The Russellville Democrat. [volume] (Russellville, Ark.) 1875-1898, 1883-05-10
True Hospitality.

Il don't believe in a good-natured
husband.n said a lady to friend, sit
makes him bring home too many friends
Tor dinner, and If there's anything
hate it's that
1t is presumable that the above para
graph embodies the two extremes of
hospitality; that of the husband who
recklessly invites a guest home without
knowing whether there is anything in
the larder, and that of the wife who
could not welcome either husband or
guest on such an occasion because she
did not have her table in holiday dress
and the best the market could afford
upon it. and yet il is doubtful If the
guest would not rather be the recipient
OF plain home dinner gracefully dis
pensed than to be invited to table
loaded with silver and china and elabor-
ate cooking but chill with company air
of fatigue and preparation. The ethics
OF true hospitality are very simple, and
so far as viands 90 slice OF sweet
bread and cup OF milk can easilg be
glorified into a feast BY the manner in
which they are presented. A God
hostess can make her guests believe they
are pariaking of angePs food when tney
are only eating very ordinary dishes if
she will entertain them with har-
monious recital of other matter, another
method of utilizing the old proyerb
which says: "Chatted food is half di-
gested.n 1t is not necessary to a well
come to have finger bowls and napkins
even. The sweetest hospitality now in
existence is that which is found in the
home mind do not say house--in the
country, where the plain, practical far
mer bids the transient TO ''sit by" and
his wife, who is great in her hospitality.
waits upon him. Many stranger who
has feasted at his kindly board on plain
and palatable fare has echoed the senti.
ment of the song:
God bless tho man who sows the wheat
Who finds us milk, and fruit, and meat;
May his purse &c Heavy, his heart be light
His tito and corr and all goright.
God bless the seeds his hand let fall,
For the farmer he must feed us ali.
There is living to-day in Washington
gentleman in high official position
whose house Is magnificent, whose
table is the envy of all other members
of the cabinet and whose wines are
specially imported from renowned vint-
ages of France. He used to be plain
country youth before the war and his
father kept open house for everybody.
and at his plain and comfortable table
neighbors and strangers were alike
welcome. They didn't have any style
wouldn't have known finger glass
from dumb waiter, and when they
had finished their meat and vegetables
they scraped place on the same plate
for the great section of apple pie or a
dose of the sorghum which was just
coming into use. / remember that
Colonel ------ always took the 'molas-
ses'' and broke great hunks of white
bread into it for dessert. He doesen't
know molasses now, nor beans, nor
country neighbors. He talks of his
brothers who died in the ''wah." but if
they were alive and came in their home
spun clothes to visit him. he would
close his house and put sign ''scar. ct
fever on the door. Yet this man has a
statue of Jupiter in his dining room
and a verse from Homer extolling
hospitality over his sideboard viii in
his daily life he is not actuated by a
single impulse born of that barbaric
virtue Detroit Post and Tribune.