The Savannah morning news., 1904-07-17
SHE WHO BOARDS.

able bodied woman Is perfectly normal
who is willing to spend her life board
ing rather than undergo the trouble
and exertion Of making home for
her husband and children.
I do not. I think such a woman IS
a freak. a monstrosity, a perversion
of every womanly instinct, a crea-
ture who ought to be done in wax and
placed in the chamber of horrors in
the Eden Musee instead of making
a good man miserable and dyspeptic.
There is something radically wrong
with woman who does not want
home of ller own, and she whose soul
is not thrilled by the sight Of pots and
pans, and who can gaze unmoved upon
a china display, or a bargain sale in
table damask, is fit for treason,
strategy, and strife, and other wom-
en- do well to keep their eyes on their
husbands when she is around.
This strange and unnatural being is
indigenous to America, and it is the
one product of which we have the
least reason to be proud. In no other
country under the sun is it the GUS
tom for young couples, when they get
married TO take rooms" as the spec
ious phrase goes, in a hotel or board
ing house, and thus begin their new
lives under rakng fire Of criticism
and observation, or for married Wom-
en- to refuse to live in the homes their
husbands provide for them, and drag
their families away into the noise, the
publicity, and the Vulgarity of public
obstetrics. This is a state of affairs
distinctively American, and America
leads the world in the number of its
divorces, for as a first aid to marital
dscord the boarding house heads the
list.
We talk a great deal about the in
fiuence Of home, but we are far enough
from realizing its fun significance. If
we did, young man would no more
think Of taking his bride to a board
ing house than he would dream of
taking a wedding journey to the di-
vorce courts. AS it is he figures out
that two people can board cheaper
than one. and that he will save his
wife the labor and care of hOusekeep-
ing, and so he takes apartments" in
whatever grade of hashery his means
will allow, and by the time he finds out
his mistake the mischief is done.
Boarding is responsible for the aliena-
ton of more affection, the SCATTERING
of more of loves young dreams and
the beginning of more silly firtations
that end in disgraceful lntrigues than
every other cause combined.
To take it in it's baldest aspect ii is
impossible to make a home in a board
ing house or a hotel. II is merely a
place where one eats and sleeps like
an animal No affection can strike it's
roots down into a room where one tar
ries only week or a month, and that
has no associations clinging to il, no
memories to make it dear and sacred.
,4A ,I,.e
to 1t and there Is something in it's very
atmosphere that drives you forth in
search of amusement and entertain
ment. Nobody can picture a happy
family spending a quiet evening in low
ing converse in a boarding house room.
AS a matter of fact, people who board
generally pass as little time as possible
in their own rooms. They congregate
together in the public places and
whether it is i'm the sumptuous splen-
dor of Rubber-neck Hall in the Wal
dorf-Astoria, or the dingy parlor of a
third rate board house. the result is
the same. 1t means the disntegration
of family life. The woman learns to
amuse herself in one way, and her
husband in another. They do not de-
pend on each other for companionship,
and thus at the very beginning of
their married life young couple who
board begin to drift apart.
Another point that women seem
never to have gFasped is that they
have no such other ally in holding their
husbands as the home. This fact alone,
and of itself, ought to make them flee
boarding as they would the plague.
Just as long as man is interested in
his home, just as long as he is willing
to work to support it, and deny him
self things to beautify it, just as long
us he rushes home from his days work
IN he dFaU
away from it, just so long may wom-
an possess her soul in peace. She has
no rival He is finding his pleasure
and his interest where they should be,
for nature intended that every young
couple should build their nest as the
birds do. Indeed, it is this instinct-this
desire to have a home of his own-that
prompts most men to marry, and
woman interferes with it at her peril
OF course, we all ought to be so
strong and noble that we will do right
for rights sake. but the way human
nature is built the majority of us find
that we are most apt to walk in the
straight and narrow path when we've
got a good high fence that we can't
see over, walling us i'm on both sides
and this being the case, the wife who
deliberately drives a man away from
the safety of his own fireside, is eth
er superhumanly vain or foolhardy
Still another reason why the board
ing house is a sure promoter of do
nestle infelicity among the newly mar
ried is that there is too much outside
interference. No two people I'm the
world, coming OF different families
with different habits and tastes, ever
adjusted themselves to each other
without some inevitable friction. II
they are by themselves this does not
matter. The bride win weep. and the
bridegroom will call himself a brute
and the little quarrel will blot itself
out in the kiss of forgiveness on either
side, but with a boarding house look
ing on and backing them as n they
were principals in a prize fight, the
spat becomes a tragedy. Don't give
in" say the women. by George, I'd
like 20 see any woman boss me-" sneel
the men, and so the mole hill grows
into a mountain. and the man goes on
and gets drunk 10 drown his sorrow
and the pretty bride begins to fiirt with
the star boarder to show her husband
that she can still attract other men