an iron church and occupy iron pews, listen to a sermon written with a pen of iron, and return to our iron hearths and firesides. 7. From our domes and roofs an iron rod points heavenward, and renders harmless the fierce lightning of the passing storms. On the trackless ocean an iron needle points out the way like an unerring finger. 8. With iron wands we have annihilated both time and space, and made of all nations one neighborhood; and with iron ships we have changed the art of warfare, and fought and won the greatest battles of history. 9. It would be instructive to show that labor is the chief element of value conferred upon iron. There is no material that can receive so high a degree of labor value and return its equivalent in usefulness. 10. A bar of iron worth $5.00 is worth $10.50 made into horse-shoes, $55.00 when made into needles, $3,285 into penknife blades, $29,480 into shirt-buttons, and $250,000 into hair springs. The iron ore used in a locomotive costs perhaps $100, but by the laying on of many hands it is worth $20,000. Journal of Mines. XVIII.-PLEASANT HOMES. 1. The homes of America will not become what they should be until a true idea of life shall become more widely implanted. The worship of the dollar does more to degrade American homes than any thing-than all things else. 2. The chief end of life is to gather gold, and that gold is counted lost which hangs a picture upon the wall, which purchases flowers for the yard, which buys a toy or a book for the eager hand of childhood. 3. Is this the whole of human life? Then it is a mean, meager, and most undesirable thing. A child will go forth from a stall, glad to find free air and wider pasture. The influence of such a home upon him in after-life will be just none at all, or nothing good. Thousands are rushing from homes like these every year. 4. They crowd into cities. They crowd into villages. They swarm into all places where life is clothed with a higher significance; and the old shell or home is deserted by every bird as soon as it can fly. 5. Ancestral homesteads and patrimonial acres have no sacredness; and when the father and mother die, the stranger's money and the stranger's presence obliterate associations that should be among the most sacred of all things. 6. I would have you build up for yourselves and for your children a home that will never be lightly parted with a home which will be to all whose lives have been associated with it the most interesting, precious spot on earth. 7. I would have that home the abode of dignity, beauty, grace, love, genial fellowship, and happy associa tions. Out from such a home I would have good influences flow into neighborhoods. In such a home I would see ambition taking root and receiving generous culture. 8. And then I would see you young husbands, and you young wives, happy. Do not deprive yourselves of such influences as will come through an institution like this. No money can pay you for such a deprivation. No circumstances but those of utter poverty can justify you in denying these influences to your children. JOSIAH GILBERT HOLLAND. "Sporting," for mere pleasure, is not only wrong, but it tends to destroy the finer feelings of pity and sympathy. XIX.-HOME OF MY CHILDHOOD. 1. Home of my childhood! I can not forget thee, Though here I am happy surrounded by friends; Deeply and warm in my heart have I set thee; The holiest thought with thy memory blends. 2. Darling old homestead, quietly nestling Under the tall trees that shelter thee o'er, Where with the shadows sunlight is wrestling On the short greensward in front of thy door. 3. Shaggy old house-dog-playmate of childhood; Oft have we wandered together away To where the low strawberry reddened the wildwood, And loitered beside the still water to play. 4. Gnarled old apple-tree, near to the window, Maples that rise to the blue of the sky, Mulberry, where the bright oriole buildeth, Still do ye toss your strong branches on high. 5. Still grows the damask rose in the old garden, Fleur-de-lis mingles its blue and its white, Currants and raspberries bend with their burden, Neighborly standing with peonies bright. 6. Lowly red school-house, close by the wayside, 7. Church of our forefathers, silently pointing 8. Reverend bell, in the belfry still swinging, 9. Grave-yard of centuries! head-stones all moss-grown 10. Friends of my childhood! while fond recollection XX.-WORDS FITLY SPOKEN. BRAVEST. 1. Who struggles with his baser part, He may not wear a hero's crown, But truth will place his name among The bravest of the brave. SELF KNOWLEDGE. 2. There is nothing that helps a man in his conduct through life more than a knowledge of his own characteristic weakness, which, guarded against, becomes his strength. BE KIND. 3. As stars upon the tranquil sea So words of kindness in the heart O, then be kind, whoe'er thou art, KINDNESS BRINGS ITS OWN REWARD. 4. Every kindly word and feeling, every good deed and thought, every noble action and impulse, is like the ark-sent dove, and returns from the troubled waters of life bearing a green olive branch to the soul. IN WHAT WE LIVE. 5. We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; In feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart throbs. He most lives Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best. A QUESTION. 6. Which will you do, smile and make others happy, or be crabbed and make every body around you miserable? You can live among flowers and singing birds, or in the mire surrounded by fogs and frogs. The amount of happiness which you can produce is incalculable, if you will only show a smiling face, a kind heart, and speak pleasant words. On the other hand, by sour looks, cross words and a fretful disposition you can make others unhappy almost beyond endurance. Which will you do? |