Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1899-07-15

toss of silvery scale they defy the
sportsman on the beach, and after
awhile the fishermen begin to draw in
the net. hand over hand, and hand over
hand, and it is a long while before the
captured fins begin to feel the net; and
then they dart this way and that, hop
ing to get out, but find themselves ap-
preaching the shore. and are brought
up to the very feet of the captors, so
the memory of an early home some
times seems to relax and let men out
farther and farther from God, and far
lher and farther from shore; five years,
ten years. 20 years, 80 years; but some
day they lind an irresistible mesh
drawing them back, and they are COM
PEELED to retreat from their prodigality
and wandering; and though they make
desperate effort to escape the impress
sion. and try to dive deeper down in
sin. after awhile are brought clear
back and held upon the Rock of Ages.
Lasting Influence.
If it be possible, o father and mother!
let your sons and daughters go out into
the world under the semiomnipotent
memory of a good, pure home. About
your two or three rooms in a boarding
house, or a family hotel, you can cast
no such glorious sanctity. They will
think of these public caravansaries as
an early stopping place, malodorous
with old victuals, coffees perpetually
steaming and meats in everlasting
stew or broil the air surcharged with
carbonic acid, and corridors, along
which drunken boarders come Stagger-
ing at l o'clock in the morning, rap
ping at the door till the affrighted wife
lets them in. Do not be guilty of the
sacrilege or blasphemr of calling such
place home.
A home is four walls inclosing one
family with identity of interest and a
privacy from outside inspection SC
one entering except by permission
bolted and barred and chained against
all outside inquisitiveness. The phrase
so often used in lawbooks and legal
circles is nightly uggestive-every
mans house is his castle, as much Sc
as though it had drawbridge, portcul-
lis, redoubt, bastion and armed turret
Even the officer of the law may not
enter to serve a writ, except the door
be voluntarily opened unto him; bur
glary, or the invasion of it, a crime SO
offensive that the law clashes its iron
jaws on any one who attempts it. I'm
less 1t be necessary to stay for longer
or shorter time in family hotel OF
boarding house-and there are thou
sands of instances in which it is neces-
sary, as l showed you at the beginning
unless in this exceptional case, let
neither wife nor husband consent to
such permanent residence
The probability is that the wife will
have to divide her husbands time with
public smoking or reading room or
with some coquettish spider in search
of unwary flies, and, if you do not ell
tirely lose your husband, it will be be-
cause he is divinely protected from the
disasters that have whelmed thou
sands of husbands, with as good inten-
tions as yours. Neither should the hus-
band, without imperative reason, con-
sent to such q life unless he is sure his
wife can withstand the temptation of
social dissipation which sweeps across
such places with the force of the At
lantic ocean when driven by a Sep
tember equinox. Many wives give up
their homes for these public residences,
so that they may give their entire time
to operas, theaters, balls, receptions
and levees, and they are in a perpetual
whirl, like a whip top spinning round
and round and round very prettily until
it loses its equipoise and shoots off into
a tangent But the difference is, in
one case it is a top, and in the other a
soul.
Blessed Is the Home.
Besides this there is an assiduous ac-
emulation of little things around the
private home, which in the aggregate
make great attraction, while the den
izen of one OF these public residences is
apt to say: what is the use? have no
place to keep them if | should take
them" Mementos, brac-a-brac, curl
osities, quaint chair or cozy lounge, up