The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1897-12-07
AS VIEWS.

&@A4a G&@~ w
OF the habit he has been forming, writes
r. e Rextord, in an exchange.
But-what he imbibed was ideas,
and we cannot help feeling that it
would be we'll if others YER to form a
habit similar to Neighbor as.
He is building himself a new house,
and in it he is giving expression to
some Of the ideas he has imbibed by a
course of observation and study OF
some existing conditions.
His house is located on q farm, and
It Is for hard working persons to live IN,
but he has come to the conclusion that
q farm house need not necessarily be
unattractive in its appearance, and he
is sensible enough to believe that hard
working people ought to enjoy some of
the good things of life. Isis his theory
that they have earned right TO enjoy
ment, and he is going to put his theory
into practice. Naturally, a good many
of his neighbors, who do not share his
u~northodox vie ws, consider him in dan
ger of developing into q crank, but he
has made up his mind to the belief that
he ia right, and ia not greatly worried
about their opinion. wait" he says,
land see if / don't convince them that
there is a good deal of good sense in
what they are pleased to call my fool
ishness just now"
You see, Neighbor A is making a de-
parture from the established order OF
things by building a house with pretty
porches and ornamented gables, a hall
that is gradua ~ large enough for half
q dozen persons to sit down In without
providing each other, and-a bath
rooml
81 like a good substantial house"
n neighbor comments, "but 1 DOM
like foIderols and fancy fxings about
it. The money n has to pay out for
them might be put to better use"
"But," argues Neighbor A, Il do not
consider that money expended in max
ing a place pleasant and attractive
and especially when that place ishome
is wasted. Not by any means. If
you make the place you live in-the
place you bring up your children n
the place of all the places in the world
to yourself ard family, beautiful, you
are doing something sensible, because
you are giving EMPHASIZE your belief
that home should be the pleasan5est
place on earth to those who live be
meath it's roof. If God did not mean
that we should cultivate and develop
the sense and the appreciation of the
beautiful and bring it into our daily
lives, he would not have given 1T to US.
I believe that he meant we should
make the most of it, not for show, but
because beauty is a prominent and
powerful factor in the development Of
character. If l make my house attrsc
tive, quite naturally it will follow that
my children will want to have things
about 1t IN harmony with it, and this
sense of the harmonious development
OF things will not be confined to the
future In the house or he grounds
about it. Arguing along this line they
will feel that character and individu
atty must, if they would be consistent,
have something attractive about them,
and their innate sense of the Fitness of
things" will have a tendency to make
them strive for a more complete devel
opment of themselves than would be
the case were there no encouragement
Of this kind. / believe that g person Is
influenced to q greater extent than
most are aware Of by his surroundings.
Bleak, cherries, unsttrRctive homes
are pretty sure to make the lives of
those who live in them like themselves.
We have grown used to the idea that
the qualification of the taste for the
beautiful Is an indication of a weak
ness We ought to be ashamed of. 7 he
lieve that q love for the beautiful 10
a of the greatest blessings God has
conferred upon man, and that he ex.
pects US to cultivate it and make it a
means of strength and help in charac,
ter building. When / get my house
built I am going to put good pictures
and GOOD books into it, and make 1t as
nleessnt inside as it will be outside, and
fnllv believe that all these things WILL
preach q sermon from the gospel OF
beauty thai will not be without goco
results In the family"
If Neighbor A Is a hereto, give US
MOI of them, say II