The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1898-08-14

OVER THE Chatting DISH
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They were gathered in the hall bed
room of the third floor back, and the host
ess, balanced on the edge of the wash
stand, was making Judges over the flame
of the solitary gas jet, while In the dim
light that consequently pervaded the room
the girl whose yearly income is written
with four figures was brewing tea with
the aid of a o'clock kettle.
1t was Sunday. Sunday may not be
fashionable calling day in that society
which capitaizes itself in the newspapers,
but in the smaller and more obscure sphere
in which the business woman moves it is
the one day of all the week when she may
put to practical test the joys of the "gabble,
gobbe and git" as dear old DR.. Holmes is
said to have once described fashionable
reception.
"Where do you keep your stewpan when
you're not using it?'' queried the girl who
had pumped herself down among the pill
lows on piece of furniture that served as
a couch by day and bed by night.
'In my hat box" answered the hostess,
giving the bubbling brown mass another
stir. ooh, my, no, no; not with my hat. 1t
doesn't make much difference where that
goes, but-I don't dare be careless about the
stewpan. And that keyhole is plugged. You
see, got ready for you
"Funny people, these landladies, aren't
they?" put in the girl who occupied the
one rocking chair. cts a problem to me
whether 1t is the business that ruins their
tempers or whether it is the ill-na tured
people who naturally turn to keeping
boarders. Some day, when I have had all
the stenography l can stand, and when m
widow and have some furniture and
(vaguely) other things, I'm going to run
boarding house of my own, and it will be on
brand-new principles. First of all, there'll
be no men in it-only girls
Count me out" came from the pill
lows.
ooh. but there'll be a half-dozen little par
lors. with chatting dishes and comfortable
chairs, and every girl can have just MS
many callers as she wants, and no questions
asked"
"Queer, isn't IT, how landlades object to
taking women to board?" remarked the
girl who was making tea. II feel like a
criminal or something worse when fate
compels me to change my quarters. The
catechism some women put you through is
enough to drive one into matrimony in
sheer self-defense and the humility that
one has to assume is notifying to ones
pride. Landladies never ask men those
questions, or regard them with such ILL
concealed suspicion; but ], for my part,
Judging from what 1 have seen of the
young man who fnhabits boarding houses,
would rather have business woman every
time
1.-THE men don't mess as we are doing
said Ia n ha Inc oh
80, bother, they do, too. Look at the
chatting dishes every man is setting up for
himself, and think of the way in which
Welsh rarebts and angels on horseback
can scent up the premises. Why, a man
told me not long ago that he kept a gas
stove, kettle and a saucepan in a trunk
in his closet. and served up regular suppers
at midnight to his cronies. and the land
lady never suspected him"
"And think of their nasty pipes and bad
smelling tobacco ashes"
but girls don't do their laundering In
the bathroom. and iron on the window panes
and bureau mirrors protested the tea
maker. That's one of the ISLANDERS put
upon us because of those nasty, miserable
ways in which married women who board
try to economize so they can get new silk
petticoat Those women are responsible
for ali the trouble. anyway. A business
woman is no more trouble as a boarder than
business man. She's away from the house
just as much as he is. and when she is a.
home she isn't raising, Ned with a lot of
rowdies, or pertaining the lace curtains
with tobacco smoke.
mo, the business woman makes the very
best kind of boarder, but she doesn't begin
to get her rights. If she has men friends
who come 10 call on her the old women In
the boarding house Immediately put her
down as bold, bad thing; and if she
doesn't they dub her grabbed old maid.
and leave her out of their stupid whist par
ties, so that she doesn't have any social life
at all. Something ought to be done about
it,"
But what are you going to do?" re-
marked the voice from the pillows.
"Get a fiat. hire a maid and snap your