Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-04-04
0blo Statestnar.
How No1 10 Make "a Home.

| spcDu uay aIGeT udy Ill JT1 lUR W RcJ Il
house to live in. Our sufferlngs in the
prolonged, delusive and futile search for
a protection from the approaching winter,
and a shrine in which to deposit our do
mCstic gods, have been SO great that we
should recount them unasked; when we
found, however, that although| in answer
| to advertisements and the invitation OF
agents, we came and saw, repeatedly, but
| in no case conquered, we determined, as the
experience was not to be Stunned, that we
would try what we could extract from 1t
| in the way either of amusement or instruc-
tion. After as honorable afashion as we
could, we would play spy; we would see
for ourselves how the ordinary run of
Americans live, and how they furnish their
houses. II there should be anything to
praise, we would praise it, and if anything
be mended, we would try topoint out the
| way.
Let us promise that the houses we have
been dealing so treacherously with have
not been first-class houses, although the
occupants have in every case, without eX-
ception, endeavored to make us believe that
they were; nor have they been very low
down in the domestic architectural scale.
They were average types of American
middle class dwellings, and it is with some
cOmpunction and more chagrin that we re-
cord our impression that anything more
grim, unbeautiful and cherries, it would,
we hope, be impossible to find. There
seems to be no love of beauty-no natural
taste: and nothing could be more reason
ably expected, these being wanting, than
that there should be no real love OF COM
fort. And, accordingly, there is none.
Three evils are rapidly destroying all
vestiges of whatever notions of comfort
,In IL hnx IaVnft
and although there are some encouraging
signs that we are at the turn of the tide,
and that each one Of these evils is fast los
ing ground, yet the reasons for hope are
too faint as yet to be accepted for valid, and
we must expect to wait for some years be-
fore our social life shall have thoroughly
righted itself. The names of these three
troublesome hinderers of our social pro-
gress are "Love of display" ""Devotion to
fashion," "Indiflerence to home." This
last, however, as we shall show, is rather
consequence of the Others than an in-
dependent evil. If we could put down the
others, and make each home peculiar and
attractive in itself, Indifference would soon
come.
FIRST then, for love of display. If any
body thinks that this vice belongs eXclus-
lively to those who can afford to crafty it
without stint, and that it must be strang-
er to the little three-story houses we have
been visiting, we beg to assure him that he
is mistaken. OF course there is less money
to crafty it, and the result Of whatever
efforts are made in that direction is always
meagre and often comical, but its existence
is not to be denied. Two things, however,
we will frankly admit: First, the result in
the poorer houses is generally in quite as
good taste as the far more lavish and eX-
pcnsive manifestations in the houses of
the rich. Fifth Avenue chairs and tables,
carpets, frescoes and curtains, are as ugly
in their way as those of sway by East
river" and sway -over-by-North river" re-
spectively. Each one has less fortunate
neighbors to dazzle, rivals to outshine and
standing" to keep up. "Love of dis
play" has life lease of at least one small
room, suitable for single gentleman, in
almost every human heart, and whatever
dress he may wear he cannot conceal his
individuality. And secOnd-his love of
display may have its good side. 1t may be
playing its part in education, and helping
| to develop faculties that under too rigor-
| Gus regimen would never show themselves.
| 1t is an ambition, even though allow one !;
and, evil thing as it is, we dare say has
some sort of goodness in 1t, If we only had
the wisdom to direct it since we cannot kill
| it, and ought not, we suppose, to desire it,.
But these things allowed, there stands
the difficulty; painted peacock, no less
rancorous in voice, and no less ugly-foot-
| ed, because we grant crested head and
shining neck. We are killing sincerity
and domestic happiness, by our desire for
display, by our determination to appear as
well as our richest acquaintance il we can
not excel them; and the ambition shows it
self in our own houses themselves, in our
| furniture and in our dress.
In going through three houses from cell
| lar to garret (and we may remark in par
enthesis that both cellars and garrets prop
| er are rapidly disappearing in New York;,
we have made this general observation !:
that there is one room in every house
which is devoted to the astonishment and
| delight of the outside world, and has no re-
lation, or very little beyond mere possess
| sion, to the family that occupies the dwell
ing. This room is called "the parlor," or,
when special elegance is to be practiced,
"the drawing room" AS we 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
supposed demands of fashion; but what we
| wish to remark now is, that the love of dis
play makes this room its stronghold, and if
| it cannot, by reason of insufficient means or
some popularity in the household, asserTits
sway over the whole establishment, it will
at least entrench itself here and reign un-
disputed.
Even the poorest houses we visited had
gathered in one room-and that always a
room in the best part of the house, the sun
niest brightest and largest-whateve they
| owned, which, in their eyes was pretty,
elegant or rich. Whatever other room
wanted carpet, this had one; from Brus-
sells to ingram, the best that the master or
mistress could afford. Here was gathered
furniture whose cost often exceeded that of
any other three rooms. Nay, we have seen it
exceed the cost of all the other rooms. Here
was a pier glass rejecting the whole figure
and the whole room in its clear surface /;
while in the wife's bedroom a small looking
| glass on the bureau must serve, and the
servants under the roof must see their Wis
ages darkly in scraps of glass secured by
tacks to the wall. Here were curtains and
chairs covered with wOrsted embroidery,
and showily bound books, and elaborately
hideOus gas fixtures, and porcelain or make
believe bronze ornaments; in short, what
ever could be got together to make show.
We say to make q 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 cheaply-ugly
| things, is not for the delight and use of
family; it is for the astonishment and
crushing of frieads, neighbors and chance
visitors. In many casesit is kept carefully
locked; in most cases it is seldom entered
kept slightly warmed, dimly lighted, and
| to avoid ductinor md cmapninU .thaca do