St. Landry democrat., 1890-03-22
Housekeeping.
SOME OF THE PHEASANT AND UNPLEASANT
VISITORS THAT COME.

SOME OF THE PLEASANT AND UNPLEASANT
VISITORS THAT COME.
Nothing is worse in house than I'M
pleasant visitors They come with huge
trunks that pillow burrows in polished floors
and that crack thing. They lay wet
flowers and heavy bundles on the toilet
set, made of fresh null and silk. They
hang wet things on vanished chair backs
Unpleasant visitors splash soapy water
around the wash stand of the guest cham
Der and throw spots of ink and shoe var
nish about the floors, and drop hairs and
threads on the carpets, and smear tables
with glycerine and vaseline, and spill
tooth powder into bureau drawers. I'm
pleasant visitors throw their dusty coats
and cloaks on the clean bedspread of the
spare room, and lie down on it in their shoes
and dusty street clothes, and even take maps
between the clean blankets, thus dressed.
They leave their windows open and let in
dust and rain. Unpleasant visitors have
sick headache and suck lemons, which
they place on marble or mahogany furni-
ture, where the corroding lemon juice
makes spots indelible. Unpleasant visi-
tors bring bottles of sticky medicine that
leaves ineffaceable rings about their room.
Unpleasant visitors have the rheuma'
tism and smell of disagreeable liniments.
They muss the clean window curtains
they scratch matches in improper places,
and they carry the morning paper to their
room and never bring it back. Unpleasant
visitors are laIe at meal times and wish to
be entertained by walks, drives, calls and
the like. Unpleasant visitors brag about
their own homes, cookery, visitors and
amusements, and look down on yours and
make you feel as if everything in your
world were small, dingy and poor. When
unpleasant visitors depart they forget
tooth brushes and overshoes and require
them sent by mail, and they leave the
spare room strewn with strings, paper,
envelopes, letters, boxes. empty or partly
filed with moldy bits of cake and sand
witches, worn out shoes, ribbons, ruches,
rusty pens, and old gloves, and they also
leave you with guilty sense that they
have been "vilely served there like
"Hamlet's" visitors.
Pleasant visitors are a great delight.
They entertain you; you do not have to
entertain them. They agree with you !;
they never argue they know that econ
troversy equalizes fools and wise men, and
the fools know it." They make you con-
tented by admiring the neat simplicity of
your house, even though it may be "a full
poor CELL" and you have nothing to offer
but "water with berries in it, and salad
fresh from the garden air. With them,
your world expands, and you are proud
of your existence. Pleasant visitors are
pleased with every excursion, and are
merry and cheerful, and they leave the
guest room looking as if it had not been
occupied.
care not how you are dressed
In the meanest or in the best,
Or whether your name be base or brave,
Nor for the fashion of your behaviour,
But if you charm me.
1t is delightful to make one of a coterie:
you have regard for the members of
your coterie; they are pleasant visitors.
In great cities. people drop into lotteries,
and people living in the country visit in
coteries, and they do not dissipate their
affection over wide circle.-IndianapolsS
Journal