Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1905-01-19

visitor. For this incommoding scst
Of i day they piil&sge their garden
bully their children and servants and
neglect their work Sach conduct is
not only WRONG: it Is impolitie One
should have the courage to remain
what he is in the face of all concrs.
The worldly spirit is full of iuperti-
nences. Here IS i home which has
formed characters Of mark ana is form
iag item yet. The people. the furnish
ines. tie cssstons are all in harmony
d. marriage or through relations Of
business or pleasure the worldly spirit
enters. It finds everything out of
date. awkward. too simple. lacking the
modern t3i.eh At first it restricts it.
self to criticism and light raillcry. But
this is tie dangerous moment Look
out for yourself here is the enemy.
IL you so mach as listen to his reason
ings, tomorrow you will sacrifice
piece of furniture. the next day a good
old tradition, and 50 one by one the
family heirlooms dear to the heart
will 90 to tie bric-a-brac dealer and
flial niety with them.
In the midst of your new habits ard
in the changed atmosphere your friends
Of other days, your old relatives. will
be expatriated. Your next step win
be 10 lay them aside in their turn. The
worldly spirit leaves the old out of
consideration At last. established in
an absolutely Transformed setting, even
you will view yourself with amaze
ment Nothing will be familiar. but
surely it will be correct-at least the
world will be satisfied All. that is
where you are mistaken. After hav-
ing made You cast out pure treasure as
so much junk it viii find that your bor-
rowed livery fits YOU i'll and will hasten
to make you sensible of the ridiculous
ness of the situation Much better
have had from the beginning the cour-
age of your convictions and have de
Tended your home.
Many young people when they marry
listen to this voice of the world. Their
parents have given them the example
of modest life but the new genera
ton thinks it affirms its rights to ex
istence and liberty by repudiating ways
in its eyes too patriarchal. SO these
young folks make efforts to set them
selves up lavishly in the latest fashion
and rid themselves of useless property
1T dirt cheap prices. Instead of filing
their houses With objects which say.
Remember they garnish them WITH
quite new furnishings that as vet have
no meaning Wait, | am wrong; these
things are often symbols. rs il We're of
a facile and superficial existence. In
their midst one breathes Il certain
heaGy vapor Of mundanity They re-
cali the life outside the turmoil, the
eush And We're one sometimes dis
posed TO forget this life they would
call back his wandering thought and
say. Remember In another sense.
10 not forget your appointment at the
stub. the play the races. The home
then becomes sort of halfway house
where one comes to rest little be-
tween two prolonged absences. It isn't
a good place to stay. AS it has no
soul, it does not speak to yours. Time
to eat and sleep. and then off againl
Otherwise you become as dull as
hermit.
We are all acquainted with people
who have 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 to be in view A horror
Of home life possesses them to such
degree that they would rather pay to
BE bored outside than be amused gratu-
itoasly within.
In this way society slowly gravitates
toward life in herds, which must not
be confounded with public life. The
life in Eerds is somewhat like that of
swarnls of flies iii the sun Nothing so
much resembles the worldly life of Il
man as the worldly life of another
maa And this universal banality de-
stroys the very essence of public spir-
it. One need not journey far to dis
cover the ravages made in modern so
ciety by the spirit of worldliness. and
if VIC 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 ones 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 comfortable? 1t has remain
ed the same There is the same fire in
the same chimney. Whence comes it
that it lights only an incomplete circle
when in elden times young and old sat
shoulGer 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 post of honor the wives
grow dull beside the solitary hearth