The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1898-02-11

ates and helps 10 Deautlfy the cOuntenance.
She Is power with her children. The
mother should keep In touch with her child
rem as they grow older. The matter of
physical culture and the grace that comes
from spiritulized heart are helps to make
the most of ourselves.
Do you know what your children are do
ing at school? Do you know the character
of the person who Is spending six hours a
day with them? Are you visiting that
school. inviting the teacher to your home?
Do you see little into her heart? If not,
you are not making the best of your oppor-
tunity to make the most of your children"
Mrs. j. @. A. Cook and Mrs. Byron Beard,
who were expected to take part In the dis
cussi0n, were absent, but large number
took part In the discussion, which was very
interesting
jectOf beautifully written address by Miss
MOllle Carruthers, In which she said: We
have become so accustomed to the quarrel
between idealism and realism in literature
ideal as the unattainable, as furnishing us
models which are beyond the hopes
| of realism but valuable as models, because
any effort at imitation must result in i'm
provement. So, in thinking of an ideal
home, we are at once beset by dreams of
things as vain as they are visionary. Then
we consider that it Is not Arcadia we are
asked to consider, but home perfectly
| fitted to the use of twentieth century farm
er, and this brings us to earth. We begin
again by making a composite picture from
the best features of old colonial houses,
famous country seats and southern planters
mansions, when farmers once lived like
feudal lords. But even this is a dream, be-
cause it is beyond the reach of all but the
very prosperous.
Few Michigan farmers could support the
home we should like to imagine. There are
small farms and large, and these too, main
tain homes. Can they be made ideal? To
be home at all, they must possess the neces-
saries; to be complete they should have
such conveniences, and luxurles and beauty
as the farm will support without debt. 1t
is we'll that the homes be beautiful, with
spacious rooms and broad verandas; that
children be surrounded by fountains and
flowers, and all that tends to cultivate their
minds and keep their natures sweet; but it
is better that they have humble, wholesome
homes and know they are paid for.
The speaker did not consider 1t within
her province to describe the building of
home, but of those things which contribute
to make it happy. There should be room
for few books. Good literature can now
be had at so reasonable COST There should
be room for friends, for hospitality is as
necessary as honesty, to good mans char
acter. No farm home is complete which
has not trees around 1t.
1t is hardly necessary to say an ideal
home should be clean. There is small need
of urging American women to greater unc-
ton in house cleaning, but the Ordera nd
cleanliness found within the house some
at the back door. If yards have a
clean and wholesome appearance, and chill
dren see what they learn at school Of SAM
tation put in practice at home, they will
take their education seriously.
Most of the things which farm homes
need, to make them ideal dwelling places,
are only what all homes need. The growth
of the nation is bringing the country close
to the town. The daily mail is now a
necessity; telephone wires sing over the
front gate and the farmer has his ear to the
ground, listening for the rumble of electric
cars.
While the farm homes of our land are not
all they could be made they are, in sense,
ideal, for they shelter fortunate people, a
progressive, industrious people, who love
their country for the homes 1t has made
possible.
Just outside our southern gate neigh
Dor lies wounded with a bloodhound at his
throat. He fights brayely, and waves re-
public's colOrs, even our own red, white and
blue, but we press by on the other side. His
home is in ashes, his sons are murdered or
exled, his daughters are ravished.
What must the farm homes of Cuba be
like today? Imagination fails before the
pictures drawn by those who have seen
them. And would our homes be all that
they are had France failed to recognize our
ragged Continentals?
Miss Carruthers drew q beautiful picture
of the powerful influence pleasant home
has over mans life as he leaves the pa
ternal roof, enters business or the professions
or strives to do his duty In distant cline.
Wherever he may be, because his home
was homelike, the mans better man. 1t
would be we'll for us to learn by heart,
Kipling's magnificent lines, his prayer for
the English people, and ask daily that the
God of homes
BE with US YETI
Lest we forget-est we forget"
At the close of Miss Carruthers' paper
| Miss Edith Seeey, in very pleasing man.