Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1903-12-30
A w oman's Room.

Girls. what sort of a room have you?
Would YOU like the man you want to
marry TO look into your room just as It
IS today? Would you be willing to sub
ject your character to that keen test IN
the eyes of discerning masculine?
For a womans room is a revelation of
herself.
One night the poet Longfellow was q
guest ar the house of Judge Potter in
Portland, Me. In the absence Of a
daughter of the house, and the presence
OF many guests to be provided for, he
was given this absent daughters room
as sleeping chamber. The young man,
not then 81. was charmed by the room.
He had never seen the girl but he I'M
medlately formed a conception OF her
character and her tastes, from the choice
and the arrangement of things III that
room. The very disposition OF the rugs,
the arrangement of the articles on the
bureau. the pictures on the wall-indeed,
the entire atmosphere of the apartment
seemed to breathe of q personality of
gentle, womanly refinement and attract
i've qualities.
To satisfy himself that his conclusion
was correct, Longfellow made a trip to
Portland again the following Sunday and
attended church where he knew he
would see the girl He afterwards told
Il friend of the writer that he knew her
as soon as she entered the church. She
exactly htteo that room. And. to make
a pleasant ending to true STORY, she
was Mary Potter. who afterwards be-
came the poets first wife
One would ike TO know just what
Mary Potter had in that room. But one
thing IS certain: 1t was not the elegance
and cost OF its furnishings which so ac-
cnrately told its owners character.
There Is many an apartment with rich
rugs on the floor, and handsome silver
on the toilet table, and every luxury
that wealth can buy, which yet tells not
one thing about its occupant except that
she has money to spend.
Here IS another room, clnttered with
keepSakes -mementoeS of dances and
euchres and plays and flrtations. Pos
ters and pictures of popular actresses
cover the wall. A row of young gentle
men in ali stages of collar altitude and
hair longitude line the mirror and smirk
up at You from the back OF the bureau.
Books there are none. except a light
novel tossed on the table when this gay
grille finished it at l a. IN.
Turn Il thoughtful man loose in that
room and he would know in an instant
that its unseen owner is pretty, popular.
gay. devoted to pleasure, not fond of
thinking. and without those resources in
her nature which would enable her to be
happy III herself. He would know her
to be the average. thoughtless, fun-loving
girl, 50 exactly like fifty other girls of
his acquaintance that it wouldn't be
worth while to make another trip to
meet her.
Here is still another room, whose furn-
lshings are in quiet good taste; its cur
tains and covers imma culate; its toilet
articles exquisitely kept: nothing SUI
perfluous, but every article dainty, re-
fined and womanly. All this the thought
full man sees and draws his own conclu-
sions. But there is more. Those two
or three small pictures on the wall
not expensive, but copies of the very
hest-tell him she is a girl of cultivated
tastes. That little shelf of well-worn
books tells him, by every title. that she
enjoys the companionshlp of the noblest
ing in sunny window speaks of a
love and care for the beautiful The
sewing basket with its bit Of feminine