Year: 1860

my HOME Is NUT HAPPY.


! A few nj ghts since, young man remark
ell to the writer. in reply to a question a


to where he had spent the previous evening


Last evening spent in reading the news


paper, at BIS tavern. know it i


not right to visit such places, but my home


is not happy. ami must find entertain


mcnt somcwhere."


My home is not happy" How many


young men have made this their password


to perdition! Oh, that it might be written


as with pen of fire upon the very heart OI


every mother and daughter in our land! foi


to them is entrusted to a great degree, the


welding of home influence. If the truth


were told. how many of our American sons,


now steeped in viee, would condense into


this brief but lamentable tale the wh)lc


story of their misery. How many have


been led to leave their bones and spend


their evenings. first at the street corner.


then in the bar-room. and 50 on down the


steep road to ruin. simply because on re-


turning from their daily laLors they have


been met at the Threshold of home by the


dcmen OF harsh complaint. or the bli.hting


miasna of cold indifference The young


man alluded to above was not compelled at
home 10 listen to coarse, vulgar broiis, for
his family were all protesting Christians,


but he had warm AID generous heart, and
he could fnl there no sympathy and no
companicnship but rather a sourness of
temper. in which even Christians often in
dulge to sad extent


Young men have genial hearts. and they
will have genial companions. II they can
not find them in ono place, they will in an
other, and that noble virtue of cheerfulnesS
and good humor, We grieve to say, is often
to be found in abundance around the haunts
folly and of vice, while the hcarthst stone.
which ought to be the focus where all its
rlys should concentrate is cold and drcary
for want of it. To be sure, IN the former
else it is corrupted by evil associations,
but it is good humor still ana it will have
its effect OH the susceptible heart Of youth.


Men seem to be impressed with the idea
that home is the place where they can car-
ry, with impunity, all the bile which has
been accumulated through the day. as the
consequence of business perplcxities and
undiuty dinners, and which they would be
ashmed to emit in their counting rooms
But they can deluge the ears of the family
with It; and housewives wait patiently IN
til the home circle is complete and then be-
gin with mOurnful emphasis, to complain
o: the many culinary and other household
disasters which have occurred during the
day.


Now do young men come home in this
spiiit? Sometimes, but not often. Yet they
are often foot-sorc. and sometimes heart
k. But when cvcning comes they want
to throw of tie cares OF business and be
merry, and in removing this burden from
the hearthstone, every manly heart should
i1in, and every loving smile encourage
But alas! the atmosphere of very many of
our homes is cold and repulsiye to the az
lent and genial sympathies of youth, while
in very many more there exist favoritism
On the part of mothers and sisters towards
some particular memle of the family, while
the others are entirely neglected. This is
L twoCold matter. 1t tends to alinate the
affections of those neglected, from home, and
% place them upon unworthy objects, more
specially if they have sensitive natures,
IND it tends to make home tyrant of the
NE so partially favored. Do not think.
,ither, that young men desPise such mat
ers, for upon them they are as sensitive as
children. =.


Now, We do not un3errate the care and
ne trials of father and mother, but re-
lcarSing them in dOleful strains. before the
younger members of the family. and in
lulging sourness and Indifference towards
part or all of them, only serves as 4 cloud
o veil the sunshine from their hearts
Ehile it brings no cheerful ray tc those who
re older. Young men. it is true. often de-
pise the comforts of home, when those who
1ve them may strive with all their powers
o make them happy; but with the vast
majority it is otherwise; for there is
harm and attraction about the many little
ndcarmcnts Ct home, when presented by a
mother or a sister, which comparatively few :
oung men can resist. unless they have al
eady become hardened in sin.


1t has been said that Mother. Home and
Ieaven, are the three sweetest words in ;
ur language-and it is well-for Heaven {
) a sweet place, and good mother and
OOd home will generally lead to it-Erar,-
eiist