The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-08-21
OUR HOUSEHOLD.

"
on one belonging to friend of mine, and
she had been enraptured with the life.
Everything was on such a delightfully."-
tiny scale. You lived in a tiny little room;
you slept on tiny little bed. in a tiny,
tiny little bedroom; and you cooked your
little dinner by a tiny little fire. in the
tiniest little kitchen that you evey did see.
ooh. it must be lovely living on house.
boat, said Ethelberta, with gasp of &C.
stacy; ct must be like living in a dolls
house."
Ethelberta was very young-ridiculously
young. as l think 1 have mentioned be-
fore-in those days of which am writing.
and the love Of dolls, and of the gorgeous
dresses that dolls wear, and of the many
windowed but inconveniently arranged
houses that dolls inhabit-or are supposed
to inhabit, for as a rule they seem to pre-
fer sitting on the roof with their legs
dangling down over the front door, which
has always appeared to me unladylike.
But then, of course. l am no authority on
doll etiquette-had not yet, think, quite
departed from her. Nay, am not sure
that it had not. Do l not remember,
years later. peeping into certain room,
the walls Of which are covered with works
of art of character calculated to send any
aesthetic person mad in less than half an
hour, and seeing her. sitting on the floor,
before red brick mansion, containing
two rooms and kitchen; and are not her
hands trembling with delight as she ar
ranges the three real tin plates upon the
dresser? And does she not knock at the
real brass knocker upon the real front
door until it comes off, and have to sit
dnUn beside hor ON ho floor md
on again?
Perhaps, however, it is unwise for me to
recall these things and bring them forward
thus in evidence against her, for cannot
she in turn laugh at me? Did not assist
in the arrangement and appointment Of
that house beautiful? We differed on the
matter of the drawing-room carpet. I
recollect. Ethelbertha fancied a dark
blue velvet. but l felt sure, taking the
wall paper INTO consideration, that some
shade of terra Gotta would harmonic best.
She agreed with me in the end and we
manufactured one out of an old chest pro-
tector and laid it down. 1t had a really
charming effect and gave delightfully."-
warm tone to the room. The blue velvet
We put in the kitchen. Ideemed this ex-
travagance myself. but Ethelbertha said
u
pet, and that it paid to humor them in lit
tie things, when practicable.
The bedroom had one big bed and cot
in it, but I could not see where the girl
was going to sleep. The architect had
overlooked her altogether; that is so like
an architect. The house also suffered from
the inconvenience common to residences
of its class, of possessing no stairs, so that
to move from one room to another it was
necessary to burst your way up through
the ceiling, or else to come outside and
climb through a window, either of which
methods must be fatiguing when you come
to do them often.
Apart from these drawbacks, however,
the house was one that any doll agent
would have been justified in describing as
"most desirable family residence" and
it had been furnished with lavishness
that bOrdered on positive ostentation. In
the bedroom there was washing stand,
and on the washing stand there stood a
Jug and basin, and in the jug there was
real water. But all this was as nothing.
L have known mere ordinary, middle
class dolls houses in which you might
find washing stands and jugs and basins
and real water-aye, and even soap. But
in this abode of luxury there was a real
towel; SO that body could not only wash
himself. but wipe himself afterwards, and
that is sensation that, as all dolls know,
can only be enjoyed in the very first-class
houses.
Then, in the drawing-se;a there was a
clock which would go on king so long as
ever you continued TO shake il lit never
seemed to get tired); also a picture and
piano, and book upon the table, and q
vase of flowers that would tip over and
upset the moment you touched it, lust like
q n 10,
about this room, can tell you!
But the glory of the house was it's kItch-
en-. There were all things that heart could
desire in this kitchen-saucepans with lids
that took on and off, fiat iron and roll
Ing-pin. A dinner service for three occu-
was left was filled up by the stove-a real
stove! Think Of it. oh, We owners of dolls
houses, a stove in which you could burn
real bits OF coal, and on which you could
boil real bits of potato for dinner-except
when people seid you mustn't, because it
was dangerous, and took the CRATE away
from you and blew out the fire, thing
that hampers the cook.
never saw house more complete in all
its details. Nothing has been overlooked,
not even the family. There it lay on its
back, just outside the front door, proud
but calm. waiting to be put into posses
sion. 1t was not an extensive family. 1t
baby, and the hired girl; just the family
for beginner.
1t was well-dressed family too-not
merely with grand clothes outside, cover
ing a shameful condition of things be-
meath, such as, alas is too often the case
in doll society, but with every article
necessary and proper to a lady or gentle
man, down to items l could not mention.
And all these garments. you must know,
could be unfastened and taken off. l have
known dolls-stylish enough dolls. to look
at, some of them-who have been content
to go about with their clothes gummed on
to them, and. In some cases, nailed on
with tin-tacks, which I take to be a SLOW
emily and unhealthy habit. But this fami.
ly could be undressed in five minutes
without the aid Of either hot water or a
chisel
Not that it was advisable from an artis-
tic point Of view that any of them should
be undressed. They had not the figure
that looks we'll in its natural state-none
OF them. There was want of fullness
about them all. Besides, without their
clothes 1t might have been difficult to dis
tinguish the baby from the papa, or the
maid from the mistress, and thus domes-
tic complications might have arisen.
When all was ready for their reception
put az much of the baby to bed as the cot
would hold, and made the papa and
mamma comfortable in the drawing-room.
where they sat on the floor and stared
thoughtfully at each other across the
table. (They had to sit on the floor be-
cause the chairs were not big enough \
The girl We placed in the kitchen. where
she leant against the dresser in an atti-
tude suggestive Of drink, embracing the