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THE HOUSEHOLD
MOTHER’S FAITH.
Margaret A. Richard.
They talked today of prayer and faith,
Os miracles oft wrought,
And wondrous blessings brought to pass,
By hearts believing sought.
They said one’s house by faith and prayer
Was saved, though all around
The buildings fed devouring flames,
Till ashes strewed the ground.
They said one knelt and prayed God would
With rains dispel a drouth;
And, lo! from heaven glad showers came down,
Because she did not doubt.
Os money one had sorest need,
And money swiftly came,
Because with faith sh.e prayed for it
In her dear Savior’s name.
* * * * * * * * * *
I thought of one whose faith, to me,
Seemed greater than all these
Although to some it might seem she
Prayed vainly on her knees.
i
Her humble home the flames once sought,
And razed it to the ground,
Nor spared the treasures she possessed—
Wherein her heart was bound.
Her faithful heart seemed made for love,
But was of love bereft;
And by a hand than Death’s more cold,
Was she thus lonely left.
I
With faith she prayed her suffering child
No longer might be ill,
But the beloved daughter bore
Her pain and weakness still.
’Twas hers, when old, to leave her home,
’Mong strangers far to dwell,
And though she missed her friends, she prayed:
“Thy will be done —’tis well.”
It seemed the lesson she must learn
Was ever, “do without”;
And though of much she was denied,
God’s love she did not doubt.
“Though He may slay me, I will trust
Him evermore,” she said;
And through life’s sad vicissitudes
Her faith was undismayed.
Far more than things material
She gained by faith and prayer:
She learned the sorest ills of life
To meekly, sweetly bear.
at
CHAT.
“Hortense” asks the Household members if they
believe in special Providence, and she gives some
personal experiences to justify her faith in them.
I have known several instances where circumstances
seemed to intervene in a special way to save life or
prevent injury. Sometimes a misfortune happens to
us that seems hard and unkind, but in the end turns
out to be the means of bringing us greater power
and usefulness. Milton’s sublime visions came to
him only when the curtain of darkness had been
dropped upon his sight; Bunyan did not conceive
the wondrous allegory—“ Pilgrim’s Progress”—until
the walls of a prison had enclosed him; and I do
not think our noble editor would have done so much
for his kind, had not accident, that deprived him of
bodily vigor, developed his moral energies into great
er power. Margaret Richard, in her beautiful poem,
which we give today, shows how one, from whem
Fate withheld all material blessings, yet gained
wealth of soul through faith and patience.
Antique, who is well known to us as one of the
scattered sheep of the “Sunny” pasture, is heartily
weleome to our fold. Most timely is his appeal to
the girls to show their disapproval of weak and wicked
young men, and in this way induce them to better
conduct. I have seen sensible, superior girls appear
delighted with the attentions of young men whose
manners and morals were contemptible. No won
der these young men think it is not worth while to
A Department of Expression Tor Those Who Teel and Think.
The Golden Age for August 15, 1907.
be truly respectable, when as cads they are so well
received. But the girls who tolerate such men are
not in the majority. “Antique,” I assure you, there
are plenty of self-respecting girls, and also lots of
nice boys. I know some of them. They are clean,
and kind, and manly.
Eugene Edwards’ sketch of what “Pa” and “Ma”
said about the prohibition bill, which for lack of
space is saved for next week, is as realistic as it
is amusing. I feel sure just such sentiments were
voiced in many a household when the details of the
bill were read. Some of its provisions do seem a
little hard (I confess to a weakness for blackberry
cordial), but these little sacrifices can easily be made
for the great cause; and to lament over blackberry
wine, in the face of the glorious temperance suc
cess, reminds one of the old lady who came into the
Confederate camp after one of General Forrest’s
dashing victories, complaining bitterly that Mr. For
rest’s “critter company” galloped through her back
yard and knocked down her ash hopper.
“Teacher’s” thought-suggesting article, “ ’Tis the
Men That Must Change,” will be read with interest.
I hope some of our members will give us their
opinion of the writer’s views. We are glad to have
him with us and hope to hear from him again.
Ben Ivy’s true story of the rival bridegrooms
shows that the fair teacher believed in chance —more
than she did in her own judgment. I hope the poor
dentist had an after opportunity for a little revenge,
and got the lady in the dental chair at the mercy
of his forceps.
Dear Annice, it makes our Golden Age Household
seem more homelike to have you sing your pretty
fancies to us; and Mattie Howard to draw high
lessons of duty and right living from little homely
happenings.
I hope, dear friends, that the dog days will be
kind to you and allow you to be present at our
weekly meetings, where your visits, these enervat
ing days, will be doubly appreciated. A. L. B.
tUitb ®ur Correspondents
THE RIVAL BRIDEGROOMS.
Fair ladies, with plenty of brains and education,
do very queer things sometimes. Here is a true case
in point. Miss C., a young, handsome, well brought
up Southern girl, daughter of good and honorable
parents, was a teacher in a public school. She had
two lovers, both worthy young men of good posi
tion —one a dentist, the other a physician. Both
had been attentive to her for some time and she
seemed unable to decide between them. She man
aged the double courtship with tact and cleverness
but at last she could no longer keep up the game;
.matters must be brought to an issue. Well, what
must this daughter of Eve do but accept both her
sweethearts, agree to marry them and appoint the
evening of the same day for the wedding with each?
Os course, each of the poor fellows believed he
was to be the happy man and made his preparations
accordingly. But tell me, ye who pretend to com
prehend the feminine riddle, how did that fair one
imagine she was going to get out of the dilemma?
How did she expect to make her choice when the
pair of prospective bridegrooms arrived? She could
not .foresee that fate or providence would help her
out, as it did.
When the wedding day arrived, and the two lovers
set out in buggies, attired as becomes gallant bride
grooms, for the scene of anticipated happiness, the
heavens became darkly clouded, the lightning flashed
and the rain descended in torrents. It was more
than the young dentist could stand. He stopped at
a town on the way, deciding that the marriage must
wait for better weather. Not so the doctor. The
pouring rain did not cool his ardor, the lightning did
not terrify his love-armored heart. On he drove
through storms and darkness, and arriving at the
young lady’s boarding house, he asked fdr her and
when she came down, a lovely vision in white, he was
eager that the marriage should take place. Though
he was drenched to the skin and looked like the pro
verbial “drowned rat,” he insisted that the minister
should be sent for and the knot tied that night. The
clerical gentleman, however, declined to come out
in such weather, even upon so important and bright
a mission. He came early on the following morning.
The pair were duly made one, and set out on their
wedding trip. An hour later the dentist drove up—
dry as a prohibition legislator, but no doubt he felt
Conducted by
Ada Louise "Bryan
like shedding some pretty wet tears when he found
out that the lady of his love had wedded his rival
and gone an hour ago.
Did the thought of the disappointment and heart
ache she had caused cast one cloud over the bride’s
honeymoon? It ought to, certainly, but, then, wo
men are “queer critters” and, as I remarked before,
they do curious things sometimes.
Ivy, Ala. . BEN R. IVY.
K
DREAMS AND SPECIAL PROVIDENCES.
How many of you can tell of instances where per
sons have been saved from death or injury or loss
of fortune by something that certainly se.emed a spe
cial providence? I was once invited to be one of a
boating party on a lake. I gayly got ready, and was
starting out, when the arrival of an aunt and cousins
from another state broke up my anticipated frolic.
I was bitterly disappointed, but that afternoon news
came that the boat had upset and two of the girls
had drowned. They could not swim, neither could I.
Another time, I was going on an excursion, when
my sister dreamed that an accident happened to the
train —and there was great confusion and distress.
She woke my aunt (our mother was not living) and
told the dream, and auntie promptly decided that
we should not go on the excursion. Papa pooh
poohed the idea, but Aunt Nora said that the godly
people in the Bible believed in dreams as warnings,
and she thought they were as good and as wise as
we are now. We did not go, and we were thankful
we didn’t, for the engine boiler of the excursion train
burst, one passenger was killed and all the party
were shaken up and frightened, and had to spend
the day in a dismal swampy place by the side of
the railroad.
Do you remember how a special Providence saved
the life of Frederic the Great? He always drank a.
cup of chocolate the first thing in the morning. On
this occasion, when he went to drink his morning
beverage, he found that a spider had dropped into
it from the ceiling overhead. He sent the cup back
to the kitchen untasted. The next moment he was
startled by hearing the report of a pistol, and a
servant rushed in, saying that the cook had shot
himself. The cause of the man’s suicide came to
light. He had poisoned the king’s chocolate and he
believed his majesty had found it out and would have
him executed.
I would like to know how many of us have had
special Providences, or dreams of warning, or of
comfort. I have often wondered why believers in the
Bible sneer so at persons who have faith in im
pressive dreams. I know there are idle dreams, as
there are idle and foolish thoughts, but also I be
lieve that sometimes now, as of old, God speaks to
us in dreams. The sneerers do not seem to remem
ber that but for Joseph’s dream of warning and his
consequent flight into Egypt, our Savior would have
been killed in His infancy.
Selma, Ala. HORTENSE.
RAISE THE STANDARD, YOUNG WOMEN!
Is it not gratifying to see how many interesting
writers of the old Household coterie are rallying
around our new leader? Keep it up, friends. Let
us show our appreciation for Miss Bryan, not only
because she is near and dear to our former, ever
to be remembered mater, ‘but for her own intrinsic
worth. Certainly she is already leading grandly.
We hope our dear M. E. B. will not forget us, but
will occasionally snatch a few minutes to brighten
our pages.
Lately I have been much impressed with the
fact that so many of our boys belie their childhood
promise and dwindle- into shilly-shally weeklings—
profane, licentious, cigarette and whiskey polluted—
unfit for society, business or any of the serious things
of life. Such degenerates have no conception of hon
or or duty or of the sacredness of home ties. This
lack of character and backbone in our boys virtually
affects the home and, therefore, the state life of our
land. The girls are superior to their male contem
poraries, but, alas! they do not try to lift them to
their own height. They really encourage degeneracy
in the other sex by welcoming these young men
to their company, with every mark of favor, and re
ferring to them as dear, cute, elegant and so on —
terms which as applied to such sap-heads are enough
to make a gorilla blush clean behind his ears. These
young men marry (oh, yes, they can always marry
nice girls) unless they kill themselves with cigar-
