The daily intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Territory [i.e. Wash.]) 1876-1881, 1880-01-02

To make bone beautiful 10 Q duty,
Mrs Smithers hsd always felt il to be
30. sSh. bad. therefore. knit tides, em.
bro'dered lamp rugs. worked paper
racks and tsbleciothes. and fiile.i the
house with little womsnly nick nacks.
Her husband. Mr. Smitbers, WAS . solid
respectable man, who had made money
10 trade and could afford to spend It.
He had no great artistic taste and
scarcely ever opened any book, except
parbsps the Bible Of Sunday after
noon. It was An old habit his mother
hsd taught him. and he generally got
half through the psalm he had selected
before be fell asleep. He could not
have told you the difference between
the masterpiece of one OF the greatest
artists and an auction 'pot>boiler;' but
he had. from dealing in goods long
while. acquired . certain appreciation
Of color in upholstery and carpets. and
be liked to see things bands 1ue about
him. The house WAS full Of soft, we'll.
stuffed. puffy chairs and sofas, with
comfortable low seats; there were beds
into which one sunk rs into downy
paradise; . splendid steam heater kept
up q suma.er-like temperature ali wiz
ter. The dining room table. with ito
big claw feet. was hospitality personi-
fed; the side board, with curly carv-
iogs. held nice. round silver water
pitchers. tea pots and jugs. On the
mantel pieces were the orthodox clocks,
vases aud bronzes. There were heavy
coruices above the window curtains,
and they we're looped back with mas
sive cords aud tassels. Ali was perfec.
tion at least its owners tciieved it to
be so. certainly il was comfortable y nd
costly. and very showy.
i like to coue home ~ q home like
this Mr. Smithers used to say, rubbing
his hands as he stood before the FIRE.
There is no nonsense about it,
80 Mrs SmitLers thought herself,
until she went one evening to listen to
an amateur lecture On Taste in Fur
nishins When the speaker. . red
haired young lady. in q purple dress.
without wrinkle like o pre-. Raphaelite
figure. had finished her lecture, of
which not ono word was original, poor
Mrs Smithers was in despair. Taste
was evidently something she knew no.
thing about. She had been proud Of
her home; now she felt that she should
be ashamed to let this purple young
lady enter its doors.
How many things were wrong there
her CARPETS. her curtains. her doors,
her mantel pieces, her very chairs. Oil
il Dir Smithers had hut been therei
What would he have said? But Mr.
Smithers was away. travelling on bust
ness. lie would be gone long while;
would he learn while away that his
house. was ell wrong? He might. Then
It came like an in.piration to poor Mrs
Smithers that as her dear Smithers
never wa mean about money she
might make his house right for him be.
fore he returned hcme.
Mrs Smithcrs, though she prided
herself on her taste. was not literary
woman. and she fancied that the Tor
renee Shook 30 often alluded to in the
lecture was some fashionable uphols.
terer. Probably the purple young
lady had her own house furnished aad
arranged by him.
Mrs Smithers. on going home. looked
in vain for this famous upholsterer in
the direct"ry. Finally she vcntured
TO ask better informed friend, 'Who
Terence Shook was - aud where his
Earthly Psrsdise.' that the purple
Young lady had spoken OF, could be
found
Having received the revelation that
the Earthly Paradise was hook, and
in this the 'ssyings' 90 often quoted
were to be- found, Mrs Smithers at once
procured it from booksellers and eat
down to study it.
The result was such housccleaning
- the world never saw before. Various
strange men and women. all her ser-
wants, and Mrs Smithers herself toiled
from morning until night for six weeks,
and at length. on the very eve Of her
husbands return. Mrs Smi.hers. de-
lighted With her success. went through
her home and declared it perfect.
And now . carriage drives up to the
door. Mrs Smithers flies down stairs,
o"s H"'o ss"'s.os :" soe
..csss. % sn euolm"us u.stet. a
mantcau follows. the door bangs, and
Mr. Soaithers looks about .foc his hat
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