Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1877-11-23
Household Convenience.

In nine cases out of ten, in determining
household arrangements, the wife will be the
better Judge, and it is she who should hold
court. Housekeeping in farm homestead
involves, at least, a great deal of serious care
and toll, and she who bears the brunt of it
should be put in possession of all those aids
that lie in easy juxtapostion of kitchen, pan
try, stairs, presses, bathroom. Whatever
lessons the grosser labors in the homestead
civilizes and refnes. The farmer is eager to
lay hold upon whatever will tighten his work
in the field and stable. He does not keep to
the old swathe, when he can put his horses to
a Buckeye. Is he eager as he should be to
multiply aids indoors Take the water-sup-
ply, for instance there is no good reason. in
this day of hydropults and force pumps, why
every farm homestead should not have its
Astounding supply of water flowing into it,
above and below. All that relates, too, to flu
el, light, and that dreadful harassment of
washing day." should be improved and made
easily manageable by all the devices that town
civilization supplies. We cannot, indeed,
have gas in the farm homestead-except what
the campaign newspaper brings in-but with
abundant kerosene, and the improved lamps,
we may have the best of civilzers, n full flow
of light. But after ALL the best light is sun
light. and of that there should be good store +;
most of all in the room which is the living
room and the home ROOM Whatever may be-
come of parlor or of keeping room, the living
room should be the sunniest, the largest, the
cheerfullest of the whole house. Parlor means
talking place and if you must have a starched
talk with your parson, room ten by twelve is
big enough for that Better. by all Odds that
your living room were such rs to entice all
corners. whether parson or gossip, and that
they should delight in its largeness and home
ly cheer. Kept rooms, curtained and fine,
and hung with photographs, and smelling of
the varnish of new furniture you never use,
are dreadful places. In the country, and ev-
erywhere else, they smack of funerals, or of
DOrcas societies, or of that starched ceremony
which is one of the worst importations from
the town. Above all things. a good, honest
farm homestead should have the air of being
lived in" all over.
The farmer. from the necessities of the case
must be very much ut home. Whatever So
cial growth or ripeness he may come to must
be found there. Husband and wife are very
much thrown together. The resources in the
town for evenings out are not at his COM
mand. If the butter will not come, or if he
has forgotten to put that glass in the kitchen
window, he will be very likely to hear of it.
So, too--for everything has two sides-if the
heifer has kicked or if he has bought spav-
med horse for sound one, the mistress will
find that out, and the humor bred of it.
There are no such lightning conductors in the
country rs one encounters Mt street corners in
town-good, stolid fellows of the opposite
party-upon whom you can vent your spleen.
Everything comes home in the country. 1t is
amazing how much a contented wife and fam
iy-contented by reason of CHEEKY surround
ings-will take the gustiness out of a man
and stimulate his better endeavors and it is
not at all surprising how much disconnected,
querulous temper, that is bred of meagre,
ill-ordered, dingy homestead, will keep mans
spleen at fever heat and take all the bloom
from his enjoyment of life, no matter what
may be his successes out of DOORS