The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1914-08-07
THE OLD HOME.

ulS 10 WCli WOlln tilC ICCOliCCllOH OI
an OCCASIONAL hour.
Boys, do you ever sit down and talk
for an hour over the scenes, and advers-
tiles and the successes OF your child
hood? Do you ever take time to look
over the hill Of Lille and call up the days
of ye olden times when you were at
home under the protection of fond
and loving father and a devoted mother?
Do the early days spent possibly in a
pioneer home, ever occur to you as the
happiest home of your eventful life?
These questions are for the HOld
Boys, those who have passed the merid-
ian of life and are now on the downward
slope, and who from natural causes will
soon pass into the unknown beyond,
where they are to enjoy the rewards that
come of well directed life.
Boys think of the old home where
were father. mother. and the charming
brothers and sisters whose whole ann
was TO make home happy and make life
pleasure rather than burden. You
remember fathers corner behind the big
fireplace, do you not? See him as he
sits and mods in the twilight of the dim
fire and dreams OF the davs when his
boys will be Senators and Congressman
and will not have to stand the bitter
trials of the dark forests or the treeless
prairies.
Perchance he has toiled all day in the
clearing, vigorously battling with nature
for the ascendency of the arts OF man.
He did these things you know, and all
for you, too. His trials were very bitter.
His aims were noble. His object was
happiness prompted by motive of love.
The home was crude, compared with the
gorgeous palaces of these days. But the
| joy was there, because father and mother
was. Yes, see her as she sits at her
work over there in the corner. She is
the perfect embodiment of happiness.
Her boys and girls are all at home.
They are yet in their innocency and she
knows their every thought and observes
with pride their every act.
Father and mother, brothers and sis
kters. The ''old home" What depths Of
meaning lie in those words There is
comfort IN them. They recall the inno-
cent prattle of Younger brothers and
sisters. They recall the kindly directed
efforts of the seniors to secure the joys
and peace that comes from the fraternity
OF home with its bonds OF affection.
The dim old forest and the wide ex
panding prairie are there, too. The low
murmuring rill with its beautiful song
is still there. We were all there when
we were young, but now we are old and
all that we can do is recall recall, recall.
Do this boys, and see if you do not
appreciate more fully all that you are and
have 1t is but just that you should af
fectionately look upon the past.
MOURNING FOR THE DEAD.
There are very few things in which
men and women show themselves SO ir-
rational as in prolonged and consuming
grief for the dead. 1t is not in human
nature to be phllosophc when the earth
has closed over one that we love, but to
nourish agony and sorrow is nearly an
abdication of reason ITSELF The God
who orders our births, also orders our
deaths, likewise All must die. To
die is as common and as natural as to
live. Being common, universal and GER
tain, it cannot be an evil. Those who
have gone before, no matter how long
their days, seems to have lived and van
ished as creatures of the hour, so that
even over the early death of the
young we should not lament at the seem.
ing untimeliness of their taking off, 1t
is very indiscreet 10 assume that the
death of the young is peculiar calamity
and hardship. How can we tell what
they have escaped, or decide that they
have not been singularly fortunate? Who
finds life such an unmixed blessing as to
grieve long over the translation of those
who are yet innocent and happy to Sc
rener spheres? 1t is vain and unavailing
to grleve over what has happened and
cannot be altered. 1t does no good to
the dead and it Injuries the living. 1t is
also mutiny against the Presiding Judge
of all. To honor the dead Alright is to
cherish fondly the memory OF good dis
positions and deeds, and make that
memory guide for our own spiritual
attainments. This is better than marble
slabs, glowing memorials or devouring
pangs of fruitless woe. The ancient
world never clothed death with the ter
rors which came in with the church and
the middle ages. Who grieves forever |
has no faith IN a reunion. Such tears |
silently proclaim the fear of annihilation,
and the despair that forgets God.
we want girls with neartS; girls with |
tenderness and sympathy, with tears |
that flows for others ills, !" and smiles
that light outward their sunny thoughts.
We have clever girls, and witty girls,
and brilliant girls. Give us a consgn- |
ment of jolly, unaffected, natural girls. |
with lots of fun and no coarseness; girls |
who can go out in the snow and romp,
and wash the snow in each others faces,
tug at a handsled. roll a snow ball and |
then think it no forfeiture to their dig
nifty to frolic with their ten year old |
brothers. With a few more such girls
the world would brighten up as June
does under showery weather. Speed |
the day when the world is full of them,
to the extinction Of the airy. affected, !
brainless mynxes who think OF nothing |
but Of self and face powder.