Gunnison news-champion., 1923-10-19
THE IMPORTANCE OF OUR
HOME SURROUNDINGS
(By Margaret White oLcary)
Some wise man said:

Some wise man said:
"a man may build a mansion and
furnish it throughout:
A man may build prison with
lofty walls and stout
A man may build castle with tur-
ret spire and dome;
But no man in the world can build
that sacred thing called home"
But honor always brings RESPONSE
bility and if the wise man told the
truth the great responsibility of trans
forming house into home rests al
most entirely with what is conceded
by mankind to be the gentler and what
is often termed the weaker sex.
Some of US who have spent more
than a few years in the occupation of
home building know that il takes time
to build home-years and years, in
fact, and to place therein all the prizes
of life. Tears and joys, griefs and
blessings SO interminglc as to make
sweet the memories that cling forever
around this hallowed spot which en-
circles heaven and earth.
1t matters not whether the good old
Anglo Saxon word "home" conveys
the impression of vine covered cot
tage. a modern bungalow, a brown
stone front or simple cabin on the
hillside, il is safe TO say that to each of
US the word is replete with memories
that both gladden. and sadden US by
their tenderness. That is life. Times
and circumstances may have changed
and by modern computation the old
home may have lacked much, but,
nevertheless, 1t was home-that work
shop in which the grandest characters
are built-an ark floating with US
down the tide Of years, carrying the
virtues that make the citizen, the in
SEPARATION that develops the genius
and as years pass and we 20 with them
faster than we wish-hOw the thot
of childhood's home comes to us like
a sweet fragrance on the air. We
may have worked and endured, we
may have no complaints and are salts
fled with life as it is, but we know
deep down inside, We would give all
we possess or have achieved on the
long road just to open our physical
eyes on the scenes of early years.
While the wax is soft the stamp press
,es deep. Hence the household we es-
tablish is never quite so near to us:
We are its creator; we know ali about
its mechanism; SO there is no mystery.
But our childhood's home, like God
and the stars, is eternal. The child
mind cannot conceive of its ever hay.
ing had beginning; the adult mind
cherishes the fragments of its mcmory
lest 1t may come to an end. Your
mother and mine told US of when she
was little girl, and we tell our chill
dren of our childhood 1t is the way
of life
The making of home whose ira
ditions will be passed on down to
future generations is the filing of u
large order; the largest ever placed.
but it can be filled and is being filled
successfully every day by the woman
who keeps constantly in her mind that
her house must not be better than her
home; her furniture must not be better
than the atmosphere of her home.
Nothing SO much matters as the spirit
Of things. Houses themselves really
matter very little if only the spirit in
them is strong and sweet. Something
beside the formal salutations of
hostess should welcome her guests,
wall papers, curtains, rugs, and so on,
are SO many tools whereby the decorat-
or obtains the atmosphere he desires.
But you may purchase the interior
decorations Of a palace and set them
up in your house, and find the result
sadly lacking in harmony, in dignity.
The setting should never be out of
keeping with the life that is to be
lived before it; only by the harmony of
the two can the best results be attained.
Not the chair but the comfort within
the chair; not the food but the
strength in the food; not the house
but the atmosphere formed from its
Iorderliness, cleanliness and surround
ings make manifest the spirit of the
home, which after all is what really
does matter. The physical is, for but
a day, the spiritual forever.
As l said before a real home is not
thing of instantaneous growth. One
cannot go to furniture store and Sc
lect all the things for the house in an
afternoon and chOoae ariOhf II Is