The Washington herald., 1920-10-29

we sat in the kitchen and shifted
the delectable odors Of the stew
that was cooking on the kitchen
stove for dinner, and where a wom-
an sang at her work, and that
place was the very embodiment Of
home.
The ideal home must have in 81
three people-the man, the woman
and the child. No one human being
can make a home alone and un-
aided.
p No man can make a real home by
himself, though he I'LL Il with Pc
rlod furniture and the artistic loot
OF the world, and have perfect ser
wants to wait upon you, and give
you the feasts Of Lucullus to eat
NOR can any woman make a home
by herself, though she hangs a tidy
on every chair, and has a chimney
that smokes, and a parrot that
swears, and a cat that stays out
late at night.
Rooms are bare and lifeIess and
dead that lack the human touch
that a house gets that is really
lived in, where the drama OF life,
birth and death, and laughing and
weeping, does not go on contipu-
ally. That is what makes old houses
and old furniture so interesting.
Ihey have seen so much
No bachelors homecoming Of
an evening can have the zest that
comes TO the man who knows that
there will be a child's face pressed
against the window pane watching
Tor him. and woman's tender arr,
10 draw him across the threshold.
A woman must have the definite oh
Ject Of making her husband and
child comfortable to inspire her 20
the work Of making a real home
Women who live alone almost in
variably degenerate into tea and
toast dietary.
Spiritually. the ideal home is an
aItar on which a man and woman
OHer up the very best that is in
them TO their Lares and Penstes.
They give to il love. The very
atmosphere Of the ideal home Is
charged with tenderness. 1t is
place where a man comes. secure
IN the knowledge that though all
the world turned against him. here
he would find an unquestioning
taith that would believe in him up-
III the end. 1t is a place in which
a woman knows that she will find
and that he will protect her against
every harsh wind that blows.
There is peeace in the ideal home
Ihere is no arguing, nor qusrreIfng.
nor rancor, nor reproaches. II is a
quiet harbOr in which one drops
anchor after the storm and stress
OF the business day, and gathers
up fresh courage to go on with the
journey Of life
The ideal home is full Of unset
nshness- Everybody in il is seek
ing the happiness Of the other rsto-
er than their own. There is praise
instead Of blame. There are words
OF appreciation and gratitude in
stead Of knocks. There is no biz
terness in self-denial. because the
sacrifice is made for one dearer than
oneself.
The ideal home is place OF
cheer. The husband does not spend
the evening sitting up in a gloomy
crouch that sends the domestic
temperature down below zero.
Neither does he take out on his up-
offending family all the temper and
nerves and general cussedness that
he dared not show customers or
clients
Nor does the wife make her home
a dumping place for her tears ana
tempers, and consider that home
means place where she has the
privilege OF having hysterical fits.
and talking like a fish wife,
In the ideal home the man recoE-
nizes that the round OF domestic
duties that a woman daily per
forms are as monotonous and
deadly as a treadmill. So he makes
a conscious effort to cheer and IN.
terest his wife. His best stories.
his snappy little record Of the DAYS
happenings. his optimistic interest
in everything she has been doing.
set the sun in her heaven.
And the wife realizes that in his
strenuous fight with the world ev-
cry day a man has just about all
the unpleasantness that he can en-
dure, and so when her husband
comes home of an evening she does 4
not lay upon his already overbur-
dened shoulders all the little wor-
ries and aggrsvations that have
happened to her.
She does not meet him at the door
with the announcement that John
ME has broken his pet meerschaun
pipe, and Tommy must be punished.
and the landlord has raised the rent
and she doesn't see why he can't
make enough money TO buy a car
like the Smithkins. On the con-
trary, she turns a smiling face upo-
him, and makes merry over hard
ships, and feeds, and pets and ca
Joles him into believing that he is
the greatest man in the world. and
has the best wife and the most de-
home.
Y1e ideal home is a heaven on
earth. Every married couple can
have one IL they will. because VIC
buiId ourselves the LIND ~ , hor-.