Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1915-12-04
HOUSES AND HOMES

help were employed within the great
Adirondacks, a ranch house with ev-
cry comfort on an estate which he
had bought in Texas: in winter he &C.
cupied another house which he had
though these were not enough to at
ford him shelter. he next leased
splendid house in Paris.
Six honest But one day, few
years ago, that man grew discouraged,
because he was not In good health,
and he blew his brains out.
In his Connecticut home he had
everything that art and science and
wealth and taste and discovery and
tails comfort. He enjoyed the grand
place, as an example Of what he had
achieved: but pistol shot separated
him from that, as from all the rest of
his possessions, when he suddenly
grew discouraged and sick OF life.
Which goes to prove that the rich
man. as he advances in the millionaire
class, Is not nearly so happy with his
multiplication of homes as Is the OBJ
scure struggling individual, to whom
the building of modest little home is
a real achievement.
Honeg Certain languages have no
word which is it's equivalent, we are
told. Yet it is human instinct to try
to establish 1t, even under the most
forbidding and discouraging circum-
stances.
Those of us who heard the wonder
fully interesting and informing lee
lures of our distinguished Norwich
born traveller, Frank Edward John
son, recall how he described and pic
tured the crude homes of the cave
jewellers in Tunisia-like nothing so
much as the nests of the bank swal--
uows-mere holes In a big cliff; yet
their sheltering homes.
remember once, in a western town,
1 mentioned how strange it seemed to
find so many of the older houses with
their entrance doors opening directly
into the living-rooms-no halls, as we
have in the East "YesI" said my host,
originally a Connecticut man; But
we were too busy trying to establish
any sort of a home, when these houses
were built, to bother about frills like
entriesi"
zach mans chimney is his mile
stone!" wrote Longfellow; and this is
true, when, at such holidays as
Thanksgiving or Christmas, thoughts
turn lovingly toward the old home;
when the sailor nears the glad home
port; when the tired worker realizes
that the days labor is ended, and at
The magic word may mean merely
q shack, or 1t may mean such a home
as the papers tell of today-an apart
ment in New York for which a mag
nate is paying $4,000 a year; some
twenty -four rooms. eight baths and
every available comfort. 1t may mean
the weather-beaten farm house on the
homestead grant, from the worn door
stone of which sturdy boys and red
fatax In 10 =,
fortunes and success and "the bubble
reputation from the hard and IN
willing and repulsing world. Its
roms may be bare or ornate, cosy or
cherries; but if 1t only has the true
spirit OF LONELINESS and nominees
within its four walls, it possesses a
charm which serves as a magnet to
draw the thoughts and the affections
and the footsteps of the wanderers
back to its welcoming door, when the
going home" spirit pervades the air.
How lovingly the old home is re-
called, in spite of or after, the changes
of the years! What it has meant in
so many families in this land, with it's
humble beginnings of Colonial days;
thinking! How parents and children
have worked together. to secure, first
one little comfort or luxury or ad-
vantage after another; these are the
happy achievements remembered, as
the train or steamer speeds toward
the little town which may not even be
important enough to be represented
by dot on most of the maps, but
which occupies such a big space in
loving, yearning hearts!
Home! May il not be like THAT
| mournfully described by Dickens in
| Barnaby Rudge. that home itself was
but another bead in the long rosary of
his regrets" May it not be the home
| of Dombey with its false show; but
| may it be to us all that home described
| in Nicholas Nickleby, the place
where in default of a better, those /
! love are gathered together; and if
that place were a gipsys tent, or a
barn, should call it by the same good
name Notwithstanding"
THE DICTAGRAPH.