Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1923-07-04

words, a failure to observe the vir-
tues of the Golden Rule.
The chic actors in the home are the
father and mother. Upon them, in the
greatest degree depends the success
of the venture. Good judgment and
economy must be practiced that the
income may at least be sufficient to
meet the reasonable expenditures. The
belief that wealth is the first re-
quisite to happiness has been so thor
oughly exploded as not to be worthy
of discussion. Character and reputa-
ton are more efficacious in this regard
than wealth.
The management of the home should
be such as to make the children be-
lieve that it is the best place in the
world. and when this is accomplished
it is going to be a pretty good place
for the parents. There must be OBJ
served and obeyed by all the members
of the household proper rules and
regulations leading to good order.
This is the beginning of order in the
community.
For the parents to be members and
rulers of the family is not enough;
they should be real comrades to their
children to the full meaning of the
term. There may be exceptions to
what l am about to say. l will not
go so far as to assert there are nome
but l do not recall a single instance of
a wayward son who has reached man
hood in a home as the comrade of an
upright, sympathetic and wise father
The mother is more likely to be
comrade with, her children, because,
from the beginning, she is more closely
associated with them. l am sorry for
the boy who does not think that his
mother is or was, if she has passed on,
the best woman that ever lived,
The children should not only be
free to invite their playmates. school
they should be encouraged to do so.
At such occasions the girl or girls of
the family should prepare the little
evening lunch. and the father and
mother should be included with the
guests They should join in the games
and quietly but unobtrusively, assist
in making the evening pleasant. |
early learned that if | wanted to have
a good time at our little parties. the
best way was to assist in making the
party "A success Parents win find this
noteworthy of notice and they may get
something out of it, too. by it's prac-
tice. Parents can have no greater
compliment than to have their chill
dren's guests tell them as they leave
that they have had very enjoyable
evening and that they always like to
come to their house.
In communities like the most of
those in Maine, if a father is "Uncle
John" Uncle Bill" or Uncle Fred"
as the case may be, and the mother is
Aunt Mary" Aunt Susan" or Aunt
Alice as the case may be, to the
playmates, schoolmates and friends of
are the right kind of persons, have
pretty good sized hearts, and have eX-
ercised some good common sense since
their children came into their home.
They have started on the road to hap
pineSs that beats a cold, Supercilj ous
and ponderously dignified million dol
lars a hundred miles.
OF course, l can only make the fore
going suggestions in regard to this
subject l have dropped upon, for l have
already occupied too much space. l
feel them to be in line with the pur-
poses of the NJ. +. column, so l offer
them as a reminder of the talks we
had when the days We're younger but
not more deeply freighted with mean
ing to us than those of the present.
A. S. d.