Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1905-04-27

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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,
Remember" they garnish them with
quite new furnishings that as yet have
no meaning. Walt am wrong; these
things are often symbols, as It We're, Of
O facile and superficial existence. In
their midst one breathes certain
heady vapor 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 back his wandering thought and
say, "Rememberw In another sense,
do not forget your appointment at the
club, the play, the races. The home
then becomes n sort of halfway house
where one comes to rest little be-
tween two prolonged absences. 1t isn't
good place to stay. AS 1t has no
soul, 1t does not speak to yours. Time
to eat and sleep, and then off again!
Otherwise you become as dull as O
hermit.
We are all acquainted with people
who have a rage for being abroad, who
think the world would no longer go
round IL they didn't figure on all sides
of It, TO stay ut 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-
itously within.
In this way society slowly gravitates
toward life In herds, which must not
be COMPOUNDED 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
man as the worldly life Of another
man. And this universal banality de-
stroys the very essence OF public spir-
1t. One need not journey far to dis
cover the ravages made in modern 80
ciety by the spirit Of worldliness, and
II 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 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
cd the same. There Is the same fire In
the same chimney. Whence comes 1t
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 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 tradl-
tons. A pious care has preserved GER
thin monuments of the past. SO an
tique dress, provincial dialects, old
folk songs, have found appreciatlve
hands to gather them up before they
should disappear from the earth. What
a good deed, to guard these crumbs OF
great past, these vestiges of the
souls of our ancestors! Let us do the
same for our family traditions, save
and guard ms 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
family life. And to do this there Is
need neither Of numbers nor IL rich
establishment TO create home you
must have the spirit of home Just as
the smallest village may have Its his
tory, Its moral stamp, 80 the smallest
home may have It's soul. Oh, the spir-
II OF places the atmosphere which sur
rounds us In human dwellings! What
world of mystery! Here even on the
threshold the cold begins to penetrate;
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Bile repulses you. There no sooner does
the door shut you In than friendlincss
and good humor envelop you. 1t Is
said that walls have ears. They have
also voices. II mute eloquence. Every
thing that dwelling contains Is bath
ed In an ether of personality. And
find proof of Its quality even in the
apartments of bachelors and solitary
women What an abyss between one
room and another room! Here all Is
dead, Indifferent, commonplace; the de-
vice Of the owner Is written MI over
| II, even in his fashion of arranging his
photographs and books. All Is the
same to me There one breathes In ami
nation n contagious JOY In life. The
/ visitor hears repeated In countless
fashions "Whoever you are, guest of
an hour, l wish you well. Pence be
with you"
Words can do little justice to the
subject of home, tell little about the
effect of favorte flower In the Win
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