San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-12-12
loved and cared for
that it is wanted then
Thfg - 4hn fntrn1l

home. Wanted because theiS
part of home gone when you areV
from ii, and which is never to bev
that home can be until you return.
This it is that gives force to the old
song, old in days, young in spirit.
do they miss me at Home, do they
miss me-? 'TwOuld be an assurance
most dear, To know that this moment
some loved one We're saying l wish he
We're here" To the spirit of such a
song home is not a word, it is a rest.
The hurry and confusion of our lives,
the love of display, the designations of
society. the following of fashions and
fads-these on the part of our women
prevent home being what home should
be. Business cares, club comforts,
financial speculations, the itch for sud
den wealth, the love of adventure, the
desire to see the world. the fast set
that gets fast hold of old and young
these things on the part of men prevent
their homes being what home is intend
ed to he. No wife on earth can make
a home for the husband whose deeper
life, that is the life TO which he is most
attached and from which he derives
the most comfort and pleasure, is lived
outside his family abode and not with
in his family circle. Nor can any man
born of woman have home ut home
whose wife is more at home some
where else than at her home.
The lack of the true home life is
found in every nature that does not en-
joy the fullness of life which only the
true home can foster and develop. 1t
is a fatal lack. Well regulated affec-
tionS are one of the native products of
a true home life. and for lack of these
the world is full of unhappiness and
sin. Few girls ever issue from the
doors of true home to unhappy homes
of their own. The evolution of their
affectional natures has been in the
right direction, and there is a life in
surance against evil in such training
that is not found elsewhere. Men and
women have no right to establish a
sO-called home, without its essential of
home feeling and care and love and
trust and mutual pleasure as its foun-
dalton and corner stone. Much less
have they any right to bring children to
people a home that has no guarantee
of their best affectiOnal development
in it.
1t is from lOveleSs hearts, from home
less homes that the ranks of the idle,
the vicious, the vagrant, the cruel, the
really wicked are recruited. The jails
and the brOthels and the refOrmatOries
are filled with the children of homeless
homes, where love is not the ruling
characteristic and the true develop
ment of the affectiOnal nature is not
made a sacred concern. Could cen
Sus be taken of the unfortunate classes,
their early surroundings and close as
sociatiOns taken, a real analysis of
their so called home life given, and it
would be found that the great stream
of unfortunate life goes out unceasing
ly from these homes where love is not
the prevailing spring of action, and
where there is not that close commun-
ion of feeling between its members
that alone can constitute home in any
proper sense.
Take another census. that of the chill
dren of unwedded love. You will find
in these very often some of the divin-
est and sweetest of human characters
tics. proving that in spite of their I'M
fortunate birth and the bar sinister
that society brands them with, the
love that was their creation has in n
measure redeemed them from evil and
endowed them with gifts and graces
and tenderness of nature of no ordin-
airy character If these can be grown
OH such a tree, what possibilities can
not be evoked in the culture and work
and development of homes sanctioned
by every law on earth and crowned
with the love that lays the only fOun-
datiOns upon which n real home can
be erected. The duty of parents,
children, brothers, and sisters, and all
inmates of the same abode to make it
home is above all else.
Attention has been directed of late
TO the need of some means of prevent
ing the breeding of criminals, by pre-
venting the marriage of those who are
criminally inclined. Could law be
passed preventing the marriage of
those whose marriage idea is that of
lettering their financial or social posi-
ton, without a thought of that higher
purpose TO develop through a constant
ministry of loving hOpefulness, more
would be accomplished than in any 9th
err way. The legalizing of marriage
where Il lOveless home is to be neceS
sity, or at least a natural result, is it.
self a crime. The refOrmer of the
future will direct his attention to the
destruction of the loveless home. This
accomplished there will be more hope
for the world. Home is either Heav.
en- or Hell.
Il write this to let you know what