Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-04-14

water must be carried up four or five
flights of stairs. Comparatively few Lon
don houses have bath rooms, and so with
each bed room there goes tin basin called
hip BATH" shaped like an arm chair
1t holds about a gallon of water and part
or person, and just how any one can
manage to take bath in it has always
been mystery to me. There is something
weird and uncanny about the appearance
OF these tubs. But the English people
are greatly attached to them, probably
because they have been in existence since
time immemorial, and 1t is an English
custom to show respect to the relics of
antiquity.
DiscomfOrts of the Bed Room.
Although there are gas pipes in most of
the London houses, fixtures are not put into
all the rooms, and most of the bed rooms are
lighted by candles. have never been able
to understand how a proper toilet can be
rade by the light of two or three candles.
Nothing be more bare and uncomfort
able than the ordinary London bed room
The dressing table is always placed directly
in the window, and the back of it makes a
most unslghtiy appearance from the front
or the house. The first thing l noticed when
l saw the outside of Buckingham Palace
was the long row of bed room windows with
dressing table standing in each one Our
useful and ornamental American bureau is
not known here, although in every bed room
mere is a chest of drawers" for clothes
necessary pieces of furniture since there
are few hanging closets. Many of the beds
are without springs, especially those used
by the younger members of the family.
sometimes the bed rooms are carpeted but
often only a few rugs are laid about Eng
llsh people think of bed room as a place
to sleep in and get out OF as soon as posi-
bic do not wonder. 1t is cold and dreary
without even much as couch upon
which to rest. There is no choice but to sit
in straight backed chair or go to bed
Bed room fires are only INDUCED in by the
wealthy. In the winter the majority of
Londoners dress and undress in o hurry
with teeth chatIering and hands purple with
the cold. And yet half of them are so used
to it that they don't realize how very un-
comfortable they are. In America we take
| infinite pains to make our bed rooms as
| pretty and comfortable as our drawing
| rooms. Beautiful draperies, pictures plants
folding beds, looking glasses, easy chairs,
| soft, springy couches and bright carpets
| turn them into boudOirs where we can
| lounge about in supreme laziness and in
difference to all the world.
| But the English bed room, Let us leave it
| as quickly as possible. Out in the halls dur
| ing the winter season We SILVER and shake
| while making our descent to the drawing
| room. Once there. we understand why the
other rooms are 50 bare. Peter has been
| robbed 20 pay Paul The drawing room is
| elegant with gilded mirrors, costly paint
| ings inlaid cabinets and expensive bric-a-
| brac. More money has been expended in
| fit up whole house for one of our well-to-
| do American families In our country the
| people who would here be called the mid
| die classes strive to make their homes con-
Venlent and pleasant from the kitchen to
| the attic. In England the same class of
| people use every endeavor to ornament the
! drawing room at the expense of the rest of
| the house Yet, with all their expenditure
| they do not get what we Americans would
| call comfort The coucheS are covered with
magnificent tapestry, but they have not that
| agreeable. springy motion of the American
! lounge. The chairs are inlaid with pearl
| and ivory, but they are stiff and straight
b. cIed and we get cramps when we sit in
| them. The fire burns brightly in the hearth
yet there is no warmth in the fartheSt cor
| ner of the room. Only by sitting around 1t
| is there chance to warm our fingers and
| toes. Come up to the fire. says. the hos
pitable hostess, when On her at home day
| she receives her guests. So all about the
CRATE the visitors gather, and heaven pity
the belated one who arrives after the circle
| is formed! Left on the outer edge, she sips
| her tea and freezes
| The Sideboard.
Among the wealthy classes there Is a sit
ting room connected with each bed room,
which accounts for the very large houses in
which the aristCcracy live, but among the
middle classes either the dra wing room or
! the dining room is used as a sitting room
by the family. Nearly all the dining rooms
contain one piece of furniture that l never
| tire of admiring. 1t is the great sideboard
carved from massive English oak. In
America we who do not belong to the mon
| eyed class are content with pretty but in
expensive little sideboaTds of American
| manufacture, to match the rest of the
set" but in England almost every family
with a moderate income possesses one of
! these carved pieces. 1t sets the whole room
| off and gives it an air of elegance that
even the cheap lace curtains hanging at the
windows cannot dispeL In the matter of
artistic window draping the English house
wife is far behind my Countrywomen. The
| Englishwoman will, If she can afford it.
have a handsome pair of curtains in her
drawing room, but the rest of the windows
seldom look like mates. Each room has
different style of drapery. of various colors
and patterns, while the shades are never
evenly adjusted The American house
keeper takes a particular pride in keeping
all the front windows of her house alike
and the little sash curtains, looped back
with pretty ribbons, are the joy of her
heart. l have never yet seen artistically
Graped windows in any London house, I'M
less it nappenedro be occupied by an Amer
lean. In this respect the houses Of the
titled aristocracy look the worst with he
palaces of royalty in the lead. On the in
side of the windows it is considered style"
for the draperes to sweep the floors, after
the manner of a court train.
The English table when laid for break
fast luncheon or dinner always looks very
pretty. Where large numbers of servants
are kept the laying of the table Is q matter
of much Importance. Throughout the year
flowers are used for decorating, though the
meal may be / simple one. Even on the
tables of the humblc5t LOploners a bunch
of flowers cheap though they T1ay be, is
considered necessity. l'oor, Indeed is the
workman who, though he eats in his
kitchen does not have a few blossoms on
his table at dinner.
John Bull is HospitnbIc.
This abundance of flowers in an English
house is one of It's greatest ATTRACTIONS
And, while speaking Of attractions, l must
not forget to mention that there is one
thing about an English home which no
American can fail 10 admire, and that is its
hospitality, FOR JOHN Bull is a model host:
and when he has guests in his house his
one desire seems to - 10 make them happy
Sir Edwin Arnold says thar in visiting
America he struck with the hospiia BILE
treatment of Americans. l would say that
the same thing has impressed me ccn,ern-
Ing English people. Their mode Of enter
tanning may be different from ours but l.
Is none the less hearty and sincere.
Ia conclusion, | canno" '.rlnar ., 70
that, although TO my American mind John
Bulls castle" is most inconveniantly built
he himself does no. realize these disconn-
forts. He thrivas on them to such an ex-
tent that cannot help wondering whether
we americans would no. be stronger and
healthier If we live1 with less heat AMI
fewer touches AMI upholstered chairs. But.
however that may he. l still contend that
Ill