News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1916-12-13

OF Vermont too often forget.
Home! Had supernatural powers
would hang before you screen Of
purest white, and then upon it, marsh.
al one after the other, the pictures
! that came into minds of each of you
| when uttered that magic word, home
| From the days, centuries back, when
the cave-man turned at dusk from his
pursuit of the deer and bent his steps
toward his mate and his cubs in his
cave, to yesterday when you and ]
laid down the work of the day and
from the forest, the store, the shop OF
office, obeyed the call of home, what a
tremendous pull it has exerted, what
a mighty force it has been throughout
the history Of mans existence. !.
Men have attributed supreme power
to various influences in life. This
power has been expressed in sayings,
"Let me make the songs of people
and | care not who makes their law"
says one; "The school is the maker Of
the world" says another, and third
expresses his idea in the familiar ad-
vertisement, "Tell me what you eat
and I'll tell you what you are" A
fourth states the powerful influences
on mans life thus, "A man is known
by the books he reads" and the old
saying, "Birds of feather flock to-
gether," expresses someone's belief in
the powerful influence Of mans
friends upon his life.
Now would not spurn the old saws
which l have quoted. Indeed, they
express mighty truths. But l believe
that the home is the mightiest infu-
ence which is brought to bear upon the
life of man.
The songs of man may tighten his
tongue; the schools of a man may
train his brain; the food of a man it is
true, moulds his body; and the friends
of man sometimes denote his charac-
ter, but the home of man brings to
bear upon his life all the above influ-
ences and more, it creates and shapes
his soul! 1t calls up in the worst of
us, some good. 1t is of'times an island
of happy memory from which we start
ed our voyage across the storm-tossed
sea of life.
l return to my magic screen and |
see the picture of this home of yours
and mine passing in procession before
me. 1t may be snug little farm
house, nesting under the lee of one of
our beloved hills; the white of the house
is broken by the cheerful CLEAN of the
lighted windows-the family is sitting
around the reading lamp-and your
your head is beginning to nod. AS
watch, l see you going up the stairs
until from your room streams one more
'ay Of cleaning light. Your room.
What a picture they all would make,
could we but see them; what memories
If treasures stored in ancient bureaus
what gaiety of patchwork comfort
stories of wild adventurer-
What resolves and dreams of the days |
when manhood and womanhood should |
ome. Dear little room-my room
,our room-could the dreams which |
t has known be transferred into pic
ures and these pictures be hung upon
is walls, what an art gallery-or
hould l say "heart gallery it would
'e.
Or perchance, home for you means
he big house on the village street
nd perhaps your room may have been
ong and wide and high. The rain is
uring down-the day is dark and
fsh-can't play ball
ant do anything-when 10, and be-
old the boys come tumbling up the
tairs-sent by mother to your room.
he dreariness disappears-the big,
ark room grows enchanted and is, in
urn. converted into wild and wooley
est with cowboys and Indians or the
panish Main, with galleons for pirates
, capture. And another day of glori-
US make-believe is spent in your
pom.
Every picture will be different-your
ome-your room will be a picture of
s own. But still in all of them one
CURE will stand out. One angel, with
1T whom the dream is vain-mother. ,,
yours was the room in the little
hite farm-house-if you were the lad
no went up to snuggle beneath that
atch-work comforter-you will re-
ember how, when the visions and
'eams of when you should be man
ere lulling you to sleep, a soft foot
ep on the stair, turn of the door
hob, familiar rustic made you open
our dream closed eyes, to see mother
ere. To her you poured out your
,pes, your big dreams, dreams alas
o big to ever be realized. But
other never smiled or laughed at
,ur boyish fancies. Mother always
lderstood, and then most always,
other helped in fashioning your