origin, but generally ashamed Of his
poor kin. Almost every mansion In
this country has a companion; a COM
panion building in the old log or frame
building where the owner of the man.
sion was born and reared.
Not only were such millionaires as
Andrew Carnegie, John d. Rockefeller,
George NJ. Pullman, Russell Sage, John
w. Mackey and Austin Corbin born in
humble circumstances and struggled
through poverty to riches, but it Is
strangely true that most of the brainy
men of this country came from its
humble homes. Not only do Lincoln and
Garfield and Andrew johnson and 9TH
ers Of the prominent men of the coun-
try go back to the log cabin for their
origin, but the majority of the great
men in law, medicine, theology and
science look back to the humble coun-
try home for the place of their boyhood.
The little picture that VIII Carleton
draws of the old and the new house Is a
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 a little pic
ture that has touched many human
heart. My mind runs back to the old
double log cabin of my grandfather, to
the old lanyard that stood near it. 1t
was a royal place to my childhood days.
It seems very humble as I look back
on 1t now. But the honest toll that
characterized it's inmates, the old fam
lily Bible, the old family prayer altar,
the old-fashioned songs that still ring
in 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 for God and
humanity with the practice Of the
golden rule. All. me! that old double
log cabin will live in the lives of the
children, grandchildren and great
grandchildren and the children for .
century to come.
Who is it that does not go 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
IL - 11l b,v
days where he turned somersaults,
played hide and seek, Jumped and
wrestled, hunted hens nests, or for
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 into the face of his companion.
There is the orchard whose every
tree he knows, the sweet and the sour
fruit and the seasons they ripen. Many
q race he has run with his brothers
through the dewy grass to capture
the first June apples, whose blushing
coat shone on the ground from the dis
tance. There were the horses and
cattle, sheep and hogs and chickens,
all named and claimed among the
children of the home. The offspxing
of each we're greeted with great joy by
the boy who claimed 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 be forgotten. Fishing,
swimming, marbles. ball. Many were
the sports planned and enjoyed In those
hours of rest from the days 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 flies while the
others eat.
How many a man has left his boy
hood home to amass the wealth OF the
world, dreaming as he started out that
II the time should ever come when he
should own a city residence, be sur
rounded by servants, carriages, horses
and the luxuries Of city life, should be
the proprietor of great business, the
owner Of large fortune, carry line
watch and drive a fine team and have
all the candy he can eat, he would De
the happiest man on earth.
But as he has struggled through tho
wears and attained every ambition that
thrilled his boyhood life, numbered
with cares, harassed with business,
burdened with his possessions, he has
looked back upon the old home and his
boyhood days and longed for the appe-
tite that would take a cabbage stalk or
a raw turnip followed by square meal
of corn bread and bacon and his stom-
ach never complain at it; he longs 70
be a plowboy tired; he thinks OF the
evenings when he rode home from the
field. whistling to tho tingling OF the
chains, stabbed his tired horse, did his
evening chores, took his plain meal,
nodded at family prayers, dropped
down on his humble bed and fell into
the sweet plowman's sleep-a boon tnss
only comes to the honest toiler.
lam sorry for the man who mas NO
memory of an old-fashioned country
home. who never climbed into the ola
annie tree and heard its ripe fruit drum
the ground in answer to his shake; VINO
never stood on bending limb and picked
the ripest cherries; who never oreasneo
1he fresh morning air AZ he beat the
sun to the field; who never drove up
the cows. turned out the colts, penned
the sheep or heard the music OF crack
ine CORP in the hog peis; or iisteneo ioI
the wolo1,rns sound Of the Ola oinneE