The Monitor-register., 1896-08-14
The American Home, its Relation to
the Republic.
BY ISABELLA H. DEMAREsT

OASIS on Whlch TO Onlld typlcal nome,
American homes ought to be the ones,
par excellent, of the world
Coming to our birthrigbt, late in the
CENTURIES. when savagry in its widest
form was eliminated; when superstition
had had its greatest day; when ignorance
was being slowly lifted; when faint
glimmering of human rights was shining
out; when truth was gradually displacing
error, America inherited a strange mix
ture of home ideas.
She had the stern home of the Puritan,
where the little ones came into the land
of repression, where the fathers smiles
CLEANED through frowns, and the
mothers kiss was furtive as the Indians
step; where God was the inexorable judge,
and the glooms of the untamed forest
were its natural environment, but where
truth, simplicity, honesty and loyalty to
duty were cardinal virtues.
Hers, too, was the ruder Dutch home
with its thrift and scourings, its faxen-
haired lads and lassies, and its solid old
time observance of the ten command
ments.
The Irish homo with its improvidence,
its sportive wit, its living in the joy Of
to day, it's simple faith.
The Scotch home, with it's brave men
| and women, who combined enthusiasm
and discretion, and, boldly meeting the
difficulties of stubborn earth, raised up
one of the sturdy elements of our popula-
| tion.
The French home, with its sprightliness,
its vivacity, its respect and love for
parents. These and others went into the
makeup of the American home.
The welding which came of the union
Of interests, the united and triumphant
struggle for liberty which raised the
inmates of those homes from material
plodders to community of patriotic
ing their mental vision, preparing them
for the duties and responsibilities of a
nation, aided in creating d home sue
generic, at times conservative, again
radical, with deep-seated regard for
individuality, a strong belief in human
rights, hatred of oppression, grace Of
adaptability, capacity for independent
and we'll directed action, and underneath
all, strong religious faith.
Such is the typical American home,
and such homes have been the power
which has plaosd this Republic among
the leading nations of the world.
The homes of the nations are their
moulders. We have striking illustra-
tion of this, as given by Olive Schreiner
in THE FortnsgAtEy, in the Bosr's land, on
which a worlds gaze has been fixed
during the last few months.
The Boer is a unique type completely
isolated from the currents of European
| life. His ancestors were born in France,
Holland. Germany, Portugal, yet he
claims kinship With none of these, but is
South African, pure and simple.
| Certain home peculiarities caused this.
| The wives of most of the early settlers
were orphan asylum girls from Holland,
| who found their first homes across the
ocean wave. Round the home. land
clustered for them no fond memories, in
| itllingered no loving ties. South Africa
was their land, and the land of their
children Graded in their arms. Many of
the homes were born of religious exile,
and language of their o WI, the "Taal, {"
mixture of French and Dutch, was
! created, which aided in further separa-
| tion. These homes became the embodi.
ments of past customs, ideas, beliefs,
and we have the Boer of to-day, an
isolation on the face of the 10Th cen tury
Some one has said "tke child's need is
the supreme need. If we do the best we
can for the children we are doing the
best we can for the world" The home is
the childs' nation in miniature, and th Q
ideas gained there to- day make or mar
| the nation of tomorrow.
In the June Forum is given an account
of the training of the young king Of
Spain, aged II, and the crown prince of
Prussia, aged 8. Both boys are receiving
a military education. War, war is the
subject that fills their mental vision, and
both look eagerly forward to the time
when they may join in its carnage.
Under such teaching sorry will be their
Interpretation of the principles of human
equality and freedom. and unhappy the
nations that crown them their monarchs.
To make an American citizen there
must be an American home education.
When Gen. Armstrong looked on the
| untaught child of the forest whom he had
been trying to civilizs with order, school
work. shops, religious and social life,
and found that.despite all, tribal instincts
were hard to overcome, he said: "These
| children must be put in homes. That
will teach them to be citizens quicker
than years of books. So at the end of
each school year Hampton's Indian
students go out into homes to be trained
by their influences, and through these
come into the larger life of citizens of
this Republic.
The American home stands the corner
stone of the Republic, the upholder of
truth, fidelity, purity, patriotism. piety,
all necessities in the men and women of
any nation that would have more than
an ephemeral existence.
AS W. y. L. U. workers-what special
relation does our work hold to our home
life and 80 to the Repablic. whose highest
advancement is our carts desire
In presenting the Polyglot Petition in
Washington, Miss Willard said: "Home
protection is the key-word of woman's
work. Manufacturers seek the tariff for
the purpose of protection to industries,
adult and infant; trades unions are
founded to protect the wage.worker from
the agressions of capital. and corpora
tions and monopolies to protect capital
from.tbe encroachment of competition; but
the White Ribbon movement, local.
State, national and International seeks
protection for the home, and is the shin.
ing forth OF the hearth-fre's ruddy glow
and light 10 the window for thee
That light is no mirage, no will o'.the-
wisp; it is the Pharos of the world, for
the chief corner. stone of the State is the
hearth stone, and the casket of the heart
is the homo. But the presence of the
legalizsd traffic in brain poisons, and
social vice is to day undermining the very
foundations of the home, and for it's