The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1864-05-05
OUR SPARE ROOM.

OUR SPARE ROOM.
From Chambers journal. ...
When Mivins and mysf first began life as
married couple, there was nothing upon
which we prided ourselves more in our nice
little house in Vandeleur Terrace, than upon
its Spare Room Every apartment in that
modest mansion was dear to us, and cost me
many a tear Mivins had left the furnish
ing Off to me from the very first, and no
body can tell who has not experienced it,
what trial that is, What responsibility
is druggets and bed-furniture, and dining
tables, and easy-chairs and giIt-mirrors,
which you must have, if house is to be a
house, and chandeliers which need bag to
put them into, if they are to bear looking at
after the first week, down to the rolling
towel in the back kitchen, which-talk OF
the excellence Of machinery In these days :
either does not roll, nine days out OF ten OF
else comes down with run.
However, as say, we furnished our house
and especially that Spare Room. 1t had
statues on the mantle piece, although it was
but a bedroom, and picture of the Battle of
Waterloo, two feet by three, and fiy-catch-
err and sofa, with an antimacassar which
Grand-mama Grueby worked herself, and
took three and half years about it, off and
on, in expectation Of my marriage day
! Moreover, the bed shut up, and didn't look
| like bed unless you knew; and there was
wooden cap that fitted over the washing
table, so that altogether when a party had
got up, and the place was put in order, you
might have enquired whether it wasn't the
drawing room. If matters had turned diff
| ferent, this might have been the nursery, per
| haps; but that was not to be, and our Spare
Room it was, and is, and in all probability
will remain so as long as we stop in Van
deleur Terrace-and we have lease Of the
house for ninety mine years. believe. How
ever, of course, when we took the place We
could not tell what might happen, and il
was no use hiring house just big enough
for ourselves and no more; and so that's how
we came to have our Spare Room. We are
not rich people, Mivins and | but we are i'll
what one may call easy circumstances-that
is we should be So if it were not for that
extra chamber, which for my part, and al
though it does look so spruce and elegant,
| wish were walled up, or thrown into the
dining-room Gas it might be, only that they
say the doing away with the party
would bring the house down. for really the
trouble it has cost me, and the expense it
/ has been to poor dear Mivins, nobody knows.
What | should be most particular about in
the way of advice to all young people setting
up housekeeping, and especially in town, is
| this: Whatever house you take my young
| friends, whether big or little, be sure you
have no such thing as Spare Room. II
you must look out for contingencies-and
nothing is worse, as far as my experience
goes, or so likely to prove disappointing
and provide an apartment in CQUGRce, as ii
We're at least don't furnish it. Then you can
say to all friends from the country who
write to say that they are coming through
! Town-always Through even if they stop
a weell-that you would be delighted to re-
ceive them, only you have no extra sleep
ing accommodation whatever. Of course, they
will reply that anything will do them; that
you may litter them down where you please
that they know how to rough it, and only
require that welcome which they are so well
aware that they will receive at your hands,
&C., The variety of ingenious self-invita-
tions which these good people give them
selves is most extraordinary. But to all Of
them you can reply, with truth, that it is a
| thousand pities, but you have no Spare
Room. All, happy pair, who have received
| a hint to that effect while there was YET
time, and prefited by it There is bach
elor of my acquaintance who has adopted
this course in respect to his drawing-room
it is very beautiful apartment, but entirely
unfinished, with the triaing exception of
wreath of plaster flowers on the ceiling above
| no ,Olo no ol, ic +oc
to hang. He entertains his unmarried
friends, and smokes in all his rooms indiffer.
emily but, when he is called upon by the
ladies, he takes them into the drawing-roon
and remarks: ''When | marry this shall
be furnished exactly as the lady ofmy choice
/ shall direct-who, indeed, shall also have
her way in every particular" 1t is extraor
binary how respected that man is in domes
tic circles, although he has not the most dis
tant intention ofmarriage, and would no
exchange the privilege of smoking in biz
bedroom Gas he had once the indelicacy tt
confde to mel for fve-and-forty wives
There is, therefore, nothing more advanta
geous and cheaper than an unfurnisheC
room; while to married persons of small
income, it is indispensable. If they one,
furnish their Spare Room, it is all over will
them-their house is made hotel of at once
+ ''Knowing you have a spare room,
whites Aunt Bertha, Il make no apolog,
for craving your hospitality for few days
The May meetings begin at Exeter Hall OF
the 14th, and would not miss that dea
good man, Mr.. Howler, upon any account
it is uncertain when his address viii be de
livered, but perhaps Mr.. Mivins will be s.
good as to procure me this information. y
/ Aunt Bertha does not think much of poo
dear Mivins in his spiritual character, al
though she never dare breathe so much t
me, who knows his real worth, and what
r genuine good creature, without one halt
penny worth of cant, he is but she put
great faith in his information regarding ev
erythlng metropolitan ever since he ono
/, put her into a bus which dropped her at tn
, very door of MIR. Surgeons Tabernacle.
: is very difficult matter for my husband
/ who is only concerned with city matters t
find out about MIR. Howler, whose name h
has never heard in his life; but this is th
least of the evils Aunt Bertha's coming OF
casions us. The house is placed under re
hgious martial law for week certain, an