The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1880-02-19
A Protest Against Parlors.

AProtest Against Parlors.
!sh 1t queer, when we do pause to
fehect, to find that the largest expenses.
ana the most wearisome burdens of
nome life, are borne for the sake of gain
ing the most worthless, the most un-
profitable ends, the shams that every
body sees through, the pretense of ele-
ganee that deceives no one, the efforts
at style that only succeed in making
ourselves and all those around us thor.
oughly uncomfortable? How we do
work for them! How we neglect the
Welghtier matters of real, solid com
fort, and hearty good fellowship! What
slaves we make of ourselves, and what
weary drudges of our wives! What
torments we are to our children, lest
something should be done that Mrs.
Grundy thinks should not be done, or
something left undone which that an
clent and honorable bug bear expects of
her followers! On the whole, it appears
to me that about one family in ten has
learned how to make home the comforta-
BILE, natural, peaceful institution which,
by Heavens design, it ought to be. Not
to attempt a catalogue of all the differ
ences between the true homes and the
false, there is one thing for which this
decimal fraction of domestic humanity
finds no place or use; one time-honored
department has been abolished from
these homes of the wise minority. They
have no parlors.
Now behold Mrs. Grundy spread her
two hands aloft, like the sails of wind
mill, too much aghast even to utter a
groan! Yes, madam, 1 affirm, before
she has chance to recover breath, the
most sensible, the most delightful, the
most "stylish y homes have ever seen,
have no parlors at all, nothing but
sitting room or library. 1t is hardly
necessary in the year of grace 1885,
almost to enter a solemn protest
against the "green, ungainly, ghostly,
gaunt and ominous - best room of fifty
years ago, which was almost as sacred
in the esteem of the household as the
family tomb, and almost as cheerful;
whose hair-cloth furniture stood in rigid
rectitude against the four walls; whose
darkened windows never opened to the
sun, except on great occasions of grief
or scarcely less solemn merry makings
in short, for weddings and funerals.
Modern inventions and modern extrava-
gance have invaded even this dignified
domain, and the "parlor is usually
the 'sbest /" room, estimated by the
variety and value of its contents. Here
are the finest pictures, the richest car
pets. the costliest furniture, the most
"gilty'' paper, the rarest ornaments.
This is the room into which visitors
are shown whom it is de-
sirable to impress = and oppress
with the elegance of our
establishment. Any thing like daily
use of all its grandeur is never dreamed
of in the philosophy of the great nine
tenths who have not yet learned the
aesthetic side of housekeeping. What
a miserably mischievous mistake it is,
to be sure! Why, the very fact that it
is the best room in the house, that it
contains the accumulated and cherished
treasures of the home - treasures that
give it its personality, and distinguish it
from all other homes = is the very rea-
son why it should be honored by con-
stant occupation. What upon earth are
all these beautiful things for, if not for
the sake of their influence upon those
to whom they belong, the unconscious
and always elevating influence which
beauty exerts by its mere presence and
familiarityP
The truth is that a room is never SO
completely out of order, as when every
thing is exactly "in place." when the
chairs all stand against the walls where
no one could sit with ease, where the
blinds are closed SO tightly that we can
not see, where the portfolio of engrav-
ings and the box of stereoscopic views
are shut up and laid away, when every
book is abed and asleep, the pictures
shrouded, the lamps unlighted, and the
very candle-wicks fresh and white from
the molds.
Between this formal state of affairs,
and the extreme of disorder that betrays
indifference, laziness or downright boor-
ishness, there is an immeasurably long
distance. Somewhere between the two,
l think it is about half way, lies the high
and happy level of intelligent, joyful
use. When / say the parlor should be
constantly occupied, / do not of course
mean that the master should shell his
corn under the piano, and the mistress
mold her bread on the center-table; but
that when the time comes for the family
reunion, which should be at least once
every day, when father, mother, sister,
brother, are all together, for the sake of
being together, then the best room in
the house is none too good for this
sacred gathering. The children will
not come here to play blindman's buff
or baseball; but the sooner they are
taught the careful, gentle manners that
entitle them to admission to the room