The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-26

rTT HE other evening in a certain city
 two boys were heard sobbing in \ fr6nt of their home.
 No one came until neighbor went over and inquired the cause for grief. One an swered
 we want to go into the house. It is so dark and cold here. But mother won't let us in because she Is having card party"
 Doubtless the mother loves her own the best. but in her strange way of showing it she locked out her babes and reserved her smiles for the sometime guest
 If Is often so
 know a travelling man who Is home only on Sunday. On that day his wife and two daughters go to church and leave him to get dinner.
 He has been heard to remark that char ity begins at home. And so does religion.
 Of course neither charity nor religion ends at home, but that charmed circlesis surely the beginning place for the exer- else of both. Al
 "The candle that shines farthest shines the brightest nearest home"
 How far that little candle"-the home candle-"throws It's beamsl' We have Scripture warrant for the statement that he who provideth not for his own household has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel." And
 Providing for household means more than furnishing the bread and butter.
 The sort of hospitality that shuts out its own to give careful thoughts for the stranger is not hospitality at all. It is re- fined cruelty It does not even meet the definition of Herbert Spencer. who says that all action Is fundamentally selfish The sort of religion that leads us to neglect and refuse our. own in order to minister to the heather abroad Is not real religion.
 Let us stand by our own. It Is they who will stand by us when others turn the cold shoulder and forget our benefits.
 Selfish?
 No. He who lives best and loves most in the little circle will live best and serve most in the wider circle.
 A Fathers Devotion
 Three years ago Captain Peter c. Hains of the regular army shot and killed Will liam E. Annis.
 Hains asserted that Annis had destroyed his domestic peace and in his defense ap- pealed to the so-called unwritten law.
 The attack was cold blooded
 Despite the fact that the shooting was shown to have been premeditated, the pleas of the lawyers saved Hains from the electric chair.
 Out of the story of blood guiltiness comes one redeeming feature-the tale Of fathers devotion to his son.
 The father of Captain Hains is the ven- erable General Hains, retired officer of the United States army.
 Throughout the trial the white haired veteran stood by his son. And no sooner was the sentence pronounced than General Hains began to work for his sons releace from prison.
 It was a herculean task for an old man. The Jury was interviewed and labored with. Tens of thousands of signatures to the petitions to the governor were se- cured by the gallant old soldier.
 The result?
 After three years of this labor of love, which required all the energy and tact and patience General Hains could sum- mon young Hains was pardoned by the governor of New York. The governor has been severely criti- cised for the pardon. Without question the executive and the many petitioners were influenced more by pity for the old father than by consideration for the son.
 And so out of the shameful provocation and the hateful act of the young man who took the law into his own hands comes the fine spectacle of fathers con- secration.
 If you are father you can understand. Whatever the sons certain guilt, what ever his rash act, whatever the disgrace and humiliation, bringing fathers gray hairs to the dust
 It was his boy.
 Stories of a mothers devotion are as common as mothers love. To save her child she will go to the verge.
 And by the same token true father will go as far.