The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1873-06-14
The Best Room.

What walls of sarcasm nave been poured ou
upon it Its closed shutters have cast gloon
over the pathways of literature. Its musty
smells have penetrated the corners of remote
novels. Its covered chairs have stiffened in
smart essays. Men easily influenced by public
opinion have sought to avert the shafts of sa
tire by building themselves ceiled houses with
out any "spare room," houses whose every
| apartment should be occupied. But women
cling to the chest room," the "spare room" the
parlor, and have hitherto made good fight.
And the women are right. The best room is
often absurd, but best room is not an absurd
ity. 1t is appalling to be shown into a square
apartment, with heavy, chill air, with horse
hair arm chair, and SIX horse e-hair plain chairs;
only this and nothing more. But because a
black silk gown is ill-ftting, you do not there
fore discard black silk gowns. The spare room
may have straw mating, if you please, and
cane chairs, and blinds open or closed, accord
ing to the light and heat, but every housekeep-
er knows that, after all the essays are written,
and all the arrows shot, spare room is great
resource, great peace of mind.
But it is inhospitable, says the visitor. You
do not wish to be turned off by yourself into a
room outside of the family life, destitute of as
sociation. prim, orderly, decorous, but silent
and inexpensive. You want TO go in where
| the sewing and reading and talking are, and
may be; but suppose your friend prefers not to
be thus seen? You will admit that the family
is sacred. Not every one who is welcome in
room. Nor IS the welcome to the family-room
at all times one and the same. Absolute free
dom to repel is the only guarantee of warmth
in welcome. If house have no room set off
for visitors, there is no special qualification in
being admitted to its family-room. Nor is that
home sentiment very desirable which does not
iOs tipa ma lxa dcti hQt ifc
own and the outside world, however amiable
and friendly may be its relations herewith
That family is, indeed. doing its work best-all
other things corresponding jealously
guards itself from indiscrimnate open commu-
Mon.
There are scenes ofleisure, ,chitchat, light read
ing, upon which the entrance of friend would
be no intrusion. But when you are in eager
consultation over the gray cashmere-will it
turn for Anne? Will it dye without cocklng?
Is there enough for q whole suit, or shall the
brown go with it, and makea suit of two shades
for Anne, and perhaps polonaise for Ella p
and the ruflles are on one chair and the over
skirt on another, and there is a universal rip
ping and rippling, it is then solid satisfaction
to reflect that there is room across the hall
which will tell no tales. 1t is not false
shame, foolish pride in keeping up appear
ances, that makes you dislike having Mrs. A
and Mrs. B and Mrs. walk in upon your turn
u
spontaneous modesty, natural reticence,
which prompts always to the suppression of
processes, and the exhibition only of results.
When, afterward, Mrs. A praises Anne's new
suit, you tell her, not only without shame, but
with rejoicing, how ingeniously it was fashion
ed out of the several birds in last years nest; !;
but during the fashioning Mrs. AS presence
would have distured and hindered you. A
great deal of housework is helped on by the
knowledge that there is room in the house
where that work does not go, and to which the
mistress may repair, leaving all her state Sc
crets behind her. So far from the parlor being
an incumbrance, an eXcrescence, it is relief,
safety-valve. Let us bow down to Eastlake in
sincerity and truth but to arrange our house
on the pretense that our friends are at all times
and in all parts of them equally welcome, is,
or ought to be, greater sham than all the We
neering we can put into the parlor. Because
treat my friend to-day to roast turkey and
plum pudding, do l mean to insinuate to him
that this is my everyday fare, or blush to own
that yesterday l dined off hash and hasty- pud
ding? Nay, rather, l exultantly PROFOUND to
him that ipexorable law of succession by which
chopped beef is the inevitable and not unwel-
come follower of roast. But none the less re-
joice to do him honor and my family pleas
ance by administering to him feast of fatter
things. 1t is not simply that my family feast
in his cause-it is also that he graces and gilds
my family feast. The turkey may be in his
honor, but it is he that gives the turkey its
chief charm for us.
In discussing household art we are too apt to
forget the household artist. Many beautiful
and desirable things the busy wife and msPther
china, but better loves the dmpled fingers that
do not know how to hold it and rather than
Danish them from the table, she exiles the Chi
ma to its dark closet and condescends to plain
er ware. But the knowlege that her closet
holds that treasure is joy not to be despised,
and when she spreads it upon her table at a
friends coming, and the children gaze upon it
with solemn admiration, will you rebuke her
for display instead of honesty? To many
woman her parlor is her poem. The living
room must be plain and unadorned, both out
of regard to her purse and to the careless fists
and feet, the innumerable balls and tops and
jack knives, that keep up a constant guerrilla
warfare upon polish and fragility. But this
parlor, of which the children do not have the
run, is the hunting-ground of her fancies.-
Here her delight in color and form may take
shape. Whatever of delicate, of beautiful, of
harmonious, of antique, of grotesque or fantas-
tic, please her taste, she may gather or fash
ion here safe from the incursions of her young
barbarians, all at play elsewhere. Even if she
only opens her grand room on high days, the
sun and air can speedily identify it with the
universe and her children are not harmed by
having one spot barred to their license. And
while il is the outlet for her otherwise necessa-
rily repressed inelinations, il is the arena Of
her friendships-a link whereby she keeps
pleasant hold Of the outside world. Why, o
purblind man will you insist on finding only
ostentation and convention and Mrs. Grundy
where a wiser and deeper gaze might reveal
sympathies and aspirations and all gracious
sensibilities,-Gad Hamilton ia HaTper's Bazar.