A wicker rocking-chair, a Shaker sewing-chair and upholstered
easy-chairs are delightful acquisitions to this gathering-place of the
family ; and, if there is a spare mirror about the house, it will be in
keeping with the variety of things in the sitting-room. The family
Bible should be present, the photograph albums, and all the other
albums that usually cumber the small tables in the parlor. A drop-
light and stand, with shade, should be there, to dp duty in the even-
ing, and whatever else that is desired can be put in this brightest and
best of all the rooms of the house. Here should hang the children's
photographs, the family pictures, unless the latter are costly por-
traits, and somewhere in the room should be a calendar.
As may be judged, the notion entertained of a general sitting-roorn
is that the things which ought not to be in other rooms ought to be
here, and the many family valuables in the shape of Bibles, portraits,
albums and the like, which are usually to be seen in parlors, should
be transferred to a room more especially devoted to home-use. If
such a room was saved out of the house, it would repay the depri-
vation suffered for it, and there would always be a parlor for the
family.
•
42 THE HEARTHSTONE ; OR, LIFE AT HOME.
The reason so many children are ill-behaved in the presence of
visitors is because they are unused to their own parlors, and they are
naturally anxious to see and handle whatever is to be seen and
handled when the opportunity offers. The advantage, too, of having
a sitting-room is that, unless it is desired, formal guests need not have
before their eyes so much that exhibits the inner side of the home life.
Sometimes it is not pleasant they should. Not always, perhaps,
do visitors suffer their curiosity to betray them into an examination
of their hostess' belongings ; but one lady whose mistrust of her
guests always led her to keep the servant .standing in the room while
she was preparing to come down, might have been paralleled many
times over.
Drawing-rooms proper should be fine and severely plain, and
handsome parlors are impaired rather than improved by the addition
of useless ornaments.
For sitting-rooms, there should be nothing too good for daily
usage. The carpet should be of any quality deemed most suitable ;
but the figures, whether it be of Brussels or three-ply, should be
small and subdued in color. Look well to the selection of the
carpet, for upon its beauty and worth depends much of the enjoyment
of the room. Have no uniformity in the arrangement of furniture,
and still less in ,its pattern. Choose useful things and pleas-
ing ones, but sets of furniture should be avoided. It is almost tor-
ture to see rows of chairs and sofas to match in the parlor ; in this
room of utility and comfort let there be genuine variety — a variety
born of the individuality of tastes in the house and not of a careful
selection of oddities. A little cabinet of shells, or collections of any-
thing that some member of the family may delight in arranging, is a
pretty treasure in a home, and so also are small collections of books
kept separate and apart, and representing the peculiar bent of mind
of some home-member.
Page 21
Presented as published in 1883. 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
A wicker rocking-chair, a Shaker sewing-chair and upholstered easy-chairs are delightful acquisitions to this gathering-place of the family ; and, if there is a spare mirror about the house, it will be in keeping with the variety of things in the sitting-room. The family Bible should be present, the photograph albums, and all the other albums that usually cumber the small tables in the parlor. A droplight and stand, with shade, should be there, to do duty in the evening, and whatever else that is desired can be put in this brightest and best of all the rooms of the house. Here should hang the children's photographs, the family pictures, unless the latter are costly portraits, and somewhere in the room should be a calendar.
As may be judged, the notion entertained of a general sitting-roorn is that the things which ought not to be in other rooms ought to be here, and the many family valuables in the shape of Bibles, portraits, albums and the like, which are usually to be seen in parlors, should be transferred to a room more especially devoted to home-use. If such a room was saved out of the house, it would repay the deprivation suffered for it, and there would always be a parlor for the family.
•
The reason so many children are ill-behaved in the presence of visitors is because they are unused to their own parlors, and they are naturally anxious to see and handle whatever is to be seen and handled when the opportunity offers. The advantage, too, of having a sitting-room is that, unless it is desired, formal guests need not have before their eyes so much that exhibits the inner side of the home life. Sometimes it is not pleasant they should. Not always, perhaps, do visitors suffer their curiosity to betray them into an examination of their hostess' belongings ; but one lady whose mistrust of her guests always led her to keep the servant .standing in the room while she was preparing to come down, might have been paralleled many times over.
Drawing-rooms proper should be fine and severely plain, and handsome parlors are impaired rather than improved by the addition of useless ornaments.
For sitting-rooms, there should be nothing too good for daily usage. The carpet should be of any quality deemed most suitable ; but the figures, whether it be of Brussels or three-ply, should be small and subdued in color. Look well to the selection of the carpet, for upon its beauty and worth depends much of the enjoyment of the room. Have no uniformity in the arrangement of furniture, and still less in ,its pattern. Choose useful things and pleasing ones, but sets of furniture should be avoided. It is almost torture to see rows of chairs and sofas to match in the parlor ; in this room of utility and comfort let there be genuine variety — a variety born of the individuality of tastes in the house and not of a careful selection of oddities. A little cabinet of shells, or collections of anything that some member of the family may delight in arranging, is a pretty treasure in a home, and so also are small collections of books kept separate and apart, and representing the peculiar bent of mind of some home-member.