The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1905-03-04
The Old Hearthstone

The Old Hearthstone
Tradition and would be dead indeed but for
the sentiments that cluster about the old hearthstone
And lots of other good things in this world would never
have come to life but for its genial glow. Family, tribe
clan and nation born in its benefcent warmth Nor
atty and civilization lighted by the old time back log
To countless generations and ages the hearhsone
at once newspaper and school, There the events
related and discussed and there the simple
were instied in the minds of youth
Art and poetry of all time have created picture so
beautiful and alive with human interest that of the
was DONE
There Grace suicide in those good days
Father and mother surrounded by brood
of children If there not enough in the half cir
Gle for chairs for them ALL sprawled happily upon
the hoor the freight, like gay troupes of gold iveried
fairies, playing hide and seek in their tousled hair The
father with youngster either knee awkwardly ev
pounded the mysteries of the rule of three and
the silent smiling mother busy at her sewing. There
room too, for the deay old grandmother, with her
knitting and her tales of the COLLINS that lurked in the
shadows And upon them all the fire cracked and laughed
and the kettle cheerily sang 1t little world, but
sweet
Never never has forgotten the pure right educat-
ing influences of home however humble it may have BEEN
But times and customs and needs have changed The
old fire place walled up The stove the hot air register
and the steam radiator supply the heat of today leaving
family cheer and close companonshp entirely out of the
reckoning
The cracking wood has receded from advancing civil
zaon and coal is dirty and makes mess The gas CRATE
fingers only mockery. Even the mantepece must
succumb to the inevitable
There is any domestic shrine where all the
family meet and feel in place In the arrangement Of
the date home the father has his den the mother
has her room the young children the nursery and the
half grown boy the back yard and the street.
The father has not the wisdom any to know his
child. The mother gives her daughter stlted
advice IN melting moments and then and magines she
should
imagining!
The children of today are being brought up in the
schools, not in the homes.
The home of today is place to sleep and take most Of
meaS-we live elsewhere.
To find congenial companionship all go out-father
mother and daughter. Our dearest sympahies are
nourshed outside the cherries barrack call home
But never mind! Nature is infinitely wise In the
complex life of today families live to themselves. There
must be system and harmony in the bringing up of child
such only the public schools afford Few par
ents nowadays really fit to train their children
morally, and the Sunday school has become indspens
able institution.
In the simple life of the old days the mental
needs few and the destined to follow the foot
steps of his father had to go elsewhere for his
learning But it is ignorant poor equipped son
indeed who starts in life without knowing far than
his father could have taught him if he would. The son
today is performing miracles of which his father never
dreamed.
Families no longer hold together to wrest home
stead from the Wilderness but scatter throughout the
wide earth, each individual following his bent and thus
doing best service.
Yes; the old fireplace is walled up In another genera
ton two it will have passed from memory of v
ing Like chivalry it will exist only in history,
poetry and picture.
But for him who still see it through the haze Of
years it's glow remains in his heart It's warmth ever
stays in his life.
All fathers should J. H. Stoddard in the Bonnie
Brer Bush perhaps it would help them to listen to their
children before the passed judgment.