Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1864-03-23
HOME KEEPING VS.. HOUSE KEEP
ING


any boon companion, Bill Carberry, TO look
at the house TO which he in a few days
to introduce his bride Bill a gallant,
free-hearted, open-handed fellow, the life of
our whole set, and we felt the natural aver
sion of losing hIm that bachelor friends would.
How could they tell with what strange aspects
he might look forth upon Us, when once he
had passed into g that undiscovered country"
of mat,imcny? But Bill laughed to scorn our
apprehension
IN tell you what, Chris" he said, as he
sprang cheerily up the steps and unlocked
the door OF his future dwelling, do you know
what chose this house for Because it's
social-looking house. Look here, now," he
said as he ushered me Into the parlor-
= look at those long south windows, the sun
lies there nearly ali day long see what
capital corner there is for a Iounging chair /;
fancy US, Chris, with our book or our paper
spread out loose and easy and Sophie gliding
IN and out ike a sunbeam. I'm getting pO-
etical you see. Then did you eve see a
better, wider, airer dining-rOom What cap
ital suppers and things wen have there the
incest things,-eYeryt thing free and easy, you
know,-lusJ what I've always wanted a house
for. tell you, Chris, you and Tom Inhis
shall have latch-keys just like mine, and there
Is capital chamber there at the head Of the
stairs, so that you can be free to come and
90. And here now's the Hbrary,-flncy this
tull of books and engFavings from the ceiling
TO the floor; here You shall come just as you
please and ask no questions the same as
# it were your own, you know
'And Sophie, what viii she say to ali
ths?"
Why, you know Sophie is prime friend
Of both OF YOU, and capital gir~ TO keep
things going Oh, Sophie II make u house of
this, you may depend"
A day or two after Bill dragged me STUN
bling over boxes and through straw and
wrappings to show me the glories of the par
Tor turniture,-with which he seemed pleased
a child with new toy.
Look here" he said . see these chairs
garnet colored satin, with a pattern on each;
well the sofas just ike them, and the cur
tains TO match, and the carpets made for the
floor with center-pIecc= ard borders. never
saw anything more magnificent in my life.
SophIe'S governor furnishes the house. and
everything Is to be \ No. :, YOU see. Messrs
Curtain and Collamore are coming to make
the rooms up and her mother Is busy as a bee
getting Us IN order
Why, Bill, said /, = YOU are going TO be
lodged Ike a prince. | hope you'll be able to
keep ii up; but law business comes in rather
slowly, at first, Old fellow
Wei, you know it isn't the way | should
furnish, II nay capital was the one to cash the
bill but then, YOU see, Sophje's people do it,
and lei them girl doesn't want to come
down out Of the style she has always lived
in"
| said nothing, but had an oppressive pre-
sentiment that social freedom would expire
in that house, crushed under "a weight of up
holstery.
But there came IN due time the wedding
and the wedding reception, and We all went
TO see Bill In new house, splendidly lighted
up complete from top to toe and everybody
said what a lucky fellow he was: but that
about the emo of it, 20 far as our visiting
was concerned. The running in, and drop
ping in, and keeping latch keys. and making
Intorma; calls that had been forespoken,s seemed
about az likely as it lac had lodged in the
faileries.
Sophie who had always been one of YOUR
swapping, sparkling, busy sort of girls, began
at once TO develop her wOmanhOod, and show
her principles and was a different from her
former self as your care-worn, housing, old
cat Is from your rollikng, trisky kitten. Not
but that Sophie good girl. She had a
capital heart, good, true, womaulv one. and
was loving and obigIns; but still She was one
OF the desperately pains taking, conscientious
sort OF women whose very blood. as they
grow older Is devoured with anxiety and She
came OF a race of women III whom house
keeping was more than art or sCicuce-it was
80 10 speak, a religion. Sophie's mother
auntS ana grdnd-mOthers Tor namelesS gcner-
atlous back, were known TO Ice celebrated
housekeepers. They might haze been gen
uIne descendants of the inhabitants of that
Hollandic town of BE0eck celebrated by
Washington Irving, where the cows tails are
Kept tied up with uusulHcd blue ribbons. and
the ends of the hrewcod are painted white
He relates how celebrated preacher, visiting
this town found il impossible to draw these
housewives from their earthly views and en-
Payments, until he took 10 preaching on the
neatness Of the celestial city, the uusuiiied
crystal Of its walls and the polish of its golden
pavement, when the tace OF ali the housewives
were set Zionward NJ once.
Now this solemn and earnest view of house
keeping Is onerous enough when poor girl
first enters on the care OF a moderately fur
uished house where the articles are not too
expensive TO be reasonably renewed Is tine
ami use wear them; but il is infinitely worse
when cataract of splendid furniture Is heap
ed upon her care,-when splendid crystals
cut into her conscience, and mirrors reflect
her duties, ana moth and rust stand ever ready
to deyour and sully in every room and pass
age Way.
Sophie was s0lemuiv warned and instructed
by all the mothers and auntS- she was warn
ed Of moths, warned of cockroacheS, warned
of flies, warned of dust all the articles of
furniture had their covers, made of cold Hell
land linen, IN which they looked Ike bodies
laid out. even the curtain-tassels had each its
little shroud-and bundles Of receipts and Of
rites and ceremonies necessary for the pres
ervation and publication ana care of all these
articles were stuffed into the poor girls head
before guiltleSs of cares A. tie feathers that
hoated above il.
Poor Bill found very soon that his house
and furniture we're kept II such an ideal point
OF perfection that ne needed another house
10 live IN, for, poor fellow, he touGd the If
ference between having a house ana hcrne.
1t was only year or two after that INV wife
and | started Uts1tags on vlrv different
principles and Bill would often drop in upon
US, wistfully lingering in the coy armchair
between my writing table and my wife's sofa
and saying with sigh how confounsedly
pleasant things looked there-So pleasant to
have bright open fire and geraIdums and
roses and birds, and all that sort of thing,
and to dare to stretch out ones legs and move
without thinking what one was going 10 hit.
Sophie is good girl" he would say . and
wants TO have everything right, but you see
they won't let her. They've loaded her with
many things that have TO be kept in laven-
dar, that the poor girl is actually getting thin