American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1908-02-22
Home BUILDING
THE CHIEF aim
Mcpherson Tells What Home
Should Be.
Not Place in Which TO Exist, But 10
Live--Every Home a Miniature
Republic Bachelors Way Of
Living No, Attractive.

This meeting together of farmers is
essentially II convention of home build
ers. The very fact that you are here is
an assurance that you have come TO
Idaho 10 build or make a home on the
sagebrush plains. When we look over
this sagebrush and think of making a
home here it is not very inviting TO the
stranger, yet We can, II we will, have
an ideal home. and the kind of home we
have will depend upon our ideal.
BY way of illustration. wish TO tell
you story: A lady visited sculptor's
studio and found there a beautiful lamb
SO lifelike and beautiful that she asked
the sculptor how he could do il and
whence he got the inspiration. He an
swered by saying ths, he had this block
Of marble. that he jus, shut his eyes
and looked and looked until he could see
/ in his minds eye the lamb. He then
took his chisel and began first the
nose. then the eyes. then the neck. the
legs. the body. and the perfect image
stood forth.
1 Just so, when We come 10 Idaho TO
make home on the sagebrush plains,
We shut our eyes and look hence for the
realization Of our ideals. Our realizs-
ton will certainly come true and our
home will be AZ the ideal
Every home in the United States is a
miniature republic. with the father as
president. the mother as the cabinet
and adviser, the children as subjects.
Their government ~ based upon the
broad principIesSs humanity and equal
rights to all. being tolerant and gcnor-
ous and yet just, and bringing about
such a government Of the home as will
be harmony with the ideal govern
ment OF this nation in which we live.
Foreigners coming to the United
States would naturally have no other
idea Of home or Of government than Of
that from which they came. Thus. the
immigrant from Russia would govern
his home according 10 principles of the
Russian government: the one from Ger
many or from any other European ma
ton would follow the principles of his
native land. But these homes, governed
after the foreign ideal. could never be
true American homes. We must have
American homes in order to strengthen
the American nation, and my advice TO
all you foreigners who have come here
is to forget something of the foreign
government, and to let your ideas be-
come purely American. Then you will
assimilate readily with the American
people, make friends and enter into the
spirit of the American life, which in itself
will prove great satisfaction and hap
piness. II you do not do this, your sub
jects your children will sooner or
later see the benefits of the American
home and desert you for the more CON
genial association and thus you will lose
much of that which you have a right to
expect in life.
Coming back to the idea of home
making. wish to draw another
comparison: II any of these young peo-
pie were to go the photographer TO
have their pictures taken they would
not dress in their ragged clothing or
take along brush or weeds to hang be-
fore their faces. They would dress in
their best clothing. the girls with rib
bons and laces, and would sit proudly
before the camera, with the carpet in
the foreground the screen presenting
an attractive background, nothing be-
fore them but the camera. wanting and
expecting a photograph of which they
could be proud, which they could show
to their friends with delight and pleas
ure.
Many people in building homes have
their houses in tangled wilderness of
brush and trees or stumps, or they have
no trees at all, nothing but the bare
yards exposed to the pitiless rays of the
sun. This should not be. Our home. be
it ever SO humble, should be made just
as tasty outside as II dressed for a holi-
day. No trees or shrubbery should be
in front of the house, but instead, the
foreground should be covered with grass
and flower beds, as the photographer
has his carpet in the foreground. while
around the border should be the trees
and shrubbery, making the home a
thing of beauty and joy to all beholders.
l. This need not be costly, but it can be
neat; little paint. an appropriate
setting Of trees. a few beds of flowers