Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 November 1893 — The Cheery Hearth. [ARTICLE]

The Cheery Hearth.

A certain wise old lady said, recently: “I always judge a woman by the hearth she keeps. Show me the fire she sits by, and I’ll tell you her charartea” She was right, as you know if you think a minute. From time immemorial the cheery hearth has been a smbol of home and its comforts, but when it is disorderly, unswept, or choked with ashes, it ceases to be a Joy or a luxury. The room may be poor, and the fire a tinv one, but it the dog-irons are bright and erect, the poker, tongs, and shovel marshalled side by side in military order, the hearth swept clean, the bricks as red as scrubbing brush can make them, and the Are blazing cheerily, the scantiness of the furniture will not matter, and home will seem the dearest place on earth. When a man does try to be good, and takes care of the baby, his wife complains that he will be the death of the child tae waj he handles it If a man should act when he is alone like he does when he is in a crowd, the police would arrest- .him for disorderly conduct.