Connecticut western news., 1899-03-02


 slimy, putrid pool of our own selfish ness tell you the home is mighty test of character. What you arc at home you are everywhere. whether you demonstrate it or not.
 Home Ia a Refuge.
 Again, home is a refuge Life,is the United States army on the national road to Mexioo-a long march. with ever and anon skirmish and 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 un- 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 circle Yea, life is stormy sea With shivered masts and torn sails and hulk aleak we put in at the harbor of home Blessed harborl There we go for repairs in the drydock The candle in the window is to the toiling man the lighthouse guid- 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- asperations and troubles Forlorn earth pilgrim. no homef 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 homei
 Further. home is a political safe guard. The safety of the state must be tuilt on the safety of the home. Why cannot France come to placid repub-' lics MacMahon appoints his ministry. and all France is aquake lest the repub- lie bo smothered. Gambetta 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 earthquake under Paris. France, as 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 ab- 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 Goths 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 overpower and destroy the homei 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 na- 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 republicl
 Further, home is school. Old ground must be turned up with subsoil blow. 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- bation all the good cheer of your life will come up again in the geniality of your children. And every ebullition of anger and every uncomfortable display of indignation will be fuel to this dis position 20 or 80 or 40 years from now
 fuel for bad fire quarter of . cen tury from this You praise the intelli- gence of your child too much sometimes when you think he is not aware of it. and you will see the result of it before 10 years of age in his annoying affecta- tions. 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 flat tering mirror.
 The Seeds of Character.
 Words and deeds and example are the seed of character. and children are very apt to be the second edition of their parents Abraham begat Isaac, so virtue is apt to go down in the ances- tral line. but Herod begat Archelaus. so iniquity is transmitted. What vast responsibility comes upon parents in view of this subjectl
 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 gen tian and spots the pansy. pour into your dwellings, Do not expect the lit tie feet to keep step to dead march. Do not cover up your walls with such pictures as Vests Death on a Pale Horse" or Tintoretto's Massacre of the Innocents- Rather cover them, if you have pictures, with ''The Hawking Party" and 'The Mill by the Noun tain Stream" and "The Fox Hunt, !" and the "Children Amid Flowers, and the Harvest Scene" and "The Satur- day Night Marketing" Get you no hint of cheerfulness from grasshopper' s leap and lambs frisk and quail's whis- tie 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 it 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 rsving mad. frothing at the mouth with mud foam. and there were noth- ing but simooms blowing among the hills, and there were neither lark s carol nor humming birds trill nor wa terfall's dash, but only bears bark and