The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-08-22
LOVES A BUREAU
She Seems to Cherish It Above
All Things.

TO caI on Miss Gladys heaPStyle x
propose marriage, or elopement, o,
suicide, or to do nothing at all-whicf
would be more IN accordance with the
traditions of the society novel-vor
will find that it goes something like
this:
percy had hardly touched the
Heapstyle door-ben when he was ad
mitted by the old butler, whose digni.
fed visage frightened at the sight OF
the young man, whom he ushered al
once into the sunny morning-room."
why, how late you arer cried
Gladys, half rising from her delightful
nest among the multitudinous pillows
of the great divan. Her mandolin lay
at her feet by the side of the latest
novel; and as she spoke she coquet-
tishly rearranged bunch of flowers
IN a crystal vase"
Or perhaps this is the exact for
mula:
"a discreet knock upon the rose
wood door was all that was necessary
to gain admittance for our hero to the
dainty boudoir where Gladys Heap
style lay back languidly in her luxuri-
Gus fauteuil."
That is about the way 1t reads, isn't
it? Yes? Well, 1t isn't so. It never
happened that way. Not in this coun-
try. Not on your mother-in-lsw. Not
If Gladys Heapstyle was an American
girl
But here is what did happen.
Whether it was q dignified butler or
neat and attractive housemaid who
admitted Percy Algernon, he or she
shot that young man straight into the
parlor, and scuttled off upstairs-one
fight, two fights, three fights, as the
case might be-to Miss GLADYS bed
room, and routed her out of that
sacred asylum to come downstairs and
see the man she had been expecting
for an hour and half And the mo-
ment his call was over Gladys gath
cred up her front draperies and ran
upstairs as hard as if she were sprin-
ting for a hundred-dollar prize; and
she didn't feel really comfortable or
like herself until she got her rocking
chair hitched up close to the wash
stand
For, to the true American woman,
VII - - III AbCA44 II I-AC III llAC AlGE
bedroom; and life without bed,
washstand, a pitcher and basin, a
soap-dish and a slop-jar, is a barren
blank. You may think that Gladys is
happy when you see her sweeping
through the magnificent ballroom be-
tween ranks of bowling admirers, with
the chastened glory of the electric
lights Illuminating her sunny hair and
her goddess-lile brow. And, in a way,
perhaps she is happy. But it is not |
the genuine solid happiness of sitting |
in 4 room with bed and washstand |
in it, where she can feel the near pres !
ence of the soap-dish and the tooth |
brush mug, and the box OF combings |
under the bureau. 1t is only IN such |
sacred surroundings as these that the
true american woman can be truly
happy.
The bedroom disease pervades all
classes of American womanhood. 1t
knows no restrictions of wealth, fash
ion, locality or social position. As
far as the passion for bedroom life is
concerned, the miliionaire's wife and
the spouse of the hum blest shanty
dweller stand, or rather sit, on exactly
the same basis. Be it ever SO humble,
there's no place like the bedroom.
Gladys is a child of wealth. She
lives in a sumptuOus New York home.
The rooms on the lower floor are many
and comfortable. There are sunny
rooms and shady rooms. There are
warm rooms and cool rooms, large
rooms and small rooms. But If there
were q wilderness Of apartments, each
one more beautiful than the other,
Gladys would fly them all to NEW her
self up in her bedroom, happy in her
proximity TO her washstand as q de-
votee who draws near the altar with
the mystic longing of devotion. Her
matters nothing. To her
bedroom she takes her reading. her
sewing, her fancy work; il is there
that she practices upon her mandolin or %
her either; and If she could carry her
piano under her arm she would have it
up there.
I do not know how the bedroom dis :
ease FIRST got its insidious grip on the
women of our country. l only know
that it has obtained such a hold upon
their systems that they are. in all !
beyond any mortal cure. ,
There may be regulations in Heaven
to keep those blessed angels in the {
streets, or in the jasper vestibules, or
the crystal front parlors, or some place
where Stop jars and washstands are :
not; but never on this poor mortal
earth viii you get the American
10 give up her habit of tester !
ing in her bedroom during every :
minute of her spare time. {
There was ono man who once at '
tempted 20 buck against the bedroom c
habit. lie was q very rich man who
lad made vast fortune in the west, :
md he had wife Of whom he was
Fery fond. She had injured her health
- citing day after day IN the mas
matte atmosphere of her toothbrush -
md combings, and he wanted 70 try
o reclaim her, to make a healthy,
lappy woman of her. So he built r
louise that might have been called a
,alaeo, if any one OF those wretched
Id European palaces were oue-hun-
lredth part as good as the kind of house
n American builds when he sets out
o please his wife. One speciality about
his house was that it had more differ 80
ut serts OF rooms than any house that
yer was heard OF. II had parlors and
and Withdrawing
oo1ns, and without drawing rooms, and s
lining rooms, and wining-rooms and ;
music rooms and picture rooms and IL :