The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1899-10-06
TheRsmurrat-S Star
THE OLE FARM HOUSE.
win I. Hnle in Cumberland PRESBYTERIAN.

win I. Hnle in Cumberland PRESBYTERIAN.
As population increases and people
gather more and more into communi-
ties the old farm lie gets farther
away. viii it ever become a tradi.
ton only? 1t may, when the world,
somewhat like China, shall become so
crowded that its inhabitants will live
almost in swarms, huddled even
among the graves.
But the frequent appearance in the
poetry in the day OF references to the
old home, the oaken bucket, the
stream running by babtling the tune
that 1t babbled when Adam sauntered
through the shady groves OF Eden,
and the hills where the feet strayed
in the days Of adolescence. these show
how deeply rooted is the love for the
farm and its associations.
AS lightly as we speak Of It, home.
sickness is perhaps as strong as any
feeling. Daniel in captivity kept an
open window toward his native land.
On Bethel, Jacob asked Of all things
that he might come again To his faith
er's house in peace. 1t has been beau.
tifully said that not all the splendors
Of "A royal n,ausOleum could reconcile
Joseph To a burial in Egypt-before
his death he eXacted an oath Of his
attendants that his bones should be
carried back To the scenes familiar to
his childh0od. 1t is learned from the
journals of Nansen, the great Attic
explorer. that he and his men con-
quered every obstacle which the north
could Ofer, except that OF h0me.sick-
ness: they had TO fight hard against
that tarrying among the ce-fores.
Sometimes we see Il successful man OF
business purchase back the home OF
his parents: this is because OF the re-
collections Of his boyho0d-becauSe Of
the fact that success no more than
failure can drive the place from his
affections. No wonder a certain old
Swiss air is not permitted to be played
in foreign arms IN which the people Of
the Alps serve.
Men and women have gone to the
cities, becoming mixed up with the
buster and more fashionable life, for
tune has carried them where little but
money grows, unless it is daily cares
and striving; hut even among such
scenes the mind takes time now and
then to wander back to the days be.
fore there came the desire to 20 ''in
among the sons Of men, and there
are visits to the spots where certainly
il ever on this earth the tenderness Of
heaven was reflected in the eyes that
loved.
In youth the place may have seemed
dull-but, looking back now. how de-
void OF care and trouble, it was. The
hnlly.hocks growing beside the garden
fence; the martins twittering above
the barn; the June bugs-eyery coun.
try boy recalls the June bug as he re-
members the blue bird and cherry
tree-tilling the orchard with their
low, somnolent, sweet psalm; the
cattle, browsing or resting under the
trees shading the meadow branch:
the glimpse of an old farm out among
the poll beans as she gathers vegeta.
bles for the midday meal-all these
through absence have taken on a de.
gree OF sa%credneSs, and they for the
moment have the warmest place in
the heart.
a few years bring about marvellous
changes. They have taken from the
farm ways m or more OF those who
were once a part Of it; gathering moss
and insidious decay may have given
things "a new aspect; but for all this,
the home back on the farm is the
Mecca OF more thoughts than one
would imagine as he passes along the
crowded city streets to-day.