Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1892-03-17
A RARE GIFT,
The secret OF Making q Home Out
HnnaohnIl

The Secret of Making a Home Out of a
Household.
While hospitality is the crovnino
grace of the home, while the best orna-
ments of a household are the friends
who frequent it, it is more than an omen
question, after all. whether there is anv
virtue, not to saw justice, in that Lax
and lavish and indiscriminatinp hospi-
tailty which allows itself to be invaded
by bores and at their mercy. The bore
IS characterized by many small and
trlnlng attributes, yet which. in the
aggregate, weigh largely. and which
are. all in all. quite as important in the
way OF dlstaste as are any possible de-
hclencles of intellect or mental Gull
ture. 1--WE talk of morals, +" said Emer-
son. but it is manners that associate
u.s. And he is right. Social culture
the culture of good manners, is even
more important in the way of social
meeting than mental culture.
DIR. Holmes defines the bore as one
who has to be launched He makes a
movement to go, but never goes. He
keeps his hostess standing while he
fingers and loiters to say this, that or
the other, which should either have
been said within the limits of a fifteen
mlnutes'call,o or not said at all. The hos
tess In her own drawing-room is large
~ defenceless being. The lore is for
the time her guest, and she summons
up all reserved stores of politenss to do
duty. When a call to which she could
with fairly good grace accord fifteen
minutes lengthens into two hours, it
must be conceded that the tax on
courtesy is very severe one, and that
1T would be entirely admissible to re-
mind the bore that she has certainly a
right to sufficient personal assertion
and personal dignity to decline
being imposed upon. But if the
hostess chooses to submit to the in
Fiction. and give all her courtesy and
her patience to assuming the role of
entertainer while it is thus forced upon
her, she has one resource ever after
to close her doors to the caller who
renders himself bore of the most fla
grant description. She may endure a
great drought on time and politeness
for once. but there is no law that COM
pels her ever to endure it a second time
All this does not apply, of course, to
the caller who is a friend with whom
the hostess has world Of mutual in
terests; who is of her own world, so to
speak, in thought and speculative dis
cussion; who is in touch with the
topics of the day. Such an one
can never come too often or stay too
long-for enjoyment, at least. The
best entertainment Of life is in CONVEX
sation, when conversation is at its
most stimulating degree. 1t is only the
people who have nothing to say worth
saying who are bores.
1t is. indeed, the greatest injustice to
the home to allow it to be made a thor
oughfare. The welcome ever ready for
friend, or for the unfortunate, or for
the needy, is too valuable in it's way to
be bestowed upon those who degrade
its meaning. Nor is it just to ones self
to permit time and energies to be in
truded on and wasted by those who
have no appreciation of their signifi-
cance. Even Christ taught that pearls
should not be cast before a certain I'M
mentionable grade of existence. The
home is for center of all sweet thought
and outgoing and incoming life; for
charm, and radiance, and to both create
and diffuse spiritual energy; but this
charm and sacredness are gone when it
is made so easy of access that it is
thoroughfare where those who are alien
to it's life come and go. 1t is not con-
served to it's true uses when thus ac-
cessible to the devastator of a day
Boston Budget