The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-01-26
Home Courtesies.

There is great deal of truth in the fol- |
lowing, which we clip from that excellent
department in Harper's Magazine, the |
easy Chair"
Now, you young fellow at the table
reading the evening paper. and noddlng In
a surly way to your mother and sister,
take a test If your clothes breathed a
delicious fragrance--say of heliotrope or
roses-but would do SO 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 perpetual climate of rare odors In
your own house, or elsewhere3 OF course,
you would have it at home for your own
comfort and enjoyment, you curmudgeon,
if for nothing else. But what is domestic
courtesy but the breath of heliotropes and
roses at home? 1t is as much for your
own pleasure that you should be pleasant
as it is for that of others. The happiest
household 10 the world is that in which
courtesy is new every morning and fresh
every evening, like the celestial benedic-
tions.
How many of us, 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 chair over the rent in the carpet,
and slip tidy over the worn edge OF the
sofa-cushion, and lay prettily bound
book over the ink stain upon the parlor
table cloth and so at his coming the fly
ing hair is smoothed, and the sullen look
is gilded with smile, and the sour tone
is suddenly wonderfully sweet. Sbriveed
old autumn blooms in a moment into rosy
spring. And how is a youth to know
that this house, where everything seems
to smile, is not always as warm and
sunny as he finds it 2 Yet this young
woman, SO neatly dressed, so quietly
hammered, SO fascinating to the young
man, may be the most "ineficient" of hui
man beings Still he can never know it
until it is too late. He cannot put it to
the proof He takes the divinity upon
trust. All that be knows is, that she is a
woman, and that he loves And whether
he thinks that household intelligence and
thrift and endless courtesy come by nature,
like Dogberry's reading and writing, or
whether he assumes that, having mother,
his peerless princess has been carefully
taught all the duties of queen, or whether,
as is most probable, he knows only that
he loves, the duty of the parent is still the
same.
But to the ordeal of the household who
can come too we'll prepared And wha
parent, what human being who has learn
ed by experience, but would equip ever,
child with the most perfect equipment
No, Dorinda Jane, to whom the youth
crusty at home, will presently como sweet
ly smiling, it is not the flowing hair, ant
the graceful dress, and the bloom upon th'
cheek, and the soft luster OF the eye, tina
will make homo happy. No, nor is it hi
horses and plate. and the luxury and ease h
promises. If he is harsh and short anc
grabbed, what if be has fifty thousand {
year? If you are careless and ignoran
and helpless. the victim instead of ruler Q
your house, what If your eyes are blacl
and your cheeks dim carnation ? Ant
you, dear sir and madam, who permit tina
boor to sit surly at the table, and to grow
in monosylables at home, you who suffe
that fair faced girl to grow up utterly un
equal to the duties to which she will b
called, you are responsible.