The Tupelo journal., 1904-09-02
A NEGLECTED VIRTUE.
The Old-Tashioned Hospitality Is
Lacking Among Most Peo-
pie To-Day.

Hospitality is one of the first viz
tues, as well as n of the finest cour-
tesies of life. One can do nothing
better for a friend or confer a higher
honor upon a stranger than to throw
open the doors of his house with d
generous invitation to join the family
circle for a time. In the construction
of a modern house a blunder fully as
serious as the omission of a bathroom
or a heating plant is the failure to
provide one room more than the fam
lily will ordinarily need-a guest
chamber. AS On aid to culture and re-
finement, as a means to the proper
training of children in good manners
and self-respect, there is nothing more
effective than a wise and liberal hos
pitality. To the fact that his parent
kept open house for the circuit preach
ing friend from the old home in the
east. many a young person in the mid
die and western part of the country
owes his early and useful knowledge
of the ways of the world, his ease il
society, and a fund of information
gathered from the conversation to
which often he has listened with
breathless interest.
Hospitality is only one degree less
valuable as an educational measure
than travel. Next to seeing all lands
and peoples and customs is to meet
those who have Travelled in distant
parts and brought back in their con
versation specimens of what their fac
ulty OF observation picked up, under
stood and retained. If it is true that
"as iron sharpens iron so a nan
sharpens the c~ountenance of his
friend" the parent who denies him
self and his family of growing chill
dren the benefit and pleasure of an
occasional guest must be regarded as
stupid and stingy and selfish.
But this virtue should find it's spring
not only in the fact that a guest in
the house is a source of inspiration.
that he leaves behind him the inlu-
ences of nis individuality. that the
scripture e~njoins hospitality on the
ground that we may be entertaining
angels unawares, but also in the truth
and obligation of brotherhood.
Emerson. in his essay on Friend
Ship says: I'VE are holden to men
by every sort of tie, by blood, by pride,
by fear, by hope, by lucre, by lust. by
hate. by admiration, by every circum-
stance and badge and tri1e. but we
can scarce believe that so much char
acter can subsist in another as to draw
us by love. Can another be so blessed
and we so pure that we al offer him
tenderness" EEtE FLtF
Yet this is the very thing men need.
When they come on voyages OF dis
covery in our n~eighborhood they do
not relish a flight of poisoned arrows,
but they seek the gold and silver of
our hearts. In some directions man
kind is not slow to recognize and act
upon this fact. The sick are visited,
the dead are buried, the orphan is
housed. In these matters benevolence
lies in actions, not in feelings and SEN
timents. Are we aware that the pos
session of the capacity of hospitality
carries with it an obligation of use?
Many are not unlike Rebecca's Aunt
Miranda. The child had been sent 10
represent the family at a missionary
meeting in the church. During the
session the speaker offered to remain
in the town for two days and tell more
&c A. T orJt, unrk If Qnforfo in m ont
could be provided. "A pail of silence, ;
a v the evidently observing and we'll
informed author of "Rebecca," set
tied over the assembly. There was
some cogept reason why every sister
there was disinclined for company"
The little girl could not Withstand the
insult of that silence and therefore in
vited the missionary with his wife and
children to the "brick house." But
when she got home and impaired the
news that company would be at the
house within two hours, to stay all
night and the next day, she met this
rebuke from her Aunt Miranda: Eek
plain, if you can, who gave you any
authority to invite q passed. Of stran-
gers to stop here over night. when
you know we amt had any company
for 20 years, and don't intend to have
any for another 20-or at any rate,
while I'm the head of the house."
l say that there are a good many
people who belong to the same hard
shell club as Aunt Miranda, whose
motto seems to he: Don't do ANYTHING
for anybody unless you can't help
yourself; and when you can't help
yourself, do just as little as you can
1t is a sad commentary upon the de-
iciency of the Christian people in our
churches in respect to hospitality, says
Frank E. r. Miller, in Baptist STAN
dard, to know that a commercial trav-
eler who visits . given circuit of