The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1885-07-17
HOME ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.
The Importance and Influence Of . Hand
bOm0 Ooor-Yard.

One of the greatest mistakes hus-'
band can commit is, in the presence OF
his family, TO be constantly speaking
of selling his home. If he wants to
quench all ambition and desire in his
wife and children to beautify and make
the place attractive, he can employ no
surer method.
1t is the pleasant door-yard, the
climbing vines. the thrifty small fruits,
that first appeal to the eye of buyer
and make him a possible purchaser;
but it is not in human nature. particu-
larlY in woman nature, to feel the same
interest in fixing up home attractive
ly. if she knows that William will sell
it next month if he gets the chance. A
man is apt to look on the sale of
home in the same light that he does
any other business transaction. His best
efforts and skill are put into the manu-
facture of the wagons, reapers. and
other things that he expects to sell. If
he is merchant, he aims to place his
goods before the public in the most adj
vantageous way that will bring him
customers. but he loses sight of the fact
that the ownership of a home is of q
widely different character
In this busy, unsettled American life
of ours, a change of residence is COM
mon occurrence, but the sundering of
the ties that always bind one to his
home, no matter how humble that home
may be, can not but be subject of
sadness. No reasonable wife will abso-
lutely refuse to part with her home. if
she knows it is decidedly for the inter-
est of her family to do so. and she
looks forward with pleasure to the
hope of speedily being established in
another; but when it comes to a syste-
matte, chronic plan on the part of the
husband to sell out because he can
make q few hundred dollars on the
fruit Of her labor and taste, do not let
us blamesher too much if she rebels.
Many woman has made an unculti-
waited, bald looking yard = veritable
bower of beauty by the outlay of her
own physical strength. She has not
begrudged the labor spent in making
and caring for flower beds, whose bril-
liant blooms elicit the admiration of
weary passers-by. With her own hands.
and with weary step, she has lugged
basketful after basketful of rich mould
to place about her choice plants, feel
ing fully repaid for all her palma as she
sees the barrenness and ugline6s give
way to blossom and verdure.
William realizes that his house and
lot have grown prettier, and forthwith
begins to ponder on the market value
of the spot If he were only wise, he
would keep these speculations to him
self. but when he SAYS cOmplacer tly:
"Well, Maria, we have one of the most
desirable homes in town; if can make
$500 over what it cost me, I'll sell it;
Jones is looking around for a nice
property. and believe it would just
suit him"-he is putting dampener
on his wife from which she VII hardly
recover.
Poor Maria! If she is q soft-hearted
little thing. more than likely she will
not be able to keep back her tears, rs
she falters out: '.And where should we
go?'
.sOh, that's an easy matter" briskly
answers the husband; '.plenty of other
houses we can get" And so Jones
gets the home, and sweet William
chucks the money down into his pock-
ct, giving his wife no share of it, and
never once dreaming that it was Ma
ria s clustering vines. well-kept yard
and snowy shrubs that charmed the
Joneses. and which made the property
marketable.
BY the time this wife has beautifed
two or three yards, and seen them sold
away from her, she will very probably
begin to feel Indifferent as to the ap-
pearance of their premises. What's
the use of making flower beds for
somebody else?" she argues. "Just as
soon as things get to growing nicely,
We'll sell the place, and therefore it
wont pay for me to expend my strength
on it. The result is that nobody
wants to buy, and she has the privilege |
of staying IN her home. but only be-
cause it is unprepossessing. She never
grows attached to it as che did to those
former homes where every leaf and
bud had been cultivated by her own
hands. In fact, she feels no special in
terest in the place, and would as soon
sell it as not, while William, unwise,
short-sighted William, fame es that she |
must be IN failing health because she
don't care to dig in the yard any more,
and he posts of to the drug store and
buys her a bottle of somebody's cele-
brated liver tonicl
just such strange creatures are men!
Or, we will suppose that he does not
actually sell his home, but if he is con-
stantly talking of doing it, and W sh-
ing for purchaser, the depressing
effect on his family will be just the
same. II the mother has lost her en-
thusiasm we can not expect to find any
in the children who generally follow
grounds, with all their pleasant posi-
bilities, take on a look of neglect or
that conveys desolate
look to the house itself.
Too many husbands place too low An
on the importance and in
fuence of a handsome door-yard. and
begrudge a dollor of outlay toward its
forgetting that a one
story cottage. with a climbing rose or
fragrant clematis covering a pretty
porch, comes nearer the ideal spot of
beauty than its big two or three-storied
neighbor, with its bald windows blink
ing in the sun. unshelded by the
shadow of graceful leaves on the case
ment. or twining vine over the door.
Garry OaCen Games, in Country Gen.
tleman.
Ciews All Around