CHAPTER I.
THE HOUSE AND WHAT IT SIGNIFIES IN FAMILY LIFE; TYPIFIED IN PIONEER AND COLONIAL HOMES, THE CENTERS OF INDUSTRY AND HOSPITALITY.
"There is no noble life without a noble aim."-- CHARLES DOLE.
The word Home to the Anglo-Saxon race calls to mind some definite house as the family abiding-place.

Around it cluster the memories of childhood, the aspirations of youth, the sorrows of middle life.
The most potent spell the nineteenth century cast on its youth was the yearning for a home of their own, not a piece of their father's.

The spirit of the age working in the minds of men led them ever westward to conquer for themselves a homestead, forced them to go, leaving the aged behind, and the graves of the weak on the way.
There must be a strong race principle behind a movement of such magnitude, with such momentous consequences.

Elbow room, space, and isolation to give free play to individual preference, characterized pioneer days.

The cord that bound the whole was love of home,--one's own home,--even if tinged with impatience of the restraints it imposed, for home and house do imply a certain restraint in individual wishes.