Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-28
A HOUSE ON Stills.
Gail Hamilton Describes at Length
Her Attempts at Esthetic
HOUSEKEEPING IN THE TROPICS.
Ferdinand, Miranda and Ariel Having
Perpetual Picnic
UNDER THE SwAYING ALGAROBA TREES
WRITTEN FOR THE D1srATcH.I

household gods and the fire on my hearthl
I am all frivolity and feathers!
Poor Ferdinand 1 know it. 1 sometimes,
yes, often, think am not half good enough
for him; but try, and think do improve
little, little by little, and anyway take
good care of Ariel. 1 am sure of that She
grows strong on her feet-yes, she-my
tricksy sprite like to a nymph o. the sea
my delicate Ariel. To-day she stood on tip
toe to kiss Ferdinand's picture and then
came quite across the room to kiss mamma
too before knew what she was about, and
when I arrayed her for breakfast in the
lovely Gretchen gown, she was wise enough
to be delighted with herself. The truth is
she looked just beauty and L could hardly
eat for watching her. All the men were
charmed at her coquettish way of smiling
shyly at them and even our dear old ogre
was fairly bowled over into exclaiming
"Well, well, if you aren't sweet this morn
ing!'
Worthless I may be, but I am at least
come to the right place. In these summer
isles OF Eden lying in dark purple spheres
of sea and in pink and green and thou
sand colored spheres of sea, people enjoy
themselves. 1t is their business. They sit
quietly and let the full beauty of the
scenery impress itself upon them. Even the
usual enthusiasm is abandoned, and only
the look of complete happiness tells the
blessed enjoyment OF pure air and perfect
sunshine-such sunshine as we never see at
home-a cool wind blowing over the noun
tains and the grass like velvet. 1t is the
dry season, but it rains every day-not like
So 4k1na Had ls1N1
else pretty affectation of a shower out of
clear sky, dainty little dimpling Ariel of
shower! 1 do not wonder that many,
many Americans who come here are SO
fascinated BY the climate that they never
care to return TO the States; though. as 1
write, the mosquito RACES and an occasional
flea, or one or two cockroaches, generally
give little tone to the occasion. But every
thing is so deliciously fresh and green that
when the cool breeze blows there is little
left to be desired. The thermometer is
nothing to 60 by. 1t sticks at S. degrees,
land hades itself would have no effect upon
lit. Miss Clare last evening spoke regretfully
Iof missing the twilights. I think folks
must have to hunt for things to complain of
THE HEAVENLY HoLoKUS.
missing the twilight" q" when each days
decline is made lovely, lingering exhIbi-
ton of rarest color in a pale blue sky
Superb color pieces every evening, and at
dawn a magnifcence in the east that is
never to be fully grasped by one who has no
BABY, and so probably never sees the dawn.
Just at this moment a glance shows me
through the branching semang tree vision
OF lOveliness, the green mountain Tau
talus" seen over the swaying algaroba trees
in the foreground, and mist of rain blown
in from sea by the winds, clear sunshine
overhead Miss Clare, who ravished my
susceptible heart with her lovely dress
white, with corn-colored ribbon sash, a
lovely white hat with corn-colored flowers,
and white gloves. do not see but people
dress as well here as in the States, which
speaks volumes for foreign missions. Good
clothes are good Christianity, as far as they
90. L should like a half-dozen holokus
and eight or ten frilled and fiuted
and laced and hand-embroidered white
gowns, and then 1 could keep clean, per-
haps. 1t takes lots of clothes to keep decent
here and more than lots to look well. 1
shall be said to be "slangy," because say
''lots." If I say "loads" it will be quite
the correct thing; but there is no moral or
aesthetic, or any but capricious, difference
between lots and loads, wherefore it takes
lots of clothes. But 1 shall never cease to
feel a profound respect for the Kanaka
character, because of the tenacity with
which they cling to their heavenly holokus.
1t was surely a stroke of cosmical genius to
hit upon that comfortable compromise be-
tween the costumes of the torrid and the
temperate zones. Still, Jeremy Taylor
would not have said, !'Going out were never
so good, but staying home were better" if
he had seen Miss Clare talking climate in
the climatic harmonies of her costume.
As for work, there is very little done.
i =
picnic IN this blissful country. Ria, guilt
less of shoes and stockings and arrayed in
calico Mother Hubbard, carries her tin tubs
out to the brookside under the spreading
greenwood tree, and draws water from a pipe
nearby by means of the hose; and there she
stands all day leisurely rubbing away In
the nice cold water, throwing it down the
bank into the mountain stream when she
wishes to draw more.
WORK is A PLEASURE.
I think I work as hard as anyone. Work.
as If L ever did anything else. The prevail
ing fiction relative to my drone-like exist
ence is no longer to be received. / work,
and ceaselesSly. 1 am always busy, writ
ing, reading, mending, marketing and ever
lastiDgly attending to the teething and collie.
Ariel, tricksv sprite, makes work, but does
none; always has a spell of something when
she suspects me of any design in the way of
writing. L presume the present rush of
business" may be a sort of providential
vengeance wreaked on me because of the
past years of wilful enjoyment; but 1 don't
care. I am glad 1 had a good time once,
even at the expense Of the present Yaccina-
tion and all the rest.
Well, and with all of it neUer, no neUer,
had such a good time as L am having now.
1 believe italics are womanish, so 1 will
keep at it; and good time" is distinc-
lively American as against English; there
fore love it, as Browning did his star. We
are under our own vine and oleander bushes.
and we are just about the happiest creatures
alive. 1t is quite Sweet simplicity style,
very comfortable and only little disreputa-
bic. The house is built on stills, about six
feet above the ground, with a lattice-work
petticoat. There is a barn somewhere, but
I have not seen it, and we have hens. be-
longing to the neighbors, it is true. butthey
lay their eggs under our house, so what is
the odds, and when they begin to respect
property rights 1 shall buy some hens of nv
own. The rooms are of good size, and the
big yard is park of algaroba trees-beauti-
ful, feathery trees, which somewhat resem-
bic our willows, though not suggestive of
sorrow, like weeping willows. If we think
of trees like Ruskin, the algaroba all might
be some wayward, frolicsome, winsome lassie.
so CHEEKY do they look, tossing their light,
graceful branches low to earth. and again
lifting themselves airily to heaven. They
are the embodiment of all that is ligLS,
cheerful and happy. They furnish us with
hrewood as well as sentiment, for they grow
rapidly and need good deal of trimming.