Home.—Home is the little harbor into which we anchor our vessels after a day's battle with the elements on the ocean of life; it is a port of supply into which we steer our bark to prepare for running a few more knots amid pirates and breakers; it is the haven where our dear ones should be secure from the storms of adversity, and where peace, virtue and happiness reign. Of all places, home should be the dearest to us. There the faithful wife, the partner of our joy and sorrow, our sunshine and storm, our prosperity and adversity, and our merry children greet us as we return weary and worn with the toils of the day and heart-sore of the jeers and slights of men. In that home let the Word of God be the supreme law. In that home let all be united for truth and virtue; and the winds may blow, the rains fall, and the floods descend, but it will stand unharmed. A few substantial articles of furniture, a few small pictures on the wall, a floor neat and clean, the rays of the king of day streaming in cheer through a glass window or two, a yard clean and in order, a flower or a shrub, the fence and front of the little cottage with a coat of new paint, costing only about one dollar because it was spread on by the son or the father at extra time, and you have a home to be envied by a king, whether you own it, or rent it.
Keep in mind that the school room and pulpit combined cannot elevate people above their homes. As their homes are, they will be. As long as father and mother, son and daughter sleep in the same room, often occupying the same bed, we cannot make much progress in virtue. The off-spring is born with corrupt mentality. Make partitions if they must be constructed of old newspapers. By all means give privacy to your daughters, if you wish them to be virtuous and modest.
Lift the curtain, and let me show you the home of an individual who has lost the comeliness of manhood—let me show you the hovel this brute disgraces. Look! It is eight o'clock in the evening. The wife in her old torn and soiled dress, is still faithfully engaged at the wash-tub. An old broken lamp, smoking and sputtering, gives a pale and ghastly light. The chunks of wood in the fire place are shoved together, and four or five half clad, half starved little children are quarrelling and wallowing in the sand, whence the bricks long since have been taken. There is not a whole knife, or fork, or spoon, or plate, or dish, or cup, or glass—not an article of furniture which is not scarred and broken. At nine, that faithful wife, who is wearing out her life with that miserable brute, has suspended her work, made the last bit of meal into a hoe cake and divided it among those wretched little creatures, and packed them away among some filthy and torn quilts on a dirty straw mattress. She then returns to finish her labors. At eleven, the thing called a man and husband and father enters. He is just from the dram shop or the house of prostitution, where he has spent his week's earnings with others of that ilk. He has no "Good evening," no kind word for that faithful wife. He growls "Nothing here to eat?" As that poor, weak, abused woman tremblingly stammers out an excuse, with fiendish look and clenched fist he rushes upon her! Down let the curtain drop! For angels and gods could not now look upon what follows without tears of sympathy and anger intermingled! That man may be a church member! He is certainly a member of some benevolent or labor society, and may stand high in its councils. Is he a fit associate for a true man? Should he not be hurled from your midst as an unworthy companion? Here is work for the laboring man, and all men! Let us elevate our home life, and make our wives and children happier.
The Germans are noted for their attractive homes. By comforts, sports, songs, music, books, etc., they throw a charm into their homes which inspires, cheers and elevates all who come within their influences. May every laboring man in America build for himself such a home, whether he lives in the city cottage or in the country cabin.
XI. Buy a Home.
There are in the United States 9,945,916 families, of 5.04 persons to the family. There are only 8,955,812 dwellings, with 5.06 persons to the dwelling. It will be seen that there are 990,104 families, or five million people, without dwellings, either owned or rented—no where to rest their heads. Is this the result of over population? It is not. It will be centuries before our country will reach that stage. It is the result of shiftlessness and the inertia of population. If lands are high in the cities and older states, they may be had upon your own terms in the broad, open West. There are also hundreds of thousands of acres for homestead entry in the southern states. It is true that much of it is mountain land, but it will be gold to the man who will bear the privations of justifying his claim to it. There are also corporations with large means, as well as individuals, in nearly all of our cities who are willing to sell to thrifty persons lots or farms on reasonable terms. Now is the golden opportunity. The working men of the South will never have such an opportunity again to get homes. With the increase of population by birth and influx, lands must rise in demand and price. I have heard of one legitimate objection to selling lands to colored persons. It is said that they buy on mortgage transfer, soon become discouraged, allow ruin and dilapidation to follow, and then surrender the place in worse condition than delivered to them. This objection can easily be overcome by taking my pattern for the happy home. If this is done, the vendor would hardly foreclose a mortgage should you get much behind in your payments, as the property would be constantly increasing in value.
XII. The Newspapers and the Negro.
There is general complaint among the colored people that we do not get newspaper notices only of our misdeeds. This is not true. The best papers, North and South, publish whatever information they can get worthy of commendation. We are too sensitive on this point. My experience and observation are that the press is well disposed toward the Negro. It is true there are many papers of small reputation full of prejudice, or surrounded by a narrow-minded constituency, that do not wish the Negro well, but they are a weak minority. The following taken from the Huntsville (Ala.) Daily Mercury of recent date, sufficiently proves my position.