Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-02-06
THE COUNTRY HOME
BY MRS. W. H. FELTON,

name, and must live under the same
roof with him until of age.
1t is not to be supposed that a
father who rips around the premises,
starves his children and abuses his
wife, even understands the full eff
feet of his beastliness upon the fu-
ture of his family.
If he permitted himself to reflect
upon his bad example he might be
open to conviction and subject to
remorse, for there is nothing in
this world so potential as. to make
or mar child's life, it's intimate re-
lationship with the author of it's be-
ing, while it's mind is in a plastic
state, and it's daily habits are being
formed by it's appetites and desires
and affections and the example of
it's parents.
True, it is, I have known some
sons of inebriate fathers who be-
came total abstainers because their
boyhood days were saddened by his
manners and methods of conducting
himself in the presence of his fam
lily. A kind Providence turned their
disgust into safety channels, but
the great majority drift along, the
family being familiarized with phys
ical and mental abasement in their
youth, until the seed is sown and
the harvest is reaped in a heritage
of woe and a thirst for intoXicants,
as a general family failing.
"As the Twig Is Bent, the Tree Is
Inclined
Perhaps I have said enough on
this particular line of heredity and
the easy road down to moral defile-
ment because Of the habit of drink.
Family example is potential in
also the spending habit. There is a
great deal said about the girl who is
Vulgarly. called a "flapper." Her
whole soul is absorbed in having q
good time and her vanity gets the
better of her in her love for dress
and being popular with a fast set.
This craving for dress becomes
a main desire of life, growing
stronger as the person gets older.
And it is a lamentable fact that
a longing for gay clothes and jew
elry too often leads to their ruin.
There are some exceptions, of
course, but the majority of the flap.
per class never find time to profit
by books or sensible views of living.
And when the foolish mother fosters
the craze for dress and jewelry and
fast living in the young girl, the UNI
happiness Of both is generally the
result. This question is occasional
ly asked in my hearing, Where are
good mothers to come from when
fho T. =
in vain belongings, and are never
happy unless they are going some
where dressed up and intent upon
admiration from the other sex?"
Some years ago bishop in the
church 1 belong to was discoursing
upon this subject in the pulpit, and
he took time to say that the young
women Of his own town were busy
in the forenoon in getting their at
tire arranged in the loudest style,
and about 4 o'clock in the good old
afternoon summertime they swarm
ed on the streets or went to bridge
parties and only went home because
it was their usual sleeping place
after dark. And he questioned thus:
Are these to be the coming moth
ers of the best and purest people in
the world?"
There is nothing truer than the
old saying: Like begets like" and
silly young women will be just like
them, only more so.
I hasten to say that I am very
fond of young girls. 1 think the
most beautiful thing I know of in
the world is the lovely face of a
pure, sweet, affectionate and duti-
full young girl. They represent to
my mind the best of, earth, and they
deserve the best that is to be had;
but they do expand into women
and they are to be the coming moth
ers of our race, and they should be
taught to consider the progress of
their coming dayS-and prepare for
serious responsibilities of life-for
while life is great, sorrow and death
are certain.
It seems at the present time as
if there are many foolish virgins
who start out with no oil in their
lamps, and when they stand in front
of serious responsibilities and du-
ties they must only do the best they
possibly Gall uIIuSL PAeSo1HS OAiAA-
culties.
The people of the present time
are either living by the day or %hey
are Indifferent to what is ahead of
them. I mean the great majority.
The very rich are the important
ones, and the well-to-do are chasing
along, trying to dress as the rich
do, and be as nearly like them as
is possible; then, those who have but
little are determined to copy as far
as they are able, and we have no
particular standards of life where
plain people can enjoy themselves
or remain contented.
AS an immediate result. there is
more crime, more burglaries, more
disregard of law, more murders,
more mob violence and less regard
for religion than we have ever
known.
Example is the ruling force also
in sin and evil.
And the end is not yet. May God
help us!
Chutchgoers Chased