The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-12-25

! ''~ttitlSs even d. Ou VIII view NOufStlL
I with amazement Nothing will be ia
miliar but surely it will be correct: at
least the world will be satisfied, An,
that is where you are mistaken, After
having made you cast out pure treas
ure aS so much junk. II will find that
your borrowed livery fits you i'll. and
viii hasten to make you sensible of the
! ridiculousness of the situation. Much
/ better have had from the beginning the
( courage of your convictions. and have
! defended your home.
! Many young people when they mar
~, listen to this voice of the world.
/ Their parents have given them the ex-
ample of a modest life; but the new
generation thinks il affirms its rights
TO existence and liberty, by repuulat-
ing ways in its eyes too patriarchal
SO these young folks make efforts To
set themselves up lavishly i'm the latest
fashion, and rid themselves of useless
property at dirt-cheap prices. Instead
of filling their houses with objects
, which say: Remember they garnish
them with quite new furnishings that
as yet have no meaning. Wait, / am
wrong these things are often symbols.
as il were. of a facile and superficial
( existence. In their midst one breathes
a certain heady vapor of mundanity.
! They recall the life outside. the tur-
mOil the rush. And were one some
times disposed to forget this life, they
would call back his wandering thought
and say: Remember i'm another sense;
| Do not forget your appointment at the
club, the play. the races, The home.
| then, becomes a sort of halfway
| house where one comes TO rest a little
between two prolonged absences; it
! isn't d good place to stay. As it mas no
soul, it does not speak TO yours. Time
! to eat and sleep, and then off again.
/ Otherwise you become as dull as her
nit
We are all acquainted with people
who have a rage for being abroad. who
think the world would no longer go
round if they didn't figure on all sides
of it. To stay at home is penal; there
they cease 10 be in view. A horror OF
home life possesses them to such a
degree that they would rather pay to
/ be bored outside than be amused graf
uitously within.
In this way society slowly CRAWL
tates toward life in herds, which must
not be COMPOUNDED with public life.
The life i'm herds is somewhat like that
! of swarms of flies in the sun. Nothing
SO much resembles the worldly life of
man as the worldly life of another
man. And this universal banality de-
stTOys the very essence of public spirit.
One need not journey far to discover
! the raVages made in modern sOcieSS
by the spirit of worldliness; and if we
have so little foundation, 81 little
equilibrium, calm good sense and in
itiative. one of the chief reasons lies in
the undermining Of the home life. The
masses have timed their pace by that
of fashion. They, toe, have become
worldly. Nothing can be more so than
10 quit. ones own hearth for the life
of saloons. The SqualOr and misery
of the homes is not enough to explain
the current which carries each man
away from his own. Why does the
peasant desert for the inn the house
that his father and grandfather found
50 comfortable? 1t has remained the
sarue There is the same fire in the
same chimney. Whence comes is that
il lights only an incomplete circle,
when i'm Olden times young and old sat
shoulder to shoulder? Something has
changed in the minds of men. Yield
ing 10 dangerous impulses. they have
broken with simplicity. The fathers
have quilted their post of honor. the
wives grow dull beside the solitary
hearth. and the children quarrel while
waiting their turn to go abroad, each
after his own fancy.
We must learn again to live the home
life, TO value our domestic traditions.
A pious care has preserved certain
monuments of the past So antique
dress. provincial dialects. ola folk
songs have found appreciative hands
to gather them up before they should
/ disappear from the earth. What
! good deed. to guard these crumbs of
great past. these Yestiges of the souls
/ of our ancestors! Let us do the same
! fop our family traditions. save and
guard as much as possible of the patri-
archal. whatever it's form.