The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1897-09-16
HAPPINESS At HOME.
Arp Says 1t Is More Valuable Than
the KIondike.
POINTS OUT SOME DEFECTS.
Cross Husbands aud Complaining
Wife Meet No Compassion From the
Sage of Barlow.

The poet says that domestic happi-
ness is the only bliss of paradise that
has survived the fall" If that is so,
and I reckon it is, what an awful sin it
is for man or his wife or q son or
daughter to break it up. 1t is worse
than murder, for there is then only one
victim, and he is dead; but the destroy
sr of domestic happiness brings misery
TO the family, and they must live on in
their sorrow. If domestic peace and love
could be purchased with money, what
price it would bring, and yet itcan be
had without money if every member of
the family would do right. Iwasrumi-
mating about this and wonderingi even
the devil was mean enough to take
pleasure in destroying the peace of
household. The book of Job does not
make him that mean, for Job suffered
no sorrow from any bad conduct of wife
or children. Satan wants worshippers,
and even dared to try to seduce the
Savior to Lis allegiance; but he did it in
an open manly way, and lost. He is
an adversary-a bad one-a powerful
one ever since he WIS thrust out of
heaven; but according to scripture he
has not yet lost his power or his conse-
quence, for the Lord talked to him in
Job and the Savior had q conference
with him in Mathew, and Michael: the
archangel, had q dispute with him
about the body of Moses. He is bold,
self-poised, defiant spirit, and uses many
arts to seduce mankind from their allie
glance; but surely he wouldn't take
away and destroy the only bliss of
paradise that IS LETT US. Hehasent done
it from Gngersoll, for that notable man
has a most loving household, and SO
have many infdels and atheists and
skeptics. My opinion is that our orr
ginal SIN has more to do with bad con-
duct than the devil. We are born to
SIN as the sparks fly upward, and the
devil urges US on and apologies for
every mean thing we do and tr,-I
to comfort us, but / believe
that it is in the power of
every man and woman and son and
daughter to preserve the family peace
and to make home the most attractive
place upon the earth. Then, why don't
they do it? 1t sickens Us with sorrow
to read the family troubles in the daily
papers. Sometimes it is the husband,
sometimes it is the wife, sometimes the
daughter, but oftener than all together
it is the Sol, that brings the blight and
darkens the doors and makes parents
and sisters seek to hide from the gaze
of men. What makes the young men
do so? Every day there is new case
somewhere murder, suicide, embez-
element and all is mixed up with the
jails and courts aud pictures in the
papers and misery of kindred and the
worlds cold criticism. How many
families that olce moved proudly with
the social swelling throng have retired
from it to grIeve over the crushing
fate of u wayward son or q daughters 8
shame. How many families have been
broken down by reckless sons-in.law.
[ know some aged parents whose
hair has grown prematurely gray.
whose brows are furrowed with
lines of sorrow and whose smiles are
always sad, if they smile at ali.
Young men, please stop and think.
The happiness of home is worth millions
of dollars. 1t beats the Klondike, and
is right close by, aud no frozen hills to
cross. The pleasures of happy home
excel anything upon earth, and can be
had so cheaply if father and mother and
children will make it so. ''He that
troubleth his own kouse shall inherit
the wind" A cross husband, conten-
tious, complaining wife, selfish son or
an indolent, discontented daughter can
DESTROY the peace Of the household.
There are some things that are worth 30
much they cannot be valued. Health Of
body is one of them, but peace of mind
is worth more than that Some years
ago there was verdict rendered in our
court ut Rome giving SSS5, 900 toa young
man because of fall from the train at
night and permanent injury to his
spine. He was man of brilliant mind
aud high ambition aud splendid pros
poets, but the doctors testified that he
would be a mental wreck, and his elo-
quent lawyer drew such a sad picture
of the wreck that the jury lave this
large amount as COnpeuSAtlOH. NO
bones were broken nor did he suffer any
pain. lie walked about aud visited his
friends, and showed no sign Of imbecil-
ity, but his mental force was impaired,
his high ambition gone, and this ver-
dict was only an approximation of the
damage
What, then, is the peace of family
worth? Not merely peace of mind, but
of heart, for the heart outranks the
mind as the mind does the body. I
was Illuminating about these ill assort-
ed, unhappy marriages that seem in
these later years to be more frequent
than in the olden time, and are the pro-
life source of SO mnch domestic trou-
BILE. The poe! says:
"How sad and dreary is the home
Where love domestic love no longer nestles,
But stricken by some ruel doom
It's corpse lies on the trestles
wonder how many modern mar
riages may be called happy-in how
many families do peace and love rule
the household. Not many among the
children of the rich, l know, for they
have known no want nor self-denial,
and cannot bear patiently any misfor-
time And even among the poor there