DIVISION FOURTH. 



INFORMATION FOR EVERYBODY. 



HOME COMFORT. 



Comfort has been called the principal household god of the 

 English people. " Home " and " comfort " are among the most 

 significant words in the language. In countries where the air is 

 genial throughout the year and where to bask in the sunshine 

 imparts health and pleasure, the dwelling and its management may 

 be matters of secondary consideration ; but in England and the 

 United States a comfortable home is of primary importance. 



Home comfort is the result of managing the details of a house- 

 hold in the best manner, so that its machinery works smoothly, 

 without jar or friction, and applying that which is sometimes called 

 house-thrift. Wealth, though it can purchase luxury, cannot buy 

 comfort. The rich, as well as the very poor, are often without real 

 homes. When the spirit of domestic disorder or unthrift enters 

 the door, whether it be of a mansion or of a cottage, all the good 

 angels fly out of the windows ; so, when the genius of good manage- 

 ment comes within a household, comfort follows soon after, erects 

 her shrine and distributes daily blessings to every member of the 

 family. 



It is remarkable that though the ambition to live comfortably 

 is almost universal, yet very few realize their wishes. Those who 

 have made their fortunes are wheedled into fashionable society, 

 bound with silver chains, and delivered into the hands of that most 

 remorseless taskmaster, called " social duty." The middle classes 

 sacrifice comfort in their attempts to imitate the rich in their style 

 of living and involve themselves in debt and its attendant vexa- 

 tions. Even among the working classes daily meals are often 

 miniature banquets. Living to eat, rather than eating to live, the 

 poor consume the nest-egg of independence and wonder that there 

 is no increase of their store. An English manufacturer remarked 

 that he could not really afford to buy spring lamb, green peas, sal- 

 mon, new potatoes and strawberries for some weeks after his hands 

 had been feeding on these delicacies. 



A serious drawback to domestic comfort is ignorance of good 

 cookery. In the princely establishments of Europe and the man- 

 sions of the wealthy, where a dinner is not merely a necessity, but 



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