The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1902-07-25
!. "A WOMAN'S$ DEN.
Something More Serviceable Than the
~ "Mother's Room" Of Fiction is
- Often Needed.

Why not a den for the woman, as well
as for the man? Every man has one
nowadays. Sometimes he has it because
he wants it. Sometimes he has it be-
cause his wife and the upholsterer agree
that no happy home can be complete
without one, says the Sun.
The theory is excellent. The practice
is frequently fearful and wonderful.
When a poor, tired man returns to the
bosom of his family after a day of honest
toll, what he needs is sweet repose.
There must be no domestic jar, no fric-
ton. The sweetness of home must steal
lnsensibly into his soul and smooth the
wrinkles of strife and worry and nerve
strain.
After his wife has met him at the door
with the traditional smile, and he has
eaten a good dinner, during which the
children have sat around the festal board
like a covey of freshly washed mute and
bean,ing cherubs. father is to take his
evening paper and his cigar and retreat
to Il cozy sanctum, where hallowed peace
shall surround him, and he shall digest
his food III mellow mood of drowsy Sc
renity
There's the theory. Incidentally, it
would, if well carried out, make a mon
ster OF selfshness out of any normal man
within three months, but. possibly be-
cause 4 benefcent Providence wants to
avert such calamity, the theory never is
| carried out
In the first place the average den
would drive even the most primitive
beast to the open field to growl over his
!hn xx-nn hn
sition that because a man smokes in his
theoretical den, den should be con-
| ceived along oriental lines, has much to
| answer for. and unless the American
! manufacturers of oriental stuffs and
Bagdad curtains and Benares brass and
tin arnlor exert a pull in his favor, he
will have difficulty in squaring himself
with St. Peter.
"Why, in the name of all that is ra-
tional.' asked a sufferer recently, IF q
| man must have a den thrust upon him.
can; he have a comfortable, restful
room?-all hardwood and leather, no
stuff" hangings to catch and. hold stale
cluttering space, no divans on which Il
mlddle-aged business man inclined to
| stOutlless cannot make himself comfort
able.
"Give the poor fellow light. cheerful
| room. with substantial, comfortable fur
IL,
| a big table for magazines, book case
for a mans books, good reading lamp,
handy, serviceable smoking parapherna-
| liza, couch with a few cushions. Make
| it room that the average woman would
thirl bare, yet which contains every es-
fellow in the sanctuary. Set up Cat
| ling gun before the door and train it
! upon any children VINO display a per-
nicious and reprehensible desire to make
| the acquaintance of the author Of their
being. So may the den be bowling
success and its owner grow more unen-
durable daily"
But why not den for the woman?
II any mortal under heavens canopy
| needs a refuge from storm, Il sanctum
:sanctorum where she can have al hours
quiet and pull quivering nerves together,
and rest, and put herself into tune that
mortal is a housewife and mother, From
the time she wakens in the morning un-
! til, she gees to bed at night petty cares
| are Swapping at her heels. Her re-
| sponsibihties. may not be colossal, but
they are legion, and if she is conscien-
tious she never lays them down, She
flies from one thing to another, whirling
like human pin wheel around and
| around the domestic axis. There's little
that is stimulating, little that is enliven-
ing in her day, yet the day is full and
| running over.
There's a lovely sentimental tradition
about 'mother's ROOM" Poets have writ
ten Of it. Essayists have wept over it.
To this haven the dear children bring all
| their sorrows and joys. Here they como
| to have cut finger tied up. Here they
| stammer their lessons with mothers help
| against the morrow when sterner
| teacher will require knowledge of them.
settled. Here they bring captive toads
and beetles to display the trophies to al,-
preciative eyes. Here they sit at moth
er's knee and listen to fairy stories ANA
nursery tales. Here is the rock around
which all domestic waves and tides
swirl.
1t is beautiful theory. In that re-
spect it resembles fathers den. But it is
trif1e hard on mother.
One woman in New York has a room
on the third floor which is her last resort
in times of storm and distress. 1t is ii
bare little room, but it has a comfortable
couch and low table and an easy chair
and a few books. On the outside of the
door hanks large. placard. One sid"
| bears the word ''in.'' The other side is
| blank.
! The mistress Of the house doesn't go to
that room every day. She snatches liber-
| ally punctuated repose in her second
| floor bedroom when she can. and goes
about her thousand and one little duties
| cheerfuly when she has strength and
nerves TOT them. But sometimes there
comes day and an hour when her worl!
is distinctly too much for her. when she
is desperately tired and nervous and
bothered, when the children rasp her
| nerves and the servants seem possessed
| Of the devil and everything goes a-gley.
| Every woman knows those days.
She might scold the children and the
| servants and 60 about looking like
thunder cloud. She might hold on to her
amiability with both hands-have "a mig
ger sittin' on the safety valve" so to
speak, and wear herself out with the ef
| fort.
| She doesn't do either She stops. She
goes to the third floor room, turns the
| placard so that who runs may read "In,"
shuts the door behind her and lies down
| on the comfortable couch. Every soul in
the house understands that nothing save
| murder Or sudden death is adequate ex-
| cuse for tapping at that door. Only a
sudden and desperate emergency disturbs
the woman in her den. She rests, re-
| lakes, finds herself" and, after time,
| the third floor door opens, tranquil,
cheerful woman goes down stairs. The
den is tenantless.
That is wise woman. Her sisters
| might follow her example, but the den,
L