Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1902-11-29
THE HoME-LovING AMERICAN.
May Roam Good Deal, but Has Some
One Place Kept for Him.

The American is much given to roam
ing about loose in his large country like
a restless child in an unfamiliar room.
Here and there quiet corner shows that
he is taking possession; but for the most
part there are too many places that in
wife him for him to remain long in any
one of them. He is, nevertheless,
home-loving body. He may manage TO
contrive for years in dug-out, a log
cabin, or Il fashionable hotel; but he pre-
fers to have someone belonging to him
stay at home somewhere and keep
place for him.
In her younger years the American
woman is not at al the sort of person
likely to oblige hini IN this particular.
She does not seem to have the instinct
for home in the same degree as her for
bears, but has, instead, an instinct for
freedom and independence. sharpened hy
long repression. Home, if it deprive her
Of these things, is no place of delight 70
her, but a place of restraint. She tears
herself free from it and HES her forth TO
boarding house and lunch club, taking IN
her abode with a fair degree of content
ment, in n little room devoid of all pret-
| tiness Indeed, the room in which the
| business girl spends her few hours of
rest and adornment is likely to be much
less attractive than her personal appear
ance would lead one to expect. 1t is a
sleeping place, merely, cared for as little
| as n mans room
The instinct may be crowded out, but
It is still present, and asserts itself in
various ways-moSt noticeably at her Of
| nee. Here she keeps Il slender vase.
hlled with flowers bought with her hard
earned dimes and quarters from the
| stand on the street corner. Here. too. is
drawer, lined with clean white paper
and hlled with little boxes of pins, nee
| dies and thread scented soap. and n
powder pun the hidden modern proto.
| type OF the muslin-draped toilet table
dear To her mothers girlhood. No one
| could mistake her desk for a mans eN.
| cept on the most cursory survey of it, If
| her china closet is reduced to an IL,
water glass, see how bright she Keeps
It. and how jealousy she guards it from
| the sacrligious fingers OF tue office boy I.
| rms other girl, too, who has flown far
| aneld IN the pursuit of knowledge does
What she can to make her college room
nomelke. Just why the poster should
| nave achieved so honorable a reputation
as means TO this end may be a matter
OF wonder 10 the next generation, but
this one has set its seal upon il as well
as upon window seats and sofa pillows
as the certain symbols Of home The
college girl has them all, rs well rs a
| '''"t@ N'si NAu ttdhCtlte, auU IN UlSRDS-
ing OF them in the tiny space that is hers
Is comforted Of her Inconsistencies. She
sends her mother long descriptions of her
surroundings, accompanied by little anna
| teur blue prints, as a sort Of link between
TINS temporary abiding place and the
homo she never appreciated till she left
Il. On THANKSGIVING day, when the big
box comes, filled with cookies and pre-
! serves, her heart overaows and she
shares all she has, and in return gets
httle dishes Of daiutieS from other girls
| and with them vicarious glimpseS into
| other homes. The girls trip from room
to room, laden with gifts and vocal with
chatter about their goodies and the dear
| people who sent them They describe
minutely 10 one another the familiar lido
synerasies of their uncles and aunts,
and discover as they hold forth to SYM
| palmetto listeners, an interest in peculiar
| lues winch heretofore have been merely
maddenlug. In the retrospect, short as il
IS. these things are softened and seen in
a truer perspective The talk grows
! wlstful and tender as the day deepeus.
and over these hives full of working bees
| falls. with the Thanksgiving twilight,
the blessed shadow Of home.