The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-12-04

are constantly exposed to 1t and con- stantiy succumbing. How many fami- ly treasures have they literally thrown away to satisfy worldly ambitions and conventions. but the happiness upon which they thought to come through these impious immolations always eludes them.
 To give up the ancestral hearth. to let the fitmily traditions fall Into des- uetude. tC abandon the simple domes- tic customs, for whatever return Is to make a fools bargain, and such Is the place in society of family life that if this be impoverished the trouble Is felt throughout the whole social organism. To enjoy a normal development this organism has need of well tried indl- viduals. each having his own value, his own hall mark. Otherwise society be- comes a flock. and sometimes a flock without a shepherd. But whence does the individual draw his originality, this unique something which, joined to the distinctive qualities of others, con stitutes the wealth and strength of community? He can draw 1t only from his own family. Destroy the as- semblage of memories md practices whence emanates for each home an atmosphere in miniature, and you dry up the sources of character, sap the strength of public spirit
 1t concerns the country that each home be a world. profound, respected. nrv, ats,n ts,n ko law lv. effaceable moral imprint. But before pursuing the subject further let us rid ourselves of | misunderstanding Fam fly feeling, like all beautiful things, has It's caricature, which is family egoism. Some families are like barred and bolt. for the exploitation of the whole world. Everything that does not directly con cern them is indifferent to them. They live like colonists-I had almost said intruders-in the society around them. Their particularism Is pushed to such an excess that they make enemies of the whole human race. Tn their small way they resemble those powerful so- cieties formed from time to time through the ages which possess them selves of universal rule and for which no one outside their own community counts. This Is the spirit that has sometimes made the family seem a re. treat of egoism which 1t was neces- sary to destroy for the public safety But as patriotism and jlngoism are as far apart as the east from the west, so are family feeling and clannishness.
 Here we are talking of right family feeling, and nothing else in the world can take its place. for in 1t lie in germ all those fine and simple virtues which assure the strength and duration of social institutions. And the very base of family feeling is respect for the past, for the best possesslons of a family are it's common memories. An intangible, indivislble and inalienable capital, these souvenirs constitute q sacred fund that each member of q family ought to consider more pre- cious than anything else he possesses. They exist in a dual form, in idea and in fact. They show themselves in Ian guage, habits of thought, sentiments, even instincts, and one sees them ma terialized in portraits, furniture, build- ings, dress, songs. To profane eyes they are nothing; to the eyes of those who know how to appreciate he things of the family they are relics with which one should not part at any price.
 But what generally happens in our ha timent of family, and know of no strife more impassioned. By great means and small, by all sorts of new customs, requirements and preten- sions, the spirit of the world breaks into the domestic sanctuary What are this strangers rights, its tltles? Upon what does it rest its peremptory claims? This Is what people too often neglect to inquire. They make a mls- take. We treat the invader as very poor and simple people do a pompous visitor For this incommoding guest of a day they pillage their garden, bully their children and servants and neglect their work. Such conduct is not only wrong; 1t is impolitc. One should have the courage to remain what he is in the face of all corners.
 The worldly spirit is full of imperti nences. Here is a home which has formed characters of mark and Is form ing them yet. The people, the furnish ings, the customs are all in harmony By marriage or through relations oi business or pleasure the worldly spiri
 enters. It finds everything out O date, awkward, too simple lacking th' modern touch. At first it restricts 1t this is the dangerous moment. Lool out for yourself-here Is the enemy If you so much as listen to his reason ings, tomorrow you will sacrifice piece of furniture, the next day goot old tradition, and 80 one by one th' family heirlooms dear to the hear will go to the bric-a-brac dealer-ant -filial piety with them.
 Tn the midst of your new habits and in the changed atmosphere your '-1enas of other days, your old relatives VIII be expatriated. Your next steP VIII
 be to lay them aside in their turn. me
 worldly spirit leaves the old cut oi
 consideration. At last, estabiisheu III
 an absolutely transformed setting even
 you will view yourself with amaze
 ment. Nothing will be familiar. but
 surely 1t will be correct-at least the
 world will be satisfied. An, that Is
 where you are mistaken! After hay
 ing mnde you cast out pure treaf ure as
 so much junk it will find that your bor-