The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-04-02

Whenever a human virtue or attribute
is SO highly esteemed as to be seripturally
enjoined. it is safe to assume that it is
worth cultivation-and perhaps no trait,
not essential to salvation is more earnest
ly commended by the book of books than
that of generous and cordial treatment of
"the stranger within ones gates"
There are several such examples cited
of the patriarehs, and sometimes, in so
doing it transpired that unawares they
had harbored the gracious presence of an
angel st. Paul makes use of these ex-
amples to encourage the faithful, and per-
suade them to the exercise of hospitality.
and even old heather Homer voices
similar sentiment in these words:
''By love the stranger and the poor are
sent
And what to these we give, to Jove is
lent"
Our Savior Himself enjoins it, and
countless indeed have been the cups of
cold water and the sheltering roof given
In His Name.
The primitive Christians made one prin-
cipal part of their duty to consist Of tho
exercise of hospitality, and they were
so exact in the discharge of it that the
very heather wondered and admired them
for it. st. Peters injunction to use
hospitality one to another. without grudg-
ing" has only a little different rendering
of the full subject assigned to me, Hos
pitality, Sitting With Gladness," which
from one of the old Morse sagas, trans
lated by Longfellow. A grudging hos
pitalIty is worse even than aims bestowed
with a curse-though | say it, as shouldn't.
/ blush even at this distant day when
l recall many occasions of my girlhood
when / did a deal of childish grumbling
over being turned out of my own quarters
to aecomme..,..e the numerous kinsfolk
who, it then seemed to me, were always
descending from their Kentucky fast
nesses to pay us a visit
! come of a race of people who set
great store by ties of kinshp and blood
One of the tenets of whose faith 1t is to
have a cheerful indifference to ones own
personal comfort when friends were under
ones roof-tree-to be willing, nay glad to
sleep on the floor (and waeh at the pump
II need be- to make room and welcome for
knsmen even unto the third and fourth
generation.
So / felt sometimes rather an alien a
very monster of selfishness and mean
grudging because | could not rejoice when
my own little room was invaded, and my
own little Lares and Penates appro-
priated by a third cousin or an aunt-in-
laws uncle, who sometimes seemed to my
gloomy eyes far enough removed from
any likeness to an angel
Even the wandering Arab is law unto
us In this particular. The tent in the
desert was open to the traveller. and
sacred was his person and reputation
When once he had taken salt with the
nomad.
In these days of large and promiscuous
entertaining many of the old traditions
ale forgotten or neglected, Too often
when we open our houses to our entire
acquaintainceship the act is less an evil
dence of open handed hospitality than
payment of old scores. and ones dearest
enemy is as apt to be one of the guests
as ones best beloved.
The elbowing and Growing necessary
TO reach the host and hostess If indeed
they are ever reached, sometimes the
--isitor does not even see them the push
le - food and drink remind
aae asf-' antly of the 4our-footed kind,
a1a ISL es out of conceit with socalled
for a reformer, Blessed be
rather-who is hospitable
her TO deny herself to her
casual visitor, or to entertain her in the
Kitchen rather than in cold, unused
parlor. sacred to the rare visitor-where
each is wondering If the other is as
wretched as she-and the length of the
visit Is determined not by the hearth
ness and warmth on the welcome, but by
the temperature of the room That par
appearing here. but time was when 1t was
almost as much as ones life was worth
to make visits in cool weather.
Who does not know the woman who
either spends a maddening length of time
in making an elaborate toilet to see you,
when you have not ten minutes to stay
or on the other hand if she receives you
lust as she is, having been caught UNI
awares spends the entire time of the
call unraveling regrets that "she LOOKS
a perfect fright" and that she "wouldn t
have had you see her that way for any
thIng'-you groan in spirit and feel that
YOU have Numbered in at the most in
opportune time-that you have almost
affronted your hostess by daring to catch
her at a disadvantage, and you are sure
TO promise yourself that II you once get
safely away. you will not offend soon
again.
Hospitality seems to me TO mean not
only codiality but spontaneous cordially
no woman can feel welcome, If on the