The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1899-06-02
True Hospitality.

Is it delight to your guest to enter
your home, and does she feel when the
doors have closed behind her that she is
welcome in the truest sense Of the word,
that her presence there is joy to you as
we'll as a pleasure to herself? If not,
then you have failed as a hostess.
You may have invited your guest from
any one of several motives, but there is
something lacking in your hospitality.
You have done everything, you say, to
make things pleasant. The house is in
immaculate order, the pantry is full of
good things to eat, you have rushed and
set up late nights in order to get this or
that thing done so that you may better
entertain your guest. That is the trou-
ble-all summed up in the common
phrase Ito entertain your guest
Your guest doesn't want to be enter.
tanned. She has come for change. She
wants to leave all the entertainment be-
hind and to just slip into your home life,
says Harriet Curyl Cox in the Ladies'
World.
heart and mental home, as we'll as the
material one, and to take her in so that
she shall be one with you. 1t is the
glimpse we get into the lives, not the
mere habitation, of our friends that
makes communion with them blessing
haps tired from her own circle Of friends,
Of the ruts into which she has uncon:
sciously fallen, and it is sweet and re-
freShing to breathe different air mrn-
tally as well as physically.
You think, perhaps, that it is from Il
sense of duty that your guest begs you to
let her help you in your morning tasks,
and you laugh and push her back into
the chair from which she has half arisen
in her offer, and smiling, say: MY dear,
you are here to rest And she does not
persist, fearing it will really annoy you
You have made mistake. Accept the
offer as it is made. This sharing of work
your guest that she is really one of you,
not an outsider who can 80 only thus far
i'll the home life. In the sharing of
work, in the talks over dishes of vege-
tables, or with buster in hand, some of
the most precious moments of the visit
will be spent. This will be the happy
memory that your guest will carry home
with her, not the influence of the quiet
nook i'll the parlor or ON the shady piazza,
where she is installed alone US COMPANY
While you do up the work.
There is one thing that the thoughtful
hostess always notices lnd profits there
by, and that is the individual tastes III
We all have our peculiarities Of palate,
them as we'll as she knows the vaea carries
of her own immediate family. She will
remember that you take your coffee with
out milk, and not daily insist that it be
passed to YOU and recall attention to the
fact. She will note what dishes please
you most, and repeat them at not-too-
frequent Intervals. So many a house
wife, having found favorite dish, will
REPEAT it SO often that it becomes tire
some. DO not make this mistake. Try
different dishes; there may be something
else equally pleasing.
l know woman who has knack at
making verses, and invariably her guests
lind pinned to their pillow or the toilet
table, or perhaps hidden in the towel or
soap-dish, Il note of greeting in verse, or
reminder of some joke or memory of
the past. Sometimes at breakfast she
will pass around platter of verses, one
applying to each person, and then all read
aloud and the application made amid
much good cheer.
Not all of us can rhyme, but in plain
prose. we can write some kind word Of
greeting that should supplement our YER
bal welcome.
1 remember one night reaching the end
as | mounted the stairs this one word,
per, greeted me: "Welcome.'' A portiere
bore a similar CHEERING word, and a big,
comfortable sofa said very plainly: Il
an, glad you have come" DO you wonder
that d g00d deal of the wcarniess van
ished before this and the hearty, cordial
haiid-clASp Of my CHEEKY hostess?
1t is a great thing to be able to dis
behse hospitality, one of the privileges of
DUR lives. Let us do it heartily. When
we give, give freely. Open our doors and
our hearts together and take our
friends in.
This is the true hospitality