The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1865-12-05
RATES OF sUBsCRIPTIoN.
RATEsoFADVERTTsrNq
How Not TO Make a Home.

gained or confirmed by an arduous and
prolonged effort to find suitable home
in New York city for family of mod
crate means and welwin pre4suppose,
refined tastes. The search was not en-
tirely successful; and the disappointed
house-hunter comes to the following
conclusions: 2 aIsZ
"Three evils are rapidly destroying
all yestiges of whatever notions OF. f.com-
fortand eIegance the old time may have
left us and although there are some en-
couraging signs that we are at the turn
OF the tide, and that each one of the
evils IS losing ground, yet the reasons
Tor hope are too faint as vet to be ac-
cepted for valid, and we must expect to
wait some years before our social life
shall haYe thoroughly righted ITSELF
The names of these three troublesome
htnderers OF our social progress are,
'Loyeot Display, Devotion to Fashion,
Indifference to Home.' This last, how
ever, as we shall show, is ratherta con-
sequence OF the Others thhny an inde-
pendent evil. If we could put down
the others, and make each home pecu-
liar and attractive in itself, indifference
would soon cease. - - ~ C- ~
"FiFst, then, for love of display If
anybody thinks that this vice belongs
exclusively to those who can afford to
crafty it without stint, and that lit
must be n stranger to the little three
story houses we have been visiting, we
beg to assure him that he is mistaken.
OF course there is1ess money to crafty
it, and the result of whatever efforts
are made in that direction is always
meagre and often comical, but its exist
ence is not to be denied. Two things,
however, we will frankly admit: First,
the result in the poorer houses is gem.
orally in quite as good taste as the far
more lavish and expensive manifesto
tions in the houses of the rich. Fifth
avenue chairs and tables, carpets, fres-
Goes and curtains are as ugly in their
way as those of tway-ovef- by East
river and 'way-eyer-by-N North-river'
respectively, Each one has less fOrtu-
nate neighborS to dazzle. rivals to out
shine, and standing to keep up.
Love of display has. a slife-lease- of at
least one small room suitable for n
single gentleman, in almost every hui
man heart, and whatever dress he may
wear he cannot conceal his 'individuali-
ty. And second, this love of display
may have its good side. 1t may be
playing its part in education, and help
ing to develop faculties that under Il
too rigorous regimen would never
show themselves. 1t is an ambition,
even though low one; and, evil thing
as it is, wedare say has some sort Of
|
and ought not, we suppose, desire to.
"But, these things allowed, there
stands the difficulty; a painted peacock,
no less raucouS in voice, and no less
ugly-foOted, because we grant crested
head and shining neck. We are killing
happiness, by our desire for display, by
our determination to appear as well as
our richest acquaintanCeS,i If we cannot
exceed them; and the ambition shows
itself in our houses themselves, in our
furniture and in our dress. ,IJHA
'In going through these houses from
cellar to garrett (and we may remark in
parenthesis that both cellars and gar
rets are rapidly disappearing in New
York. we have made this general OBJ
servation: that there is one room in
every house which is devoted to the de-
light and astonishment of the outside
world, and has no relation, or very little
beyond mere possession, to the family
that occupies the dwellings This room
is called the parlor,' or, when special
elegance is to be predicated, 'ths draw
ing room.' Aswe shall show in another
article, its furniture is regulated, both
In the number of the pieces and in their
shape, material and quality, by the sup
posed demands of fashion; but what We
wish TO remark now is, that the 1--we of
display makes this roomits stronghold,
and II 1t cannot by reason of insuffi-
cient means torsome 4peeuliarity in the
household, assert 1tS2 sway over the
whole eestablishment, 1t will at least in
trench itself here andrule undisputed." 7"
Even the poorest houses we visited
had gathered in, one room-and that
always room in the best part of the
house, the spnniest,I brightest and
largest Bhateverithey owned, which,
in their eyes, was pretty elegant, or
rich. Whatever other room wanted d
carpet, this lhadI fone; from Brnssels
to ingram, the best that the master or
mistress could afford, Here was gath
cred furniture whose cost exceeded that
of any other three rooms. Nay, we
have seen it exceed the cost of ali the
other rooms. Here was pipr-glass
rejecting the wholed.f fgufe and the
whole room in its'clear surface, while
in the wife's Bedroom small looking
glass on the bureau must serve, and the
servants under the roof must see their
visages darkly in scraps of glass se-
cured by tacks to the wall. Here were
curtains, and chairs covered with
worsted embroidery, and Bhowily-
bound books, and elaborately hfdeous
gas-fxtures, and pfoceiain or make
believe bronze ornaments in short,
whatever could be got together to make
aI6how. IA-E5--4N- $50 oS75l- f.sTE5l =
- 1--WE say to make a show, for even in
the best houses this is the only motive
we speak it boldly. This room. SO
adorned, whether with costly ugly or
cheap ugly things, is not for the delight
and use of the family; IL is for the
astonish shment and crushing Of friends,
nelghbors and chance visitors. In
many cases it is kept carefully locked
in most cases it is seldom entered, kept
slightly warmed, dimlyf lighted. and.
to avoid dustingi and sweepmg-those
destructive processes-the articles are
shrouded in linen and hid nom sight,
Even where matters are little freer. the
deteStaple 'antt=Ha Hacasser' perehes his
meddlesome and reticulated form upon
the chairs and sofas, and politely sug-
deltcate fabrics against the Visitors
dirty head. OF course this is a course
way OF putting It T; but thRt's the Eng
lish of 1t. And everywhere through
the apartment we are made to feel, and
every member of the family Is given 10
understand, that this room Is d Solemn,
equestered spot, place Of spIendor, a
shrine not to be lightly entered, and ON
no account whatever to be used ito
OF course, there are many houses,
both rich and poor, to which this de-
scdpHon will not apply. Manyfhuuses
have splendidly furnished lpaFlors, and
comfort and oonYeniehce and elegance
in every other room. Some houses
have rooms Comfortably q furnished
throughout, and have no room that Is
not In daily common use. " But the first
class must, of necessity, be rare; and
the second is, as everybody viii admit,
not 2 large one. As we stop and run
over the list of our acquaintaneesor erich
and poor, We hardly recall one In whose
the living room Is the ,pRrlor, and
where the parlor is not better furnish
ed than any room the family habitual-
" oceupieS. Indeed, twill be admitted