The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-09-27
SOCIETY. BY EMMA TouLMIN REID.
 Bell Telephone 1897.
HOME MAKING.

HOME MAKING.
 Before the days of great cities the peo- pie of this land lived more largely In bher own homes, says tho Boston Cooking School magazine,
 Family life was more significant. In the towns and villages all over New Eng land how many old-time mansions and farm houses arc pointed out where large and noted families once lived.
 Then the family name was cherished and kept unspotted from the world. In many cases these places are now oc- pupied. If to be frequented at all by strangers and sojourners whose chief interests are elsewhere. The desirabiity of building and owning ones own home is almost beyond comprehension.
 The home is an expression of the life and character of the builder. It reveals his tastes and his Ideals. Baoh of us build Into his homo what he stands for In life.
 We are glad that a marked tendency of the day Is a migration from city to open country rather than from the oouh- try cityward.
 The ambition of many working people to possess a home of their own at no dis hant day, of better ways of living. City life Is unnatural and unwnolesome. Chll- dren especially. like plants, need grow up out of doors, and in contact with earth. outdoor life, contact with nature are es- sential to vigor and strength both phy- sical and mental. The city-bred child Is limited in his activities, the country lad becomes adept in many kinds of handi- craft. His acquaintance with field ana wood with bird and animal life, Is hrst hand. He learns to face the natural con ditions of life and in nine cases out of ten will win out.
 In the June Century a writer. In striking article on the negpo and the south, says:
 confidently venture the statement that no man can expand to his full possibili- ties in rented house. The Christian Vir- tues blossom in their perfection about one'J own fireside. Every lesson of moral dty, ,yAe. elevated thought, doubles there sts U g5e and influence, and this Is true of .h3 na.aad's tent. the negro's cottage and ot the homes of the rich and strong. Here is the beginning of all good gov ernment The family is the type of the state The men who have learned to com mand their own full powers and restrain ahemselves constitute, when united. community; and the union of communi- ties is the state. As a nation, we may bathe our brows In the clouds, but we should always warm our feet by the fire side of homes
 In the same line of thought, the editor of a religious weekly writes:
 ''The resurrection of the home Is the hope of modern times. and there is noth- ang more delightful than the present so- acal tendency toward more homemaking. The struggle to escape the crowd and get a chance to build a home is a marked feature of the times. In the city to create a home is, for the very large majority, an impossibillty. A few can command the situation, but the rest must get into the shell of somebody else, at so much per month. They live and they work without ever having built their thought even Into a house, much less Into a garden, an or chard. and home Every human being should think out. feel out, grow out. a house and a home.
 "Too little is made of this homegrown ing The key of heaven is the key to ones own house.
 ITO build right sort of homes should be the first lesson of the education that takes hold upon our children. The eno of school work is not erudition, but the natural use of our emotions and the right development of our tastes We have got wholesomely by the idea that religion is to fit us for golden streets.
 Therefore religion may now grow legiti- mately farther, and the pulpit may find mo better topic than a worldly paradise, a beautiful home where good purposing goes with beautiful doing and truthful concevng. We drop the obligation to be- aIeve correctly as having no more re- ligion in 1t than saying the multiplica- tion tables. both essential, but neither of them substantial piety.
 The home is the real heaven and the end of right religion.