Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-01
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES Z. TRACEWELL.

it?-pajamas. One has to be at home
to act so. The question Is whether
even home permits such actions. Per-
hapS most homes would be the better
for an adherence to strict formality
There are those persons, always to be
congratulated, who actually like to put
on q dress suit for dinner, although 1t
be a solitary one.
To those Of us who like life more
informal this would seem q bit too
harsh-like putting ones self into har-
ness just for the sake of putting ones
self into harness. It is believed mostly
that there should be some particular
reason for accoutering ones self In the
semblance Of waiter on parade. The
person who can do 1t, however, must
be congratulated by all of us slippered
ones who prefer comfort to "looks."
This Is one Of those great divisions of
thought about which there will never
be any agreement. Comfort and looks
do not go together, always or precisely
Most often we can have the one or the
other, but not both at the same time
Lucky Is he who Is comfortable in q
dress suit!
Theoretically, then, a man should be
guest in his own home, but actually
he is too inclined to know that he is
not and to do as he pleaSes. o. Henry
in his short stories was fond OF pictur-
ing q worthy workingman taking his
ease In his Socked feet after supper.
Such crudity shocked every one, in
Guiding the mans wife, who put up
with what she could not change. Run
ming up the scale, there are many
variations, but one and all have their
beginnings in the idea that zones home
Is his castle" That idea has been re-
hut al
harm. A home Is not necessarily a
place to do as one pleases. Those who
most often use that quotation are found
annoying their neighbors.
X
A guest for his part has most to do
TO keep himself from becoming formi-
dable to his host. More than the latter,
he must make himself feel at home In
somebody elSe's house II he is to make
the host feel at home in his own. A
self-conscious guest, sitting around with
his hands in his lap, or twiddling his
thumbs, Is not to be compared with
the happy individual who takes OF his
coat and throws 1t over the back OF the
chair.
Guests, above all, should be readers.
Perhaps a new rule should make it
mandatory upon those contemplating
visits that they read aSsiduously. There
Is nothing that will make a family feel
more at home than the knowledge that
the house guest has found a book to his
liking and doesn't require to be taken
to the movie. The reading guest Is q
little home-maker in his own right.
Put him down before a bookcase and
he Is like a dog before a dish of bones
he doesn't know which one to choose.
There Is O mistaken idea that 1t Is
not polite to read in company. He or
she who picks up book or magazine
really pays a compliment to the home,
for not every house has books or mag
azineS worth reading. It Is as natural
and as correct for q reader to read iii
another mans house as to do so in his
own. He should not go to the extent Of
the impolite man in one of Jane Aus
tens novels, who never once took his
eyes on his book during an entire call.
No; he should raise them at least once
every is minutes, like radio announcers
who chime in with the station letters.
Naturalness, then, as 1t is the gist of
etiquette, also Is the one necessary rule
in the relation Of host and guest. II
people, whether entertaining or being
entertained, would be themselves, as
suredly at their best, and stop trying
to be somebody else, no host would be
bored and no guest would be Ill at ease.
Above all, no guest would be formi-
dable-a terrible charge to bring against
human beings In their best hours.