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THE CASTLE.
Know 1 well an ancient castle
Where the guests go out and in;
Some in bright attire and golden,
Some in weeds of woe and sin,
Saint and sinner, heroes, cravens,
On the waiting threshold throng;
White as doves or black as ravens,
Some with sigh and some with song.
Well 1 know an ancient castle
Worn and scarred without, within,
And the many patrons jostle
Each as each goes out and in.
Some are coming, some are going
Ceaselessly from sun to sun,
Still the human tide is flowing,
And the din is never done.
From the Future to the Present,
From the Present to the Past;
Fair and frowning, grim and pleasant,
Gone like shadows that are cast
In their scarlet or their yellow,
In their garb of gay or grave,
Learned wight or vulgar fellows,
Sordid rogue or dreamer brave.
Late and soon the house is teeming,
Comes or goes a laggard guest,
Some are real, some are seeming,
But the ghosts are like the rest.
I it is who own the castle
Beaten by the sun and rain,
And the guests who crowd and jostle
Are the beings of my brain.
ARTHUR GOODENOUGH.
Brattleboro, Vt.
*
CHAT.
ONE of our Household writers,
Mrs. Maude King Wynne, of
picturesque Clarksville, Ga., has
sent me among other interesting pho
tographs, one of her mountain kinder
garten school, a double garland of
child faces with her own earnest, love
ly face in the center, a rose in a
wreath of buds. Os her work among
these little tots she said: “I am not
well learned in the conventional kin
dergarten methods. I pursued ways
of my own in a great measure, ways
that I tried to fit to the individual
natures and capacities of the different
children. j
What a wonderful institution the
kindergarten has grown to be! How
every detail of bodily comfort and
mental development is worked out in
the environment of tne little ones and
the teaching given them! The ideal
kindergarten room is large and well
ventilated, plain and simply furnish
ed, with built-in cupboards for mate
rials and toys, a few bright, simple
pictures on the walls, low blackboards
extending all around the room, the
seats so arranged that no child faces
the light, individual drinking cups and
individual towels, or large paper nap
kins. The clay manipulated by the
children in their work of modeling is
disinfected after being used. The
kindergarten material is all rather
large; no very fine work is done, the
sewing is over and over, and the
weaving is large.
So much for the hygiene of the
schoolroom. Care is also taken that
the methods of teaching are not too
stimulating, as many of the modern
children are nervous and excitable,
and it has been found that some of
the tots who come from barren homes
to this fairy land of activity, are un
duly excited by the work, the stories
and songs, the injury showing in in
creased nervousness, and perturbed
dreams. It is possible for the kinder
garten school to be too entertaining.
Kraeplin has said that sometimes an
THE HOUSEHOLD
A Department of Expression For Those Who Fee! and Think.
uninteresting teacher is a hygienic
necessity.
Pictures are hung low enough to be
seen perfectly by the children, and
the subjects of these are interesting
and developing, landscapes, flowers,
birds, animals, domestic scenes, such
as Ihe Family Group, Mother and
ChTd, Boy and Dog, Girl and Her
Window Garden. Scrap-books filled
with pictures are used in illustrating
the lessons, and on the sand table, pic
tures are formed by means of rocks,
twigs, mosses, bits of greenery and
flowers.
Everything possible is being done
for tne child of today. How different
to what existed fifty years ago! Then,
toys were few and crude books and
magazines for-children were poorly il
lustrated and there were no kinder
gartens for the little tots. They ran
around until they were thought old
enough to go to school w r here the
A. B, C was drilled into them, and
then the’ b-a ba, and the first one-syl
lable reading, where each word was
spelled, methods long ago obsolete, su
perseded by quick sight reading and
spelling taught mostly by writing, in
stead of by giving out the words to a
long class, standing in line with an
honorable "head” and an ignoble
"foot,” and the certainty of being
"turned down” if the word was missea.
Everything is made easy for the
twentieth century child, and modern
methods have lifted much of the old
time strain from the brain of tne
teacher. Wonderfully, too, has c„e
magician science wrought out the ma
terial welfare of the human race. The
fruits of science, art and literature
crowd upon us. Even the poorest may
enjoy them, so cheap are musical in
struments, books, papers, pictures and
magazines. A clever New York writ
er tells of the luxuries enjoyed by the
poorer classes in the metropolis:
"Even in the tenement, one may hear
the shriek of the Victor (phonograph)
and the jingle of the pianola. The
humblest home boasts a piano, and
many have the mechanical cooker, 'tne
child of the laborer has his Teddy
bear, his roller skates and nis cam
era.”
But with all these advantages and
opportunities are the youths of today
so far ahead of their grandparents?
W th the thousand printing presses of
the land throwing off books as the
wind scatters the leaves of autumn,
one learns that the youth of tocay
turns up his nose at a sterling worn
of history, biography or fiction, his
first inquiry as to a book being, “Is
it funny?” while the girl asks, “Is it
exciting?” The comic supplement of
the newspaper, the society page, and
the gossipy magazine with its trashy
stories form the staple, we are told
of the average reading on the part of
latter day young people. In this way
they waste all the splendid opportu
nities open to them for enjoyment and
development.
Witb ©ur Gorreeponbents
WHAT WAS DOING IN 1848.
As late as 1848 before the bride left
the altar, Georgia law bestowed her
property on the newly acquired hus
band, leaving her pennyless, and while
endowed with all she possessed he
be ante irresponsible of how he man
aged or disposed of the property so
obtained.
It was no doubt the misuse of the
The Golden Age for July 29, 1909.
property of the married lady that
caused the subject to be brought be
fore the legislature at that time and
the question was thoroughly discussed
pro and con.
Southern hospitality demanding free
access to a full decanter, frequently
Rd to excess, so did the fool custom
of “treating” on friends meeting or
parting and both were the cause of
innumerable saloons in towns and Cn
ies and rumshops at crossroads where
politics were discussed and the festive
barkeeper ruled supreme.
The sons of temperance in sweep
ing the state of Georgia reached the
southwestern part of Upson county.
Near Oakchumpka Academy was a
Primitive Baptist Church of which El
der McCarra was pastor, about one
and one-half or two miles east resided
another minister of the same faith and
order by the name of Parker.
Mr. Nathan Respass and Mr. Wm.
Worthy were wealthy slave owners
and members of the little church.
They were high-toned gentleman, and
related through marriage.
Mr. John Worthy, the eldest son of
Mr. Wm. Worthy, was married, and
the father of several children, but un
fortunately he was given to drinking
and having dissipated, his wife’s and
his own property-, was allowed the
use of what was known as the Baule
Place for the sake of his family.
Harry Worthy, the second son of
Mr. Worthy, had squandered h’s pat
rimony in drink, and was now an
itinerant trader possessed of two poor
old mules and a wagon, traveling on
the borders of Georgia and ± mrida.
Len was the third son, eighteen
years of age, a student at a Georgia
academy and accused of drinking ‘on
tne sly.”
The youngest, Oceola, was about
fourteen years old, and a remarkably
bright lad.
The Primitive Baptist Church at
that time would allow no worldly en
tanglement, and Reverend Parker was
so extremely zealous to prevent in
roads, no matter how moral, that
took the stump against this innova
tion of time-honored custom and
breacn of hospitality.
The Reverend, a poor speaker and
boasting of having no “book-larning,”
became a nuisance and a laughing
stock. He caused criticisms of the
church of which he was a member.
The sons of temperance, supported
by the best citizens and under the
aegis of the Methodist Church, dis
dained to reply to the reverend minis
ter and were very successful in re
claiming drinkers and establishing
“divisions.”
It was about this time that the
Church near Oakchumpka met in con
ference and Mr. Wm. Worthy, a noble
specimen of southern manhood, his
long white locks curling over his col
lar, stepped up to the moderator’s ta
ble and addressed the moderator and
the church members: “Brethren, I
think it high time for Bro. Parker to
stop his attack on the sons of temper
ance. Nay, if my joining would make
sober men out of my boys, I would
join them at once and you mignt ex
pel me the next minute from the
Church.”
Mr. Respess, his brother-in-law, sec
noded Mr. Worthy and Rev. Parker
was notified to cease his attacks on
the sons of temperance and quit the
stump.
Parker obeyed the behest of the
Church, he possessed a distillery and
advertised that he would distill all
the peaches brought to his distillery
free of toll.
Peaches came and Rev. Parker at
tended to convert them into brandy.
All that fall he lay around his still.
Next Spring saw a little mound sev
en feet long and three feet wide
which held all that was mortal of Rev.
Parker. EDWARD F. RICHIER.
WIVES AND SWEETHEARTS.
Does it seem peculiar that a very
busy man who meets the world on a
most strenuous battlefield of com
merce every day should have some
Meals and ideas about married life?
My perusal of this part of The Golden
Age has been incidental for some time
but things generally have been han
dled with such a refreshing candor,
that I feel like “butting in.”
While I am not “fancy free” in its
fullest meaning, yet I have never been
put strictly to “hors de combat” ..y
any particular type of beauty. I am.
in fact, a prosaic bachelor; but my
ideals are a persistent factor with me
and I insist that if a man marries the
right woman, that couple can always
be sweethearts.
I have fathomed human nature far
enough to realize that there are many
things to be accounted for in the diag
nosis of a good fellowship and perfect
congeniality. I believe a perfect un
derstanding between married people
may not always make itself evident
to the observer. Yet, there must be
the beauty and fragrance in such lives
that can not pass notice if it exists.
That there are those characteristics
of such importance as to brook an
others in that perfect congeniality of
a man and woman, I firmly believe.
These, of course, differ according to
temperament, early environments, ed
ucation arn^— shall further enumerate
—hereditary peculiarities. I believe
it is possible with a couple having the
proper ideal in mind to overcome
them, although there may be a suffi
cient breach caused by any single one
of them to make impossible this ideal;
and without even a hope of it, any
man or woman can well stand in awe
of the marriage vows.
Those tender considerations so
much appreciated before marriage
must be mutual and always appreci
ated to be enduring. How many a
man thinks of flowers for a wife after
he has been married for ten or fifteen
years? A happy exception came under
my observation sometime ago wnen a
customer bought a bunch of lovely
roses from a lad who took the liber
ties of making solicitation in my of
fice. With a merry twinkle in his eye
that was at once fatherly and jovial,
the old gentleman said: “That’s how
I got her —with flowers and candy.
And 1 haven’t forgotten it these forty
years either.
The incident was like a benediction
to me. I felt that the old gentleman
was some sort of a saint favoring me
with a visit for some reason or other.
Yet, I thought, it is as it should be
and hence, to be otherwise, would be
out of harmony completely. During
the past winter, it was my privilege
to hear Bishop Robert Mclntyre of the
Northern M. E. Church, lecture on
“Buttoned Up People.” Among the
many good things he said was:
“Earth is a whispering gallery; we
get what we give.” And this, 1 be
lieve, is the secret of the sublime
ideals of the married life.
“A PROSAIC BACHELOR.”
