No Room for a Mother in Law.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 852, 29 June 1888, Page 4

No Room for a Mother in Law.

A young married man was recently looking over the plan of a flat which he was considering for a future home, when a friend at his elbow remarked. ‘But it gives you no guest room.’ ‘ Exactly so,’ was the cynical response. * that is why I have decided to take it.’ The statement may seem brutal, but it is a fact patent to all that to keep open house in New York is to keep a railroad hotel. How can a woman sit down to calm enjoyment of a visit when she is bauuted by the ghosts of unwritten letters, unreturned calls and unread books, not to mention such prosaic spectres as uu'darned stockings and uncared for children ? The strain upon the man of the house is almost as great. He returns from a day s work at.the office, which he leaves every nerve throbbing with irritation. He is fit for nothing but dressing sack, pipe and slippers before the fire, or a restful nap on the sofa. Instead, he is requested to hurry off to meet his wife’s cousins, or, still worse, his own. Their arrival delays the dinner hour, thereby adding indigestion to his other troubles. So long as the expenses of living fall well within the income, hospitality is comparatively easy, but the moment there is any difficulty in meeting the monthly bills a visitor is actually dreaded —The Epoch,