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

istenee and liberty hy repudiating ways In its eyes too patriarchaI. Sc these young folks make efforts to set them selves up lavishly in the latest fashion and rid themselves of useless property at dirt cheap prices Instead of filling their houses with objects which say. t'Rememberf' they garnish them with quite new furnishings that as yet have no meaning. Wait, I am wrong; these things are often symbols. as it were, of q facile and superficial existence. Tn their midst one breathes a certain heady vnpor of mundanity. They re- call the life outside, the turmoil, the rush. And were one sometimes dis posed to forget this life they would call pack his wandering thought and say. 'RememberF' In another sense. do not forget your appointment at the club, tho play. the races. The home then becomes a sort of halfway house where one comes to rest little be tween two prolonged absences. It isn't a good place to stay. As 1t has no soul, 1t does not speak to yours. Time to eat and sleep, and then off againl Otherwise you become as dull as a hermit
 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 1 they cease to be in view. A horror i of home life possesses them to such a 1 degree that they would rather pay to be bored outside than be amused gr@A l itously within.
 Tn this way society slowly gravitates toward life in herds, which must not be confounded with public life. The life in herds is somewhat like that of swarms of flies in the sun. Nothing so much resembles the worldly life of q man as the worldly life of another 1 man. And this universal banality de- stroys the very essence of public spir- 1 1t. One need not Journey far to dis cover the ravages made in modern so- ciety by the spirit of worldliness, and ] If we have so little foundation so lit tie equilibrium, calm good sense and initiative, one of the chief reasons lies in the undermining of the home life. The masses have timed their pace by that of people of fashion. They, too. have become worldly. Nothing can be more so than to quit one's own hearth for the life of saloons The squalor and misery of the homes are 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 so comfortnble2 It has remain ed the same. There is the same fire In the same chimney. Whence comes it that 1t lights only an incomplete circle when in olden times young and old sat shoulder to shoulder? Something has changed in the minds of men. Yielding to dangerous impulses. they have bro ken with simplicity The fathers have quilted their pest of honor, the wives grow dull beside file solitary heartn, and the children quarrel while Walting
 their turn to go abroad, each aIter --ll n1s
 own fancy.
 We must learn again to live the home life to value our domestic tradi- tions. A pious care has preserved cer- tain monuments of the past So an- tiuue dress, provincial dialects. old folk songs. have found appreciative hands to gather them up before they should disappear from the earth. What a good deed to guard these crumbs of a great past, these vestiges of the souls of our ancestors! Let us do the same for our family traditions, save and guard as much as possible of the patriarchal, whatever it's form.
 But not every one has traditions to keep; all the more reason for redou- bling the effort to constitute and foster a family life And to do this there is need neither of numbers nor rich establishment. To create a home you must have the spirit of home. Just as the smallest village may have its hls- tory, it's moral stamp, so the smallest home may have It's soul. Oh. the spir- 1t of places the atmosphere which sur rounds us In human dwellings, What a world of mystery! Here, even on the threshold, the cold begins to penetrate; you are i'll at ease; something intangi- ble repulses you. There no sooner does the door shut you in than friendliness and good humor envelop you. It Is said that walls have ears. They have also voices, a mute eloquence. Every thing that dwelling contains Is bath ed in an ether of personality. And find proof of It's quality even in the
 apartments of bachelors and solitary f women. What an abyss between one I room and another room! Here all Is f dead, indifferent, commonplace; the de- vice of the owner Is written all over :. it. even in his fashion of arranging his f photographs and books. All Is the , same to me There one breathes in ani- :, nation, a contagious joy in life. The i. visitor hears repeated in countless . fashions: Whoever you are, guest of | an hour, wish you well. Peace be with you"
 I Words can do little justice to the , subject of home, tell little about the , effect of a favorite flower in the win dow or the charm of an old armchair where the grandfather used to sit
 offering his wrinkled hands to the kisses of chubby children. Poor mod erns, always moving or remodelingi We who from transforming our cities. our houses, our customs and creeds have no longer where to hay our heads, let us not add to the pathos and empti- ness of our changefui existence by abandoning the life of the home. Let