The Two Homes

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Two homes there are, not far away

Author: James Rowe
Tune: [Two homes there are, not far away] (Ackley)
Published in 1 hymnal

Printable scores: MusicXML
Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

1 Two homes there are, not far away,
Within a city fair;
One home has peace and joy each day,
The other has despair.
In one, the children's hearts are glad
When father comes in sight,
But little hearts next door are sad
For father drinks, each night.

Chorus:
Which home is yours?
Which home is yours?-
The home so bright and glad?
Or that one which the curse of rum
Has made so drear and sad?

2 In one of these two homes the face
Of mother wears a smile,
For life is sweet, and home a place
Of gladness all the while:
The face next door shows but the signs
Of shame and sorrow dumb,
For day by day, her poor heart pines
Beneath the curse of rum. [Chorus]

Source: The New Praiseworthy: for the Church and Sunday School #355

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Author: James Rowe

Pseudonym: James S. Apple. James Rowe was born in England in 1865. He served four years in the Government Survey Office, Dublin Ireland as a young man. He came to America in 1890 where he worked for ten years for the New York Central & Hudson R.R. Co., then served for twelve years as superintendent of the Mohawk and Hudson River Humane Society. He began writing songs and hymns about 1896 and was a prolific writer of gospel verse with more than 9,000 published hymns, poems, recitations, and other works. Dianne Shapiro, from "The Singers and Their Songs: sketches of living gospel hymn writers" by Charles Hutchinson Gabriel (Chicago: The Rodeheaver Company, 1916) Go to person page >

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