The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1905-02-25
OIL FoR LrFR's WHEELS.


IF women in the smaller towns
would adopt the custom which obtains
in the larger ones of having an at
home day in each week, when social
calls could be exchanged, they would
find that the domestic machinery
would run more smoothly and both
time and nervous energy be saved.
Especially would such an arrange
ment prove boon to the woman who
is maid as we'll as mistress and to
whom the interruption attendant upon
the advent of a caller at an inoppor-
tune hour counts for so much. Often
completely breaking up the routine of
work for the day, thereby converting
what should have been pleasant rec
reation and would have been had it
come at the proper time into note of
discord the very memory of which is
disagree able. The average woman
is not so happily constituted that she
can sit and chat comfortably when she
assure the roast is burning, the bread
is sspoiling for want of attention or the
dishwater growing cold, and yet often
for lack of some suitable and con-
venient arrangement between her
self and her friends she is called upon
again and again to endure just such
trials, Insignificant, perhaps, when
viewed singly, but making disastrous
sum total.
The at home day sets matters right.
Having appointed a time for receiv-
ing her friends, she and her house are
in order, and she can with a clear con-
science give herself up to the full en-
joyment of their presence. The GUS
tom is we'll worth testing. Fashion
is often derided as a senseless jade,
but more often than not she has her
whims based upon sound reasons, and
this is one instance.
The courage of their convictions is
too we'll recognized to need proving,
preterring to make martyrs of them
selves and incidentally those about
them, too, rather than raise the voice
of protest.
Take the matter of Christmas giving
"a most beautiful custom, worthy,
when observed in its true sense, of
perpetuation, but which is fast be-
coming a burden and being degener-
ated into matter of mere barter and
exchange for which the sentiment of
the season has all been extracted.
Men rarely give voluntarily where
the affection is not placed, and at their
doors the charge certainly cannot be
laid. tits refreshing to find a woman
whose Christmas list includes only
those bound to her by ties of love and
to whom the Joy of giving is not cou-
pied with speculation as to what she
will receive in return.
Not only has the giving mania rob-
bed Christmas of one of its sweetest
features, but it has also invaded our
most sacred home customs. Recur-
ring birthdays are no longer simply
milestones to mark lite's journey, but
are the signals for gift showers. An
invitation to the wedding Of casual
acquaintance calls for the untying of
ones purse strings. Death itself is
not exempt from the craze, for simulta-
neously with the announcement of the
funeral services the orders go in by
phone for so-called floral tributes-too
often a pleasant sounding name for
the fancied discharge of ones social
obligations. And thus it go es.
Which ever way we turn the gift
problem confronts US. 1t remains
for womankind to set matters right.
To give is more blessed than to re-
ceive, when the giving proceeds from
right motives and the gifts are direc-
ted in proper channels.
And all this leads US to remark up
on the disastrous effect which often
follows in the wake of shower of we'd
dings gifts. Many couple in mod
crate circumstances who, if left to
freight tEeir own bark, would have
made the harbor in safety have been
wrecked in their attempt to live upto
the wedding presents imposed upon
them by we'll meaning but misguided
friends and acquaintance. The piano
lamp is of no use in the new home
without piano, and forthwith the in
strument is purchased-very probably
on the irstallment plan. The beauti-
full rugs call for curtains in keeping
with them. The cut glass creates the
necessity for handsome sideboard,
and so it goes throughout the list
| Table Talk.