The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1905-07-01

Simplicity, Not Quantity of Fur
niture Should Be Desired-Let In
Plenty of Light-Furniture Ac-
quires Personality of It's Own.
BY MARGARET Z. SANGSTER.
Copyright 1905. by JOSEPH Il. Bowies.
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 adorn
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-
coed to give the temporary shelter some
thing of the familiar look that makes
it dwelling place, rather than a camp.
I have seen a summer tent transformed
into a bower by a 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
IL relieved by the campaigner in trice
by knick-knacks and drapery which
| take up very little space in trunk.
A tea tray, half dozen cups and sau-
GERS, a lamp, a chatting dish, and q
woman's smile above them give tired
| 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 q
word is said, when he gets back to it.
| Women care immensely about things.
| doubt whether mere man can quite
| understand a womans 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
outsider of no account.
have a little old-fashioned hair
trunk, studded with brass nails. II
has been in the family as long as I
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. happened
along just in time to stop the barter and
| sale, and send the man away.
II 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 is precious to me. y
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
out 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
ly an ugly old time-piece which has
been ticking through centuries than the
most decorative thermometer which can
be bought at the shop. One ticks oil
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 q
worry. they become menace to health
and their sentiment is a little married
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 cannot
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 {
quantity of furniture, drapery and
ornament. 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 mus,
strive to have simplicity as the key.
note of the home environment.
The other day / spent half hour
In woman's own private sitting