The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1881-01-27

A country home in the summer is
PLEASANT, no matter how homsly 1t may
be. The green turf, the graceful fo1i-
| age, the song of the birds, the domestic
animals, and the pure air. give charm
to the farmers home at this season,
which compensates for many an arti-
fetal comfort to be found in the city,
and which city people appreciate more
highly than does the countryman. The
latter is SO accustomed to the sights and
sounds of animate and inanimate nature
that, too often, having eyes. he sees
them not, and having ears. he hears
them not. 10 the city man, however,
going into the country in June, the air
seems SO pure. the sky SO blue; the trees
SO graceful and the landscape 80 extend
ed and beautiful, that he feels as we can
imagine one to feel when escaping from
Purgatory into Paradise. A cottage in
the country seems to him preferable to
palace in the city, aud he vows that
as soon as he is able he will have
country home, raise poultry, keep cows
and bees, live on eggs, milk and honey.
and turn from city life forever. Let the
same man visit his country cousin in
one of November's bleak days, the birds
gone, the fields brown, the air chilly,
and his cousins family lowering over
the kitchen stove in long evening,
with "tallow Dip for light, with few
books, no sofa, no piano, no pictures,
no air of comfort, sent to sleepin cold
room, and reused up to breakfast be-
fore daylight. and he hurries back to
his city home disguised with farm lite,
and contented to live on his little lot,
twenty by fifty feet. As he sits in the
evening before his CRATE, radiant with
light and heat, and looks round his cozy,
well-furnished parlor, the walls orna-
mented with pictures, creeping ivy, and
bouquets of pressed ferns and bright
colOred leaves, he says to his wife:
"You need not trouble yourself any
more about moving to farm. This
winter visit has robbed the country of
all its charms for me. The farmhouse
is pleasant in the summer, but in this
latitude there is more winter than sum-
mer, and verify believe that at this
season we have more comfort in this
little pent-up home of ours than Cousin
A. has in his large mansion, surrounded
by broad acres"
This is superficial view of q farm
u . uOuO III W ll1VCA Wu1Cu 10 OAGCu tSthCu
by city people. The contrast between
the indoor life of q well-to-dO aenizen
of the city and that of a well-to-do
farmer is SO great that we do not won
der that the former prefers his home
for permanent abode. Granting that
there are comforts and pleasures in the
farmhouse in the winter which the city
man. making flying visit, sees not,
and is annoyed by the petty discom-
forts to which he is not accustomed,
still it cannot be doubted that there is
margin for improvement in the home
of the average farmer at this season,
and it may be timely to call attention
to some reforms which can easily be
made. Anything which can make home
more inviting to children and friends is
worth considering.
In the first place, too many farmers
live in the kitchen, and this located in
the rear of the house, with little sun
shine and little air of comfort If pow
erty compels to this. all right; but in a
majority of cases it is the result of par
simony rather than poverty. The par
lor and the living-room are considered
too good for every day use; they must be
kept for company and special occasions.
This is a great mistake. Home is where
the family lives, not where friends and
strangers may occasionally visit. The
associations of home in the minds of
many children are almost wholly with
the dingy kitchen. What is the use of
parlor unless it is usedP And who
has better right to live in the living
room than the family? This keeping
Sxxyr> thro0 Hryo11 ,:sl,o I,,t
shut up from the family and opened
only TO visitors, is worse than robbing
Peter to pay Paul, for Paul. the stran-
ger, has no claim, certainly none to
which son Peters is not paramount.
No wonder that farmers children de-
sert the farm, when they are shut out
from the comfortable quarters of the
house for the greater portion of the
year. This alternating in the kitchen
is too much after the woodchuck fash
ion. Children are entitled to some
thing better after having worked hard
all summer. The kitchen is the place
to cook, not to live. The sights and
smells of cooking are anything but ap-
petizing. The living and eating room
may be one; but for q well-to-do farm
er to cook, live and eat in the same
room, is degrading the home of civ
ilization to the style of the Esquimaux.
Health demands that the living room
in winter should be on the sunny side
of the house. The statistics of our
hospitals prove that patients are more
likely to recover if the sunlight per-
meates their rooms. Without any such
statistics, every one is conscious that q
sunny day is celebrating, and cloudy
day dispiriting. Why should farmer
subject his family for the whole winter
to the depressing influence of q dark,
gloomy room in the rear of his house?
Winter is little dreary in these north
ern ATTITUDES at its best estate; but win
ter can be cheated of much of its gloom
by glowing fires. cozy furniture, walls
hung with pictures, and festooned with
evergreens and bright leaves.
'.Home is whore the heart is" and
to make his home one of Heartfelt pleas
ure should be the aim of every one,
but especially of the farmer, as he is
generally SO remote from neighbors
that the social enjoyments of life must
be largely confined to the family.
Though thus restricted, they may, with
little painstaking, be of the highest
and most satisfactory kind, even in the
short days and long fights of winter.
To this end. keep the comfortable of
the living-room well supplied with pa
pers and magazines, the bookcase
filled with good books, and let the
reading be interpreted with genial
conversation, music and games. There
is no more harm in checkers, chess,
blindman' s-buff than there is in eating,
drinking, coasting and skating. A lit
tie frolic and fun are as essential to a
lively mind as food and drink are for q
healthy body. If children are INDUCED
with such recreations (under proper
restrictions) at home, they will not seek
them in mixed company abroad. with
the usual accompaniment of late hours
and fashionable display.-Cor. Country
Gentleman
nlvvI II