Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-10-16
Housekeeping Versus Housekeeping.

THE truest homes are often in houses
not especially well kept, where the COM
fort and happiness of the inmates, rather
than the preservation of the furniture, is
first consulted The object Of home is to
be the center, the point of tenderest inter
est, the pivot on which family life turns
The first requisite is to make it attractive,
so attractive that none Of its inmates shall
care to linger long outside its limits. All
legitimate means should be employed to
this end, and no effort spared that can
contribute to the purpose. Many houses
called homes, kept with waxy neaness by
painStaking, anxious women, are so OPP
pressive in their nicely as to exclude all
home feeling from their spotless precincts.
The very name of home is synonymous
with personal freedom and relaxation
from care But neither of these can be
felt where such mania for external clean
illness pervades the household as to rem
der everything else subservient thereto
Many housewives, if they see speck on
floor or wall, or even a scrap of thread or
bit Of paper on the floor, rush at it, as it
it were the seed of pestilence, which must
be removed on the instant. Their temper
depends upon their maintenance of per-
feet purity and order. If there be any
failure on their part, or any combination
Of circumstances against them, they fall
into pathetic despair, and can hardly be
lifted out. They do not see that cheerful
ness is more needful to home than all the
spOtlessness that ever shOne Their dis
position to wage war upon maculateness
of any sort increases until they become
slaves of the broom and dust-pan. Neat
ness is one thing, and state of perpetual
housekeeping quite another.
Out of this grows by degrees the feeling
that certain things and apartments are too
good for daily use. Hence, chairs and
sofas are covered, and rooms shut up,
save for special occasions, when they are
permitted to reveal their violated sacred
ness in manner that mars every pre-
tense of hospitality. Nothing should be
bought which is considered too fine for
the fullest domestic appropriation. Far
better is the plainest furniture, on which
the children can climb, than satin and
damask which must be viewed with rev.
erence. Where anything is reserved or
secluded, to disguise the fact is extremely
difficult. A chilly air wraps it round
and the repulsion of strangeness is eXpe-
rienced by the most insensible.
There are few persons who have not visi-
tCu HOUSES WHY IlS nave DSCu iHticou
to what is known as the company parlOr.
They must remember how uncomfortable
they were while sitting in it; how they
found it almost impossible to be at ease,
and mainly for the reason that their host
and hostess were not themselves at ease.
The children were watched with lynx
eyes, lest they should displace or soil
something; so that the entertainment of
friends became very much like social
discipline. They must recall, too, how
sweet the fresh air seemed out of-doors,
and how they ipwardly vowed, in leavin G
that temple of fo- and fidgetness, that
something more than politeness would be
required to incite them to return.
Home is not a name, nor form, nor a
routine. 1t is a spirit, presence, prin-
ciple. Material and method will not, and
cannot make it. = must get its light and
sweetness from those who inhabit it, from
flowers and sunshine, from the sympa-
thetic natures which, in their exercise
| of sympathy, can 'sY aside the tyranny OF
the broom and the awful duty of endless
scrubbing.-"Homa and Society," 'ocT1o-
ne1's for October.