The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-01-04
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WOMAN'S WORLD.

She stood and gazed on the threshold
of her spare rooms smile of contemptuous
pity curling her lips, says the Philadel-
phia inquirer" Until it had been
thought of peace reigned supreme. A
cosey room, altogether too cosey. its mis-
tress has more than once thought.
How many guests has 1t held since its
completion? Has there been a single
week when it was without an occupant?
Never one That is the way with most
spare rooms. The hostess who is without
one may have troubles of her own, bur
the chance conner and the fitting visitor
and the guest who never knows when to
say good bye are easily managed.
Let it get noised about among friends
and relatives that a new spare room has
been opened and it draws them like
cheese draws mice, but If a house IS
minus a gaest chamber people who love
to sleep under other peoples roofs and
sit at other peoples tables, make tracks
for more hospitable quarters.
Il wonder how this room ever came
to be thought of in the first place? l
remember. 1t was an awful stormy night
and we had to put up a cot for Aunt
Margaret and Jack was as mad as a
March hare and said it was not a de-
cent way for white folk to live, not
having a hole to poke anybody into and
we talked over a spare room and l, ike
a Ounce, agreed to one, so we fixed up this
room and we have been in a fix ever
since.
.Mercyi I have had a time of it. For
the last month I have not had an hour to
call my own. 1t is so easy every time
any of our relatives come to the city
for the other ranch of the family to
airily say we would so love to have you
if we had a spot to tuck you. Sue has a
lovely spare room. Run right up to Sues.
She will be delighted
Then up to Sues they tram and
most of them seem to like it so well they
never know when to go. Look at THAI
desk over in the corner. i stocked It
with writing materials trying to be an up
to-date hostess, 1 sent luncheon up at
night to the first corners I have stopped
that.
II found I could not hold out in wen
doing. MY hospitality got noised about
and 1 have been literally overrun with
mpan Most of my time is spent in
speeding the parting guest and welcoming
the new conner.
Il just believe / will tear this trouble
some room to pieces and then perhaps
some other place nay be found for visi-
tors in our family besides Sue'si
Jack? Dear me. there is Jack. He is
so pig-headed. but it will be a pity II l
cannot concoct a nice little tale to sat
isfy him. If 1 fail 1 deserve to have a
spare room on my hands for the rest OF
my days"
..-l .4-ar chant cioE
room attentions" sighed the convalescent
as she peeked into a mirror the first day
she got up s.an kinds of directions for
making sick folk comic rtable, from ar
ranging flowers to preparing broths, but
I've never yet caught a single hin about
fixing up the Notwithstanding her, as
it were.
, Now. as a matter of fact, there's no
greater trial for the woman who's i'll
enough to be kept in bed, but moi so
low that she's lost all interest in her
appearance, thar to lie there day after
day Keeling that she's going to seed in
her looks.
I'm sure, unless a serious Illness has
worn away your vanity, / don't know OF
any time you want to look nice as much
as when people are peering at you in a
sea OF unbecoming white linen.
This last time I was sick I used to long
sometimes for my powder puff and my
verbena water and all the fussy little
things in my manicure set; l even wanted
to have my hair curled, but I didn't dare
mention such a thing, or my family would
have condemned me as a sh-allow-minded
young fool
so I used to eye my dressing table and
49,. II c---s4 -
wish / had some Arabian Nights magic
to coax them over to my bedside.
."One day when I expected visitors l
plucked up courage to ask for a jar of
cream and some lotions. My sister
brought them to me with a sort of re-
pressed impatience, and I heard her af-
that she believed vanity would be the
death of me yet, and even then I would
rise up in my shroud to primp.
tsThat cowed me. Today's the first time
I'VE looked in a mirror. Didn't like to
keep nagging at people to give me a
hand glass. and nobody seemed to think
I needed one.
80! WELL she concluded, 81 suppose
just the practical demands of nursing are
enough to wear your family out, and
they're not hunting for chances to take
extra steps, but when it comes to really
pleasing the MISUNDERSTANDING her up
in a way, I say give her an opportunity
to primp.'
Under the title "When a Maids Mar
ried" Frederick Boyd Stevenson in the
January 'sWoman's Home Companion
traces the origin of some of our marriage
customs back to the days of primitive
man.
while we smile at the wife-stealing
propensity of the savage or h~alf-savage
nations. we cherish as our dearest form
a custom that had its direct origin in
this very self-same practice. The best
man. who plays so important a part in
well regulated marriages that nowadays
have any pretense atsa1l to the fashion,
able, once on a time in Sweden occupied
a position that was useful as well as or
namenta1. In the old days the wedi
groom found it desirable, in fact, to have
several best men, to defend him from
the assaults of rivals and prevent them
from carrying away his bride. The Scam
dilavian warrior of ancient times was far
too lofty in his ideas to condescend to
plead for a maiden's hand So he pa
tiently waited until some other man who
was more gallant had obtained the fair
ones consent. Then when all the details