The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-06-28
HOSPITALITY.

Man being friendly and communicative being
it follows that, to be happy, he must visit and
be visited. Even with our first parents, in the
Garden of Delights, hospitality was, according to
Milton, not the least of their most excellent
qualities. How delightedly the great bard
dwells upon the visit of Raphael when Eve ION
hospitable thoughts intent" among trees and
stalks, and vines and flowers strewed, and
crushed, and creamed and squeezed, and mixed
for that aesthetic feast! We see the glow of
satisfaction on our great mothers face
as she dispenses the good things to
her husband and their winged guest
And methinks, as Adam beheld her graceful
movements, then turned toward the angel, there
was pride in his glance that said as plainly as
words; "Show me another such housewife in all
the world as Eve is. She is tidy and active,
and thoughtful, and tasteful, and she is mine
and there is no mistake about it." Eve trans
United this beautiful virtue of hospitality to her
children. The explorer, Ledyard after wander
ing over large part of the globe, wrote in his
diary, Hospitality have found as universal as
the face of man"
And who of the older middle-aged people of the
present whose earliest reading lessons were in
Murray's Introduction to the English Reader,
will ever forget Mungo Parks account
of the hospitality of the negro woman
in the interior of Africa, who, he says,
finding that I was very hungry, she went out
to procure me something to eat The rites of
hospitality being performed toward a stranger in
distress, my worthy benefactress giving me a
mat on which to sleep, called to the female part
of the family, who had stood gazing on the white
man in fixed establishment to resume their task
Of spinning cotton. They lightened their labor
by songs, one of which was extempore, for
myself was the subject of it. 1t was sung by
one of the young women, the rest joining in a
sort of chorus The air was sweet and plaintive,
and the words literally translated, were these:
The winds roared and the rains fell. The
poor white man, faint and weary, came and sat
under our tree. He has no mother to bring him
milk, no wife to grind his corn. Chorus: Let
us pity the white man. No mother has he to
bring him milk; no wife to grind him corn"
How perverse must that generation have be-
come when the very men who read this in their
childhood took hand In framing the infamous
fugitive slave law Yet, all the while there
were certain depised Aboltionists taking occa-
Sional solid comfort in reading this old story to
their children, and along with it taught the les
son of underground hospitality toward any wan
dering, weary black man, who had no mother to
bring him milk; no wife to grind him corn.
All readers of histories will observe how often
it is stated of peoples: They are brave and hos
pitabe-the association proving the truth of the
poetic adage: The bravest are the tenderest y
The Hebrew law in considering the household
included the stranger within the gates, and the
New Testament abounds in instances of the
saints mnistering to the wants of the brethren.
The idol of Boswell, however, counseed him,
Don't set up for what is called hospitality; it
is waste of time, and waste of money you
are eaten up and not the more respected for
your lberality. If your house be like an inn
nobody cares for you. man who stays a week
with another makes HIM a slave for week. !"
When Boswell ventured to remark, But there
are people, sir who make their houses home
to their guests and are themselves quite easy
the great churl answered, Then, sir, home
must be the same to the guests, and they need
not come"
True, we are sometimes led to think
hospitality is nearly at an end in our
country by reason of the multiplicity
of public accommodations offered to our always
in-motion population; but leave the old thor
oughfares and you find hospitality still flourish
ing as sturdy and pleasant old fashioned
holihock in an old fashioned garden.
l even know of village myself and situated
on a railroad, too, where a hopeful hearted,
CHEEKY landlord esSayed to keep tavern. A
temperance lecturer first came. but full soon the
temperance sisterhood carried her off. A would
be historian OF the county dropped ina public
spi rited citizen bore him away to his freside
Two young students from the city, arrayed la
Oscar Wilde, stopped in the village, meaning to
fish in the neighborhood-an old farmer fell IN
love with them, and they were made
welcome to seat in his spring
wagon anu Toasted on spring chicken
and apple sauce at his table for days, and lastly
came a lone Inulan bonltace was happy thlnk-
ing here now was a reality, a substantially,
and on the morrow he would collect little bill
for sure Did he? No, indeed A kind old
Quaker heard of the Indian, called on him and
provided him with bed and board gratis and
brotherly love thrown in The conclusion of the
whole matter is this: Hospitality is a browning
virtue and anybody desiring to read whole
chapter OH the subject is respectfully referred
to Emerson, while the hospitable by nature and
education will always remember to hug to their
hearts the conjectured possibility of entertain
ing IAN angel unawares.n LOUISE V. BOYD.
nY-r,T I'D