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Hospitality
Hospitality
Hospitality is everywhere regarded as a virtue; but it is
perhaps more common in the country than in the town. It
is a common saying that in a big city like London, a man
does not know even his next-door neighbor, and there is
no place where one can feel as utterly lonely as among
the millions of that huge city. The inhabitants of a large
town would be astonished if a passing traveler, a complete
stranger, came to their houses and demanded food and
lodging from them. They would probably shut their doors
in his face. But it is the commonest thing for villagers to
welcome a passing stranger and give him freely food and
shelter and entertainment, expecting nothing to return.
This is not only because villagers are simpler and more
unsophisticated than town-dwellers but because their lives
are so lonely and monotonous that a visit from a stranger
is a welcome event; and also because in the sparsely
populated country-side there are, as a rule, no public inns
or rest-houses where travelers can stay. So in the country,
hospitality is looked on more as a duty than a virtue, the
performance of which is a matter of pride.
The people of the East, especially in Arabia and parts of
India, are noted for their hospitality. And among the people
of the North-West Indian Frontier, the laws of hospitality
are strictly observed; and even the most lawless raider will
never rob or hunt a man who has eaten his salt, even
though he is an enemy.
A great deal of hospitality is merely a matter of fashion,
and is selfish in its spirit. People ask acquaintances to
dinner, not because they want to do them a service but
because it is “the thing to do” and because they hope to
be asked back again in return. This is not the kind of
hospitality which is a virtue; for that is unselfish and
inspired by kindly feelings. So the Founder of Christianity
taught his disciples to show hospitality only to the poor,
who needed food, and who could not reward them for their
kindness. While he sat at meal in the house of a rich
Pharisee who had invited him to dine with him one day, he
said to his host: “When thou makest a dinner or a supper,
call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, nor thy kinsmen, nor
rich neighbors, lest haply they also bid thee again and a
recompense be made thee. But when thou makest a feast,
bid the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind; because
that have not wherewith to recompense thee.”
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