The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1885-07-25
times INDUCED in, where the arm is a
fine one, but sleeves are still most COM
mon. Stockings, dark ones usually, and
slippers, are still requisites of the Cape
May costume in the surf.
Summer BOarders.

Summer BOarders.
Mary Sidney, IN Farm Journal.
At this season of the year many far
mers' wives are looking towards summer
boarders. They want a new parlor car
pet perhaps, or silk dress, or some
other luxury the farm will not afford.
and SO adopt the commendable plan of
trying to earn it themselves. 1t would
seem as if farmers wives had quite
enough to do, with all their butter and
gardens, and hungry, dirty harvest men
to attend to, without boarders but
still they should not complain at few
weeks of increased cares, for many a
poor woman of the cities and villages is
obliged to maintain whole family, a
well-dressed, able bodied husband in
cluded, by the unceasing, wearing labor
of -keeDing boarders. 1t is always
comfort when one feels depressed and
out of sorts, and as if the world was
hard, grinding, miserable place to live
in, to look about and see how many
Others have worse things to bear than
as yet has fallen to our lot Try this
sometime when you are weighed down
with woe, and see if you can't find
some other woman near by whose bur-
dens are SO much more grievious, that
they make you feel as if you could whis-
tie Yankee Doodle and be merry for
evermore if you can only be preserved
from such load as she has to bear.
Well, what has this to do with sum-
mer boarders? !? Why it means you must
be cheerful. 1t means that for the six
or eight weeks while you have city
guests, that you must be calm and un-
ruft1ed in the outward manner, and
smile on no matter what occurs to Of
fend. If you give satisfaction in your
new vocation, the volcano of hidden
fire must be kept under till the last one
has departed, and then you will feel so
relieved that it never can burst forth.
There are numbers embarking in the
summer boarder business who have no
qualification for it whatever. They
have never mingled with city people of
means in their own homes, and know
not what their habits and tastes are,
and so make sorry work of catering for
them; and others who do know are
often SO miserly or SO lazy that they do
not provide the needful requirements
of refined, comfortable, satisfying
home.
the head of large family once said
to me-"I would far rather have my
children out on farm during the heat
of summer, than at any fashionable re-
sort, if l could find neat, well-kept
place but these country people show
SO plainly that all they are after is our
money; they neither furnish clean
rooms nor palatable food, and l have
about despaired of finding home com
forts on farm" And a sprightly lad
remarked-"Cottage cheese and fried
fat ham floating in grease is the height
of country living-they don't have
fruit in the country, fruit grows in the
city,"
"You ought to seen the steamin'
livin' we had last summer said a
young fellow present-''two small
mackeral for a table full of boarders,
that was the breakfast bill-once we
had chicken for dinner, but only once,
and that came out of the ark it ought
to have been put to cook the week be-
fore we got there, to make frst-class
spring chicken of it; l guess they
thought we didn't choose any poultry
in ours, for it was about all left we
tried our hardest, but we couldn't grind
her through" A little girl chimed in
Mamma said she didn't mind living
in the country, but they didn't let US
have but one clean towel week, and
the beds were awful full of bugs"
Now this is the way they talk about
u.s. l can't write all the remarks of
this character that l have heard, but
merely give a sample, enough to set US
thinking. True, there are unreason-
able city people who sometimes expect
for low price as much variety and at
tention as high priced mountain or
seaside resort give; but they are not
all so; those whose words l have
quoted are people whose words are en-
titled to consideration.
Suppose a person should set up black
smithing, or dentistry, or mantua-mak-
ing without studying and fitting them
selves for the work. What sort of sat-
isfaction would they be apt to give2
Well, this is just what many farmers
are doing in opening their houses to
| city boarders. Now in all friendliness
let me suggest, if you wish to try your
hand at this business, first and foremost,
qualify yourself for it. If you are not
in the habit of associating with city
people such as are used to boarding out
in the summer months, and thus get an
insight into their home tastes and style
of living, why your best move would
be to find some one who has been a
successful keeper of boarding house,
and set the pump to work until you
find out just how she did it as near as
words can tell. 1t would be a great
aid to you, to visit some good board
ing houses and spend a little time
among them and see with your own
eyes the m0duS 0beranaI.
This is purely business matter.
The people who come to you for sum-
mer recreation care nothing whatever
for your new carpet and dresses in
prospect. Your headaches and back
aches and lack of help are nothing to
them. What they want and what they
must have is cheerful hostess, clean
rooms, and tidy table of fresh, we'll
cooked, nicely-served meats, vegeta-
bles, fruits, &c. One who cannot fur
dish these will not be success as the
mistress of a boarding house.
From the number of farmers indiffer-
ept to the growing of fruit-from the
shin bones and plate beef the butchers
delight to deal out to their country
trade-from the untidy surroundings
of many farm residences, | am persuad-
ed there is some foundation for the
criticisms made about US. While of
course money is the motor, and the
object for which we are ''hankering,"
yet this must not be all. We must