The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1912-07-12

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A great helper to gladness is a happy
home. Many of us never would be able,
day after day, to face life with its strug.
giles and its duties, and its antagonisms,
were it not for the renewal of the
strength which we get from our homes.
A true home is a little fragment of heav-
en- let down on earth to inspire us with
patience and strength for the way.
Home is the greatest school of life
Few can receive the honors of a college
education, but all are graduates from the
home. The learning of the university
! NAV fade its knowledge may moulder
in the halls of memory but the simple
lessons of home impressed upon the
hearts of childhood, defy the rust of
years and outline the vivid picture of
life. Mid pleasures and palaces we may
roam, be it ever so humble, there is no
place like home"
If there is heroism in the field there is
an equal heroism in many home which
the world knows nothing about which
the angels only can see. There are
fathers who grandly struggle against the
their dispute, whose young dreams have
all faded, but who patiently bear their
allotted burdens cheerfuy and with ap-
parent good nature. There are noble
women whose domestic affections would
crush them if they were not herolneS,
who silently suffer and make the most
of their disappointed years. They sing
in the minor key, but still they sing, and
so the world thinks them happy when
they are only brave.
There are men who nightly return to
their homes always means needless mis-
erv to their families. They find fault with
their dinners. and with their household
bills, with the children and with every
thing else. They make sarcastic re-
marks that burn and scarify the sensitive
souls of their wives. They carry home
the worries of business. They take it
out" on their families for everything that
has gone wrong during the days work,
and some of them are towards enough
to revenge themselves upon the innocent
and helpless those wrongs and affronts
which they have not courage enough to
resist and resent upon the offender.
Where is my boy tonight? Yon are
his father or mother, and if you desire
to lay your hands upon your boy within
FIVE minutes any night, you would not
know where to find him. He is on the
street some where, or at the railroad
depot jumping freight trains, but Just
where, with whom, in what engaged,
what plotting or what executing for the
Shrewder ones who plot for him, you
could not tell for the life of you. He has
a good home and he ought to be there
at night. He desires to be some where
else with the boys, and YOU lack the
moral courage to insist that he shall be
where he should be. You hope that he
will escape the pitfall, but you know that
the chances are very much against him.
Why don't you do the boy the kindness
to keep him home at night' The time
will come when he will thank you for it,
or else reprove you for not doing it.
One home is like a calm summer even
ing, or a bright spring morning, because
the mistress is full of restful sympathy,
or her mind of bright fresh interest in
those around her Another home is a
gusty. stormy morning, or fog laden
afternoon, when the darkness can be telt,
because the woman who makes its at
mosphere is capricious, hasty and ill-tem-
pered, or dull and heavy and careless
of the comfort of those who depend upon
her, and incapable of putting brightness
and warmth into the hearts of those
around her because there is none in her
own heart. Let those who are step
mothers look to it that they keep hearts
at leisure from themselves to soothe and
svmpathze, and TO create restful at
mosphere for those who come in tired
and weary from the outside and to keep
the light and brightness alive in their
own minds, so that they may shed them
over every one who dwells beneath her
roof or who sits beside their hearth.