The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1896-07-30
OUR COUNTRY COUSINS.
How the Model Guest Conducts Herself
When Visiting Them.

| When Visiting Them.
This is the season of the year when
| the city folk look about for place in
which to spend the summer vacation.
We hear the mountains calling to us,
and the seashore extending US an invi-
tation, and then others of us write to
our country cousins, and in return for
the brief visit they paid US last winter
we announce ourselves ready to sojourn
with them indefinitely. These country
| cousins are rather impressed with our
grandeur, and nothing they have is TOO
good for us. The best room is thrown
open for our benefit, and the sunshine is
allowed to pour in on the best brussels
carpet and haircloth furniture. The
neighbors give tea parties for us, and
the wealth of the larder is spread out be-
fore us. They serve six clock supper,
and the menu isn't at all like the meal
we have been in the habit of having at
that hour in the city. They have sauce
and biscuit and spice cake and tea, and
fill in the odd spaces on the table with
plates of cottage cheese and cookies and
fresh butter right from the churn that
very morning. Those of us who are
fortunate enough to have this kind OF
summer come back to the city refreshed
in body and spirit. The crickets and
the katydids do not make the same sort
of music that we find at the summer re-
srfts, bat they lull us to sleep rather
early in the night, SO that we are ready
to respond 10 the cocks crow in the
early morning. But the farm wife is up
about her work long before we know it
is day. She has done a days work be-
fore sunrise, maybe, and even lazy old
Sol peeps in at the Kitchen door at her
with blush of crimson on his guilty
face. Simple country living affords
great rest for overweary nerves, and
those OF us who have country cousins
had better rejoice in the fortunate in
heritance, and leave our city latch
string on the outside of the door for
them during the winter season, when
they come to town to see the sights.
The etiquette of visiting would fill a
book, if it wore set down in black and
white. A hOspitablr New York woman
who entertains good many people
during the course OF the year tells me
that there are but a very few of her list
of guests who meet the requirements of
the guest.
The model guest is one who comes
when she is invited and goes home at
the expiration of the time specified in
the invitation. She makes her own bed,
keeps order in her room and is all ready
when TIE maid announces that the meal
is served. believe, in addition to these
eXcellences, that she brings her own
soap and scissors and comb and brush,
and that, in case she does not do this,
she, at least. on departure, refrains
from appropriating any Of the articles
mentioned. The model guest busies
herself with bit of attractive needle
work, which she afterwards presents to
the hostess. She makes friends with
the dog and cat, and she tells stories 70
the children, and admires the family
baby aud praises the cooking, and never
forgets little fee to the servants. She
never intrudes herself during the house
working hours, but settles herself in a
best kind of a time. Sometimes she
dusts around a little. just for exercise,
and she claims only the privilege of be-
ing one of the family. She knows how
to express appreciation in a way that
puts spurs in everyone's good endeavors,
and she goes home while everybody is
very fond of her and regrets her.
The model guest in the country an
ticipates a thousand ways in which she
can help. Sometimes she churns just
for the novelty, and when the country
cousin washes dishes she wipes them for
her. The model guest is regular angel
in the family, and she is always engaged
for visits months in advance. 1t is all on
account of her unselfshnCss and ready
sympathy, and because she has the power
of adapting herself to modes of life that
belong to others rather than to herself,
and finds every situation fraught with
human interest-N. y. Recorder.