Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1881-07-22

| d. 5. IL
been the guide OF an exploring party, or a
cicerone v no points out to strangers the
oddities or beauties of a gallery of curl
osities. When the tour of the rooms had
been made, beginning with the guest
chambers, beautiful in their immaculate
linen and lace pillow shams, thence
through the handsome apartment fitted up
as a library, dark and gloomy, though ele-
giant, then descending the broad staircase
to file into the richly furnished parlors to
descant few minutes on the beauty of
the carpets or the lovely pictures that
adorned the walls, to tell the cost of the
bronzes on the mantle piece or the price of
the carved cabinet flor Mrs. Newton be-
longed to that class who judge Of the mer
its of a thing entirely by the amount of
money paid for it)-then the shutters would
be closed, the curtains dropped to exclude
every vestige Of sunlight, and all the
grandeur Of the Newton home was shut in
upon itself, not to be opened again, until
the advent of another caller.
The sitting room-or rather the apart
ment thus fictitiously styled, for the family
never. never. sat there-contained we'll
preserved, ancient, hair-cloth sofa and set
of chairs, together with the old-fas hioned,
| spraWling-fgured Brussels carpet and
square centre table that had adorned the
! best room of the NeWtons in their old
home. There was a pretty bay window at
one end, affording a pleasant outlook upon
the lawn, and beyond, a vista of village
street with its rows Of lombardy poplars
| This sunny recess would have been a
choice place for flowers, but they made a
dirt and litter, Mrs. Newton said. and re-
quired SO much sunlight, and sunlight was
hard on carpets; SO the bay window, with
all its bright possibilities of cheer, and
beauty, and warm radiance, was draped in
heavy damaSk, and the brightness of the
outer world excluded. 1t seemed more
place to hold funeral service than the
sitting room of a family Of children. The
fact was that Mrs. Newton found it hard
to bring herself to use in common what
had hitherto been treasured with care as
the best. She liked fine things, and she
liked to keeped them fine, and the way to
do this was obviously not to use them.-
The large dining room opening from this
apartment, fitted up in style correspond
ing with the house, was also tabOoed
place.
"There's no use in buying nice furniture,
and then having it scratched and ruined
by careless Children said the mistress of
the house. II want to keep this room re.
spectacle enough to bring company in here
and it wouldn't be month till the carpet
would be full of grease spots and the pa
per ruined with fly specks, if we used it ev-
cry day." Then the lock was turned, and
the dining room, with all it's pretty ap-
pointments, was left to the enjoyment OF
stray fly or two which had escaped the
vigilance of Mrs. Newton. There was a
small breakfast room in the rear of the
building, with one solitary window looking
out upon the kitchen porch, which hid
even view of the garden patch by the in
reference of a green lattice; and this
room with it's dingy carpet and faded cur
tain, it's common wooden chairs and its
single rocking chair, became the real sit
ting room of the family. A square stand
and a sewing machine completed the fur
niture. Not stray newspaper or maya
zine, not half-read Sunday-school book,
with it's dog-eared pages, peeped out any
where, for Mrs. Newton disliked Ito see
things lying around" All was horribly
grim and ugly. The children indeed,
made two or three futile attempts to rend-
er the place more attractive by making a
couple Of wall pockets of silver card board;
but when they were finished they looked
SO pretty that their mother said they were
just the thing for the spare chambers, and
they were accordingly hung there.
1--WE might just as well not have made
'em." pouted Lily. ''Of course they make
the house look pretty but nobody ever
gets to see 'em poked away off up there. y
The swing on the back balcony, which
the little ones had gleefully planned, was
never put up. sit would bring all the
children in town here, and the porch floor
would be tracked from one end to the
other. No, indeed, you can't have
swing," said Mrs. Newton, and that set
tied the matter. Nor did the projects of
the separate playhouse and the quadrille
party meet with better success. dance
on my body Brussels, indeedl They must
be crazy p was her indignant comment.
''Botheration! l wish we hadn't bought
good carpets for our house," grumbled
! ,I,,Ir al 1of1, yo,,lI
have been ten times nicer. Then we
needn't always be SO 'fraid of spelling it.,
and could have some fun occasionally, like
other boys"
"You ought to be ashamed to talk so,
Sam, - replied his mother, severely, "when
you have a better home than any boy or
girl in Brompton. There isn't one of 'em
but would be glad to exchange their little
cramped up house for ours"
"Ob, [ know our house is nice, but
somehow" said Sam, drawing his brows
together with perplexed expression.
The knowledge that their house was
more costly than their neighbors', and was
supposed to be attractive In every way by
their associates, who saw only the outside
glitter and show, did not satisfy Sam and
Jack Newton, when they felt, though they
could not express 1t, that their fine sur
roundings lacked the essentials Of home.
The long winter evenings now came on,
but the pleasant spectacle Of family
group gathered around capacious table,
, on which there was plenty Of room for
elbows and books and states and games OF
, work, was found within the cramped sit
f ting rooms of the Newtons. The little
, stand was never drawn out from its place
against the wall, and even had it been, ii