Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1899-01-22
ECHOES FROM ALTON.
SOME OBSERVATIONS on BOARDERs
AND BOARDING.
THINGS ARE REALLY CHANGING
The Woes of n LnndIady-A story
with Point-Tbe King OF Cngrafe-
Notes.
Notes.
Correspondence Of the Dispatch)

Correspondence OF the Dispatch)
ALTON, VA, January 20-I have been
boarding. "And how did you like?' ask
ed my next farmhouse neighbor when
got back to chine-pie and apple-butter
"Umw
I'm. you must know, IS an acquisition.
II stands for non-committal. From New
York northward, to the pole, "Um'
means as "close as an oyster" and shuts
the lips with a snap as Theoretically seal
ed as the mouth of a dumb bivalve.
Southwark, we have no synonym for its
expression, and get entirely out OF It's
practice three days after crossing Mason
and Dixon's line.
am non-committal, verbally, on the
subject of boarding. but my old and ac-
cepted ideas on clearinghouse keepers
have undergone a cyclic change.
That hoary old Chestnut" OF the stern,
thin landlady ard the tough beefsteak
resolves itself into meek plumpness and
succulent sirlOin: the boarding-house
oyster no longer disports itself in single
blessedness, and the traditional hash
is a thing of the past. Ali these have
gone the way Of other decisions, and
would rather see statue 10 the modern
American boarding house keeper than TO
sign my name to a Filipino land grant.
Things are really changing. To an i'm
| partial looker-on it is not now the board
or who calls for humorous notice in the
| lack of attention, or full measure for
value given. but the longsuffering host
ess. TO whom the bearing Of her guests
is often Indifferent and frequently ag-
! gressive.
Roughness and Independence are the
| most marked features Of social decad-
| ence. Nowhere are they more apparent
! than in a city caravansary where people
meet around the same table three times
day.
The clearinghouse OF to-day is hardly
what it once was the neutral ground for
| something like a home, for the inter
change OF friendly conversation and plea
SAINT amenities; IL is just the checking Of
place now for scores and debts-so mucl
for such a price.
L don't know how many more ills on
must reluctantly note In lovely woman
but this / do know: That they are be
coming so carclessly remss themselye
in many ordinary forms of good breeding
that they imperil their right TO claim
from the other sex. and what is far worse
endanger its observance toward othe
and more dependent women. Is u true
that in the small details Of daily life
politeness is going to the wall?
A GOOD STORY.
p I heard a good story about a French
woman lately that is TO the point
Does smoking incommOde your aske
a man i'm a carriage before lighting b
cigar 81 do not know" she replied il
= nocently, for no one has ever smoke
where / was"
But Of all trials, the woman i'm a larg
{ city who keeps a cheap bOarding-hous
must cap the climax in woe.
+, I hoard one such lament when l ask
her.
Yes, you may be sure Of all the u
;. grateful wretches under the canop
4 the cheap boardcr Is the worse. II tho
; who make so many complaints, and e
Z pect SO much for their money, had 20 n
a house like mine. they'd find out.
hear them. and without listening eithe1
= for d landlady IS supposed to have neith
!, eyes ears nor feelings.
u There's my second floor front; pays
i a week for two. Neither of them dri
= tea or coffee. They use three pints
d milk a day, and l lose on the tea a
j" coffee as one can't figure on a couple
~ cups m a drawing. And the sugar tn
" confscate generously for lemonade
~ their room, as the wife says, were
titled TO it. you know. at the table I
side rOomers burn the gas up full all ~
ming TO heat their rooms and anOtl
keeps Il dog, or, rather, l keep dog
her one other feeds her canary birds
hard-boiled eggs. Mrs Smith uses up
the hot water and the bathroom Sc
with her washing of hosiery and handk
chiefs, and Mrs. Brown must have
. fire and lights haring half the night in
] parlors. because her daughter Is a b,
and has a separate caller for each g
ming in the week" And, oh, dear" 3
sighed. 81 put up with it and say nothi
but to be called mean and stngy a
grasping is hard, and once in awhile j
a. board bill that cuts OFF all the pro
and wears my patience to string
And / ponder:
"Can these things be-" when I
&c asked If | like boarding. and concl'
that my heart is too sympathetic to So,
il more than twelve months In year.
'e- FEVER OF UNREST.
III big box. little box, handbook, bundl
"a and-what poor Patty Pace never Ia
49, a cradle included. are travelling up
N0 down the country roads these wild j.
- uary DAYS A fever Of unrest burns VIII
80 the small farmer and the colored labo
"a they are settled for the next crop "
~, This bleak cold weather, it is piutul
"a see them-the big wagon loaded with
tro humble household goods the wife
"a children crowded down in the bedd
and the cradle-alWays the cradle-las
,d on behind with the horse feed.
~, It is enough to make one believe in
~, single tax TO see people moving arol
,on in winter for a home; but Of one thi
49, no white tenant has yet tried 10 az
49, himself Of the land-grabbers' chai
,.d Jane Durrett. a negro woman us
i.,, near the AIbemarle line, died Tues
80 last. at the advanced age of lO6 CD ye
- Her mother was said to be a full-bloo
Lo African negress. brought to this coui
I'm Colonial days by "A Dutch slave-tra'
.os- and sold 10 one of the Digges families
nm orange county. Jane once said, when
Federal soldiers camped near the
nc home place directly after the war
,tic they wore blue clothes. but she ~
an seed soldiers dat wore red coats, me
,ch ing the British. OF cOlrse.
Tho Mr.. John Chris. GoOdloe ana sister. \
nd Mary GOodloe, are visiting their SIS