Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1891-05-23
DOMESTIC LEE.

Certain Qualities Whicn Are zIs;;sY5Esssss-
to the True Host or Hostess.
When Emerson remarked that 1.-THE
ornaments of homo are the friends
who frequent it." he embodied one OF
the deepest truths Of domestic life.
The easysdng atmosphere. where q
friend Or two may drop in unbidden
and unannotinced, and share the re-
sources of the moment, is that atmos-
phere most stimulating to mental and
social sympathies. 1t in the atmos-
phere that is especially educative to
children, developing their powers of
observation and expression, and their
attention to topics. fof conversation.
Many house whose formal entertain
ments are famous for magnifcence and
luxury are yet as barren of genuine So
cial life as are the homes Of ignorance
and poverty. -. s.as
The reception, the formal dinner,
while they hold a rightful place in cere-
monial elegance, are no more a substi-
tute for easy conversational meeting
than is the court presentation to the
queen at one of her drawing-rooms a
matter of socia. intercourse. 1t is not
hospitality to only throw open ones
house at certain hour, made as per-
feet as the combined art of the florist
and the caterer can make it, and mere-
ly to warm, light and feed ones guests.
But the house where friend may be
asked to dine in an impromptu way,
sharing the culinary fortunes Of the
moment, without anxious thought or
preparation, and where conversation
supplies stimulus beyond the power
of the rarest vintage or the most per-
feet chef, is the home of true hospital
tiles.
the photographed "reminiscences
of great men and women, the CONVEX
sation incidentally heard in childhood
is almost always noted as one Of the
chief among the formative influences.
Mrs. Stowe, James Freeman Clarke,
DR.. Hale and many others have shown
this to the recorder of their reminis-
cences of early life.
1t is question If any child was ever
taught to think by the spectacle Of GER
emonial entertainments. But the at
mosphere Of ideas that is generated by
the allusion, and comment and narra-
ton and wit of bright and cultivated
people is the most important of educa-
tive influences. The friend who drops
in to share the simple dinner, whose
only preparation is the laying of an
extra plate; and who is "up" on the
latest excavations at Delphi or Mycen@;
or the poems and the literary rank of
De Banville, or can discuss Tolstois
latest theories, the Ibsen fad and the
sense behind it; the Italian situation or
Sir Walters journal; who can talk of
Sir Edwin Arnold's latest poem, COM
pairing it intelligently with his former
great epic, or of the latest developments
in electrical science, is the guest who
truly ornaments the home, and enables
it to offer, too, of its best.
1t is sad when household is 80 in
bondage to things that the fact that the
cook is i'll, and the second girl gone to
her grandmother's funeral, and the
culinary department thus at disad-
vantage, will serve to reverse the hos
pitality that under more suspicious cir
cumstances would have been offered.
Give your guest bread and milk, if you
will, but give him yourself-your inter
est, your attention, you. sympathetic
response and he will be happy. Elab-
crate dinners are easily enough pro-
cured. They are to be bought with a
price at any corner. But the cultivated
and responsive hostess can give her
guest that which no money could buy.
We have all smiled over Mrs. Stoves
story of the time when her learned hus-
band brought home unexpectedly some
wandering savant when there was lit
tie but potatoes and tea to serve; but it
may be believed that tea and potatoes,
with the presence of Prof. and Mrs.
Stowe, would suffer some magic trans
formation into the nectar and ambrosia
of the gods. Budget.