The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-01-10

and if there is any place in deeency we
can visit we take all risks and make 1or
that place.
Most hostesses have a genteel horror of
the spare bed room type of visitor. Com
pany of any other sort is not so terrify-
ing. There is a great deal in being able
to secure a welcome.
In the first place much depends upon
the size of a woman's trunk. When the
trunk is a necessity, and of course 1t IS
if the family goes out much, we should
take with us the smallest one We own.
We should not fail to do this. There
is nothing that sends a welcome down TO
zero so quickly as the sound of a great
clumsy trunk going bumpety, bumpety
over ones best stair carpet.
The man who carries it always glares
at it with evil intent, and as the spare
room is apt to be three and even four
flights skyward, he works off his feelings
by scraping the wall paper, hitting the
gas fixtures and letting the huge thing
down here and there for a breathing spell.
Then it is that the hostess shivers sur
reptitiousIy, clenches her hands on the
quiet and goes off in a corner and says
things about people who will visit.
And the man who has dome his pref
tiest with wall paper and carpet and
fixtures appears for his perquisite and
there is q general search for fddler's
chang And when it is found and the
dreadful trunk man is out of the house
the hostess sweetly sails into the room
where the guest is placidly seated and
promptly proceeds to gu:sh over her.
A woman always gushes over another
woman when she feels that she hates her
for being around. And the guest wakes
up from her trance and asks, as if almost
foored by the idea:-
Did the man want to be paid for car
rying that trunk up?"
The amiable mistress of the house
smiles like a seraph and insists that It
was a mere trife. The guest remembers
she has left her purse in her travelling
bag upstairs, but begs to be allowed 70
go for it. She is not allowed and then
and there the hostess bids am everlasting
adieu to the quarter that the trunk MAI
has gathered in.
1t is to be hoped the trunk has not been
stuffed with duds that might have been
left at home. 1t does require such nice
discrimination to select clothing for a
visit.
The hostess is always fitting about and
if she happens to catch sight of a motley
outlay of garments, thai look as if prep
arations for an indefinite stay had been
made, she is ready to mathematics the
fate that has brought her this particular
guest.
While folly of the worse sort to cram
a trunk to the point of bursting it is
equally fatal to omit articles of actual
..ro Ter ipc+arco o nai1~ of r1IhhQrS and
a sensible rain cloak. I have known an
entire household completely convulsed by
a tornado of feeling because a visitor
needed at the last moment these two ar
ticles. OF course they were forthcoming,
but somebody had to go without and the
somebody was as mad as a halter.
And the traveller with a well regulated
mind would as soon think of leaving
home without her Bible as an umbrella
f-ferer are few things and they really
are a few that do a great deal toward
securing a welcome for those of us who
will visit.
Better remain at home, however. A
few embers on ones own hearthstone are
: worth all the roaring logs that blaze on
the hearthstone of a stranger. But those
who delight in stretching their dainty
limbs beneath a hostess mahogany will
simply laugh at such advice and call it
the rawlings of a sore-headed pessimist.
80
Often homemade playthings are treas
ured by little people more han expensive
trinkets. Our children are domestic in
their tastes at present, SO / procured some
p~asteboard boxes about e4x1S inches, and
nine inches high, and we made a house
and barn. Have plenty of old paste
board boxes to cut up for partitions and
furniture.
We made kitchen, pantry and dining
room in one box; in the other. called the
upright, was rhe sitting room and bed
room. Cut the partitions to fit tight, or
thsy will always be tumbling down.
Cut double doors between sitting-room
and bedroom, and use any pretty little
scraps you may awe of silk, lace or vel
vet for portieres. The pink and green pa
pers in which SO many packages come
wrapped were cut in fancy patterns fer
carpets. which let the white of the bot
tom of the box show through for the pat
tern. They also make pretty coverings
for the tables and beds.
The chairs, tables, beds, etc., are cnf
from pasteboard. more or less fancy, ae-
cording to the skill of the artist.
Then we cut a family of paper dolls to
inhabit the house, clothing them from
some Of the bright paper.
Another box has been made into A barn
with p~asteboard stalls, managers and
stanchions, being divided into compare
ments for horses and cattle. with a place
between for hay; the hay is represented
by very thin little papers. The horses,
COWS and calves are made of p~asteboard,
and are fed regularly on paper r~ations:
the cover 10 the box is set one side for q
b~arnyard, in one corner of which are the
tank and windmill, made also of paste
board; the pitchforks, shovels, hammers.
etc, are made of stiff pastebeard.
A small shoe box, with ~pasteboard
wheels and tongue, is the wagon, and
wrapping cord is utilized for harnesses.
A handsome rag doll can be made of
cloth II one is handy about such things;
and they are often preferred to a more
expensive one.
An elephant made of gray cloth, with a
small red blanket on, is greatly enjoyed
by children, especially when playing cir
Gus.
A pair of lines, one inch wide and three
yards long, can be knit of odds and ends,
and are very serviceable when the chairs
are used for horses, or when one child
drives another.
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