PART IX. 



HOUSEHOLD DEPARTMENT. 



THE HOME AND THE HOUSEHOLD. 



THE influence of surroundings is so potent in moulding the character, that we have to 

 see but a very little of an individual frequently but a glance to determine the 

 atmosphere and general surroundings of his home life. Emerson well says: &quot;A 

 great part of our education is sympathetic and social. Boys and girls who have been 

 brought up with well-informed and superior people show, in their manners, an estimable 

 grace.&quot; The face and the manners will reflect upon the outer world the source of the influ 

 ences that must hold sway, as readily and faithfully as a mirror will reflect the image of 

 beauty or deformity that is placed before it, or the calm surface of the lake will show the 

 character of the heavens that are over it, whether bright and sunny, or frowning with the 

 gathering storm. Pleasant and genial surroundings have a potent influence upon all, and 

 especially the young. The child reared in a home where he is constantly brought in contact 

 with rude, coarse-mannered people, and hears harsh words and unkind criticisms, will be rude, 

 coarse-mannered, and unkind himself, when his nature might have been such that, under 

 proper influences, he would have been the refined, genial, kindly-mannered, and noble man, 

 an honor and ornament to society, instead of the coarse, brutal, and clownish boor that his 

 home surroundings fashioned him into. The home should also be beautified, and made as 

 attractive as possible. This can be accomplished without great expense, for the most expen 

 sive things are not always the most tasty and attractive. Bare walls and meager surround 

 ings do not have a tendency to develop refinement and taste in a child. Study to make the 

 home not only genial with pleasant books and kind and loving words and deeds, but attractive 

 to the eye, such as shall cultivate a taste for the beautiful in art and nature, for this will have 

 a refining and elevating influence. However humble the home may be, it should be pleasant, 

 genial, tasty, clearr, and comfortable. Never permit your child to feel ashamed to say to a 

 friend or stranger: &quot;That is my home.&quot; Good books and papers should be furnished for 

 the home reading. Music in the house is also a source of much pleasure, and has a refining 

 tendency, and binds its inmates in closer harmony. Many a boy with a taste for music would 

 be kept from being away from home evenings, and perhaps thus saved from evil associations, 

 if he could have his taste for music encouraged and gratified. Good musical instruments can 

 now be obtained at such prices as to be within the means of almost every farmer, and money 

 thus spent will often prove an investment of inestimable value to the children in its direct 

 and indirect influences. Besides, the good influences of music in the home, and the pleasure 

 derived from it, it also furnishes an excellent means for entertaining company in an easy and 

 pleasant way. Pictures upon the wall, and other ornamentations, a trellis of vines by the 

 doorway, flowers, shrubs, and trees, and everything that has a tendency to adorn the home, 

 are all silent yet potent in their power for good, and lead in the right direction. 



Hygiene of the Home. One of the most prominent causes of disease is the care 

 lessness and neglect so commonly seen respecting the sanitary conditions of the home. 

 Neither is this neglect to be attributed to the city alone ; people especially country people 

 are apt to regard the country as the most healthful and free from disease of any place on 

 the face of the globe, and the city as the hotbed of disease and filth, without stopping to 

 consider that it is the conditions and not the locality that renders a place healthful or unhealth- 

 ful. The causes of diseases in country homes have been most ably set forth by Dr. W. R. 

 Bartlett, of New Haven, Conn., in the following, which we insert with the hope that farmers 

 and their households may heed the instructions herein contained, and be greatly benefited 

 thereby: &quot;The causes of diseases in country homes may be divided into two great classes: 

 those due to habitations and their surroundings, those due to method of life. By country 



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