The Washington herald., 1914-02-24
The JacL.e. Heuss.
Ny EMORY ,. HAYNES.

Middletown, Conn.,, was even then oveI
twenty years old, having been built in
1910 or thereabout, Judge Wetmore'.
descendants do not occupy it. There
are several houses in Duchess County
N. Y, of about the same age. These
structures are our American antiquities
They should be everywhere saved from
mans destructive hand. Time alone will
not pull them down.
What is the charm about an old hu-
man habitations In Egypt the Pyramids,
more than 5000 years old, were not
mans dwellings Within the bounds OF
this continent our nation has nothing
to compare with the public structures
OF older continents. But $50 years as
a home is very respectable in compari-
son with the home house in Europe.
Certainly if the dooryard, the well, the
stone walls inclosing the fields, and
other homely features be taken into ac-
count.
In rural France they pointed out to
me dwellings 800 years old" But |
found il hard to believe that those very
houses had been occupied as dwellings
for so many years. Indeed, most of
the old houses of the peasants were so
near worn out and unfit that they could
not shelter Yankee family. A house
will wear out at last like coat.
AT and near Fishkill, on the Hudson,
there are several habitabie dwellings 200
years old.
The restless American was vital fel-
low in old times. He attained great
age and brought forth fruit in old
age" His vitality showed in a large
family. OF these large families many
children showed the same mighty ;enac-
ity of hold on life.
To look on a home of 200 years of
men of the same blood is to stand al
most in awe of such physical vigor
And yet these men wholly neglected to
form themselves into a single athletic
club. They chalked up no smashed
records" But dwellers in a city apart
ment house today never will smash
their records of what it is to be a
man.
How delicious such health must have
beenl These old stone walls testify of
strength, and they were constructed in
the then wilderness. What beams were
hewn, and they were lifted at such
barn raisings" as Titans alone could
have handled. These foot square CIR
ders. hewn from hard wood. | run
my finger down the chip of the adj
and wonder at the strength of the blow.
Not a worm has dared touch these
rafters. Dry rot eats away the arch
of Titus in Rome. But these attics arc
not defaced by the tooth of time. The
ancient split shingles seem our eternal
protection.
What faces have looked through these
tiny chamber windows. Birth and death,
the wooing and the funeral, the whole
human trilogy, JOY work, sorrow, has
resounded within these walls. The per-
formers often changed, but the score
never changed.
The English Windsor Palace is not
so impressive. The line of kings could
not write their personalities on the
walls they did not pile. This Yankees
grandfather dug this well with his own
hands Art thou greater than our
father, Abraham, who dug this well
and drank from it, both he and his
cattle?"
How changeless the vista OF the
eternal river, as seen from these stone
1oorsteps. And the wandering line of
sunny mountains, faithful comforters
after a day of toll Six generations of
shirt-sleeved freemen sitting on this
glorious old porch" Sunday afternoons.
Many OF them-yes, most of them
with the open Bible on their knees.
Here, curled up, the little lad resting
from his play. Here, in exactly the
same spot, the boy an aged, tottering
nan, sat hour after hour, at last. The
.ver faithful sunset glories flaming in
he west like the gates eternal. Through
hose very gates, so he dreams, his fond
old mate too soon departed. He is
waiting.
An old family dwelling preserves rec
,rds as no parchment can keep them.
You remembered so many things con-
,ected with each room. In this room
low many of you have been married
And speaking of weddings, as you
'tand in that room, you see her as she
anne through that door. That is the
loor. See her now? How radiant she
vas. passing down the aisle of crowded
leighbors and kin. The flowers she
,arried? The same Towering garden
where she plucked them is at the south
If the dwelling. The very earth loves
our family, and will grow flowers for
our daughters wedding.
Who can ever be lonely, who ever
olitary, in rooms each one of which is
Tocal with voices of long ago? Our
title life is so brief at best. What