Receiving Hospitality.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 327, 22 December 1888, Page 4

Receiving Hospitality.

r\ C\ OT long ago I was reading an K\ 1 1 artiole which had for its subject i\\\/l 10 dispensing of hospitality. The Mfil rs^ considered was the duty kWui of all to render their homes the m W ce . nbres from whioh radiates good \[Jf W will towards everybody, a place to which the thoughts of friends and acquaintances turn with an involuntary warming of the heart, a pleased anticipation whenever circumstances direct their footsteps thitherward. The world, it said,' was tho better for a generous hospitality ; those who dispensed it could never shut themselves away intent only upon selfish pursuits or pleasures ; interest in others would always be developed by this leaving the latch string upon the outside. There was a great deal of truth in the writer's words. Certainly of those who are ever on hospitable thoughts intent, it can never be written : ' It seems that life is all a void. On selfish thoughts alone employed; That length of days is not u good, Unless thoir use be understood.' And this lies largely in making others happy. I remember a picture which i once saw of a cottage home in a little seaside village. I say a picture, though it was really only a most vivid word painting with an illustration in black and white. It was a lowly home with a single room below and a loft above, and yet peace and contentment l'eigned supreme. Upon every dark night the curtains were left undrawn, and a light was placed in a window shining afar over what seemed a desolate waste. A wanderer drawing near at the hour of evening meal would see the family gathered around the table, where there was always a vacant chair held ready for the chance comer who might be attracted thither. To me that seemed ideal hospitality. It was always waiting, always ready. There was no effort, but simply an ever signified desire to minister to the comfort and happiness of whoever might pull tho latchstring. There is, however, another side to the thought of hospitality. It may be made as oppressive to the dispenser as the Egyptian taxes are to the people. I have seen homes — and there are any number of thorn in this country — where the unexpected guest added a crushing weight to burdens already grievous. lam not now speaking of the many in which poverty sits by the hearthstone, but where comparative comfort is the rule. When hospitality is a pain rather than a pleasure, better draw the latch-string inside the door, and keep it there, while the effort is made to discover where the trouble lies. In nine cases out of every ten, it will be found in the changes thought necessary to be made in the family arrangements, becau&e of the incoming guests. A lesson which the picture mentioned above taught me was this : That true hospitality lies in giving the host of yourself and your surroundings to those around you whether they be those who are of your own family, or the chance-comer, the giving of these joyously and freely, but never straining after an added effect which wearies you, diminishes your powers and makes the coming of the stranger a dread, even though it be concealed. And when one remembers that it is the dear once of the homes circle to whom the best is owed, and that a giving which ismore than what we can bestow upon them habitually is often the outcome of a selfishness that desires to make an impression of means and knowledge that are beyond the truth, one begins to appreciate then that is a higher compliment to make the transient guest one with the home lifft rather than to shut the doors upon him by a make-shift laboured display. Of course Ido not speak of occasions which are known and understood to be out of the common and demand a corresponding change from everyday living. Speaking of the dispensing of true hospitality brings the thought of what its receiving should be by those to whom it is offered. Certainly there is often a looseness of thought, a lack of what is due to those who are supposed to offer of what is their best, in the perceptions of persons to whom the offering is made, judging by whan is often said even in the house of the enteitainer. Remarks are made that would cut like knives were they heard by those whose hospitality is thus betrayed. The moment that the stranger enters within the gates and is received as a friend, the duty of perfect loyalty to the trust reposed L n him begins. No matter what may be lacking, no matter how incongruous arrangements may seem : no matter what home secrets may be unwittingly betrayed, neither in face, voice or manner, in th 3 bouse or out of it, should it be made light of. He or she is a traitor to the instincts of a lady or gentleman who will be guilty of, or countenance, criticism or ridicule of accepted hospitality. There is another thing. Tho guest owes to the entertainers to give the very best there is in him to making the hours pass away pleasantly. The selfishness that induces an individual to sit back that his enjoyment may be ministered unto with no effort upon his part, is only another name for boorishneas, and even the diffidence which renders effort painful, is not always to be excused. Society demands more and more of guests in the way of adding to the general pleasure, particularly in gatherings where much depends upon conversational talent, such asdinncisand teas, but particularly tho former. Indeed an individual man or woman who can tell stories well is brilliant in repartee, and readily falls into confirmity , with whatever may be the demand of the social gathering on any occasion, possesses a power that is not to be despised. Yet it does not all He in the gift of talking, but largely in the. rare art of knowing how to make others talk well. Some of those women who have ruled the queens of society owed their .supremacy to their talent of ' making others discover in themselves an unsuspected fund of attractive conversation.' American women are given the palm in this respect at the present day, both at home and abroad. One thine is true, however. It is not always the most talented who win the day socially. It is rather they who either forget self or have the faculty of appearing to do so. Just as soon as the desire to shine beyond others, or a belief of superiority becomes evident, power is lost. * The least arrogance, the least self - assertion, the least hint of a notion on his part that he is present in a missionary spirit, or is impelled to supply any deficiencies he may observe in others is fatal,' says Mr Smalley in some recent articles upon • Conservatism,' in the New York Tribune, arid it is an indisputable fact.

To arrest hiccough, Dresch directs that both ears be ' closed with the fingers, with pressure, while a few swallows of liquid be taken.' • . . - Analysis of natural gas shows the proportion 'of each constituent" in 100 parts of the gas to be as follows : Carbonic acid and carbonip oxide, 1 6 eadh j oxygen, 8 ; olefiant gas, I ; '.ethy Ho hydride/ 5,; marsh' gas, 67; ydrogen, 22,j nitrogen 3. ..