Rapides gazette. (Alexandria, La.) 1869-187?, 1873-10-11
Housekeeping versus Housekeeping.

The truest homes are often in houses not
especially well kept, where the comfort
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 interest, the
pivot on which family life turns. The first
requisite is to make 1t attractive, so attrac-
tive that none of its inmates shall care to
linger long outside its limits. All legitl-
mate means should be employed to this
end, and no effort spared that can con-
tribute to the purpose. Many houses called
homes, kept with waxy neatness by pains
taking, anxious women, are so oppressive
in their nicely as to exclude all home-feel-
ing 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
a mania for external cleanliness pervades
the household as to render everything else
subseryient thereto. Many housewives, If
they see a speck on floor or wall, or even
| a scrap of thread or bit of paper on the
| floor, rush at it, as if it were the seed OF
| pestilence which must be removed on the
instant. Their temper depends upon their
maintenance of perfect 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 cheerfulness Is more needful to home
| than all the spotlessness that ever shone.
Their disposition TO wage war upon macu-
lateness of any sort increases until they be-
| come slaves of the broom and dust-pan.
Neatness is one thing, and state of per-
petual 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 re-
veal their violated sacredness in
manner that mars every pretense OF hos
pitality. Nothing should be bought which
is considered too fine for the fullest domes-
tic appropriation. Far better is the plain.
est furniture, on which the children car
climb, than satin and damask which mus
be viewed with reverence. Where any
thing is reserved or secluded, to disguise
the fact is extremely difficult. A chilly
air wraps it round, and the repulsion o
strangeness is experienced by the most in
sensible.
There are few persons who have no
visited houses where they have been intro
| w MIftb 10 hliOMn tiit tohiPahy
parlor. They must remember how un
comfortable they were while sitting in it
how they found it almost impossible Il
be at ease, and mainly for the reason tina
their host and hostess were not themselvei
at ease. The children were watched witt
lynx eyes, lest they should displace or sol
something; so that tine entertainment o
friends became very much Ikea social dis
cipline. They must recall, too, how swee
the fresh air seemed out of doors, and how
they inwardly vowed, in leaving that TEN
! pie of form and fidgetiness, that somethln:
: more than politeness would be required q
r incite them to return.
r Home is not name, nor form, nor
4. routine. 1t is spirit, presence. prIll
t ciple. Material and method will not. an
l cannot make it. Ii must get its light an
sweetness from those who inhabit it, fror