Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-03-12

tions of the family. 1t is quite usually
the most expensive piece of furniture
in the house, and it is not only very
big, very high, very wide, and very long,
but is it carved and ornamented with
brass trimmings. 1t is, in some sense,
the symbol of hospitality. The bis
cult-box is always standing upon it,
and the decanters of spirits and wines
are always at hand. The papering of
the dining-room is always dark, and
on its walls are to be found most of the
oil paintings belonging to the family.
The tables and the chairs are of kind
with the sideboard-very large and
very heavy.
| The drawing-room is almost always
at the back of the house and looks
| out upon the garden, for it must be
known that, however large the grounds.
! the house is built quite near the
road and there is little or no front
garden; and there is almost sure to
be quite high wall at the front, so as
to shut off the house and grounds
from the gaze and eyes of the COM
mon herd. The English, be it known,
are exclusive. They seclude them
selves. They have an adherence of
people seeing them about their grounds,
or playing croquet or tennis, and so
these high, exclusive walls. Many
houses, indeed all through the provinces,
have gates in these high walls with
| bells. and the servant comes from
the house to the outside gate to an
swer the bell. The papering of the
drawing-room is of somewhat lighter
color than that of the other rooms.
| The furniture is also less massive, and
| has just tendency to decoration and
art. The line is strictly drawn at
| water-color paintings upon the walls.
In no Well ordered English family
does one ever see an oil painting on
! the walls of the drawing-room. l have
never been able to fully take in the
| reason for this custom. | conjecture,
however, that the walls of the draw
| ing-room being lighter and of more
expensive papering that it is deemed
bad taste to cover them up with
great pictures and frames. Water
colors, moreover, are more in keeping
with the lighter tone of the room. So
it is; you never, under any circum-
stances, see oil paintings in the salon
of an English house
The bedroom furnishings are of a like
heavy sort with the rest of the house.
The brass bedstead has taken the place
of the OLD '.four-poster, but the can
opy is retained. The curtains are
drawn for the night when the bed is
opened. Day coverings and ''pillow-
shams" for the bed are things unknown
in England. AS the bedrooms are not
to sit in, and are only used for sleeping
purposes, the covering of the bed is
thrown up and over the pillows during
the day, and there is no pretension
whatever to beauty or ornament about
the bed. 1t is always deliciously clean,
and with its cretonne or muslin hang
ings looks neat and tidy. In many
houses the feather-bed is still the
thing, and is always used upon all
bedsteads in winter, Running water
is never laiu on in the bedrooms. This
is upon grounds of health, as English
medical men insist that it is impossible
to prevent the escape of sewer gases.
Large washstands-quite two or three
times the size of those used in American
DEMONSTRATING upon them exceedingly
large bowls and ewers, serve every pur-
pose of washing; and in each bedroom
there is to be found a portable bath,
| which is arranged over night upon
large flannel rug and having beside it
a great can of water.
Gas is used in few bedrooms, and,
for the matter of that, in very few up
per-class houses at all. It is being
taken out of pretty nearly all the old
houses in England and on the CONT
nent It is deemed unhealthy, consum-
ing the fresh air of the rooms, besides
being a very hot light, having the
property of soiling the ceilings and
dimming the paintings. Lamps and
candles are taking the place of gas in
all houses, except, possibly, in halls.
kitchens, and like rooms.
It may be truthfully said that in all
middle-class families of England the
dining-room is the livlng-room of the
house. The family-or such of them
as remain at home-sit in the dining
room during the forenoon and until at
ter the noon meal, whether that be
luncheon or dinner. The dining-room
is commonly very large room and is
furnished for comfort. having generally
the most pleasant exposure to garden,
sun, and air. The kitchen is seldom
near the diningroom, and the pantries
are connected with the kitchen; SO that
the dining-room is free of all the Odor
of cooking and from all the necessary
noise of the kitchen and pantrles. AS
all meats and hot dishes are brought to
the dining-room closely covered,
there is seldom any smell from the
kitchen floating about or lurking about
the house. 1t is not unfrequent that
the kitchen is on the opposite side of
the hall from the dining-room, and one
often runs up against the butler or
waitress crossing the hall with the dim
ner. I can bear witness to the perfect
cleanliness of English houses. This
prime essential of the dining-room is
never overlooked. The English table
is very tastefully laid, and is very pleas
antly served. The linen is always inn
maculate, and the steel knives-never
silver, except for fish and dessert-and
the silver forks are polished for every
meal, and the humblest families have
flowers, more or less, on the dinner
table.
We're the color of the house less SON.
Der and the furniture less cumbrous;
were the rooms more open and less
separated each from the other, the En-
glish house would be the center of the
most perfect external comfort known
to the domestic life of the world. AS
it is, the English house is the home of
sweet love, of thoughtful civility, and
of unforgetting and undying loyalty
Robert LAIRD Collier, IN Chicago Neus.
George Probst, an eccentric old
bachelor of Allentown, Pa, who died
year ago at the age of eighty-four years,
left an estate worth nearly S4OO. 900.
Among his relatives who were not men,