happy. Let us not evade
the point of these remarks by recurring to the maxim about allowances for temper, unless
we could prove that we gained anything good by giving way to it. Fits of ill-humor
punish us quite as much, if not more, than those they are vented upon; and it actually
requires more effort, and inflicts more pain to give them up, than would be requisite to
avoid them."
" The rapid increase of boarding-houses and hotels in all our great cities is attracting
much attention from those who study the various phases of American social life. The
increase is far greater than the natural increase of population would warrant, in many
cases homes are broken up and housekeeping abandoned, not from motives of economy,
8
HOME DISSERTATIONS.
but from sheer indolence and simply to avoid the management of the household and the
innumerable petty cares inseparable from any establishment, however small.
The boarding house as a temporary accommodation is useful, but it is hardly the place
in which to properly bring up children. The privacy of family life is not an enjoyment
which under natural conditions it would be. The delicate relations and expansion of
home do not exist, and the liens which hold the family together become lax. There is
but little distinction between its intercourse and that which it extends to acquaintances,
through lacking opportunities. We believe that the influence of boarding-house life has
been mischievous to American society, in weakening the home feeling and developing a
gregarious spirit. To live in a crowd has become a habit.
There are comparatively few people of the large cities who have the love of a country
home in their hearts, owing to what they consider its isolation. There is no "society'
there. They depend on others for their daily quota of happiness, and do not think of
drawing on themselves. This is nationally characteristic of both rich and poor.
The money which a family spends in two or three seasons at Newport, Saratoga or
Long Branch would buy a homestead, which, as an educator of manhood and womanhood,
would be worth more than any hotel or boarding-house " society " that ever existed.
Children would grow up with the trees and become natural, like them, instead of the poor
creatures one so often sees in " society." Family ties would become stronger, as well as
home virtues.
\
" To culti-
possess and to
" The desire
and therefore
' ' Keep noth-
ART AT HOME.
vate and exercise judiciously the Artistic sense, is to be a person of Taste. To
cultivate it in an extraordinary degree, is to be an Artist.
for simplicity and sincerity, and, by means of these, beauty, in our houses,
in the lives that we spend in them.
ing in your house but what you know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
" \ RT decoration," "Art colors," "Art fabrics," "Art needle-
/~~\ work," and so on ; and, moreover, what is exactly
meant, when people say — as I most earnestly wish they
would not — that they "go in for High Art." The word seems
really to have lost the power of expressing what those who care
for it in its right meaning would have it express. Let us try to
get at that right meaning, and
learn to use it properly. "Art
decoration," "Art embroidery,"
and the like, are tautological
expressions. If such things ex-
ist at all, they must of necessity
Page 4
Presented as published in 1891. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
happy. Let us not evade the point of these remarks by recurring to the maxim about allowances for temper, unless we could prove that we gained anything good by giving way to it. Fits of ill-humor punish us quite as much, if not more, than those they are vented upon; and it actually requires more effort, and inflicts more pain to give them up, than would be requisite to avoid them."
" The rapid increase of boarding-houses and hotels in all our great cities is attracting much attention from those who study the various phases of American social life. The increase is far greater than the natural increase of population would warrant, in many cases homes are broken up and housekeeping abandoned, not from motives of economy,
but from sheer indolence and simply to avoid the management of the household and the innumerable petty cares inseparable from any establishment, however small.
The boarding house as a temporary accommodation is useful, but it is hardly the place in which to properly bring up children. The privacy of family life is not an enjoyment which under natural conditions it would be. The delicate relations and expansion of home do not exist, and the liens which hold the family together become lax. There is but little distinction between its intercourse and that which it extends to acquaintances, through lacking opportunities. We believe that the influence of boarding-house life has been mischievous to American society, in weakening the home feeling and developing a gregarious spirit. To live in a crowd has become a habit.
There are comparatively few people of the large cities who have the love of a country home in their hearts, owing to what they consider its isolation. There is no "society' there. They depend on others for their daily quota of happiness, and do not think of drawing on themselves. This is nationally characteristic of both rich and poor.
The money which a family spends in two or three seasons at Newport, Saratoga or Long Branch would buy a homestead, which, as an educator of manhood and womanhood, would be worth more than any hotel or boarding-house " society " that ever existed. Children would grow up with the trees and become natural, like them, instead of the poor creatures one so often sees in " society." Family ties would become stronger, as well as home virtues.
\
" To To cultivate and to exercise judiciously the Artistic sense, is to be a person of Taste. To cultivate it in an extraordinary degree, is to be an Artist. The desire for simplicity and sincerity, and, by means of these, beauty, in our houses, in the lives that we spend in them. "Keep nothing in your house but what you know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.""
" \ RT decoration," "Art colors," "Art fabrics," "Art needle-
/~~\ work," and so on ; and, moreover, what is exactly
meant, when people say — as I most earnestly wish they
would not — that they "go in for High Art." The word seems
really to have lost the power of expressing what those who care
for it in its right meaning would have it express. Let us try to
get at that right meaning, and learn to use it properly. "Art decoration," "Art embroidery," and the like, are tautological expressions. If such things exist at all, they must of necessity