The Monroe journal., 1922-02-10
AN OLD TIME HOME
BESTPLANT KNOWN
Irving Bachelor. the Famous
Author. Says II Was the Sc
cret American Greatness
MR.HEATH RECALLSSPEECH
The Author, Born on n Rocky Home
stead in Maine. Knows What He
Is Talking About

An unknown friend, who must
have known that he had great
fondness for Irving Bacheller. the
author. whom he heard lecture and
met in Spartanburg. S. C.. some
years ago. sent Maj. W. C. Heath a
clipping from the Memphis COM
mercial Appeal. giving Mr.. Bash
eller's remarks on the American
home of the old time and the part
it played in upbuilding America.
This article and the editors COM
ment is as follows:
Irving Bacheller, an accomplished
writer and observer. undertakes an
answer 10 this rhetorical question in
a most interesting and impressive es-
say in the current number OF the
Outlook. And We feel that We are
rendering our readers a distinct SER
vice in directing their attention TO
it, As a diagnosis of the ills with
which we as a people are at present
afflicted. it is without comparison
so far as we have been able TO dis
cover.
The American home has been call
ed the prototype of the American ma
tion, and OF il Mr.. Bachelor has this
to say:
There was a time, my friends.
when the average American home
was the wonder of the world be-
cause of product. 1t was humble
home, and yet statesmen, poets, in
ventors, scholars, prophets, scien-
lists. came out of 1t.
They had been made, too, at
small expense out of cheap material
good health, industry, humble en-
vironment. No patronage OF wealth
and influence, no decorations and
coronets, had been employed. They
had no spur save an indefinite pur-
pose of public usefulness after years
of struggle. The equal of that lit
tie plant the world had never seen.
Its raw material was like the five
loaves of the desert which fed a null
titude. What was the secret of the
old-time American home? would
say, first, organization. II had laws
and a lawgiver. But the greater
part of its secret lay in the instruc-
tion II gave-to the young. II taught
obedience, modesty. thrift, industry,
the love of honor and of God.
II do not need to remind you
that the old plant is out OF order
1t has been running down. Its pro-
duct is inferior in quality and quaint
ity. Youth no longer submits to the
wisdom of age. For a year or more
certain schools and colleges have
been reeking with scandal. The
dance has been tending toward the
orgy in which the reeklessness OF the
boy and girl has been outdone by
that of the chaperon."
This change in the center of grav-
ity, as We see it, is largely due to
the public instruction which has
been prevalent for generation, and
not to the war, 10 which, ii is the
fashion to charge everything of an
unpleasant nature with which we
are confronted. Youth learns at
school that what their parents taught
them is false; and respect for them
treads upon the heels Of regard for
their opinions.
The censure for this state OF
things is largely deserved by parents
who have tamely surrendered their
authority over their offspring, and
before they are aware Of 1t, unless
a return 10 first principles takes
place generally, the state will step
in and take charge of the training
OF youth for its own protection
What a calamity this would be for
the result would be the condition re-
yealed to, the world by the German
nation. We appeal for restoration
of the old-fashioned American home
in the interest of American institu-
tions and the preparation OF Amer
lean ideals, which there is so much
talk of carrying to the balance OF
mankind.
When Major Heath heard Mr..
Bachelor speak his subject was this
very American home. And he knew
all about IT, too, for he described
one OF the old time modest homes.
which was his own. Mr.. Bacheller
said something like this. as Major
Heath now recalls it.:
"Tho home in which / was born
sat on eleven acres which my father
owned in Maine. Fifty per cent OF
this eleven acres was rocks. The
house was a one room one with
spaces parlitioned off with curtains
for the separate bed rooms. My
mother had eleven children. She did
the family cooking on the fire place
in one end of the house. She
would swing a pot on the fire, pass
by the box cradle in which a baby
was sleeping and give the rocker q
kick, then by the spinning wheel and
give II a Yhirl. and on toward th
door and give old Jowler dog r
push TO make him get out. pu
her hands 10 her mouth as a bugl
and call her husband, John, como
TO dinner. and dinner was Away
ready at twelve O'Clock. And nov
On that self same spot stands th7
mansion OF a millionaire, for a cit
has grown up there. In that mil.
lonaire home in all its grandeur ana
leaoutv sfharp are today eleven ser.