Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1905-01-26
No. 4.

ness OF the situation. Much better
nave 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-
tstence and liberty by repudiating ways
In its eyes too patrhrchal. So 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,
Remember" they garnish them with
quite new furnishings that as yet have
no meaning. Walt, am wrong; these
things are Otter symbols, as it were, of
q facile and superficial existence In
their midst one breathes a 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, Remember" In 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 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 on again!
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 1t. To stay at home is penal. There
they cease to 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 gratu-
itously within.
In 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 a
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 so
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
ed the same. There is the same fire in
the same chimney. Whence comes it
that 1t 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. 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 60 abroad, each after his
own fancy.
We must learn again to live the
home life, to value our domestic tradi-
tons. A pious care has preserved GER
+o4xx 30 a% fhn
tique 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 its 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 home you
must have the spirit Of home. Just as
the smallest village may have Its his
tory, Its moral stamp, so the smallest
home may have its soul Oh, the splr-
It Of places, the atmosphere which sur
rounds us In human dwellingsi What
a world of mysteryl Here, even on the
threshold, the cold begins to penetrate;
you are Ill at ease; something intangi-
BILE repulses you. There no sooner does
the door shut you In than friendliness
and good humor envelop you. 1t 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 1
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 all over
II, even In his fashion Of arranging his
photographs and books. All Is the
same to me. There one breathes In AMI
nation, q contagious Joy In life. The
visitor hears repeated In countless
fashions: whoever you are, guest OF
an hour, wish you well. Peace he
with you"
Words can do little justice to the
subject Of home, tell little about the
effect of 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 remodeling!
We who from transforming our cities,
our houses, our customs and creeds
have no longer where to lay our heads,
let us not add to the pathos and empti-
ness Of our changeful existence by
abandoning the life Of the home. Let
us light again the flame put out on our
hearths, make sanctuaries for our
selves, warm nests where the children
may grow into men, where love may
find privacy, old age repose, prayer
IN altar and the fatherland a cult.
B. ITo BE CONTINUED
Little BilI's Luck.