ason: that here is a room which must ned, which, therefore, means more serf you have your meals in the "livingyou dispense with so much floor-andace to be gone over. In only that sense Osurd. For most of us will agree that English lodgings are all very well, espefor a solitary creature, it is a painful s for a large family to eat three meals n a room which has to be lived in otherAll people may not have the prejudice to some of us against social consumpI food; but any one will agree that the nner in the world leaves a smell behind dining-room may be a luxury, but it is absurdity, so long as you can by any afford it. If the æsthetic and pseudoc experts in domesticity are telling us dining-room is ridiculous, it is only behey wish to prepare us for an inevitable tion of our comfort, an unavoidable ion of decency. The one most aristoelement in life, physically speaking, is sness; it has always been in the best [ 8 ] vice; and would rat are not co ourselves. It must things hav S The most tion, whic the war. B work. Exc imported it could, n vailed. We perforce ( the inherit (I do not kind of pr plicity of th for being w we had to developed taste for th human bein of existence om which must means more ser in the "living much floor-and only that sense will agree that very well, espe it is a painful eat three meals e lived in othere the prejudice social consump agree that the a smell behind xury, but it is ɔu can by any c and pseudoare telling us it is only be r an inevitable n unavoidable è most aristo7 speaking, is n in the best vice; and meanwhile we have grow would rather do without those ame are not conveniences than to furnis ourselves. It must in fairness be admitted things have combined to bring us t The most obvious fact is this of the tion, which is now immensely acce the war. But another force has alw work. Except in that part of the co imported slaves early and kept them it could, more or less pioneer star vailed. We were a new country; w perforce (as in other colonies) wi the inherited comforts. Our love (I do not mean political) independ kind of protective coloring. The en plicity of the pioneer scene bred in u for being waited on too importunate we had to do certain things for ou developed a preference for doing t taste for the constant interposition human being among the more priva of existence. Even in the South, som [9] he disheartening conditions faced by all h households in the outposts of empire, dent on another and a stupid race for the ction of their needs. Southern luxury lay ing a score of inadequate menials to keep asters as comfortable as three or four good servants would have done. It was labor, and slave labor reaches compeonly by sheer force of numbers. There ever an ideal of domestic service there, e there was never the rounded conception ilized domestic comfort in any slave's And nothing is more slovenly or incomin domestic service than the younger tion of free-born negroes. I do not think lored race is going to prove our domestic on. welcomed the labor-saving device, in the lace, for the reasons I have given. By bor-saving device we have been brought bly to an almost animal dependence on re comforts. With all our theoretical cation of simplicity, we have really prided ves supremely on our physical luxuries, [ 10 ] have bee about no ances and all of us we are p forced up who reall sies, abou plan. The simplify, b Neither labor can tion. all our tra and all ou has been r make our aire and t for the m and large, things of ourselves, who have "care" for ons faced by all posts of empire apid race for the thern luxury lay menials to keep s three or four ve done. It was reaches compe numbers. Ther ic service there unded conception I in any slave's ovenly or incom an the younger s. I do not think ve our domestic ng device, in the have given. B ve been brought ! dependence on our theoretical ave really prided hysical luxuries have been snobbish about many about nothing so much as our elec ances and our skyscrapers. We h all of us together, as I said befor we are paying. Simplicity, austerit forced upon us; and it behooves who really care, in spite of tempo sies, about real values, to take tho plan. The vital question is not whet simplify, but how. On that depends tion. Neither the new war millionaires labor can teach us that. We shall h all our trained perceptions, of all o and all our book knowledge, of has been most wisely spent for in make our choice intelligently. The aire and the enriched laboring ma for the most part, be able to help and large, having no experience things of civilization, they will not ourselves, it does not much mat who have seen a world in ruin an "care" for anything in the same w [ 11 ] U us with, a we cannot bowed und emancipati est goods i other word equanimity little mater sible. We greatest go labor prod self-preserv cars and th and the jo keep somet portance of a prestige (frankly, I hands" may chosen, and -not necessarily a Ford-which waits 1 at the entrance to the mine. His wife ery. Both buy the best food they can has been publicly said, I understand, by nguished representative of the Food stration, that almost every class of the nity was doing its duty in the way of nservation, except skilled labor. That is ss which cannot be reached by appeal. ry poorest are still very poor, and they either the money nor the knowledge to them to indulge in forbidden gastroluxuries. The rich are apparently-in ses-making it a point of honor to help ut skilled labor, which is so necessary prosecution of war, which has never in been so pampered, so flattered, so kowto, so overpaid (yes, I mean that; it is Ed, and I will explain what I mean preshas lost its head. It probably believes ngs the politicians and its own leaders een saying to it. It will work, and conself patriotic for working-but it will rom the rest of us, the public, a price it [12] we must be must not tal terialistic di This is n |