Connecticut western news., 1898-01-06


 hold are more than atoned by the joy of
 being together and by the fact that when
 1t Is late they do not have to discuss the
 question as to whether 1t is time to go.
 The mishaps of the household, instead
 of being matter of anxiety and repre-
 hension, are a matter of merriment-
 the loaf of bread turned into geologic
 al specimen, the slushy custards, the
 jaundiced or measly biscuits It is 0
 very bright sunlight that falls on the
 cutlery and the mantel ornaments of 0 new home.
 Better Ia n Dinner of Herbs-"
 But after awhile the romance is all gone, and then there is something to be prepared for the table that the book
 called Cookery Taught In Twelve Les
 sons" will not teach. The recipe for
 making it is not a handful of this, a cup of that and a spoonful of something
 else. It is not something sweetened with
 ordinary condiments or favored with ordinary fiavors or baked in ordinary ovens. It is the loaf nf domestic happi-
 ness, and all the ingredients come down from heaven, and the fruits are pluoked from the tree of life, and it Is sweetened with the new wine of the kingdom, and it is baked in the oven of home trial Solomon wrote out of his own experience. He had wretched home. A man cannot be happy with two wives, much less 600, and he says, writ ing out of his own experience, Better
 is a dinner Of herbs where love is than haf II
 How great are the responsibilities of
 housekeepcrs! Sometimes an indigest- ible article of food, by its effect upon a
 king, has overthrown an empire. A dis tinguished statistician says of l, GOO un- married men there are SS criminals, and of l, ,000 married men only IS are crim- inals What a suggestion of home int1u- encesl Let the most be made of them. Housekeepers by the food they provide, by the couches they spread, by the books they introduce, by the influences they bring around their home, are deciding
 the physical, intellectual, moral, eternal destiny of the race. Sou say your life is one of sacrifice 1 know it. But, my sisters, that is the only life worth liv- ing That was Florence Nightingale's life; that was Payson's life; that was Christ's life. We admiresit in others, but how very hard it is for us to exer- else it ourselves When, in Brooklyn, young Dr. Hutchinson, having spent a
 whole night in a diphtheritic room for
 the relief of patient. became saturated
 with the poison and died, We all felt as
 if we would like to put garlands on his
 grave Everybody appreciates that When, in the burning hotel at St. Louis young man on the fifth story broke
 open the door of the room where bis
 mother was sleeping and plunged in amid smoke and fire, crying, Mother, where are you?" and never came out,
 our hearts applauded that young man. Lack of Christiike Spirit.
 But how few of us have the Christ like spirit-s willingness to suffer for others A rough teacher in a school
 called upon poor, half starved lad who had offended against the laws of the school and said, "Take of your coat di- rectly, sir" The boy refused to take it of, whereupon the teacher said again,
 '.Take of your coat, sir" as he swung the whip through the air. The boy re- fused. It was not because he was afraid of the lash-he was used to that at home-but 1t was from shame-he had no undergarment-and as at the third command he pulled slowly of his coat there went sob through the school.
 They saw then why he did not want to
 remove his coat. and they saw the shoulder blades had almost cut through the skin, and stout, healthy boy rose up and went to the teacher of the school
 and said: "Oh, sir, please don't hurt this poor fellow. Whip me. See, he's
 nothing but Q poor chap. Don't hurt him; he's poor. Whip me-" Well,
 said the teacher, tits going to be se-
 were whipping. I am willing to take you as substitute :" Well" said the
 boy, II don't care You whip me, if
 you will let this poor fellow go" The stout, healthy boy took the scourging without an outcry. Bravo" says ev-
 cry man. "Bravor' How many of us are willing to take the scourging, and
 the suffering and the toll, and the anx
 iety for other people Beautiful things to admire, but how little we have of
 that spiritl God give us that self deny ing spirit, so that whether we are in humble spheres or in conspicuous spheres we may perform our whole duty flor this struggle will soon be over. Remembrance.
 One of the most affecting reminis-
 cences of my mother is my remembrance
 of her as Christian housekeeper. She
 worked very hard, and when we would
 come in from summer play and sit down at the table at noon l remember how she used to come in with beads of per spiration along the line of gray hair,
 and how sometimes she would sit down
 at the table and put her head against her wrinkled hand and say, Well, the fact is I'm too tired to eat." Long aft
 CT she might have delegated this duty to others she would not be satisfied un-
 less she attended to the matter herself. In fact, we all preferred to have her do
 so, for somehow things tasted better
 when she prepared them. Some time
 ago in an express train l shot past that old homestead. I looked out of the l window and tried to peer through the darkness While was doing so one of
 my old schoolmates, whom I had not
 seen for many years, tapped me on the shoulder and said, "De Witt, l see you
 are looking out at the scenes of your
 boyhood-" "Oh, yes," I replied, "I
 was looking out at the old place where
 my mother lived and died. " That night | in the cars the whole scene came back
 to me, There was the country home. There was the monday table There
 were the children on either side of the
 table, most of them gone never to come back. At one end of the table, my fa- | ther, with a smile that never left his countenance even when he lay in his | coffin. It was an S4 years smile-not | the smile of hamilton, but of Christian
 courage and of Christian hope. At the other end of the table was a beautiful,
 benignant, hardworking, aged Chris tian housekeeper, my mother. She was | T Id A,,