HOME MAKERS.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12805, 28 May 1910, Page 4

HOME MAKERS.

Mine. Rcjane, the famous French actress, whan she went over the Ideal Home Exhbition at Ol.ympia, struck a true note. "The English have discovered the art," she said, "not only of making themselves comfortable wherever they are, but also of creating smiling homos. "Whenever Igo to the houses of any. of my English friends, whether thoy are rich or comparatively poor, the home itself seems to welcome you ivith a smile." For generations we have boe,u famod throughout tho world as tho homo-making nation, and in spite of all the change** of our time, t.his remains true still. The Englishwoman has the supremo' gift of being a housewife without "being the housaslavo. No one would deny, for example, the solid merits of the German haus-frau. In seeking after the making of a home she, however, too often loses sight of the fact that housekeeping is only one part of home-making Mine. Rejiuu. says that in France her country-people suffer from a certain snobbishness which makes them furnish their homes stiffly and formally, in a way that conveys little suggestion of living beings using and enjoying the house. In America — well, I have spent too many comfortable days with American friends readily to criticise them. In- certain mechanical details Americffn housekeeping has gone beyond us. The plumbing, the cupboard room, and the grouping of tho apartments, have led the way which we to some extent have followed in our most recent house construction. Yet th© American. home lacks restfulncss. The exclusion of outside care and tin} sonpo of repose which distinguish our own, makos us still tho r.uprcmo nation ol home-makers, — "London Mail,"