Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-08-20
LETTER FROM MOTHER GOOSE
"There is mo- place like home. y

| 'Inere is no place IKE nome.
Perhaps there is no trait of human nature
more universal than the tendency 10 moral
ize over the mote in our brothers eye, while
| oblivious of the beam in our own. Perhaps
| that is why we OF America are so prone to
fling our darts OF criticism and condemnation
! at our French cousins for their frivolty, their
lack of domesticity and their slight valua-
| ton OF the hcarthstone virtues. Perhaps
| that is why this prosy moralist finds in the
| subject matter of this letter beam OF por-
| tentous size and potent of evil. Those ig-
norant of the ways of our town might be led
| to suppose that there was an unknown guam
tity of invalids, chronically helpless, in our
midst, judging rashly from the number of
| tidy-lookiDg trays that fit hi.her and thither
and y-which-a-way, nicely covered,
bullying with mysterious excrescences, skill
fully balanced on the expert hand of hotel
or restaurant tender, and usually supple
mented with britannia coffee-pot meals
served up to tempt the capricious appetiies
of the sick" thought this ignorant observer.
But with frequent perambulations with eyes
and ears both open, she discovered the true
inwardness of those mysterious trays. They
are saving machines. 1t is the fashion, and
a fashion largely and rapidly on the increase,
for housekeepers ~ to have their meals sent
them. clearinghouse abound in Memphis.
You do not have TO look for them; they look
for you, or you stumble on them in clusters,
in blocks, in groups. From the stately Pea
body down to all sorts of funny and ssuspi-
cious-looking little cuddies, "rooms to let
and board by the day or week" is the rule
and not the exception. Examine further into
this away-from-home sort of existence and
you will find that in addition to the
housekeeper, who has her meals brought
to her, and the one who boards outright,
is the one who leaves her own home TO
plod through rain and mud or pick her way
through sitting dust and heat to take her
meals at some hotel or clearinghouse. Now,
if there is one thing above all others that
person has an absolute right to do in his or
her own way and time it is eating. But
there is a morale to this shiftless sort of Iiv-
ing that cannot but excite somber specula-
ton. Those who defend il on the score of
economy tacitly admit their own inability 10
give wise and judicious supervision to their
husbands best interests. Those who defend
it on the score (Which is the defense oftenest
put forward) that the servants of to-day are
so perfectly intolerable and unmanageable
that they make housekeeping terror and a
torment, tacitly acknowledge their own lack
of administrative ability and feebly yield
where they should struggle for and msinta ain
the supremacy. Those who plaintively de-
clare that it is utterly impossible to attend
to house full of children and keep house
too, tacitly acknowledge themselves but par
TALLY fitted for the solemn duties they as
sumed with their wedding rings.
There is strong old Saxon word, full of
meaning and redolent of sweet home, that is
being made by-word and mockery of by
this Sinking of wiie's responsibilities. The
word ia houseband, or housebond-"the mas
ter of the house"-which, by a natural and
easy transition, became husband. But alas
for tie husband when his house becomes
but sleeping place, or shelter from cold
and rain; for with the relief from the cares
and responsibility of providing for the daily |
wants of her family, the wife finds excuse |
and freedom for an amount OF idleness that |
may be judiciously disposed of, but which is |
sadly more apt to result in enntsi, with all ills |
attendant evils. When the parlor OF hotel |
or clearinghouse becomes the only rallying |
point for the family, the essence OF home-life |
is lost. For the free and pleasant discussion |
of common interests the gossip of the place |
and hour is substituted. With no especial |
duties OF her own to fill her time, madame
begins 10 take undue interest IN the affairs
of her ow-boarders. Children, recog-
nizing no spot they can freely claim as I
home, treated rather az il permitted to exist
by suGerance. become alienated and indiffer
emit; fathers and husbands, lacking that dig
nified sense of proprietorship that lends re-
spectability to the humblest laborer seated
at the head of his own table, will wander for
relief and recreation to the billiard saloon
or the beer-room. Far be il from me 10 de-
tr act from the merits of the many gentle and
refined ladies, who, under stress of circum
stances, have opened their homes TO board
ers. These, in their turn, are godsends to
the numberless unmarried and homeless men
who are thus enabled to enjoy the refine
nents of home, where otherwise they would
be compelled TO herd together in big hotels
DR. cheap eatinghouses, to be fed like so many
hungry animals. For them these structures
are meaningless.
Somebody mot lone who knows the
place and people far better) has recently
Memphis, with The memorable
1istinctness of type whisky soaked town."
declare had not thought it was. Though
he beer saloons are not like sngei's visits,
lew and far between. But is it too much to
,ay that the link between the wiie's sins OF
omission and the husbands sins of commits
ion is not hard to find, There never was a
line when matrimony was so much be-
auded, hefriended aud bespoken as. now;
With m matrimonial aid associations and aids
O procure homes and att the rest of it, it
you'd seem as if the difficulty lay now-a,.
lays IN mans not getting married. But
With al the labor=saEiBs engines in full ].
last to keep a woman from exerting herself
o make her own garments or as much as |
up of coffee for her spouse, he must needs
'e bold man who would take unto himself
'arlor.
l have an old-fashioned but abiding con-
lotion that bright hearthstone, that Sc
ure sense of monopoly that il so pre- eious to
very true mans heart, the knowledge that {
eace and rest await him at the close of the
ay in spot inviolably his own, sacred from
intrusion, will go further toward helping a
lan in the way he should go than all the |
ectures that ever were delivered in public I
r in journal stamped in type, or couched in
ulks and tears. IL
There never was a truer utterance Il don't |
row whether was franklin or Watts, or '
ither, who said it, but they generally divide t
ne credit for prosy wisdom) than that "Sa-
an still will always find some work for idle 1
ands to do" and for willing and apt work (
len recommend him TO those who are con- G
INT TO seek their own ease at the sacrifice of
1eir own hearthstone. MOTHER GOOSE.
Wear of Coin aud Bank Notes. IL