Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1878-08-09
Home Comforts NationalIy COntrasted.


The Germans?-they haveclose stoves
and brick floors, and as little room dec
Grafton as political freedom. The ltal-
ians ?-they have space certainly, and
architectural splendor of kind, espec-
tally in the grand old-fashloned palazzi;
their marble floors are cool in summer,
and their bad carpentery lets the air cir
culate freely by night as well as by day.
But in winter? when home comfort has
vital meanlngP what of it is found,
think you, in these handsome barracks
of theirs, where you have to muffie
yourself up in fIrs as if setting out for
Journey through Siberia, and for all arti-
fetal warmth trust to the scaldino under
your feet, and maybe one in your lap
waiting with patience, warmed by cups
of broth, for the turn of the season
which is to release you from semi-con-
gelation? No; the Italians know moth
ing of comfort as we have it, and both
the French and the Germans beat them
off the field. These last indeed do give
us cleanliness, which the children of the
sunny south hold superhuous posses
sion altogether, and, although spiders
and red ants, cockroaches, with an occa-
sional scorpion in your window curtains
und centipede under your pillow, may
be interesting enough to the naturalist,
Ghey are not of so much value to the
world at large. Ordinary folks, indeed,
would prefer to have their apartments
so we'll busted and cleaned as to make
the tenancy of these and other such
beasts impossible, compounding for the
loss of naturalistic knowledge by the
gain of personal comfort and domestic
cleanliness. As for Spain-poor Spain
like a queen of old time tumbled down
from her royal heights, reduced to beg
gary, and trailing her purple in the dust
she is past praying for in the matter
of domestic decency, not to speak OF
comfort. She does not know the alpha
bet, still less how to write the poem of
Home-so she may pass to the side as
not worth the trouble of considering.
In Russia we have home comfort of
very sufficient quality; yes, that is unde-
niable; but outsider You cannot call
climate where frost-bites are of the ordi-
nary run of things if square inch of
YOUR flesh meets the air comfortable
Our own climate is bad enough but we
are a few degrees less ferocious than
Russia, and the chances of catching a
cold are not exactly to be weighed
against those of being caught by pack
of wolves if you venture half mile
away from the village. Still, the house
appliances of Russia are to be spoken
Of with more than respect-with genu-
inc admiration-and their superiority to
our own confessed with gratitude for the
lesson; though none the less England
is the most comfortable country, and
with fewer unpleasantnesses to smooth
away we have both a sharper plano and
more nicely-adjusted ornamentation.
Far north life IS too severely simple for
our more cultivated tastes and luxurious
habits: Just as far south, it is too airily
dependent on the perfection of natural
conditions; SO that when the dark days
coC,ImrIee-and they come in the south all
the same, If not SO frequently or so Sc
verely as in the north-you are badly
off. and suffer from the discomfort Of
the houses more than you suffer from
the unpleasantnesses of the English
sky. On the whole, we think no one
viii DENY that we have the largest
amount Of comfort, if not of natural
facilities and that, fog and rain and
snow and sleet notwithstanding, we
know the art of cozy living better than
any other people in the world.