The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1899-03-03

L
thropist who at home act the Nero wiz q
respect to their slippers and theirgown.
Audubon the great ornithologist, with
gun and pencil went through the for
ests of America to bring down and to
sketch the beautiful birds, and after
years of toll and exposure completed
his manuscript and put it in a trunk
in Philadelphia and went off for a
few days recreation and rest, and came
back and found that the rats had utter
ly destroyed the manuscript, but with
out any discomposure and without any
fret or bad temper he again picked
up his gun and his pencil and visited
all the great forests of America and re-
produced his immortal work. And yet
there are people with the ten-thou-
sandth part of that loss who are utterly
irreconeilabIe, who at the loss of a
pencil OF an article of raiment will
blow as long and loud and sharp as a
northeast storm. Now, that man who
is affable in public and who is ir-
ritable in private is making a fraudu-
lent and overissue of stock, and he
is as bad as a bank that might have
$400, 900 or S5OOO0O of bills in circula-
tion with no specie in the vault. Let US
learn to show pity at home. If we have
it not there, we have it not anywhere.
If we have not genuine grace in the
family circle, all our outward and pub
lie plausibiity merely springs from the
fear of the world or from the Shiny,
putrid pool of our own selfshness.
tell you the home is a mighty test of
character. What you are at home you
are everywhere, whether you demon
strate it or not.
Again, home is a refuge. Life in the
United States army on the national road
to Mexico-a long march, with ever and
anon a skirmish and a battle. At even
tide we pitch our tent and stack the
arms; we hang up he war cap, and, our
head on the knapsaclI, we sleep until
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 circle!
Yea, life is a stormy sea. With shlY-
cred masts and torn sails and hulk
aIeak, we put in AT the harbor of home.
Blessed harbor! There we go for re-
pairs in drydock The candle in the
window is to the toiling man the light
house guiding rim into port. Children
60 forth to meet their fathers as pilots
at the Narrows take the hand of ships.
The doorsill 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 with
out being thought silly. There is the
place where we may forget our an
noyances and eXasperations and
troubles. Forlorn earth pilgrim, no
home? 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 home!
Further, home is Il political safe
guard. The safety of the state must
be built on the safety of the home.
Why cannot France come to placid
republic? MacMahon appoints his min
istry, and all France is aquake lest the
republic be smothered. Gambetta dies,
and there are hundreds of thousands
of Frenchmen who are fearing the re-
turn of a monarchy. The Dreyfus case
is at this moment slumbering earth
quake under Paris. France, as a ma
ton, has not the right kind OF CHRIS
tian home. The Christian hearthstone
is the only hearthstone for republic.
The virtues cultured in the family cir
Gle are an absolute necessity Tor the
state. If there be not enough moral
principle to make the family adhere,
there will not be enough political prln-
ciple to make the state adhere. No
home means the Goths and Nandals,
means the Nomads of Asia, means the
Numidians of Africa, changing from
place to place according as the pasture
happens to change. Confounded be all
those babels of iniquity which would
overpower and destroy the home! Ihe
same storm that upsets the ship IN
which the family sad will sink the
f1fgate of the constitution. Jails and
penitentiaries and armies and navles
are not our best Gefenses. 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 re-
public!
Further, home is school. Old
ground must be turned up with subso1l
plow, and it must be narrowed and re-
narrowed. 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 ana
life will come up in after life luXuriant-
Iy. Every time you have given smile
of approbation all the good cheer OF
YOUR life will come up again in the
geniality of your children. And every
ebulIition Of anger and every uncon-
trollabIe display of indignation will
be fuel 10 their disposition 20 or 80 or
40 years from now-fuel for bad fire
Il quarter of century from this. You
praise tue lulSlIlSCACC u ; JOuA Nh'iN
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 fiattering mir
ror. Words and deeds and examples
are the seed of character, and children
are very apt to be the second edition of
their parents. Abraham begat Isaac,
L., IL, 4 41,ns m