The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1876-03-30
Some Kinds of Guests.

Some guests are fearful infections, and
make you count the Hours until the time
of your release arrives. Take for one
example those stiff and unyielding dead
weights who will not take their place
among you, do what you will in the way
Of friendly welcome and family recep-
ton; not to speak of their absolute ina
bility to make themselves at home of
their own free will, as some good easy
creatures do even in the teeth of difficult
ties. There they sit in the drawing.
room, dressed in their company clothes,
doing their company work, wearing
their company manners, waiting to be
attended to and amused, and feeling
themselves neglected or even insulted if
they have not some one told off to the
service every hour of the day. They
think that going out on visit is by no
means the same thing as being at home,
and they make you understand what they
expect of you. Do you live in a remote
country village where your grandest din
ner parties consist of the vicar, the doc
tor and their respective wives? Your for
NAL guest brings her finest gowns and
smartest caps, and astonishes the simple
folk of the neighborhood by toilet that
had done good service at a millionaire's
state banquet. You and your local COL
leagues are quite satisfied with the plain
but pleasant dinner which gives every
one enough to eat withoutfin or pretense
at elegance; but your formal guest thinks
there should have been entries such as on
~ chef or a Gordon bleu can prepare, and
she lets you understand that la Russo
is the only style which she can conscien-
tiously commend. She knows nothing of
the homely friendliness which is the order
of your simpler mode of life, and holds
that, at least during her visit, that order
should be suspended in favor of a more
elaborate procedure. Paying visits is
not an everyday matter in her life, and
she does not wish it to be shorn of any of
its pomp, any of its formality.
Her antipodes is the very homely, very
free and frank kind of guest who repu-
dates the thinnest web of conventionality,
and comes into your house as if born in
your family puppies, and accustomed to
your ways from the beginning "Never
mind me" is her motto, and she acts on
it to the ultimate. She offers to Accom-
pany you to your kitchen when you 60 to
give your morning orders; and she peeps
into the pantry and the larder with akeen
appreciation of the comestibles that are
in store. But she probably puts in her
word of kindly advice while you and cook
are consulting, and with her never mind
me" sort of manner, advises you to cut
out such and such dish from your menu
as superduous for the occasion, those
which areleft being" quite good enough, -
and mo one wants more" She is always
thinking, indeed, how best to save your
pocket, and acts throughout her visits as
if you were on the verge of bankruptcy,
which a joint extra or pudding beyond
the ordinary tariff would precipitate and
confirm. In her anxiety to be friendly
and not burdensome, she offends your
pride and wounds your self.love, as well
as your sense of hospitality ; out she means
we'll, and you have to swallow your NOR
LITIGATION in your gratitude; or you strike
balance between the formal guest fol
| whom nothing was too good, and very
little good enough, and this friendly bit Of
familiarity and slipshod, who is so anx.
ious not to be a burden on your finances
nor restraint on your movements, thai
she assumes you to be pauper, and does
not credit you with the ordinary polite
ness taught by hospitality and self-re
straint.
Then there is the independent guest
who arranges her own life as if she were
not on visit at all makes engagements
invites her friends, accepts Invitations
and all the rest of it, without word o1
consultation with you, her hosts; treating
your house as if it were an inn where she
owed no consideration to anyone. Il
never seems to occur to her that she has
come to visit you, and to pay you as much
attention IS she receives. She has come
to make use of you, and to enjoy herself
in her own way, independently Of yours
Your house is simply her gratuitous no.
tel, and she uses it as hotel without con
science Or conjunction.
On the other hand, your helpless and
dependent guest cannot stir step without
some one at her elbow. But, at all events
if helpless, she is at home in your house
and does not treat you like an hotel
keeper; which saves your pride, if i
takes up your time, and, though it may
weary, yet does not offend you.-Hons1
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