The Guest Chamber

Granted that we have a guest chamber: what are its essentials? First and foremost, a good and comfortable bed with spring, mattress, and pillows complete. The bed should be provided with the finest sheets of linen or cotton as the hostess prefers, and should always be spread with a soft blanket and counterpane and an extra quilt folded over the foot.

In making the bed pains should be taken to fold the sheets well in at the foot of the bed, as nothing is more uncomfortable than to have sheets slip up in the night. The blanket should be put on the bed with the folded part at the bottom, so that half of it may be thrown aside if desired. If there are large and showy pillows for the daytime they should be laid aside at night and replaced by smaller ones. Some housekeepers like to have very beautiful spreads of satin and lace on their beds, and some like a round bolster by day which is covered by the elaborate spread. When this is used the bolster is always taken off at night, and its place taken by comfortable pillow. The guest must never have the care of any of this finery, but the maid or some member of the family must go to the guest room early in the evening, remove everything necessary, and turn down the bed so that it will be ready for the sleeper.

Among the other necessary furniture of a guest room are a washstand fitted out with every convenience, plenty of towels, including bath towel and wash cloth, delicate toilet soap, a dressing bureau in which there should be two or three drawers left vacant for the guest's use, a comfortable rocking-chair, and a table or desk fitted out with stationery, pens, note paper, and postage stamps.

On the dressing bureau should be comb, brush, and hand glass, with pins, button hook, and any little thing a guest may need. It is a good plan to have also for the guest's use some sort of bath robe or kimono which she may like to utilize in going to the bath room.

In some homes no provision is made for the toilet of the guest in the guest chamber, and she is expected to take her turn in the family bath room. When this is the case pains should be taken to notify her when the coast is clear, and to leave her sufficient time to perform her ablutions and do whatever she wishes without interference or interruption on the part of the family.

The great necessity of the guest chamber is comfort. If there is entire comfort there will certainly be luxury. Children in the household should not be permitted to invade the guest's room at their pleasure, nor should anyone disturb a guest's privacy when she is in her room, as for the time being it is her independent domain.

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