Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1915-11-11

speech, 30 big with meaning. 50 rich IN
suggestion, 30 golden with poetry that
they will be denied. Hume to each of
rs is too full of meaning to be limited
by any statement Of mere attributes.
1t rings with magic echoes and to our
inner sense means rest, content, SYM
pathy, love and service. Through all
our.years the content of the world has
grown richer, through all the ages the
thing itself has grown more sacred.
Long ago in the history of the race,
before the institution Of the FANNY,
there must have existed some tempo
rary shelter, some familiar spot, that
was rest to the primitive woman, some
protective nest woven by mother in
genuity for the primitive child. For
the home has always in its truest and
best sense meant a place for nurture
and the care of the young, and the
idea of home always centers about the
relation of parent and child.
AS civilization grew, the home, its
concomitant, its instrument, its ally and
its truest index, grew, too. With the
growth of complex and cultured life
came the need for longer, period of
preparation, a protracted infancy, a
period of Elasticity. The child must be
protected and direct so that he might
be formed to the trnest and highest and
most diverse manhood.
4 So homes grew UP. founded on the in
situations of marriage and the family
and with their prime function, the rear
ing and education Of the child. But
this is not their only service. The adult
needs a home to be bis lodes ar in the
perplexities, has heaven in the huffetings
If modern life. Then, too, incur lop-
sided and imperfectiives it too often
comes about that there are empty
homes where no children have come,
desolate homes where the children are
gone, makeshift homes founded on cur
ious or accidental relationships and
these. too. may be real homes
For a true home, is, something other
than mere dwelli G place, something
furtbereve than the habitat of fam.
lilly group. Home is beautiful atmos-
phere to cheer and rest the content
and mutual service. To ii the indivjd
ual brings the best that is in him, and
from it in return he receives The most
tnsel fish joy. Here he may expand
and relax. here he is most wholly him
self. here he comes again to be in tune
with himself and with God,
Forhome reacts on it's creators. In
to its making a man or woman. COM
mon place enough to outward seeming,
may put energy almost superhuman, a
devotion almost sublime: this toll and
sacrifice sweeten home and hollow it
rand bring forth the good fruits Of sound
living. The children of the real home.
hut orr castle though it be-, GO out
lowered as richly and wisely as the
brooding paEept love can dover them
They haysinherited, so far as anew life
NAV, the very lives, the strength Wit
atitv, the dear drought progress of tht
parent two. The best energy of gen
Grafton has gone into them. They are
to be the su 1ermen of the future.
They are to carry the family one ster
| onward toward the fruition ofits ideals.
They are to lift progress and culture
and one step upward for human kind.
It is not for nothing that the immigrant
woman tolls In the sweat shop that her
lclildren may have American clothes or
that the ditch digger foregoes .mea,
that his son may go to college. Uncon
siously through parental love a. vel
fare and advanc ment of the race work
out.
But it is not alone the poverty hound
who give their very lives to their homes
and their families. When material
needs are satisfied. the growing spirit
needs oversight and sympathy and
direction, too. We want to give tosour
children not only sturdy bodies and
well equipped brains, but righthabits Of
regular living. prompt doing,, clean cut
speech, clear thought, intelligent eur
osity and the right instincts, that they
may be earnest in word and work, quick
to the beauty in and of life, reverent
toward G. and His temple in the hu
man bodies So does home minister TO
the soul and the body. to the individual
and the family.
The home has ever been the cradle
and the chief instrument of progress.
Every advance in the standard of ma
terial living in the thought and culture
of the race is terminated and reflected
there. The progress or decay of apeo-
pie can be measured by its home life.
1t is significant of the new brother
hood, the new sensitiveness to civic re-
sponsibilitv, that we can no longer be
true to the family in the best sense
without taking thought for our neigh
boris safty-that we cannot live for
ourselves alone.
We have widened our sympathy and
our interest and we are needing the
need of the community. Civiliza ion
has come at last to the era fraternity,
of cooperation, of communal sym
pathies, Home, always the index of
Civilization, is filled with a new bigne S.
a new pulsing neighborhood life.
County Agent Praises Festival