OLanfcmarfcs 



the willow-pattern china in the open cupboard, 

 what a picture ! But these venerable people can- 

 not long remain, and then what ? The children 

 scatter the furniture, the old house is torn down, 

 and we have the smell of paint and the chatter of 

 strangers. Can we not at least preserve one such 

 house in every village, furniture and old-fashioned 

 garden and all else, keeping it for our children's 

 sake, an illustration on the page of local history ? 

 What a poor exchange for this is a single chair or 

 an odd plate upon the mantel of a new house ! 

 Detached from their proper surroundings, few ob- 

 jects retain their real beauty. It is like the caged 

 canary as a substitute for the free minstrel of the 

 wildwood. 



The present rage for relics and indifference to 

 landmarks are strangely inconsistent. I cannot 

 understand that man who chases after a china tea- 

 pot that he cannot authenticate, and allows his 

 comfortable old house to be modernized. No one 

 should be governed by his children in this. Let 

 them be taught to reverence the old, and not fall 

 down and worship the new. If you must prove 

 that you had a great-grandmother, gather up the 

 old crockery ; but pry not too deeply into its his- 

 tory. The cracked tureen that now holds the 

 place of honor on the sideboard held soap-fat in 

 the kitchen in Colonial days ; but the old house 

 itself was a monument to thrift and intelligence 

 and patriotism : so let it stand, if possible, and 



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