The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-07-10

Life Spent In Hotels and Boarding
Housewife wholesome Innuences
Of Home.
ICcpyrisht. Louis Klopsch, 1891
WARRINGTON, July 0.-Home life YER
sus hotel life Is the theme Of DR.. Tai
images sermon for today, the disadvan-
tsges Of life spent at more or less tenn
porary stopping places being sharply con-
trasted with the blessings that are found
In the real home, however humble. The
text 10 Luke I, "a, 81: "And brought him
to IN inn and took care Of him. And on
the morrow when he departed he took
out two pence and gave them to 'the host
and said unto him, Take care Of him, and
whatsoever thou spendest more when l
come again will repay thee"
This Is the good Samaritan paying the
hotel bill Of man who had been robbed
md almost killed by bandits The good
Samaritan had found the unfortunate on
a lonely. rocky road, where to this very
day depredations are sometimes commit
ted upon travellers, and had put the in
jured man into the saddle, while this
merciful and well to do man had walked
till they got to the hotel, and the wound
ed man was put to bed and cared for. It
must have been a very superior hotel in
its accommodations, for, though in the
country, the landlord was paid at the
rate of what In our country would be 81
or S. a day, a penny being then a days
wages, and the two pennies paid In this
case about two days wages Moreover,
1t was one of those kind hearted land
lords who are wrapped up in the happi-
ness of their guests, because the good Sa-
marian leaves the poor wounded fellow
to his entire care, promising that when
he came that way again he would pay all
the bills until the invalid got well.
Hotels and boarding houses are neces-
stiles. In very ancient times they were
unknown, because the world had compar-
atively few inhabitants, and those were
not much given to travel, and private
hospitality met all the wants Of sojourn-
ers, as when Abraham rushed out at
Mamre to invite the three men to sit
down to dinner of veal; as when the
people were positively commanded to be
given to hospitality; as in many of the
places in the east these ancient customs
are practiced today. But we have now
hotels presided over by good landlords,
and boarding houses presided over by ex-
cellent host or hostess In all neighbor-
hoods, villages and cities, and it is our
congratulation that those of our land sur
pass all other lands. They rightly become
the permanent residence of many people,
such as those who are Without families,
such as those whose business keeps them
migratory, such as those who ought not
for various reasons of health or peculiar
ity of circumstances, to take upon them
selves the cares Of housekeeping.
Many man falling sick in one Of these
boarding houses or hotels has been kindly
watched and nursed; and by the memory
Of her own sufferings and losses the lady
at the head Of such house has done all
that q mother could do for a sick child,
and the slumberless eye of God sees and
appreciates her sacrifices in behalf of the
stranger Among the most marvellous
cases of patience and Christian fidelity
are many of those who keep boarding
houses, enduring without resentment the
unreasonable demands of their guests for
expensive food and attentions for which
Lucy are uUl WAllHs " PuJ Ill
"a lot of cranky men and women who
are not worthy to tie the shoe Of their
queenly caterer. The outrageous way in
which boarders sometimes act to their
landlords and landladies shows that these
critical guests had bad early rearing
and that in the making up Of their ma
lures all that constitutes the gentleman
and lady was left out. Some Of the most
prlncely men and some Of the most ele-
CANT women that know Of today keep
hotels and boarding houses.
Home Versus Hotel Life.
But one of the great evils of this day is
found In the fact that large population
of our towns and cities are giving up and
have given up their homes and taken
apartments, that they may have more
freedom from domestic duties and more
time for social life and because they like
the whirl OF publicity better than the quiet
and privacy of residence they can call
their own. The lawful use of these hO-
tells and boarding houses Is for most peo-
pie while they are in transitu, but rs a
terminus they are in many cases democrat
ization, utter and complete. That is the
point at which families innumerable have
begun to disintegrate. There never has
been a time when so many families,
healthy and abundantly able to support
and direct homes of their own, have
struck tent and taken permanent abode
in these public establishments. 1t is an
evil wide as Christendom, and by voice
and through the newspaper press l utter
warning and burning protest and ask Al
mighty God to bless the word, whether In
the hearing Or reading.
In these public caravansarics the de-
mon of gossip is apt to get full sway. All
the boarders run daily the gsntlet of gen
eral inspection--how they look when they
come down in the morning and when
they get in at night, and what they do for
a living, and who they receive as guests
in their rooms, and what they wear and
what they do not wear, and how they
eat, and what they eat, and how much
they eat, and how little they eat. If
man proposes in such place to be isolat-
ed and reticent and alone, they will begin
to guess about him: Who Is he? Where
did he come from? How long is he going
to stay? Has he paid his board? How
much does he pay? Perhaps he has com.
mtted some crime and does not want to
be known. There must be something
wrong about him, or he would speak.
The whole house goes into the detective
business. They must find out about him.
They must find out about him right
away. If he leaves his door unlocked by
accident, he will find that his rooms have
been inspected. his trunk explored, his
letters folded differently from the way
they were folded when he put them
away. Who is he? Is the question asked
with intenser interest until the subject
has become n monomania. The simple
fact is that he is nobody in particular,
but minds his own business.
The best landlords and landladies can
not sometimes hinder their places from
becoming q pandemonium of whisperers,
and regulations are torn to tatters, and
evil suspicious are aroused, and scandals
started. and the parliament Of the family
is blown to atoms by some Guy Fawkes
who was not caught in time, as was his
English predecessor Of gunpowdcry repu-
tation. The reason Is that while in pri-
;vate homes families have so much to
keep them busy In these promiscuOus