The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-07-14
Houses and Homes.

is to the soul. 1t is the outward mani
! festation-the corporeal surrounding.
| There may be houses which are not
homes in the real sense of the term
which possess no home-like character
istics; but though the poet tells US "'tis
home where'er the heart is," home
must have a visible abiding-p place,
whether it be a roomy mansion or a
single garret.
There are houses which are in them
selves home-like, there are others which
only the outlay of time, strength, and
means can induce to take on any SEM
blauce of home.
1t has always been one of the most
unaccountable things to me, that women
who are reckoned as mistresses of the
house, and so directly concerned in all
its interior arrangements, have not
found themselves forced into architect
ure. Now and then a woman does at
tempt planning house, in an amateur
ish way, for her own benefit; and we al
most invariably find, however faulty
| her plans may be, measured by the
standard of art, there is a visible i'm
prOvementin practical matters. Women
know better than men where they want
closets, they economize passage ways,
decrease the number of doors ian item
to be considered in house cleaning
times), and they make calculations to
save steps. They never blunder into
having no immediate connection be-
tween kitchen and dining-roOm, and
having to traverse long hall and open
and shut two or three intermediate
doors in going from one to the other.
They do not commit the mistake of
bringing the back stairs down into the
dining -room-the last place in the world
where they ought to go-or the still
worse one of forgetting them altogether.
Women will generally provide for both
light and air in the kitchen; men are
too apt to think either unnecessary.
Every new-married pair should fol-
low the example of the birds, and pro-
ceed at once to provide themselves with
nest. There is no such thing as home
in a bOarding-house or hotel. And the
young people who spend the first years
of their married lives in either place are
committing a sad mistake. They rot
only miss the greatest happiness they
can ever know, but are, by the habits
and associations they are forming, to-
tally uniting themselves for simple do
mesticity in the future. They are learn
ing to be extravagant, idle, and fond of
pleasure; they lose all sense of response
blillNy lueN even iul ID6 liSA vi iOSluS
the hold which each has upon the af-
, fections of the other. II is not only Oy
the closest, most intimate, most uncon-
strained, and most private companion
ship with one another, it is only by
working for, waiting OIL, and living
with one another, that the bonds of
matrimOny, which are at the first little
more than a form, become firmly
welded, and the two are in thought,
feeling, tastes, and affections figura-
lively one. This privacy and intimacy
of relationship can never be obtained
in the publicity of the hotel parlor and
dining-room. There is no opportunity
J for the practice of economies, for little
acts of selEdenial, for labor performed
in love-opportunities which are COLI
stantly springing up in the privacy of
home.
1t has always been wonder TO me
that men and women-women especial
ly-of moderate means mechanics,
clerks, and the like, and their wives
, are content to remain in the city, sub
/ ject to all the inconvenience and eX-
penses of city homes, while far more
= comfort and convenience can be OBJ
tanned in the outskirts of most of OuI
great towns, within easy access of busi-
ness, and at far less rate of living.
The city house, built OH the principles
? of cheapness and cOmpactuess, and on
those alone, are the worst places in the
world for the health aud comfort of OuI
fragile American women. Even if they
Have strong and hardy foreign help
these houses are still perpetual source
? of weariness to not over-strong women,
If a woman has no help, but has instead
that abOminatiOn wherever found-a
basement kitcheu-so that she works
! and eats on one floor, finds her parlol
and sitting-room on another, her nur-
sery and sleeping apartments on one oil
two more, she is obliged during the day
t to perform feats of pedestrianism before
. which even Weston might quail, anC
7 which are enough to make her the in
valid she too often is, without any Other
D cause whatever.
e 1t is an old prOverb that "fools builC
houses and wise people live in them," &
saying with which, however, / do nO
entirely agree. Every man and woman
S should build at least one house. 1t i:
g an experience which every one needs
q and pleasure to which every one is en-
titled. If there was no other weighty
reason for such an act, it would be done
D as a method of expression of character
r 1t should be an embodiment of their in
dividuaI needs aud tastes, studied over
and drawn out carefully by themselves
J. And if the plan is afterwards submitted
: to an architect, as it had better be t.
have incOngruities reconciled, mistake!
}, remedIed, and cost estimated, it wOulC
4 be with the full understanding tina
}, none of the main features are to bt
changed.
It But the time to build is not when
i couple are just setting out in life. They
q had better buy or rent, then. If they
are subjected to the disagreeable expe
{ rience of frequent change, and thus be
come familiar with moving horrors
i' they may console themselves with thu
e thought that it is part of their educa
g ton; and that when the happy day
comes when they may build air-castles
which have any probability of being
realized, concerning their very owl
q house, they will be all the better pre-
: pared to make it what it should be, ant
e to find it satisfactory when completed
;. They will at least become cognizant o
y many things which they do not want
IS if they still remain in the dark as Il
d what they do want.