240 AMERICAN FARMS. 



the homes of their fathers — is in the diminution of per- 

 manent homes just where permanent homes should be 

 increased. There is a safety to the state and to truest 

 aims of life in the multiplicity of complete family circles. 



I once heard the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher say, that 

 he had no fear for the people who must build cellars 

 under their homes ; for, in a climate where such were 

 necessary, the father would be found at home when the 

 day's work was over. Mr. Beecher was right. The 

 home life is of the most desirable character, where the 

 husband and father looks to his own fireside, himself to 

 become the central figure in the family group, when he 

 seeks rest and recreation from his toil ; the life where 

 the wife and mother is least likely to have occasion 

 to carry a heavy heart, because of the marriage vow 

 having become shorn of the virtue it should possess ; the 

 home where the round of household duties, though 

 perhaps rough and laborious, may be performed with 

 cheerfulness, because it is a work in which a family's 

 interests and sympathies share in promoting their accom- 

 plishment ; the home where the children may view with 

 pleasure and with profit a harmony of purpose in all the 

 details of the varied efforts which are being put forth to 

 further the interests of the individual, the family, and the 

 state. 



Every new contingent which leaves the old farms for 

 city or factory-town life, goes to swell the ranks of the 

 classes which are doing least to preserve, in its full sig- 

 nificance, the sovereign value of the family compact. We 

 cannot give too much heed to the danger which must 

 befall us, through thus following in the track of the 

 civilizations which have gone down. With the people 

 flocking to cities, and the corresponding moral dangers 



