OWN A HOME.

Western Star, Issue 288, 15 March 1879, Page 6

OWN A HOME.

At a recent entertainment for the benefit of the yellow fever sufferers in America, Mr George Barstow, in bis speech on “Home,” made a point, which is as wise as is forcibly exprts ed. Bead it ladies—ye who have not got your own homo—and make the head of the house read it. Mr Ba-stow said: Every man should own his home if ho can. Th.t philosophy which to.ls a man to drift on over the ocean of tins uncertain life without a home of las own is wrong. The man who does not own his home is like a ship out on the op n sea, at the hazards of the storm. The mm who owns his home is like a ship that has arrived in port and is moored in a safe harbor. One man should no more be content to live in another man’s house if he can build one of his own than one bird should annually take the risk of hatching in another bird’s nest; and for my own part I would ralher be able to own a cottage than to hire a palace. J often see men eager to effect an insurance upon their lives, and this is well; it is light. But the man who owns his homo lias effected an insurance upon his happiuess and the happiness of* his family—winch is as much to him if his mind be right, as his awn and constitutes his own. I have seen the homes of the people in foreign lauds; 1 have heard them

talk of their conditions and lot in life, and this is the main theme of thought with mankind everywhere. As I listened to them I discovered why it is that the Switzer in his hut iu the Alps, where the limit of vegetation is reached, and the winter storm howls and rages around him, is happier than the Italian tenant on the beautiful plains of Lombaidy, amidst the bloom and fragrance of perpetual summer. It is the consciousness of the ownership of a home, which no matter how the storm rages, nobody can take from him, and which he can make happy in spite of the storm. I would say to every man : buy a home if you can, and own it. If a windfall has come to you, buy a home with it. If you have laid up enough by toil, buy a home. If you have made money in stocks, buy a home. Do not let anyone tempt you to put all your winnings bac*k into the pool. Put the rest back if you will. Gamble on it if you must, hut buy the home first. Buy it and sell it not. Then the roses that bloom there, are yours. The jessamine and the clematis that climb upon the porch belong to you. You have planted them and seen them grow. When you are at work upon them you are working for yourselves and not for others. If children be there, then there are flowers within the house and without. Buy a home.