Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 March 1885 — Good Old New England Life. [ARTICLE]

Good Old New England Life.

That which gave New England such prominence, such peace and honor jn her early history, over the. continent and across the seas, was no't the culture of her schools and colleges half so much as the character of her homes. You may say that schools and colleges make the home, but the truth is homes with their stanch integrity and unfaltering fidelity gave birth to these educational advantages, creating a necessity for them. Never on the face of the whole earth was there found a deeper devotion to principle, a loftier conception of the marriage covenant, a sublimer vision and confession of mutual relations than in the early homes of New England. It was then that husbands and wives rested in each other; then that children grew up in habits of thrift and virtue, as impossible 6f escape as memory itself.

We sometimes talk about the forbidding features of those times, as if the homes of our fathers were forlorn, freezing every affection, checking every aspiration, holding to sternness and stoicism. To me, as I look back, and as I read history, and as I reason from causes to consequences, the grandeur of home life in the days of our fathers has never been equaled, certainly never surpassed. Those households, which some sneeringly call “Puritan,” held in them the germ of our national greatness, and dark will be the day when we despise them. Two generations ago marriage was a union so sacred as to receive announcement in the church of God on Sunday, weeks before its consummation. The family was so sacred that its peculiar wants were presented for remembrance in public prayer. The children had something more than lodging and boarding in the home. All the inmates there, of whatever age or occupation, came together in pleasurable intercourse and worship. Have you forgotten the Thanksgiving days, and the anniversary gatherings of your fathers, when parents and children and grandchildren played together? Have you forgotten the churches of your fathers, when parents and children and grandchildren sat together in the old family pew ? There were not parties then for the “old folks,” and the “children,” and the “babies.” The healthful influence of parents was felt on children in the r sports and studies, and the exhilarating influence of youth was felt on age. The home was never forgotten, whatever the pleasure or toil,. There, by the open fire-place, was the center of love, cheer, hope, life. The highest joys, the highest helps, the sweetest rest were found at home; and so all parties were comparatively safe.— Golden Huie.