The Washington herald., 1914-01-18
By JULIA CHANDLER MANz.

Ine-Gfl- "nO- " "SiS-a-' ASis4ho N->f~
to stay a month.
AS she told her Stay-at-Home Friend,
she had been OVERRIDING a bit-pushing hef
nerves to the ragged edge-and sne Just
believed the home folk were right ABOUT
her needing a change and wee DIT Oh
rest. ANYWAY, she had had a most oppor-
tune invitation from one-tme school,
mate to visit her. and she was going. :.
And 1 shall certainly stay month,
she announced in tone SO decided that
the Stay-at-Home Friend was quite as
founded when, lust a week later. she met
The-GirI-who- Went-a- Visiting in down
town tea-room.
why" she calculated, 'I thought you
were going to stay a month!
And the Stay-at-Home-Girl settled her
self comfortably to learn the why's and
wherefores of the briefness Of the visit
You'll laugh" said The-Girl-Who-
went-a- Visiting.
What in the world made You come
home so soon?" questioned the Stay-at-
Home Friend. ignoring the prediction.
Pictures" answered The-Girl-Who-
went-a-Visiting. whereupon her ques-
toner gave a little shrug Of increduiity.
Its the truth. Pictures, pictures, pic
tures-a never ending family chain OF
picturesi An obtrusive display upon eV-
cry wall of every room in the house.
cried The-IIlrl- w no w ellt-d- NiSibh'e "->.-
a little shudder of remembrance.
..There were pictures of every one OF
seven children takens every six months
from the time they were six weeks DID,
until they were twenty. Think OF thern
hung in the drawing-room, the parlor. the
living-room, the dining-room, and IN eV-
cry bedroom besides. Some in groups
some in single file, staring at one from
every possible bit of wall space In the
house Son framed in brocade and Sill
yer. some IN mahogany, others in oak
and heaven only knows what else
My room was simply a gallery of chill
dren. Babies stared at me or gurgled al
me from every corner. One nude infant
sat idiotically playing with his toe from
one days end to another. And where the
pictures of the immediate family gave out
friends filled in the gap.
1T may sound utterly ridiculous, but
they wore my nerves to frazzle. 1 felt
I would give a thousand dollars to make
that one baby leave his toe alone for just
a moment Why, I got SO i could see
them in my sleep, my room full of fam
fly photographs. even when the lights
were out and all the world was in dark
ness.
TT may sound like silly thing to you.
but 1 just had to get out of that house
or do damage to the collection OF family
pictures which obtruded themselves upon
me every minute of the day-and-well.
here l am" ended The-Girl-Who-Went
a-Visiting.
The Stay-at-Home Friend did not laugh.
Nor did she think that The-Girl-Who-
went-a-Visiting had done a silly thing
to escape the family chain.
why can't people learn that il is the
poorest sort of taste to hang photographs
in any but "a private sitting-room, a
den" or ones own bedroom? asked
The-Girl- Who Went-a-Visiting. i
"Of course she admitted. there is
enough dignity about portraits done in
oils to make them ar exception. Some
times they are sufficiently beautiful to
give distinction to a room and are per-
missible in dining-rooms, large living or
drawing rooms. or big halls, but y, the
house that filings its photographed family
and friends into your face the minute you
open the front door,
THE nuisance does not stop with the
family chain" commented The-Stay-at
Home-Girl sympathetically. ANY picture
that has no real beauty or technique; no
true understanding of harmony of color,
or symmetry of line will give one feel
ing of unrest"
at makes me smile to remember all the
pictures of pretty young girls inscribed
Spring" or something of that kind, 1
have seen looking down upon one with an
insipid smile that made one feel like mov-
ing ones chair to another corner of the
room.
Ever sit in somebody's living-room
confronting some picture in which sus-
pended action tortured YOUR nerves." the
Stay-at- -Home-Girl went on questioning,
many memories having been aroused by
the others experience.
Yes" answered Went
a-Visiting, "and 1t always made me Won
der why people will not choose water
coIors, valuable engravings, etchings.
photographs of fine pictures of interest
ing and beautiful bits of nature for their
Iiving-rooms. and quiet landscapes for
their bedrooms.
Il remember a house / visited when 1
was a child" commented The-Stay at
Home Friend. Il shall always remember
it because of a quiet little Canadian land
scape which hung on the wall OF my
room. just where my eyes could rest upon
it when l awakened in the morning.
There was cool, green hill, sloping down
10 a clump of NAPLES at its foot. The
sky was a gray-blue with but the sug-
gestion of a fieecy cloud here and there
1t was a simple little water-color, but it