The Portland daily press., 1890-01-11


this unpleasant task.-Ladles' Home Jour.
nal.
UNsysTEMATIo.
People who have no system of living are
a great nuisance to others they place no
value upon time, they seldom keep an ap-
pointment. II you ask them to be your
guests they rarely appear at the time iesip-
mated, and are quite sure not to go when the
day of their departure arrives: they are
down late in the morning, and sit UP late at
night; are uncertain about their meals, in
trude upon your privacy at unreasonable
hours, and are sublimely Indifferent to the
fact that they are plague and nuisance to
the whole household. These haphazard
people are also carelt IS and inc0nsiderate In
other matters; keeping everything In confu.
sion, misaying hooks and papers, putting
things away In odd places, where they eau
not b. found when most needed; making
chaos of the room which they occupy; crack
ing the furniture, smashing bowls, soiling
the curtains and carpets. and making all
sorts Of extra work. And so lar from feel
ing it necessary to apologize, these freeand.
easy visitors rather pride themselves upon
their indifference 70 TITLES, aud profess to
despise 'pirayumish" folk. But, strange TO
say. their carrlrssness never rebounds upon
themselves; and while being very free and
generous with the possessions of others,
they are careful even to meanness of their
own.
BEHAVIOR IN OTHER LANDS.
In Sweden, if you address the poorest
person on the street you must lift your hat.
The same courtesy is insisted upon If you
pass a lady on the stairway. To enter
reading room or bank with ones hat on is
regarded as bad breach OF manners. To
place your hand on the arm of lady is Il
grave and Obi ctionably familiarity. Never
touch the person, 1t IL sacred, Is one of their
proverbs. In Holland a lady Is expected to
retire precipitately II she Should enter
store or restaurant where men are cODgre-
gated. She waits until they have transacted
their business aud departed. Ladies seldom
rise In Spain to receive male visitor, and
they rarely accompany him to the door. For
Spaniard to give lady (even his wife) his
arm when out walking is looked upon as
decided violation of prOprety.
In Persia, among the ariStOcracy. visitor
sends notice an hour or two before calling
and gives days notice If the visit Is one OF
great Importance He Is met by servants
before he reaches the house, and other con-
sideraiiOns are sh' wn him according to
relative rank The left and not the right Is
considered the position of honor. No Turk
will enter sitting room with dirty shoes.
The upper classes wear tight-fittlDg shoes,
with gnloshes over them. The latter, which
receive all the dirt and dust, are left outside
the door. The Turk never washes in dirty
that when polluted II runs away.
In Syria the people never take OFF their
caps or turbans WHEN entering the house or
visiting friend, but they always leave their
shoes at the door. There are no mats or
scrapers outside, and the fln0rs inside are
covered with expensive rugs, kept very clean
in Moslem houses, and used to kneel upon
while saying prayers.-[ London Paper.
HINTS FOR THE HosPITABLE.
mo visitor should be invited whose COM
pany is not really desired. If we care moth
ing about Christian sincerity of character,
we should at least remember the fact that no
one can long sustain pretence of cordial
feeling for an uhwelcOme guest.
2-Having invited our guests, and being
really glad to see u EN-. let us not make such
a display of our "best china" napery and
elaborate menus that we shall be obliged
either to do large amount of extra work
ourselves, thus defrauding ourselves of our
guests society, or to bring in an additional
servant for the occasion, who will be sure to
break and spoil more than she costs other
wise. None of these things add to household
serenity, aud no rightminded guests can be
made comfortable and happy when he sees
that his hosts are suffering annoyance.
3-Let Us not make orr friends so very
much at home" As to compel them to be wit
nesses of any family disagreements-if such
there unfortunately aIe-Or to conform their
liklngs to our own. If for ourselves we re-
quire only coffee and rolls for breakfast, we
need not take IL for granted that our guest
would not like other things If they were pro-
sided In such abundance that he would not
fancy them destined for himself alone. If
we prefer to sleep in unwarmed rooms, we
we should not compel him to do SO. 1t is an
easy matter for HIM to cool wsrm room. u
he does not fancy 1T but ne cannot command
a cold one to be warmed for his benefit.
4-Guests shoulds never be lett to taRe care
of or to amuse the children of their host.
They may be sery fond of children in the
abstract, and of some children in particular,
put the society of children should be sought
by, not inflicted upon, our guests.
5-While we would not agree with the
Spaniard who declares that his house and all
that is in it belongs to his guests, we should
certainly remember that while a guest is
with US his room is sacred to him. If he
ch0uses to spend his entire time therein, we
may have our own ideas about his puiteness,
and may have our mental reservations about
Inviting the unsOciable fellnw tn come again,
but we have no right TO intrude upon him
uDa>ked He has also perfect right to cali
upon persons whom We do not know. or IT,
receive visits from such persons, though, of
course, no guest of gnOd breeding, or of
drlicacy of FEELING, would wish tn receive
calls while in the house OF another from any
person with whom his host did not wish to
maintain social relations.
6-Be merciful OF course guest of right
telling will wish in all things to conform TO
the ussgestuf his host as far as possible,
while the courteous host should seek to make
them as little burdrnsOme as circumstances
will permit. But there are people who seem
10 have maze a set Of cast-iTOn rules about
their household matters, to which not only
their own family must conform, but also the
stranger that is within their gates.
tit is never necessary, and seldom desir-
able, to devote ones enti: e time t. the enter
tanmeDt of guests. There are homes,
charming in all other respects. where
guest is hardly allowed to take proper rest,
su anxious are his Kind entertain, rs that he
shall see everything. While the different
members OF the family are taking turns in
escUrting their visitor, they forgot that the
physical endurance Of one is not equal t.
that of four or five.
8-Let us by no means fall into contrary
extreme, and neglect our guests. Let us
give him every pleasure that we can afford
to do without everlasting his strength, but
in so dong let us always CONSULT his tastes,
which may differ from our own. One man
thinks it the greatest Of privileges to be al
lowed to sit before a library fire with book,
while another thinks it "slOw" if he does
not attend all the places of amusement with.
in reach, OF make the acquaintance of all the
neighburs.
2-L+t us never forget that the true host
invites his guests (, r their pleasure and adj
vantage more than for his own.-llarpers
Bazaar.