New-York tribune., 1872-12-06
HOST AND GUEST.


HOST AND GUEST
Here is the hospitable holiday time upon US
again Most of us arc apt to open our ears
anxiously, just now, to any hint as to how 70
make our houses attractive TO our guests, and
to show our welcome pleasant as VIC mean 1t
TO be sincere. We Americans, in the North
especially, do not entertain well. we lack
the cordial habit Of voice and eye, no matter
how warm our feeling may be, which puts.
not only the house. but its owner, at tho dis
posal of the guest. II was not the eda-Sucre
of the Frenchman, nor the "meat and vine
galorer at the Irish gentleman's table, which
made whoever broke bread with them fed
that it was compact of friendship Tor ah
tine II was not alone gross food they gave
You at the gay little breakfast or the dinner
colored by wine and wit, but part OF their
real lives-a bit of themselves. You bade host
and hostess farewell with twingc OF real
pain, quite sure that you would De remem-
ber.d there if nowhere else Very probably
you went out Of. sight and memory with the
empty bottles that were carried from tho table,
out the delusion while it listed, had rare
flavor of its own, which no wine could equal
Now. on the contrary, you dine with your
| new ucQuulDtdDCc III A'NN 1rA"' "
in Boston, with the shivery certainty within
you that you are but one Of an endless cara.
van of guests upon whom the oiled hinges OF
his walnut doors daily open and close, ana
the chilly welcome of his polite smile ialis;
Won come in hot and fresh as tho omele'@s
and entrees, and 60 out as cold and unheeded
as the emptied dishes. Yet put the New
Yorker TO the test, and you win find bo VIII
ring true as a friend, bail you out of scrapc,
help you win the woman you love, or nurse
Won in YOUR death-bed, when the cour-
Toms foreigners of many land would
have whisled you down to 1orgetIui-
ness. 1t is the manner of friendship VIC
lack, not the matter The Saturday Ree'Gr'
| the organ of the higher social life III England,
had lugubriOus wall last week over the busi'
ness of visiting which fills up two-thirds
of the lives of the middle and upper
classes there. Itggnashes its teeth over The
meanness, the s!aleness, the lnsutieTaple
boredom of tho whole merccnary TRANSACTION.
Every year the country population swaims
down upon the London householder, and the
city people descend in return, lOcust-like, upon
green field and farmhouse, until the tax OF
hospitality is more than either can bear In
Justice to their families. Home Is sbolshedj
each house for part of the year becomes
hotel. The ReUiel1 proposes, with GRIM IRONY
that they be built in future with view 10
that end; guest-kitchens. chambers anu draw
ing-rooms monOpolizing as much space as Is
necdful, but separate, small m6nago being
constructed, TO which the baited host
and his family may fly for safety
and quiet. Our own Hospitality has less OF
this trading quality. When we take Jones
and his wife to the opera in January we DO
not count upon paying ourselves by weeks
shooting on his place IN September. Our dif-
fculty lies elsewhere. In all probability, un-
less we are people so well to do that we have
a professed cook in our kitchen, we aro
speculating during the opera upon the
wretched hash of a supper which Bidly VIII
serve on q return, or, in the dread OF that,
we take the JoneseS to DelmOnico's. There Is
the chilling blight upon our manners. VINO
can be genial and hospitable over a restaurant
table where each dish has its tcketed
price, or at our own when the speeters
of drunken cooks or insolont chamber
maids sit heavy on our souls In nine
cases out of ten, too, the hospitality
we offer Jones Is just ten degrees higher IN
the scale of expense than we can afford. We
would scorn to offer him the fare aud lodging
which suit ourselves; We must give him that
OF our neighbor whose income is treble ours.
We venture into rash untrodden ways of
French dishes, wines bought at the groccr's.
cOlored walters hired at the hotel round the
corner. The imitation is invariably failure
the home flavor and heartiness evaporate from
the meal, and Jones detects the imposition at
every turn. Then, once or twice year. We
invite oil the JOneses we know, abandon our
house to uphOlsterers, caterers, and decorators.
and give them carte blanche to be hoSpitable
| for us. Why not send Jones o ticket for
supper at a hotel at once, and stay at home
ourselves in comfort9
One of the eminent Enslishmcn now in this
country complained that in the state dinners
given him he could not gain a glimpse of the
real social or home life of the country. How
many hOusekeepers would dare to ask him to
eat lunch or drink cup of tea with her, or
believe that it was just that welcome and
insight into her daily life that best satisfied
any stranger or constituted the essence Of
real hospitality
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