Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1905-06-14
BY MARGARET E. sANGsrER.


Home is woman's background, fort
ress and refuge. That would not be {
real home in which was no womanly
presence. A feminine touch must adorr
the rooms, and dictate their arrange
ment to make them wholly agreeable
The setting of the home is woman's pc.
culiar province. Business gives man
little daylight time in his home, which
Is woman's little kingdom
In most women the home instinct is
so strong that when travelling and
stopping here and there, they pro-
ceed to give the temporary shelter some
thing of the familiar look that makes
1t dwelling place, rather than camp
/ have seen summer tent transformed
into bower by few hangings and
photographs, and by the dainty trifies
that show individuality and give charac-
ter and grace. Every soldiers wife
knows how to make her quarters at an
army post charmingly domestic, and
the baroness Of an ordinary hotel room
Is relieved by the campaigner in trice
by knick-knacks and drapery which
take up very little space in trunk.
A tea tray, a half dozen cups and sau-
GERS, lamp a chatting dish, and a
woman's smife-above them give tire
man feeling of having reached home.
On the road, he felt cross and jaded, and
at odds with the world, but the low
mood slipped away when he turned the
latch key, and entered the precincts
into which his wife had been putting
the sweetness of herself all day long
No man can analyze or explain the emo
ton, but the home itself cheers him,
and stirs pulse of delight before a
word is said, when he gets back to it,
Women care immensely about things
[ doubt whether mere man can quite
understand woman's love for chairs
and tables, mirrors and vases. These
may have associations with happy sea-
sons In the past, or may mean a vic
tory over the tyranny of circumstances.
One adOres what she has longed for
during months, and denied herself many
little luxuries to purchase. One even
treasures old things that seem to the
OuIoiucI VI uO dCCOuHI.
l have a little old-fashioned hair
trunk, studded with brass nails. 1t
has. been in the family as long as
can remember, and came over the sea
generations before my time One day
when we were moving young person
who had no reverence for what she
considered trash, was bargaining with
ajunk-man over this trunk. happened
along just in time to stop the barter and
sale, and send the man away
Il would rather part with anything in
the house than that" | exclaimed.
Money could not buy it,"
What in the world can you want
with such old rubbish? 1t has been
UP garnet for ages"
Il know it," replied, "and you may
call it rubbish, but it s>precious to me. -
So it was. Bottled fragrance and
fadeless sunshine and the echo of merry
makings and the voices of love were in
that shabby old box, for me.
We sometimes jeer at sentiment. but
how long would this planet go on with
cut the tender rose-color that falls on
the stony hillsides our feet so often
tread? Sentiment cushions life. Be
cause of it, a woman regards more high
~ an ugly old time-piece which has
been ticking through centuries than the
most decorative chronometer which can
be bought at the shop. One ticks of
money, the other ticks forever of loyalty
and love.
The setting of home should be at
tractive, and in the furnishing should
be no discords. We multiply posses
sions till they become an incumbrance
They control women, consume energy,
and occasion nervous prostration.
The moment our things become a
worry, they become menace to health
and their sentiment is little marred
yet how can we help it? The running by
crack or nick of piece of fine china al.
most breaks the true housewives heart
An old book left out In the rain canno,
be adequately replaced by new one
Alas, the more one has, the greater is
ones anxiety. Witness the solicitude
with which we lock and bar the house
against the sneak thief and the mid
night prowler.
A home may be so cluttered with 6
quantity of furniture, drapery ant
ornament, that ones time is complete
ly absorbed in looking after the set
ting and the sweet secret of the HON,
escapes like the altar of rose from tn,
phial left uncorked. If we would
guard against wearing out too soon
and growing old too fast, we mus
strive to have simplicity as the key
note of the home environment.
The other day spent a half hou
In a woman's own private sitting
room, which seemed to me to be char
acterized by everything such a room
should have. The walls were neutral