Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1886-09-08
VIC EirH III iitc ssHr:Dr-


which all came Of the simple little matter
of fire in the parlor, writes Bessie Bramble
in the Pittsburg Dispatch. A home has
been made desolate, g daughter has grown
embittered and left the protection OF her
parents and the security Of home simply on
the disagreement as to fire il the Darlor.
The daughter is engaged in a store, and BIZ
her pleasant ways and fine ability has made
herself valuable to her employers, and they
pay her good salary-as women's wages
50. But she has not only impressed them
feVorab!y, but 4 promising young man be-
sides. In order to enjoy his society an
evening or two in the week she wanted a
cheerful fire in the little parlor as a matter
OF course. To this her father objected as
increasing MS expenses. Fer mother, like
the good wife Of the old school, agreed with
her husband, not SO much on the score of
economy perhaps as because she thought a
girl doing SO well ought to have more sense
than to get married, anyhow, and she didn't
want 10 have any prospective husband
around Moreover, N her view her daugh.
ter, though over nineteen, IS but 'lassie
yet"
As the girl dutifully paid over wages to
her father, "ho clothed and fed her as OF
old ut lowest rates, she little thought that,
when she came home from the store and set
TO work to make the little room as pretty as
possible, such trouble would come of il.
She swept and busted, aud rubbed up the
old furniture as never before. She polished
the fender, ard made the fire bright. She
arranged the family Bible and Baxter's
Saints Rest" and Holy Living and Dy-
ing" and her one treasure, Tennyson's
poems-a school prize--not on the dead
square they were used to, but in an aesthetic
bias position, to make them looiG their most
pious best. She tied the old star tidy with
pretty bright bowa, and gave the old fash
ioned Venetian blind just the turn to look
nice. The long worn sofa was set off with
her pretty crazy.ratch pillow, and, while
little could be done with the picture Of
General Jackson and the monument with
the weeping willow over it, and her moth.
er's framed sampler, and Washington OF
Valley Forge, still in the fireplace glow they
did not look so bad. There was nothing in
all this, it would seem, to break up a family
and bring bitterness aud humiliation but
so 1t was. The fire in the parlor gave llame
to her fathers wrath He forget he was ever
y .Nouus3 VI cfSl "tHr ~i'";EhlH, anil ilnGily,
after war ofwords, the daughter left home,
secured boarding where she can receive
her lover, i'll the dingy public parlor,
and now the parents are alone and unhap.
py, and the daughter is bitter and cstrang-
ed. And all this sore unhappincss for the
little matter of 81 few cents worth of coal
Behold how great a matter Il little fire kin
d!eth. 1t is amazing sometimes TO soc how
fathers and mothers, in all the light of ex-
perience, attempt that same silly expcr-
iment of putting old heads on Young shoul.
ders. 1t is beyond surprise how hard heart
ed, how unfee!!ng, how impatient some men
ere with their daughters. They take every
cent OF their earnings. They debar them
from company. They deny them the plea
sures and enjoyments CT youth. They drive
them, as this father has done, out into the
world alone to grapple with its troubles and
temptations, and then wonder that they 60
wrong. Fathers and mothers owe duties to
their children. They are responsible for
them, and they should, as may happen, at
large sacrifice to themselves, give them a
happy home-a home where, with barrow
means it may be, and the most meagre op.
portunit!es, ;hev can enjoy proper company
and entertain eligible friends. even ct the
expense of fire in the parlor.