The mother bird, when sitting, usually traveled tail foremost, and when she entered or left the mill she had to make use of the hole through which the laying shaft projected. To do this it was necessary for her to dodge the sails, which were, of course, hung close to the wall of the mill.
When the creaking and shaking of the machinery of a windmill is taken into account, one can hardly fail to be struck with the peculiar taste of the bird that chose such an apparently uncongenial spot in which to rear her young.—Harper’s Weekly.
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Home Discipline—See [Family Religion].
HOME, FOUNDATION OF THE REPUBLIC
Judge Ben B. Lindsey who has secured many things for the children during the last ten years, such as playgrounds, detention schools, public baths, probation system, summer outings, fresh-air camps, etc., says in the Survey:
What began to loom upon me almost to oppress me, was the injustice in our social and economic system that made most of these palliatives necessary. I began to see more than I ever saw in my life how the foundation of the republic is the home, and the hope of the republic is in the child that comes from the home, and that there can be no real protection, no real justice for the child, until justice is done the home. More than through books I saw through the tears and misfortunes of these children, the defects and injustice in our social, political and economic conditions, and I have to thank the child for my education. After ten years I owe more to the children than they owe to me. They have helped me be a better man, and, I am sure, a more useful and serviceable one. I had learned to love to work with them and for them in the boys’ clubs, the recreation centers, through the court and probation work and in other ways, and when I began to see, as I thought I saw, some of the causes of poverty, misfortune, misery, and crime, I began to question myself. Could I help do real justice to the child unless I could help smash some of these causes that were smashing the homes, crippling the parents and robbing the child of his birth-right?
(1420)
HOME LIGHTS
The light of the home is indeed glorious. We think of the lighting of the lamps at eventime and find, in the coming of that artificial day which sets the light in the window, a sign of defiance to the night, as if it were a great triumph of human intelligence. It is, indeed, a triumph. The thought of sending on the heels of the day another day which keeps off the darkness of night shows how well man has mastered the forces around him. The spiritual light within the home, however, is greater than this—the kindliness of husband and wife toward each other and toward the children, the light on the faces of the home circle, this is a more precious gleam than any which shines from star or sun.—Francis J. McConnell.