The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-04-16

1t is a very funny thing that the free
and easy American must go abroad in
order to get rid of certain rigidities, but
It is a fact. Easy and charming in our
personal manners as a nation, we are in
regard to domestic customs, rules and
regulations, adamantins. Why is it? One
rarely meets with the true bohemian spir-
it in either son or daughter of the Stars
and Stripes unless 1t has been imported
a valuable possession. the most valuable
that one can bring home with them from
a trip to the other side, and one upon
which kindly Uncle Sam levies no tax.
The real bohemian, healthy and happy,
is he who lives life by the minute, not
by the week. He basks or works in the
present. The need or wish of the mo-
ment is g~ratihed just so far as is posi-
BILE without infringing upon the rights OF
others.
We make such a mistake when we
translate the foreign word "Boheme' into
the American word 'loafer." The one is
a word full of suggested poetry, and
striking virtues, too, for that matter; the
other-we all know what it implies-and
it is not bohemian in any sense of the
word.
You all know of the home where the
falling of Christmas on Monday causes
Il Tasting regret anu d StoOAA ONSA SS
f~estivity where Santa Claus hardly dares
nope to find the usual stocking at the
fireplace, because Monday is "wash-day,"
more sacred, less likely to be desecrated
by the methodical h~ousekeeper than Sum
day itself. We have all had the pleasure
~ of living or visiting in houses where
the meal hours were more immovable
than the hours of sunrise or sunset. we
nave all wanted to do a hundred things
in our lives, but not dared to infringe
upon this or that petty regulation, often
self-inficted, and yet none OF the less
binding for all that. We are the makers
of our domestic laws, and afterwards we
are their slaves. 1t does seem odd. but
there is a remedy. 1t is found in the old
world, where the busy thrifty people are,
nevertheless, bohemian to the core.
Where the harassed father of a big fam
lily goes to spend his noon hour and eat
his lunch with said family at home. or in
the woods, as the weather dictates, and
always finds it restful.
The old world has grown wise. 1t
knows that life is wearing and it protects
itself from the wear thereof as much as
possible. If it wants to frolic on Mon
Gay, Tuesday is good enough for the
washing, and SO on. The people, so far
IS compatible with sense, make the ma
chinery of life revolve to suit the hour
and their whim. They do not grind out
the same programme for every Monday
of the year when by so doing it may
crush a dear hope or perhaps only disap-
point a child. When he can do it the
bohemian makes life fit his need, and he
needs contentment and comfort; he needs
to smile.
Now we don't do these things. If it is
dinner time we let the lovely sunset go
unnoticed. If 1t is our usual time for
rising we leave our beds with a yawn.
even though no duty except of fulfilled
habit calls US. We are not bohemian In
the very least. When we try it we usually
make mistakes and try to be bizarre. A
real bohemian is sweet, gracious, a good
host, a good friend, and a thoroughly re-
spectacle character.
A Bohemian couple were discovered here
the other day, an elderly couple, who,
having lived for fifty years in Philadel-
phia's most strict environment, having
conducted a house where illness itself
respected usage, whe a meal was never
known to be a minute late nor the family
less -punctual-this wonderful couple, l
say, have been converted. It took three
years of slow, enjoyable wanderings over
the face of the earth to reconstruct them,
but that was not much, considering they
had been fifty years in the stiff groove.
If you ask Mrs. M today at what time
they dine, she will answer
sOh, any time that suits usl What time
viii you be out?'
If you drop in to see them you are asked
if you want a little lunch. Told that there
is the lounge, if you prefer it to a chair.
You are invited to be at home.
The house is clean from top to bottom
and there is cleaning done only once a
week. Then everything is done, everybody
helps and peace reigns again.
In this particular family there is no maid
kept all the heavy work being done in a
few hours by a woman who comes in. The
meals are gotten and eaten without any
hurry. and if there be a guest present the
table is left and the evening enjoyed as
though fairy hands would clear away the
evidences of the feast. Butthey will not,
you say. No, of course not No one can
escape the work of life, but it can be done
at a time when it will not crush out pleas
ure. While the bright friend is there, why
should the hostess be In the pantry with
soap suds and china?
"
AS to the cry that things that stand are
so much harder to wash, it may be an
swered by the statement that no article
ever used upon a table is hard to wash If
the water used is hot, the soap good and
the hands that are to do the work willing
At any time, if our friends choose, they
Put the key in the door, lock it and depart
for a jaunt or a trip. They arrange to dine
in town, the wife meeting her husband at
some central point, and both enjoying the
variety and ease. then enjoying home all
the more afterward.
One thing that should be remembered by
those people who may try to make habit
suit the majority of the family hereafter,
is that no slovenliness, no lack Of dainty
refinement must be admitted into the
scheme. No standard is ever kept up
without work, and no one exempt from
this work is happy
Make a new rule to have no rules. II
you are hungry, eat, and, more important
still. If you are not hungry, do not eat,
even though the time for the meal is at
hand and though the time-honored meal
time be sounding. There are hundreds OF
lis who eat a dinner because we know.
that if we don't we will be hungry by bed