The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1892-01-06

The Family Hearth Stone.


true uniting in diversity of the individ-
uals, as the sitting-room. 1t is the
center of the social life of the house
hold 1t is mothers ROOM" There
she is oftenest found in her moments
ofleisure, ready to hear, to sympathize,
to console, and TO advise. Here the |
father frolics with the children, here
they listen to song and story read aloud,
here the troubles of the day dwindle
and disappear, or are softened and
lessened by united, sympathizing and
soothing surroundings; here nuts and
mild jokes are cracked, and rosy apples
and fragrant oranges lend their favor
and juicy richness to the homely scene,
while without the wind blows, the rain
falls, or the snow flies.
To make this room the ideal hearth
stone, its furnishings should contain
elements that appeal to the tastes and
pursuits of each of the members of the
household. There should be room, if
possible, for favorite chairs and for
shelves or bookcases, and tables for
each ones choice of books and papers,
and for undisturbed corners and coy
hooks, if each has only chair and
footstool, or portion of a drawer, or
curtained shelf. Places where the
studious, the ambitious, or the thought
full can work out their pet projects, or
keep safely their treasured plans and
possessions, ready for the sudden in
spiration of the industrious mood,
which quite as often seizes one amid
the family chatter as in the solitude of
ones own room. To secure all this
will require considerable outlay as well
as much unselfish thought on the part
of the home-maker. The outlay, how
ever, can usually be modified, adding
purchases from. time to time as family
growth and taste may show them to be
desirable. Indeed, the true furnishing
of such a room, after a certain point,
must be matter of growth Given
the bare bones of chairs, carpets, tables
and curtains, the rounded form and
vigorous expression of the sitting room
must grow out of the mental and moral
life of the family, grow out of that
social, intellectual and spiritual food on
which the family feeds. Of course fur
nishing selected with this aim in view
will be as varied as families are, for
what expresses comfort and gives help
and solace to one family would be tire
some, inane, or comfortless in others.
Each home writes its own history
sooner or later in its furnishings and ar
rangements. Even straitened means
that oft-berated foe of family luxury
cannot prevent the telling of the tale.
Year by year slips by, purchase after
purchase is made, chapter after chapter
is written. What we most desire we
bend our circumstances to secure, and
therefore the home does express in the
long run what we are and what we feel
This being true, lei us not be impatient;
let US proceed thoughtfuly, unselishly,
and carefully, that our home center
may not express sordid lives, ungener-
GUS natures, or narrow minds.
The home is for the family and not
the world, and there should never be a
moments hesitancy if narrow means
compel the furnishing of but one
roma parlor or a sitting-room. Let
the sitting-room come first. 1t
should never, on the other hand, be
the receptacle of broken-down or use.
; less drawing-room furnishings. Good
plain articles which are yet honorable
in their strength and usefulness can
frequently be put into the sitting.room
when the state of the family finances
; has allowed something handsomer to be
bought for the drawing-room. Too
often the sitting-room receives but
rickety tables, cracked ornaments, spot
ted upholstery, and chairs whose springs
, are warped out Of any comfort-giving
properties they may once have pos
sessed. So, in bringing any furniture
from the parlor to the sitting-room, let
the housewife see to it first that it is
restored to strength and rendered clean
and inviting in all ways. "The best is
good enough for my own" should be
her watchword, not, Anything for us,
and our finest for our callers. - The
Pacific.
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