Show wanted a home from of talk tall about te home matters by helen ihunt nothing can bo be meaner than mat chat misery should love company but this proverb is founded on an original principle in human buman nature which it is no use to denland deny and harj hard hard to conquer I 1 have been uneasily conscious of the sneaking sin in my own soul and I 1 have read article after article in the english newspapers and magazines on the cde ide decadence of the home spirit in english family life as seen in the large towns and in the metropolis it seems that the tile english areas aroas are as badly off as we there also men are wide awake and gay at clubs and races and sleepy and morose in their own hou bou houses bouses ses sons lead lives independent of their fathers and mothers girls run about as they thea please I 1 ase without care or guidance tills llis state tte of things is a spreading social evil and men are at their wits ends to know what is to be done about it they are ransacking national character and customs religion and the particular tendency of tile the present literary and scientific thought and the tiie teaching and preaching pre athing of the pub lic press to nind find out the root of tile trouble one writer ascribes it to tile tilo exceeding restlessness and the tile desire to be doing something which are predominant and indomitable in the anglo saxon race another to the passion which almost 11 all families have for seeming richer and more fashionable than their means will allow the trouble is in the homes homes are stupid homes are insufferable bifone if one can be pardoned for the of such a saying homes are their worst lb banes anes if homes were what they should be nothing tinder under heaven could be invented which could be a bane to them which would do more than serve as a useful foil to set off their better cheer their pleasanter plea piea santer ways their but when we ask who wiio can do most to remedy this tilis in whose hands bands it most lies to night light the fight against the tendencies to monotony stupidity and instability which are inherent in human nature then the answer is clear and loud it is the work of women this is the tiie true mission of women their right divine and unquestionable ti tio nabie and including most emphatically the right to labor to create and sustain the atmosphere of a home it is easily said in a few words but how many women have done W it how many women can say to themselves or others that this is their alm aim to keep house well women often say they desire but keeping house well weli is another affair 1 I lied llad almost said it has lias nothing to do with creating a home this is not true of f course comfortable living as regards food food and fire and clothes can do much to help heip on a home nevertheless with one exception the tile best homes I 1 have ever seen were in houses W which aich were not especially well kept and the worst I 1 have ever known were presided 1 I mean ty rani zed over by perfect housekeepers into the home she will create monotony stupidity antagonism cannot come her foresight will vill provide ide occupations and amusements men ts her loving and alert diplomacy will fend oft disputes unconsciously every member of her family will be as clay in her hands bands more anxiously than any statesman W will ill lii she meditate on the wisdom of each measure and the bearing of e aeh each word the least possible governing which is compatible with order will be her first principle pl her second the greatest possible influence which is compatible with the growth of individuality bality will tibe the wom woman an whose brain anil anki aud and heart are working these problems as applied to a household be an adjective be idle she will be no more an adjective than the sun is an adjective in the solar system no more idle than nature is idle she will be perplexed she will be weary she will be dis heartened sometimes all creators save one have known these pains palm and grown strong by them but she will never withdraw her hand for an instant delays and failures will only set her to casting about for new instrumentalities sh she e will press all thin things gs into her service she will master sciences that her boys evenings need not be dull she site will be worldly wise and render to caesar his dues thal that her husband lius ilus band and daughters may have her by their side in lii all their pleasures she will invent she slie will forestall slie she will remember she will laugh she slie will listen slie she will be young she will be old and she will be three times loving loving loving this is too hard liard 4 there is the house to be kept and there are poverty ty and sickness and there is not ti time me yes it is hard and there is the tile house oute aute to be kept and there are poverty and sickness but god be praised there is time A minute is time in one minute may live the tile essence of all I 1 have seen a beggar begar woma woman n make half an hour ilour of ume home ona on a doorstep door step with a basket of broken meat and the most perfect home I 1 ever saw was in a little house into the sweet incense ot of whose fires went no costly tiling thing A thousand dollars served for a years living of father mother and three children but the mother was a creator of a home her tier relation with her children cli cil ildren lidren was the most beautiful I 1 kave have ever seen even a dull and common commonplace lace man was lifted up tip and enabled to do good work for souls by the atmosphere which this woman created every inmate of her house involuntarily looked into her face forthe for tile keynote key note of the day and it always rang clear from the tilo rosebud rose bud or clover or clover leaf which in spite of her tier hard housework she always found time to put by our plates at breakfast down to the essay or story she had llad on hand to be read or discussed in the evening ther ewas no intermission of her influence she has always been and always will be my ideal of a mother wife home ma ker if to her quick brain loving heart and exquisite tact had been added tho tile appliances of wealth and the enlargement of a wider cul turo ture hers would have been absolutely the ideal home As it was it was the best I 1 have ever seen it is no more than twenty years since I 1 crossed its thresh hold hoid ido I 1 do not know whether she is living or not but as I 1 see house after house in which fathers and motherland mothers mother sand and children are dragging out their lives ilves in a haphazard hap hazard alternation of listless routine and uh unpleasant pleasant collision I 1 always think with a sigh of that poor cottage by the seashore sea shore and of the woman who was the light fight 0 thereof and I 1 find in tile the faces of many men and children as plainly written and as sad to see seo se e as in the tiie newspaper colu columns ot of personals 11 wanted home homo 11 |