Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1897-10-08

loveliness and from health to more radi-
ant health.
When the Old Parents Come.
Oh, parent, as you think Of the dar-
ling painting and white in membranous
Group, l want you to know it will be
gloriously bettered in that land where
there has never been death and where
all the inhabitants will live on in the
great future as long as God Joseph
was Joseph Notwithstanding the palace,
and your child will be your child not
withstanding all the raining splendOrs
Of everlasting noon. What thrilling
visit was that of the old shepherd TO
the prime minister Joseph l see the
old couDtryman seated in the palace
looking around at the mirrors and the
fountains and the carved pillars, and,
oh, how he wishes that Rachel, his
wife, was alive and she could come
with him to see their son in his great
house. "Oh," says the old man within
himself, Il do wish Rachel could be
here to see all thisr l visited at the
farmhouse of the father of Millard Fill.
more when the son was president Of the
United States, and the octogenarian
farmer entertained me until IL O'Clock
at night telling me what great things
he saw in his sons house at Washing
ton and what Daniel Webster said to
him and how grandly Millard treated
his father in the White House. The old
mans face was illumined with the story
until almost the midnight. He had just
been visiting his son at the capital
And suppose it was something Of the
same joy that thrilled the heart Of the
old shepherd as he stood in the palace
of the prime minister.
1t is a great day with you when your
old parents come to visit you. Your lit
tie children stand around with great
wide open eyes, wondering how any
body could be so old. The parents can
not stay many days, for they are lit
tie restless, and especially at nightfall,
because they sleep better in their own
bed, but while they tarry you somehow
feel there is benediction in every room
in the house. They are little feeble,
and you make it as easy as you can for
them, and you realize they will prob
ably not visit you very often-perhaps
never again. You go to their room after
they have retired at night to see if the
lights are properly put out, for the old
people understand candle and lamp bet
ter than the modern apparatus for illu-
mination. In the morning, with real
interest in their health, You ask how
they rested last night Joseph, in the
historical scene Of the text. did not
think any more Of his father than you
do Of your parents The probability is,
before they leave your house they half
spoil your children with kindnesses
The First and the Last.
Grandfather and grandmother are
more lenient and indulgent to your chill
dren than they ever were with you.
And what wonders of revelation in the
bombazine pocket Of the one and the
sleeve of the other Blessed is that home
where Christian parents come to visit.
Whatever may have been the style Of
the architecture when they came, it is
a palace before they leave. If they visit
you 90 times, the two most memorable
visits will be the first and the last
Those two pictures will hang in the
hall of your memory while memory
lasts, and you will remember just how
they looked, and where they sat, and
what they said. and at what figure OF
the carpet, and at what doorsill they
parted with you, giving you the final
Roodby. Do not be embarrassed If your
father come to town and he have the
manners of the shepherd, and If your
mother come to town and there be IN
her hat no sign of costly millinery. The
wife of the Emperor Theodosius said
wise thing when she said, Husband,
remember what you lately were and re-
member what you are and be thankful.
By this time you all notice what
kindly provision Joseph made for his
father Jacob. Joseph did not say; Il
can't have the old man around this
place How clumsy he would look climb
ing up these marble stairs and walking
over those mosaicsl Then he would be
putting his hands upon some Of these
frescoes People would wonder where
that old greenhorn came from lie
would shock all the Egyptian court
with his manners at table Besides
that, he might get sick Oh my hands,
and he might be querulous, and he
might talk to me as though ! were only
a boy. when | am the second man III
all the realm OF course he must not
suffer, and if there is famine in his
! hear there isl will
send him some provisions, but | can't
take a man from Padanaram and intro
duce him into this polite Egyptian
court What nuisance it is to have
poor relations!"
Joseph did not say that, but he rush
ed out to meet his father with perfect
abandon of affection and brought him up
to the palace and introduced him to
the emperor and provided for all the
rest of the fathers days, and nothing
was too good for the old man while liy-
ing. and when ne was dead Joseph,
with military escort, took his fathers
remains to the family cemetery. Would
God all children were as kind to their
parents!
The Ixgrate and His Fate.
II the father have large property and
he be wise enough to keep it in his own
narue, he will be respected by the heirs,
but how often it is when the sou finds
his father in famine. as Joseph fourd
Jacob in famine, the young people make
II very hard for the old man They are
so surprised he eats with a knife in
stead Of a fork They are chagrined at
his antediluvian habits They are pro-
yolsed because he cannot hear as well
as he used to, and when he asks 1t over
again and the son has to repeat 1t ne
bawls in the old mans ear, II hope
Won hear thatr How long he must
wear the old coat or the old hat before
they get him a new onel How cha
grined they are at his Independence OF
the English grammar How long he
hangs onI Seventy years and not gone