The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1921-02-21
SPRING CLEANING IN ENGLAND
STARTS AMONG ALL CLASSES

in her house in the dark, unless some
foreign guest has taken it and for
gotten TO put it back. This sort of
thing rarely happens with an English
guest it's one of the conventions of
visiting, one of Q thousand little I'M
written laws, inexorable, because I'M
written, that a guest shall replace any
book during a visit. 1t is like the
stamp ceremony, taxi rule, the morn
ing paper ritual.
No matter how much your hostess
may have spent on you, no matter how
opulent the household. no right mind
ed guest would dream Of taking pos
tage stamp from the library table with
out leaving the requisite number Of
pennies in its place. And in country
houses even this is not good form. The
proper thing is to buy your stamps from
the butler and so avoid the risk Of ex-
hausting the supply OF postage stamps
at an inconvenient moment. It is the
hostess place to order takes and cabs
and no matter how you may long for
lift you are not supposed to order one
from your hostess house without first
consulting her. Any guest who opens
the morning paper before the appear
ance of her host is gauche and must
take the consequences OF blank looks
and breakfast boycotting.
But to return to the books. Among
the most sacred duties of the woman OF
the house is to provide suitable and in
teresting literature for the guest room.
The week-en visitor is the one whose
wants are catered for. Others can roam
the house and choose for themselves.
The book of short stories, the latest
novel, the collection of poems is chosen
not only for the amusement OF the pass
ing guest but is used as a means Of in
tercourse. Women who have hobbies,
who are furthering a cause, find their
guest room bookshelves a powerful
means of propaganda. No greater COM
pliment can be paid than to put on the
bed table of an honored guest the very
latest work on his own subject or his
favorite hobby. The American who finds
in his room such a book as Sir Philip
Gibbs 1.-THE People of Destiny may DO
assured that his hostess is his friend.
The woman who puts a book in her
guest room that she has not read her
self naturally falls into the same class
as the hostess who entertains people she
does not know. The woman who allows
young girls to sleep in room of hers
where Rabelais and Benvenuto and
D'AnnunZio have been beguiling the
midnight vigil of some wording is the
woman who dispenses champagne at a
children's party, the woman who only
reaIiZeS When she looks at heavy eyes
across the breakfast table and rumpled
Etons in the hall that she made a fatal
error in good taste.
When the English housekeeper has
done her books she proceeds to her
drawers and cupboarls. 1t is a little
custom here to tack pretty pieces of
lowered and scented silk of muslin.
hemmed and edged with tatting. on
the inside of drawers so that they
can be extended over the contents
when the drawers are closed. Light
muslin curtains are hung inside clos
cts and wardrobes to protect the con-
tents and show a pretty bit of color
when the doors are open. These cur
tains are washed in scented water so
that with every movement they dis
pense fragrance of lavendar or san
dalwood or violets. Fresh sachets Of
layendar are at this time of the year
laid among the piles Of linen and in
the country the whole linen closet is
turned out and washed piece by piece,
repaired and laid away again on the
first sunny spring day. 1
Every chest in the house is ran