The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-12-25

appearance or elegance to rooms that
had been bare and ugly without them.
Cheerful cretonne coverings hid the
faded chairs, and plump pillows made
the hard, straight sofa more inviting
than it had ever looked before. 1t was
not luxury, far from it; it was, alas!
hardly comfort; but it was good taste
One felt among people of refinement.
If, in the room dignified by the name
of library, there are only one or two
bookcases, and they have their glass
doors discreetly lined to hide the scarcity
of books, aid the presence of a cigar
box filled with penny productions from
the French government manufactures,
and also, maybe, whisky bottle, the
little fraud is a harmless one, pathetic
rather than amusing.
Let us not begrudge this poor, shabby.
honorable gentleman, who keeps up
such brave face to the world and pre-
tends he enjoys his enforced cheesepar-
ing-let us not begrudge him that hour
with his cigar and his ''toddy;" it is his
one little solace in an existence as bare
as the bookshelves.
Ay, the whole thing is pathetic-the
dining table, with its wealth of hedge
flowers and dearth of beef and mutton.
Perhaps it is lunch time, and there are
fruit and cheese for all fare; or, it may
be, the family are at dinner, and the
master is carefully helping the trout he
caught this morning, or dissecting hare,
with due regard to to-morrow's GRO
quotes. There, behind his chair, stands
the good Breton servant who waits on
them, doing her best to keep from smil-
ing at the solemnity with which these
English people eat.
By and by, in the drawing room,
friends will drop in, and all will play at
life in Belgravia and Mayfair. The so
ciety papers come from London regu-
larly every week, and supply the CONVEX
sation with topics. You hear the little
scandals of the day in London COM
mented upon, to running accompani-
ment of "You don't say sol" "Who
would have thought it?' etc. The latest
boudoir secrets and London club gossip
are told with many ''This is entire
nous, you know" or, II shouldn't like
it to be repeated; no, not for the world,
you understand" To hear them, you
would imagine they were all intimate
friends of every member of the Guelph
family resident in England. They speak
of the Prince and Princess of Wales as
they would of their next door neighbor,
and nobody is worth mentioning who is
not at least baronet.
These English people are all staunch
Conservatives.
Now and then there is little farewell
gathering. Some one has died over
there in England, and some one here is
the better off for it. And then there are
sad little partings, and wistful eyes
watch the departure of the lucky fellow
who is going back to resume his place in
the delightful whirl of London life,
while the rest must rusticate and rust
until similar piece of luck befalls them.
Poor, reduced John BULL The sun
never sets on his dominions, it is true;
but his own particular star is not in the
ascendant yet. So he goes on playing
his little comedy, though everybody sees
through it; gets what consolation he
may out of the society of his companions
in exile, and the local nobility who are
kind enough to open their houses to him
and put him up" at their club. The
bourgeois call him "goddam," but has a
lurking respect for him. The shop
keeper overcharges him; but those Eng
Iish neople have the reputation of fitting