The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1871-03-11
Homo Ceurse,.sa.
D Ts find the following in the Editor,
Easy Chair of Hurper's Aa0ax;,,e.

a.. i;,,,,. Homo Coursesacs. -.
,sEs find Che following in the Editor 3
EasY EasY Chair" Of Harper's Magazine:
Nov. you young fellow at the table
reading the evening paper, and noddins
IN . snrIy way to your mother and sister
take test. If your clothes breathed a
delicious fragrance-say of heliotrope or
roses-bht would do 80 only when you
were at home, or only when you went
abroad, which would you choose?
Would you smell sweet at home, or when
you went away from home2 Would you
have aperpetual climate of rare odors in
your own house, or elsewhere? or
course, you would have it at home for
your own comfort and enjoyment, Won
cnrmudgeon, if for nothing else. But
what is domestic courtesy but the breath
OF heliotropes and roses at home? It is
as much for your own pleasure that You
should be pleasant as it is for that of
others: The happiest household in the
world iR that in which courtesy is new
every morning and fresh every evening,
like the celestial benedictione.
how many of ns, brethren and sisters,
make home the rag-bag of ill-humors
and caprices, and wretched moods of
every kind, while we carefully hide them
from the stranger? When the guest
arrives we slide a chair over the rent in
tne carpet, and slip tidy over the worn
edge OF the sofa-cushion, and lay q pref
tily bound book over the ink stain upon
the rarlor tahle-cloth; and so at his
coming the flying hair is smoothed. anu
the sullen look is gilded with smile.
and the sour tone is suddenly wonderful.
~ sweet. Shriveled old autumn blooms
IN moment into rosy spring. And how
1s youth to know that this house, where
everything seems to smile, is not always
as warm and sunny as he finds it? Yet
she young woman, 80 neatly dressed, 80
quietly hammered, SO fascinating to the
young man, may be the most s'ineGi-
clent" of human beings Still ho can
never know it until it is too late. He
cannot put it to the proof He takes the
divinity upon trust. All that he knows
1s that she is woman, and that he loves.
And whether he, thinks that household
intelligence and thrift, and endless cour-
tesy come by nature, like DogbcrsJs
readlng and writing, or whether he as
sumes that, having mother, his peer
lesa princess has been carefully taught
all the duties of queen, or whether, rs
Is most probable, he knows only he
soves' soms the duty OF the parent is still the
4
But to the ordeal of the household
VINO can come too we'll prepared? And
what parent, what human being who has
learned by experience, but would glndly
equip every child with the most perfect
equipment? No, Dorinda Jane, to whom
the youth, crusty at home, will presently
come sweetly smiling, it is not the flow
ing hair, and the graceful dress, and the
bloom upon the cheek, and the soft lus.
tre OF the eye, that will make homo hap.
Ply. No, nor is it his horses, and plate
and the luxury and ease he promises. II
he is harsh, and short, and grabbed,
what If he has $4,000 a year? If you
are careless. and ignorant, and helpless
the victim instead of ruler of your
house, what if your eyes are black, and
your cheeks dim carnation? And YOU.
dear sir and madam, who permit that
boor to sit surly ut the table, and to
growl in monosyllables at home. Won who
suffer that fair-faced girl to grow up Mt.
terly unequal to the duties to which sho
will be called, you are responsible.
Il am one Of those whose lot in life
has been to 60 out in an unfriendly
world ut an early age; and in twenty
9amllles IN which I made my home, in
the course OF nine years, there were only
three that could be designated as happy
families, and the source of trouble was
not 80 much the lack of love as the lack
OF care to manifest it," The CLOSING
words OF this sentence give us the fruit.
ful source of family alterations. of the
heart-aches innumerable, of sad faces
and gloomy home circles.
"Not so much the lack of love as the
lack OF care to manifest it," What n
world OF misery is suggested by this
brief remark! Not more than three hap
py families in twenty! and the cause SO
manifest, so easily remcdied! All, in the
small courtesies of life. what power re-
sides in look, word, a tone. how
much OF happiness, or disquietude NAV
be communicated. Think of it, reader,
and take the lesson home with you.