The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-04-16

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 Women care immensely about things I doubt whether a mere man can quite understand a womans love for chairs and tables, mirrors and vases. These may have associations with happy sea sons in tho past. or may mean vic- tory over the tyranny of circumstance ss One adores what she has lonsed for during months, and denied herself many little luxuries to purchase. One even treasures old things that seem to the outsider of no account.
 have a little old-fashioned hair trunk, studded with brass nails. It has been in the, family as long as l 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 junk man over this trunk. l hap pened along just in time to stop the barter and sale. and send the man away
 " Iwounld rather part with anything in the house than that" I exclaimed. Money could not buy it.
 What in the world can you want with such old rubbish? It has been up garret for ages"
 q know it." I replied and you may call 1t rubbish, but 1t is precious to ma."
 So 1t was. Bottled fragrance and fadeless sunshine and the echo of mer- rymakiugs 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 without the tender rose-color that falls on the stony hillsides our feet so often tread? Sentiment cushions life. Be- cause of it, woman regards more highly 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 for ever of loyalty and love.
 The setting of a home should be at tractlve. ad 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 a menace to health, and their sentiment is a little marred, yet how can we help 1t? The ruining by crack or nick of a piece of fine china almose breaks the true housewife's heart An old book left out in the rain cannot be adequately replaced by a new one. Alas, the more one has, the greater Is ones anx iety. 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 quantity of furniture, drapery and ornaroept that ones time Is complete- ly absorbed in looking after the set ting and the sweet secret of the home escapes like the altar of rose from the phial left uncorked. If we would guard against wearing out too soon and growing old too fast, we must strive to have simplicity as the key note of the home environment.
 The other day I spent a half hour in a woman's own private sittingroom, which seemed to me to be character ized by everything such a room should have The walls were neutral-tinted, and formed the best of backgrounds for a few well chosen pictures. A rug in dim somber colors covered the floor. There was a large table, and a bookcase well filled stood at one side in an alcove; there was a divan and there were a few easy chairs. The outlook was over a bay. where the green waves were ruffled by the spring wind, and the ships went to and fro, sometimes great steamers passing on their way across the ocean, into which the bay poured it's waters. The at mosphere of the place was permeated with repose.
 When one is obliged to thread his 1gsa-