Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1899-02-27

to their slippers and their gown. Audi
bon. the great ornithologist, with gun
and pencil went through the forests of
America to bring down and to sketch
the beautiful birds, and after years Of
toll and exposure completed his manu-
script and put it in a trunk in Phila-
delphia and went off for a few days of
recreation and rest and came back and
found that the rats had utterly de-
stroyed the manuscript, but without
any discomposure and without any fret
or bad temper he again picked up his
gun and his pencil and visited again all
the great forests of America and repro
duced his immortal work. And yet there
are people with the ten thousandth part
Of that loss who are utterly irreconcil-
able who at the loss OF a pencil or an
article of raiment will blow as long and
loud and sharp as q northeast storm.
Now. that man who is affable in public
and who is irritable in private is max
ing a fraudulent and overissue of stock,
and he is as bad as bank that might
have $500. 900 or $500, 900 Of bills in
circulation with no specie in the vault.
Let us learn to show piety at home Ii
we have it not there, we have it not
anywhere. If we have not genuine grace
in the family circle, all our outward
and public plausibility merely springs
from the fear of the world or from the
Shiny. putrid pool Of our own selfish
ness. tell you the home is a mighty
test of character. What you are at
home you are everywhere, whether you
demonstrate it or not.
Home Is a Refuge.
Again, home is refuge. Life is the
United States army on the national
road to Mexico-a long march, with
ever and anon a skirmish and a battle.
At eventide we pitch our tent and stack
the arms, we hang up the war cap and
our head on the knapsack we sleep I'M
til the morning bugle calls us to march
to the action. How pleasant it is to re-
hearse the victories and the surprises
and the attacks of the day seated by
the still campfire of the home circlel
Yea. life is stormy sea, With shlvered
masts and torn sails and hulk aleak we
put in at the harbor Of home Blessed
harborI There we go for repairs in the
drydock. The candle in the window is
to the toiling man the lighthouse guild
ing him into port Children go forth to
meet their fathers as pilots at the Mar
rows take the hand of ships. The door
sill of the home is the wharf where
heavy life is unladen. There is the
place where we may talk of what we
have done without being charged with
self adulation. There is the place where
we may lounge without being thought
ungraceful There is the place where
we may express affection without being
thought silly. There is the place where
we may forget our annoyances and ex-
aspirations and troubles Forlorn earth
pilgrim no homer Then die. That is
better The grave is brighter and
grander and more glorious than this
world with no tent from marching,
with no harbor from the storm. with
no place Of rest from this scene of greed
and gouge and loss and gain. God pity
the man or the woman who has no
homel
Further, home is a political safe
guard. The safety of the state must be
built on the safety of the home Why
cannot France come to placid repub-
lic2 MacMahon appoints his ministry
and all France is aquake lest the repub-
lie be- smothered. Gambetta dies, and
there are hundreds of thousands of
Frenchmen who are fearing the return
of monarchy. The Dreyfus case is at
this moment slumbering earthquake
under Paris. France, as a nation, has
not the right kind of Christian home.
The Christian hearthstone is the only
hearthstone for a republic. The virtues
cultured in the family circle are an alb
solute necessity for the state. If there
be not enough moral principle to make
the family adhere, there will not be
enough political principle to make the
state adhere. No home means the Cloths
and Vandals, means the Nomads of
Asia. means the Numidians of Africa,
changing from place to place according
as the pasture happens to change Con-
founded be all those babels of iniquity
which would cverpower and destroy the
homel The same storm that upsets the
ship in which the family sail will sink
the frigate of the constitution. Jails
and penitentiaries and armies and ma
vies are not our best defense. The door
of the home is the best fortress. House
hold utensils are our best artillery, and
the chimneys Of our dwelling houses
are the grandest monuments to safety
and triumph No home. no republici
Further, home is school Old ground
must be turned up with subsoil pillow.
and it must be narrowed and reharrow-
ed. and then the crop will not be as
large as that of the new ground with
less culture. Now. youth and childhood
are new ground. and all the influences
thrown over their heart and life will
come up in after life luxuriantly. Every
time you have given smile of appro-
baton all the good cheer of your life
will come up again in the geniality Of