Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1899-03-16

lS dQuuk0 I0SC the T0pupllC no SmOluoF0Os
Gambette dies, and there are hundreds OF
thousands of Frenchmen who are fearing
| the return of a monarchy. The Dreyfus
| case is at this moment slumbering earth
quake under Paris. France, as nation.
| has not the right kind of q Christian home.
The Christian hearthstone is the only
hearthstone for republic. The virtues
cultured in the family circle are an abso-
lutte necessity for the State. II there be
not enough moral principle to make the
family adhere, there will not be enough po-
litical principle to make the State adhere.
No home means the Goths and Vandals,
means the Nomads of Asia, means the
Numidfans OF Africa, changing from place
to place according as the pasture happens
to change. Confounded be all those babes
of iniqufty which would overpower and de-
stroy the home! The same storm that up
sets the ship In which the family sail will
sink the frigate of the constitution. Jails
and penitentiaries and armies and navies
are not our best defense. The door Of the
home is the best fortress. Household uten-
sils are our best artillery, and the CHM
neys of our dwelling houses are the grand
est monuments to safety and triumph. No
home, no republic.
Further, home Is school. Old ground
must be turned up with subsoil plow, and
1t must be narrowed and reharrowed, and
then the crop will not be as large as that
OF the new ground with less culture. Now,
youth anu cnllunoou are new ground, ana
all the influences thrown over their heart
and life will come up In after life luxuri-
antly. Every time you have given smile
OF appreciation all the good cheer of your
life will come up again in the geniality Of
your children. And every ebullition of
anger and every uncontrolabie display of
Indignation will be fuel to this disposition
OF twenty or thirty or forty years from now
fuel for bad fire a quarter of a century
from this. You praise the intelligence of
your child too much sometimes when you
think he is not aware of it, and you will see
the result OF it before ten years of age in
his annoying affectations. You praise his
beauty, supposing he is not large enough
to understand what YOU say, and you will
find him standing on high chair before
tiattering mirror.
Oh, make your home the brightest place
on earth If you would charm your children
to the high path of virtue and rectitude
and religion. Do not always turn the
blinds the wrong way. Let the light,
which puts gold on the gentian and Spots
the pansy, pour into your dwellings. Do
not expect the little feet to keep step to a
dead march. Do not cover up yonr walls
with such pictures as Vests death on a
Pale Horse" or Tintoretto's Massacre of
the Innnocents." Rather cover them IL
you have pictures, with "The Hawking
Party and "The Mill by the Mountain
Stream" ana "The Fox Hunt" and the
Children Amid Flowers" and the
Harvest scene," and "The Saturday
Night Marketing" Get you no hint OF
cheerfulness from grasshopper's leap and
lambs frisk and quail's whistle and
garrulous streamlet, which from the rock
at the mountain top clear down to the
meadow ferns under the shadow of the
steep comes looking to see where 1t can
find the steepest place to leap off at and
talking just to hear itself talk? If all the
skies hurtled with tempest and everlasting
storm wandered over the sea and every
mountain stream were raving mad, froth-
ing at the mouth with mud foam, and
there were nothing but simoons blowing
among the hills, and there were neither
lark's carol nor humming birds tril nor
waterfalls dash, but only bears bark and
panther's scream and wclfs howl, and you
might we'll gather into your homes only
the shadows. But when God has strewn
the earth and the heavens with beauty and
with gladness let US take into our home
circles all innocent hilarty, all brightness
and all good cheer. A dark home makes
bad boys and bad girls in preparation for
bad men and bad women.
Above all, my friends, take into your
hcmes Christian principle. Can it be that
mates 1 confront the voice of prayer is
never lifted? What! No supplcation at
night for protection? What! No thanks
giving in the morning for carer How, my
brother, my sister, will you answer God in
the day ofjudgment with reference to your
children? 1t is plain question, and there
fore l ask 1t. In the tenth chapter of Jere-
miah God says he will pour out his fury
upon the families that call not upon His
name. Oh, parents, when you are dead
ard gone and the moss is covering the in
scription OF the tombstone, will your chill
dren look back and think of father and
mother at family prayer? Will they take
the old family Bible and open 1t and see
the mark Of tears Of contrition and tears of
consoling promise wept by eyes long before
gone out into darkness? Oh, II you do not
1nculcate Christian principle In the hearts
OF your children, and do not warn them
against evil, and you do not invite them to
into dissipation and into infldelity, and at
last make shipwreck OF their Immortal
soul, on their deathbed and in the day OF
judgment they will curse you'll
Seated by the register or the stove, what
II on the wall should come out the history
mortal and immortal life Of your loved
onesl Every parent is writing the history
Of his child. He Is writing 1t, composing
1t into song or pointing 1t with groan.
One night, lying on my lounge when very
tired, my children all around about me, in
full rcmp ard hilarity and laughter-on the
lounge, half awake and half asleep-I
dreamed this dream: 1 was in far coun-
try. 1t was not Persia, although more than
oriental luxuriance crowned the cities. 1t
was not the tropics, although more than
tropical fruitfulness filed the gardens It
was not Italy, although more than Italian
softness filled the air. And wandered
about looking for thorns and nettles, but
found that none Of them grew there. And
saw the sun rise. and watched to see it
set, but it sank not And saw the people
In holiday attire, and said, "Whene will
they put of this and pat on workmen's
garb, and again delve In the mine and
swelter at the forge?" But they never put
Off the holiday attire.
And I wandered in the suburbs OF the
city to find the place where the dead sleep,
and looked all along the line OF the beau
tiful hills, the place where the dead might
most peacefully sleep. and saw towers
and castles, but not q mausoleum, or a
monument, or a white slab could I see.
And went into the chapel of the great
town, and said, "Where do the poor wor-
ship and where are the hard benches on
which they sit?" And the answer was
made me, "We have no poor In this coun-
try" land then wandered out to find the
novels of the destitute, and found man
,iOno nf ap,bor md fynru opd coId