130 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



March 



A SHORT LECTURE ON EXTRAVA- 

 GANCE. 



"A little house well filled." 



New England people pride themselves on their 

 sober good sense, especially as applied to the art 

 of living. They flatter themselves that they know 

 how to make the most, and the best, of their con- 

 dition, and means. And the southern or western 

 man sometimes sneers at our cute calculations for 

 saving our money. Yet we are bold enough to 

 say, that in many particulars, New England men, 

 aye, New England fanners, are the most extrava- 

 gant people in the world. We intend to speak to 

 that class of our farmers, who are owners of the 

 farms they till, and who are ambitious to live in 

 as good Bt3'le as other people ; not to the poor 

 and destitute, but to the substantial, solid citizen 

 farmer. "The former extravagant?" we seem to 

 hear echoed and re-echoed, on every side. "Do 

 we not work early and late \ Do not our wives 

 give their whole time to labor, — do we not con- 

 stantly study economy, and talk economy, and 

 save every cent that can possibly be saved?" Per- 

 haps you do all this, our friend and brother. — 

 Almost every man works too hard, in New Eng- 

 land, and has too little leisure, and a great many 

 men are continually preaching economy, and ma- 

 king their families uncomfortable, by complain- 

 ing that their expenses are too great, and that 

 they cannot afford to eat, and drink, and wear, 

 what is proper and decent, when the fault is en- 

 tirely their own. Let us name some of the par- 

 ticulars in which not only farmers, but most oth- 

 ers, who have homes of their own, live extrava- 

 gantly ; that is to say, live beyond their means — 

 live in a style that rather detracts from, than pro- 

 motes, the comfort of the family. 



Our houses are too large, and too costly. We 

 have, usually, one or two rooms that are merely 

 for show ; a parlor, perhaps two, with folding 

 doors between, that are only open for company, 

 that are too nice for children to play in, too large 

 to be warmed readily in winter, in short, like a 

 dandy, too nice f<jr anything useful. And then, 

 often, there is a part of the house unfinished, a 

 large attic, which might accommodate a small 

 family, occupied now by a few old boxes of white 

 beans, and a few bunches of catnip and penny- 

 royal, and some broken chairs and a cradle. This 

 upper story was probably put on because you 

 wanted a house as large as your neighbor's. Now 

 a house should, in some measure, fit a family, as 

 a suit of clothes should fit an individual. Al- 

 though it is not, perhaps, always safe to count 

 your children ])efore they are born, and therefore 

 the capacity of your house must often be by esti- 

 mation, yet everywhere are houses going up, with 

 the perfect understanding that a considerable 



part of the room is to be useless, either kept for 

 an annual party, or to remain unfinished. If we, 

 who plan and build such houses, would reflect 

 upon it fairly, we should see that no rational 

 man would entertain for us any more respect, for 

 living in a house, which we do not fill, than for 

 wearing a suit of clothes made for a person of 

 twice our size. Let us have "a little house well 

 filled," with no spare room except a chamber for 

 our friends, and no lumber room of a garret, for 

 ghosts and rats and mice to inhabit. The thoii- 

 sand dollars which even careful men generally 

 expend, in building "a house to live in," merely 

 to conform to fashion, or an architectural whim, 

 costs the poor wife and children many a lecture 

 upon penny economy which might otherwise have 

 been spared. 



And when you have built or purchased a liouse 

 too large for your wants, the evil is but just com- 

 menced. Your large and numerous rooms require 

 large and numerous carpets, and curtains, and 

 sofas, and other adornings. But this is not all^ 

 nor the worst of it. The house and tlie furniture 

 must be taken care of — swept and dusted daily, 

 and scrubbed and scoured Spring and Fall, when 

 house-cleanin(j time comes round. You must eith- 

 er pay for helf to do all this, or wliat is perhaps 

 more common, allow additional burdens to fall on 

 your wife, who has already a ceaseless round of 

 cares. A sensitive, or even a just man, should 

 see that, in this land, where servants are an ex- 

 pensive luxury, at best, his wife have comfort and 

 leisure, and a selfish man may soon learn that he 

 cannot lead a peaceful and happy life with a wo- 

 man who is over-run with hard work and family 

 cares. We think, if our reader himself is not 

 open to censure in the particulars named, he may 

 find plenty of his neighbors to whom our remarks 

 will apply. 



And then, again, we are extravagant in our 

 household furniture. The ladies must come in 

 for a share of our lecture on this topic. The fur- 

 niture of a house is mainly for use and comfort. 

 Carpets and sofas and chairs and tables are chief- 

 ly designed to promote warmth and quiet and 

 physical enjoyment in some way. A carpeted 

 floor is warmer in winter, and the children make 

 less disturbance on it than bare boards ; and be- 

 sides, they require much less labor to keep them 

 in nice order. Let comfort then be regarded, prin- 

 cipally, in selecting furniture. We live in the 

 country, and it is not only unnecessary, but ab- 

 solutely in bad taste, to furnish our houses like 

 fashiona1)le saloons in the city. It indicates no 

 refined taste, only that we have, or have had, mo- 

 ney, if our rooms are filled with tapestry and 

 mai-ble and black walnut. Mr. Rosewood, the 

 furniture man, will fit out your house in magni- 



