
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DETROIT, BIARCH ‘23, 1886'.

 

T131313 IBIOJUSEIHKJ 1141:). “GS: {applesaenrto

 

MY CHILDREN.

 

1 wish that I might keep them
Anear my sheltering arm.

In all their childish purity.
Where naught can do them harm.

I breathe a prayer in silence ,
That when that day shall come,

When each shall I die a place to ﬁght
Life‘s battle far from some

The seed that has been planted
Along life's rugged way,

May spring up and bear good fruitagc
l‘nto Everlasting Day.

M

GETTING AND KEEPING.

I do not think it is any special achieve-
ment in a woman to get a husband. I
never yet knew a woman who, if her 0 Mi
words were to be credited. might in t
have been as " muchly marred " as a
Mormon elder had she so willed 9
never so homely or unattractive, there is
always Somebody to say "Wilt thou?"
But I (Zr) think it is something to be proud

of to win and hold a husband's love
through all the changeful vicissitudes of

time, into the autumn of life. The sub
ject is sometimes discussed wi'h light
badinage and careless jes: e, yet
to me it is worthy it "wife‘s most earnest
thought. The woman wh) Loves and is
given to the analysis of her no u emotions
and their effect upon tithe-ls. may ask her-
self the question “ Who: won my hus—
band‘s love to me?" and set herself to
serious study of her own conundrum,
“Love at ﬁrst sight," says one av‘thor,
“is the only true love in the world; a love
which has no chilly moon nor dusky eve,
but is from ﬁrst to last meridian day.”
Such love is a so arce commodity—outside
of novels. Love which comes with the
suddenness of an electric shock partakes
of its nature in another respect, one
generally recovers unless the shock is
immediately fatal. Affection is generally
and I think should be elWays, a matter
of growth and development, an assimila-
tion. When we know what qualities at-
tract others to us, by developing those
attributes we have good reason to expect
continuous and augmenting love and re~
spect. There are two words in the
original which express love; one is pic-£260,
“the love thatkissesf’ the other, aganas,
the love that honors and cherishes and
ﬁnds expression in sacriﬁce; the ﬁrst, a
passionate, sensuous emotion, is transient
and unstable; the last is the love that is
undying, the soul’s purest and holiest
feeling. Only when both love) in the

:691115}

  

 

 

full measure of this last and best mean-
ing, is “Love’s happy cup at :rverticw.”

It is Rochefoucauld, I think, who says
that in every union there is one who
loves, while the other consents to be
loved. If we accept this cynical saying
as truth—and indeed there or many
cases we observe which seem to bear it
out—we can readily see how the pas-ivi-ty
of one cools the affection ot' the othe’.
without. catching anything rat" its warmth.
while sometimes i1x:'€r:l'y fervor of low;
but deepens and intensities the indif-
ference of the beloved. But I like best
to believe in equal giving and receiving.
till time and changes bring the coldness
so much to he deprecated, so fatal to mar-
ried happiness. Says Donald Mitchell. in.
his (-‘nrrmiug "l wales ;i‘ a Bachelorﬁ
"This grassiiu " 5’ : t. .y
proportion as the atmosphere ll.
tender of its life.“ .Vnat lesson is
this to those wuoselives are houndin one
by the magic marriage ring! And again:
"These affections of ours are not blind.
stupid creatures to starve under polar
snows, when the very breezes of heaven
are the sipnointel messengers to guide
their. to warmth and sunshine." W'hat
shall We learn from this, lat that if love
be not returned and satisﬁcrz. it will seek
uilml‘ channels?

How can a wife hold her htisoaud's
love? Think. first, what was the primal
attraction. Talmage says
eason for his chome of a wife except
hat she has a pretty face, is like a man
who buys a farm for the dahlias in the
front yard.~ Yet if beauty won him,
cherish the gift: and since it so quickly
fades, strive to replace the physical
charms of face and ﬁgure by me more en-
during graces of character and manner.
Always the faces we thought homely and
unattractive at ﬁrst, grow beautiful to us
as we learn to know and love them. If ac-
complishments were ie lure, do not lay
them asidewith the bridal robes as too
ﬁne for use now they have. served their
purpose. A man is pleased when his
wife is called a “ tine woman.” “gifted,”
it reﬂects credit on his good taste in
marrying her. And then, as means to
the end, there is all the hackneyed but
excellent advice about making home
cheerful and attractive and comfortable;
of all unpleasant places the homes where
comfort is subordinate to immaculate
neatness and order are the superlative. If
I say let him ﬁnd you fresh and bright
when he comes home at night, I know
many a weary woman with a row of

‘:l.

he Who has no

cf ’1

 

children like a pair of stairs to care for,
will rise up and demand “How are you
going to do it?" and as I am sure I don’t
know myself. as Rip Van Winkle says,
“We won’t count this one.” There has
been a great deal of fun made of the ad-
vice to wives to do the “ Meet-him-at-the-
gste-with-asmile-ac?” for their husbands
beneﬁt. no matter what have been the
vexations of the day; and we are told it
is no more obligatory upon the wife to
always “come up smiling” than upon
the husband. Admitted, yet it. is policy
to do so. He may be the most sympa—
thetic of men, yet. having encountered
his own especial trials during the day, he
is ’30“. entertained by the recital of yours.
D) notmake him play “second ﬁddle ”
for even that very important member of
the fumdv. the ﬁrst baby. The domestic
CC’LiV-‘jl‘stztion is apt to Savor strongly of
catnip tea and colic fora time, and as
this IS beyond the intellectual depth of
the average man. he gets in the way of
going down town to "see the boys,” a

smile Keeps up after the occasion is
Whatever the hurry or worry don’t
neglect habits of personal ne‘atness. There
is more in this than you think. The
hero of your dreams may appear before
you in shirtsleeves and OVeralis without
commirictionszhe does not want to see
you in it dirtv and rigged dress, with
i‘rowsv head and ﬁnger-nails in mourn-
ing: humor his prejudices in this respect.
Don‘t attempt to reconstruct your hus—
band after marriage. If he did not suit
you in the ﬁrst instance. what. made you
take hint) {The plea that you thought it
was the “last chance" is not valid here.)
Having married him you took his faults
with him; make the best of them. Better
have the window curtains full of cigar
smoke than a husband down town drink-
ing beer. Don’t “nag;” I do not know
that “nag” is adictionary word. but it
expresses that continual harping on one
theme. the introduction of one topic at
all times and seasons, which tires any
one “clear through,” and makes them
hate the subject and everything con~
nected with it. Many a wife and mother
makes the religion which is so precious to
her, distasteful.—more, hateful, to hus-
band or child, because she keeps it ever
before them by word of mouth, instead
of lining it, and letting it bear its silent
witness in their lives.

 

I have so often advised wives in these
columns to grow with their husbands
and for their child ren’s sakes, that I need
say nothing of that great essential to

 


 

2

   

'THE HOUSEHOLD.

  

 

complete union here and now. It is sad
to see husband and wife drifting apart;
the husband perhaps growing in one
direction, the wife, engrossed in her
household cares and her children, making
no effort to keep in sympathy with his
inner thoughts and hopes, his secret
ambitions, each heart asealed book to
the other so far as regards an interchange
of thought and sentiment. Neither may
be unhappy; both may be content with
what they have, yet they miss the dearest,
the holiest, the purest joy of all, the true
heart union. . ‘

The “unruly member.” the tongue, is
the beginning of all unhappiness. It is
so easy to speak the impatient word, to
give the quick retort, and voice a biting
sarcasm. And such words fall like lead
into aloving heart. How terribly irrevok'
able is a word! It cannot be unsaid; nor
though forgiven, can it be forgotten.
Tears, penitence, sacriﬁce, cannot blot it
out. Take heed how you speak, then,
lest in your own words you are con-
demned. '

But if I were called upon to give the
secret of a happy wedded life, I should
go deeper than all this. Given the true
love, the aganas of our deﬁnition, it.
should be kept perpetually burning on
the altar of Mutual Suferance. Were I
to choose a motto for the newly wedded
pair, it should not be “God Bless our
Home," nor “ Give Us our Daily Bread,”
devout petitions though they be, but those
two words, “Mutual Suﬁerance.” Charity
for individual faults and diﬁering
opinions, tolerance for idiosyncracies, a
giving up on both sides, not all the sacri-
ﬂee from one, respect for personal rights
(a point too often overlooked.) and acom-
prOmise and mutual concession in matters
of difference, are vital essentials summed
up in our motto. And this entails that
loving study of each other‘s temperament,
which through knowing weaknesses
avoids them and yet strengthens; tact and
discretion, which know when to speak
and when to keep silent, when to act and
when to remain passive, qualities which
come through study of character, and
self-control, and then the loving adj nst-
ment of self to another. “I want to
make myself just what you would like
me to be; tell me in what I differ from
your thought of me, that I may meet
your hopes.” Oh grand humility of love!
What a noble hostage to the future are
such “mummy __ BEATRIX.

ANOTHER OONUN DRUM .

 

I have a question that has long per—
plexed my mind, on which I would like
the opinion of the Housnnonn readers,
It is this: A friend of mine living in
town never goes to any place of amuse-
ment, for the reasm that her husband
seems to think it quite unnecessary for
him to accompany her, and if she speaks
of going anywhere of an evening, guys,
“Oh, Ido not think it will amount to
anything," or “It is too cold, or the
sidewalk too slippery; you had better stay
by the ﬁre.” while he dons hat and gloves
and makes his way down town to Spend

  

 

along evening. She has daughters large
enough to accompany her, who would be
much pleased to go, like other young
girls.

Now which is right, to stay meekly at
home, or say “Very well, if you do not
care to go, the girls and I will go alone?"
They do not live in a great city, only in
a country village, where plays at the hall
and the skating rink are the greatest
attractions. And in the country, I often
hear my friends say, when invited to a
social or evening visit, “ I would like to
go ever so much, but I cannot get my
husband started, he so dislikes taking the
team out nights.” Now, would it be right
for the wife to go, if a neighbor should
call for her, and leave the husband quiet-
ly at home? BESS.

——--‘ —~— acre ——~——«

THE FLIGHT OF TIME.

 

How rapidly time goes by! When I
penned my last letter to the HOUSEHOLD all

trees had put on the bright hued colors of
autumn and the farmer was gathering in
his crops. Now the winter has sped by,
all too quickly. and spring has come.
Soon the busy sensor. will begin, and to
some of us it may bring added cares,
when we thought we had already all we
could possibly attend to. .It may be by
the advent of baby Ni. 2, or the com—
ing of the aged grandparent to spend his
remaining days as a member of the home
circle. Be that as it may, let us take up
our burdens and bear them bravely—look-
ing forward to the time when our bright
hopes of the future can be realized.

I indorse Mollie Moonshine’s article on
“Learning How to Rest;” the coming
summer days we will need to learn how to
rest, and to practice it,too. I never spend
one moment over the ironing table except
to iron starched clothes, white table-cloths
and ﬁne towels. Bed clothes, under—
clothes, red table-cloths, napkins and
every day towels I never iron;I much
prefer to press them under a heavy
weight, and spend my time in resting, or
in attending to other duties that I con-
sider more essential.

Seeing Pearl’s mention of me I will say:
Although I practice what I preach, I am
not asaint. O nol far from it. I too,
have my trials, my sorrows and my heart—
aches, and who is there among us who
has not? Sometimes Ifeel thatI come
far short of the mark in bearing them.
“ Life is made up of losses and crosses,”
and it is not thehaving them, but the way
we hear them that purifies our lives.

As I look into my two year old baby
boy’s face, I often wish I could always
shield him from harm as easily as I do
now. Cannot I? Yes, there is a way.
Not by my physical eﬁorts as I do now,
in his babyhooi; but by teaching him to
resist temptation and to be in every re-
spect a man. I do not believe in whipping
children; I woold as soon any one would
strike a blow in my own ﬂesh as my
baby’s; very few if any pleasant recollec—
tions cluster around the home where the
parents adhere to the old adage: Spare
the rod and spoil the child. I think it
much better to rule by love, than fear. If

 

nature Was clothed in green grass, the.

 

 

by talking to children, you can bring tears
to their eyes you may be sure you have
struck the key note to success.

I think the Housnuonn grows better
and better. Each week I feel as if I had
received letters from dear friends, whose
great wish was to help each other.

BORN [E SCOTLAND.
Mason. '

.__..,___..
FLOWER PAINTING.

The delightful art of painting ﬂowers
in water colors, though practiced but little
outside our large cities, if well understood
should ﬁnd many votaries in the country,
where ﬂowers, both wild and cultivated.
are easily obtained. To those who may
be interested in the subject, I am glad to
give the beneﬁt of my limited knowledge.

The materials used for ﬂower painting
in water colors are few; the moist colors
in porcelain pans are preferable, I think;
of these you will require crimson, lake,
carmine, pink madder, Indian red, Indian
yellow, gamboge, chrome yellow, indigo,
cobalt, vandyke brown, sepii, Chinese
white. Then you will require three
brushes. two ﬂat dark sables No. 9 and
No. 5, and one round one. Agood draw-
ing board and heavy drawing paper are
also essential. To strain the paper on the
board, sponge it lightly on both sides,
then paste it to the board with glue or
gum arabic; when dry it will be ready to
use.

Now in regard to your subject: Choose
something with as few petals as possible;
let the poor, tired wild rose and daisy rest

awhile: the Azalia. Morning Glory,
Tulip, Crocus, Poppy,- are all good
studies. Having selected your ﬂower

place it in a vase or bottle as naturally a
possible. then with a lead pencil draw the
outline carefully, and correctly; every
petal must be well deﬁned, you cannot be
too particular in having a good outline; if
when ﬁnished it should be too dark and
heavy lighten with a little bread before
coloring.

The paper should now be washed com-
pletely over with your ﬂat brush moder—
ately full of water, (use soft water always)
and when this is nearly dry wash the ﬂow-
er over smoothly with a tint matching as
nearly as possible its own lighter tones.
Begin this wash at the top on the left,
proceeding to the right and downwards;
do not have your brush too full of color,
or allow it to become dry, or your work
will look spotted and streaked. A little
experience, however, will teach you about
this. When the ﬂower is again quite dry
paint in the shadows; if they seem to blend
with the pure color of the ﬂower, pass a
clean brush over their edges while still
wet. A beautiful shadow tint is compos-
ed 0’ pink madder, cobalt, and gamboge,
while a deeper one is made of indigo,
crimson lake, and Indian yellow; the
warmth or coldness of these tints can be
varied according to the amount of blue
or red you use.

Leaves are executed in the same man-
ner as ﬂowers. Indigo, Indian yellow,
and a very little Indian red form aﬂne
dark green; cobalt and chrome yellow a
light green; while Indian yellow, indigo

 


 

 

THE HOUSEHOLD

3

 

 

 

and vandyke brown give a pale olive. In
washing in the leaves, the veins should
be left, if they are of a light or bright
green. also any white lights if they appear;
however, if impossible to do this, a sharp
penknife can be used to advantage to
scrape them out, after the leaf is ﬁnished.

It is said to be more difficult to see na-
ture as she really is than to imitate what
we see, so a constant study of nature
must be the surest means of improvement;
and certain it is the more we study ﬂow-
ers the more delicate and beautiful they
appear to us. If you have the opportuni-
tyof studying a few good ﬂower pieces
by a good artist it will be a great beneﬁt
to you.

I have been able to give you only the
outlines of ﬂower painting in thisletttr,
but with this assistance, if you have
patience and a love for the work, you can
accomplish much. If you cannot be a
Van Huysum or Leon Bonvin, you can
take a few steps in that direction.

Wamusvmn. E. (t,
~——--——~—.o&-»——~————

DRESSING 'I‘HB BABY.

 

Opinions regarding the time a baby's
band should be worn diﬂ'er quite as much
ihlength as the band itself; but as our
experience has, (fortunately) always
been with children of perfect heaith and
w, it is laid oi! as soon as the mother
ﬁk’ble t.) attend to the baby. Then for
a few weeks, if protracted crying occurs.
one hand is hell ﬁrmly our the abdomen
as a guard against hernia. It is not safe
to rely on the band for this purpose,
after a child begins to kick about at all,
for when a cry corms on. it is quite apt
to be so displaced as to do more harm
than good. Nothing about a baby ought
to be tight, constant growth is the order
of the hour, and there should be plenty
of room for it. As soon as a child gets

so vigorous that the long skirts seem to -

impede the kicking, he should be put
into shorter ones. reaching down to or a
little below the feet, and warm shoes and
stockings be added to his outfit. The
stockings should be pinned to an elastic
which buttons to the waist. A warm
shirt is one of the most necessary articles
at this time, and if it has abroad stay
stitched down the front, and is pinned
in with the diaper, the oowels will be
kept covered. If the ﬁrst outﬁt is made
with underwaists in place of the old time
bands, the work of shortening the clothes
is much less; each long skirt will make
two short ones, with only the trouble of
hemming one and setting a band on the
other. The material, style and trimming
of baby’s clothing will of course always
range to suit the mother’s taste and cir—
cumstances, but as Iexpect those who
read this will belong mostly to my own
dass, those who hire little or no help
about the h luse, I recommend for baby’s
daily wear, plain slips of white muslin
ﬁnished with some lace or edging about
the sleeves and neck. These do nicely
without starch, are as easily ironed as a
pillow-case. and in cases of economy
serve nicely as a dress by day and a
gown by night. White ﬂannel is quite
as cheap and more satisfactory than red,

 

which is certain to stain the dress, and if
taken off at night, as it should be of
course. will not need frequent washing.
The night skirt may be made of any old
ﬂannel. The main idea with the mother
should be to keep her baby comfortable
and neat with the least work possible,
for overwork means iretfulness and ill-
health to them both, and ruﬂles, pulls and
tucks are not s3 nomyms for crows kicks

and happiness.

I want to offer a few words and lots of
sympathy to th if. lit lie girl suﬁering from
hip disease. IhaVe a brother who has
home with the same afﬂiction for more
than twenty—live years, and though a
cheerful man now with a lucrative busi
ness (telegraphy), he has always had a
daily struggle with pain. When taken
sick, he was a hcmtless orphan, and for
some months, until soufheru prisons gave
up a brother we thought dead, Only the
generous kindness of real friends kept
him from the poorhouse. if this hub-
girl has a comforlaole homo and loving
parents. she has much; sad if fated to
years of invalidism, can still do a great
deal toward making that home and
friends happy. “They also serve who
only stand and wait," and if, through
the long days of pain and sleepless nights,
she can keep her mind clear, her heart
sympathetic and loving, she can not fail
to help instead of hinder those about her.
We who know “ John Halifax ” remember
well how his blind “Muriel” proved to
be the good angel of the house, and
found better paths than those did with
eyes. But she must not let go of a single
mental resource. Books, her pen, music,
drawing, fancy work, any and all for
which she has any taste, should be given
daily attention. If she loves ﬂowers.
I would recommend a few plants in her
wmdow, and the study of some simple
handbook of botany next summer. My
brother, though not much of a musician,
found an old violinagrcat comfort to
him during his helpless years, and a sure
[Blitf from the “blues.” But now he
often laughs over the effect his strains
must have had on those about him, and
gives them credit for much fortitude and

patience. - A. H. J.
’l‘uonns.
~—-——~--¢o¢>—-———-
THE CARNATION AND ITS KIN-
DRED.

After the rose and lily, in all their
variations, there is no other class of gar
den ﬂowers that furnishes such an amount
of beauty and enjoyment as the Dianthus
family. The charming blooms of the
Carnation with its spicy odor and variety
of markings; the Picotee, similar in most
points out rather exceeding the Carnation
in delicacy, and the more enduring Pink,
are all perfect treasures to the ﬂower-
lover.

Ailof these canbe easily raised from
seed, but seldom, eVen from the most ex-
pensive, withou: a percentage lost by
plants which produce single ﬂowers. This
is not to be tolerated by many when only
double blooms are counted perfect. A
sure way of assuring duplicates of favor—
ites is by layering. Peg down ﬁrmiv,

 

after slitting the stalk just where the
roots are expected to start, and so secure
ﬁne plants. This should be done in the
summer. Small slips can be set in a cool
corner, and if the weather is hot and dry,
Water and give shade The China and
Japan pinks, members also of the Dian-
thus family, when gr-wn in the mixture
of varieties, make a varied and charming
border, as they differ in markings, colors
and form, though still retaining a family
resemblance. Some are white and com~
pact like a line double poppy, others
similar in shape, but tipped or tinted
daintily With shades of rose, brown or
lavendr; we have, too, maroons and reds
in nmny shades and of astonishing di-
mensions, if well cultivated; but still I
most admire the single ones, so dissimilar
in color and style, deep fringe and scal—
lops, gay colors and sober, borders and
stripes. Any indivrdual fancy is easily
satisﬁed by ﬁrst getting a (if zen or more
of the separate, varieties, as Heddem’gs,
Lacinutw, Albus, etc, and sow in the
border. My seed is the product of such
sowings, and every spring I transplant
and separate all (ﬁshoots from the old
roots, and if ever so tiny set them with
care in good rich soil, cultivate them
carefully, and no plant comes forward
more rapidly or blooms more profusely
than those delightful Pinks. If much seed
is allowed to ripen, the blooming of
course will decrease, but when the seed is
ripe cut clear back to two or three inches,
and in a short time they will be in bloom
again, and the ﬂowers continue to im~
prove in Ihecool autumn weather until
Covered with snow. With the care recom-
mended old plants will last for years; but
they bloom the ﬁrst year from seed and
are easily raised in any way. Carnations,
Picotee and Pink (D. Izorten sis) bloom only
the second year from seed, as does Sweet
William (D. barbatus) another relative
that has been "doubled" until scarcely

recognizable when a ﬂower is separated
from the plant, and is yet less beautiful
than the unique single ones, for I greatly
admire single ﬂowers. ’

MRS. M. A. FULLER.

B‘na'ron.
~-~—~—.w

SWEEPING ASSERTIONS.

When I saw Beatrix's “Clean Sweep,”
said Ito myself, “Ailong 'felt want sup-
plied.” But Iconfcss that, a sigh of dis-
appointment trembled in rry tranquil
soul as on ﬁnishing theiarticle I compared
the dimensions of the demand with those
of the visible supply.

Now, the “ sweep,” as far ras it goes, is
a chef d'ceuvre. But alas it sweeps only
one room, and that the bayou boudos'r of a
lady who lives up stairs. N ow I venture
to assert that nineteen out of every twen~
ty who read and proﬁt by the Honsnnonn
live in and engineer the sweeping of
houses containing from fifteen to twenty-
ﬂve rooms, exclusive of cellars; and in
my own housekeeping economy the
amount of sweeping and various cleans-
ings with soft soap and hot water bestow-
ed upon that too oft too much neglected
apartment, is by no means inconsiderable
in the course of a year. But like all
things which enhance cleanliness, com~

 

 

 


 

4:

THE HOUSEHOLD.

  

 

fort and health, it pays. However, we’ll
leave the cellar now and go to the bed
chamber with broom, dust~pan and slap-
pail; on the head an old sunbonnet, or
mayhap a neat cambric sweeping-cap—no
gloves on my lily white hands though. I
would as soon attempt to wash dishes
with a little tuft of stocking yarn tied to a
stick—such as we see on the ﬁve—cent
counters—as 'to sweep with gloves on.
We always choose a reasonably mild day,
when the windows and outside doors may
safely stand open as long as need be. We
ﬁnd the beds well aired and ready to be
“made up ” for the night, but do make
them up right! It is just simply aston—
ishing to note how few people know how
to “make up” a bed! The woman who
has made beds forty or ﬁfty years puts
the sheets on regardless of wrong or right
side, head or foot, lays the blankets,
comforts and spreads on without the
least attempt at making them snug and
tight at the foot, wadding the extra length
—designed for that purpose—in a bulky,
wrinkled mass at the head. so that when
one g :3 into bed the ﬁrst dream is a
nightmare, in which he imagines his
neither extremities are in the frigid zone,
and his respiratory region under a load of
hay. Of course she never turns the upper
sheet neatly down over the covers; oh no,
the top of that sheet is in all probability
a quarter of a yard, more or less, down
toward the centre of gravity; but the pil—
lows are set up on edge, some elaborate
shams daintly spread over them, a pat
given to the bed here, and a tender little
tucking in there, and the delusion and
sham are complete.

We make our beds with an eye to good,
substantial comfort and durable cleanli-
ness, and then proceed with our sweeping.
Moveable furniture is carefully dusted
and set out of the room, inside doors
closed and windows opened. Now we
observe that dirt has a habit of “collect-
ing ” in places where it deems itself least
likely to be disturbed, under the bed,
the bureau, the washstand, and here is
where we go for it ﬁrst, carefully taking
up each individual collection by itself
and tenderly dumping it into the slop—
pail. Then we carefully go over the whole
room two or three times, or until there is
absolutely no dust or dirt left, and in our
clean country homes the small amount of
dust that we have raised and the sum
total of dirt thatwas there is not often
“shocking” to our sense of neatness, even
though it may have been six weeks since
last sweeping day, and winter season at
that. In this way we go through all the
bed chambers, not forgetting to give the
closets and storerooms a call to order
and a thorough clearance of .dust as we
go. Then come the hall and stairs. Be—
fore I learned that I must go ahead of
my dirt the stairs used to be the tug-of—
war for me. But today we give them a
rough sweep down with the big broom,
and then with a whisk in one hand and
the dust-pan in the other, we back down
stairs, cleaning the dust out of the cor-
ners so easily that we scarcely know it.
Down at last, we close the chamber door
triumphantly, empty our slop-pail, and

  

with it and our good friend, the broom,

proceed to the farthest room on the main
ﬂoor and begin operations there. This is.

of course the parlor bedroom, and ugh!
the ﬁrst thing that we unearth is one,

two, three, maybe halfa dozen wads of
hair—combings from the heads of so me of
our lady guests—gentlemen never sling
wads of hair around like that! I shudder,
make a dive for them, think I’ve got ’em,
but like the ghost in Hamlet, I “see them
again,” quake and shudder some more,
and ﬁnally, after a terrible struggle, get
them into the stove; thank my stars that
part of it is dorm, and then proceed to
ﬁnd some more under or behind the very
next article I move. “ Why don’t you
keep a hair—receiver?” asks some one. It
is all the same. I should burn the thing
up in toto every time I had to examine its
contents, which, by the way, I ﬁnd mainly
on the ﬂoor, even if the hair—receiver is
there. And so I say, ladies, do, please,
do your combings up in a tight little wad
and put them in the slop jar, so deep
down that they can’t resurrect; for I never
lay up hair, not even to put into butter.
Finally the semi-animated remains of
our dear departed guests are all cremated,
and we begin to sweep.

And so we come through the house,
leaving not a trace of dirt in our wake.
At last the living rooms are reached, but
they get more or less sweeping and dust—
ing every day; our “men folks ” are neat,
so the neighbors say, and by and bye we
are through, the last brush of a from ﬁve
to six hours’ steady sweep is given. Not
one bit of dirt or dust has been allowed
to pass from one room to another, and all
dirt and dust have been captured at the
shortest possible range.

Now we take the foot pail partly ﬁlled
with warm water, some soft dustcloths—
like Beatrix, I ﬁnd nothing so good as old
linen towels or table-cloths for all such
purposes—and go back to that farthest
chamber and ﬁnish up. leaving everything
in its proper place, with a clean face, and
rooms all fresh and sweet; each one
looking more and more inviting as we
proceed with the ﬁnishing processes in
the exact order in which we went through
with broom and dust-pan, until at length
everything is in order, and “clean as can
be without taking up the carpets,” we
renovate our own physical structure of
dust with soap and water. brushes, combs
and clean clothes, and then sit down to a
"dinner of herbs where love is.” We in-
Wardly say, “Well, this old world is
chuck full of good things after all, and
one of the best and most to be printed is a
good home, and the ability to keep it
with neatness, comfort and thrift.” Happy
indeed is she who combinesin her domes-
tions relations these two qualities—house-
keeping and home-making.

E. L. NYE.
HOME IN-THE-HILLB.

Buss wishes to know where she can
procure Will Carleton’s poem “Over the
Hill to the Poorhouse.” This poem is in-
cluded in ' the collection published as
“Farm Ballads.” We do not think it can
be found elsewhere, in print, unless in

 

old newspaper ﬁles.

HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

 

A conunsroxnnxr of the Rural New
Yorker says water is better than milk in
cake, and that in all cakes calling for
milk she substitutes water, using cream—
of-tartar or baking powder.

 

SALTED almonds are “ the rage” in
confectionery at present, and all our
girls are munching the toothsome mor-
sels. When bought at certain candy
stores there is a suspicious ﬂavor of the
plebeian peanut about even the forty
cent article, which is suggestive of adul—
‘teration. The following is the method of
preparation, which is so simple that they
can be easily made at home: Blanch a
cupful of almond meats by turning boil—
ing water on them, and when the skins
have softened sufﬁciently rub off with
the ﬁngers; put them into one tablespoon-
ful melted butter or salad oil, stir well and .
let them stand for one hour, then sprinkle
with one tablespoonful salt, put them
into a bright bakingpan, in a moderate
oven, and cook them, with an occasional
stirring, until they areadelicate brown—-
about twenty minutes.

——-—-—.O.-—-——

Mas. 0., of Kalamazoo. does not wish
the HOUSEHOLD to take the type of hus-
band described by Mrs. J. A. M. as an in—
dex of the average Kalamazoo husband,
asserting there are quite as many happy
wives and loving husbands there as in
any city of its size in the Union. Wives
are not always blameless. either, she
thinks. As we understood Mrs. M.’s let—
ter, she brought no charges against Kala—
mazoo in particular, nor husbands in
general, but, selecting one of those sad
cases of estrangement which are all too
common in life, everywhere, held it up to
us as a condition to be lamented, and asked
that very pertinent question, “ What can
the wife do?” Most of us know some
such instance, and if a beloved friend or
relative is the sufferer, long for a prac-
tical answer to the inquiry.

.__..._.

SEVERAL communications were received
“just in time to be too late ” for this
issue.

——-——-—¢w——-—--—

Contrlbuted Recipes.

GOLDEN Ursrunnr .—0ne pound lard, eight
ounces beeswax, ﬁve ounces alcohol, one
ounce camphor gum, one ounce laudanum, one
ounce origanum. Melt the lard and beeswax
together; add the others when partly cold and
stir until cold. This is very good for many of
the ills which ﬂesh is heir to, and much cheap-
er than most of the kind which you can buy.

NORTH ADAMS A. R.

SILVER Carin—One cup sugar, butter size
of an egg, whites of three eggs, half cup sweet
milk, two cups and a half of ﬂour, two tea-
spoonfuls baking powder. Bake in layers.
Custard—One pint milk, set in hot water on
the stove; yolks of three eggs, beaten to a
froth: two-thirds cup sugar; two teaspoonfuls
cornstarch, dissolved in a little milk. When
the milk is hot stir in ingredients; ﬂavor to
taste. MINNBHAHA.

 

Oxnxos.

 

 


 

THE HOUSEHOLD.

 
   

5

 

 

FARMING.

STYLE IN

 

BY L. H. BAILEY, JR.

We must foster every advantage which
shall increase the farmer’s inﬂuence. We
must make the farm pay in two ways
rather than in one. It is not enough that
we demand inﬂuence. The ﬁrst necessity
in the demand is the desire to demand.
We do not want preferment until we
want it. The desire must be individual,
sincere. We often clamor because our
neighbors clamor. We want a mouse—
colored mare because Smith has one. We
want more farmers in Congress because
it is the fashion to want them. The farm
is not so isolated from the heart of fash-
ion that it receives none of its impulse.
Desire once alive, we must measure its
consequences as if its fulﬁllment were in
our own hands. Many of us would be
miserable if all our prayers were answer-
ed. Our desire once trimmed and temper-
ed, we must make ourselves worthy of it.
As a rule, all men ﬁnd their true level as
do the waters of all sea. The ebb and the
ﬂow of inﬂuence and position are not hap-
hazard. Our station is for the most part,
if not entirely, just where it deserves to
be. “The world owes me a living,” says
one, and he folds his hands. “But you
must dun her for it,” says the other as he
clutches his spade.

The farmer is coming to the front. It is

because he deserves it. It is be
Cause his aspirations are higher.
But he cannot lift himself by

his boot—straps. To-morrow the world
will not recognize him more than it does
tc—day unless he has made advancement.
The secret power of the mower and the
reaper is this: It gives us more leisure
for the development of the mind and the
heart. If they fall of this their mission
is a curse; let us return to the scythe and
sickle. We do not need improved ma—
chinery and better stock so much as we
need to know the possibilities of what we
have. We need better school houses and
pleasanter homes. If you will put it on a
plane of dollars and cents, we must ad—
vertise. Here is a secret which we have
not learned. We need to proﬁt by the ex-
ample of the merchant who adorns his

indows and who insists that people must
know that he has opened a new case of
calico. If we demand inﬂuence and rec—
ognition we must let the world know
what we have and what we are. Make it
recognize you whether it would or not.
The farmer must advertise himself as well
as his cabbages. But we must generally
resort to stratagem. We fail to catch the
butterﬂy if we chase its irregular ﬂight
over the meadow, but the still hunt beside
a thistle brings us a captive. We must not
say to the Goddess of Liberty, “I demand
representation,” but we must invite her to
sit in our vineyard and to eat our stuffed
turkey. In other words, we must attract
men, we must aim at style in farming.
Herein lies the greatest need of our agri—
culture.

I rode over the Green Mountains. There
were farm houses deserted and great
farms returning to nature. The bleak

 

homesteads stared at me. “ Happy were
the young men and women who escaped
this desolation for the city,” I thought;
“ Surely the decimation of these farms is
not due to poor soil or commercial con—
ditions, but to unattractive homes." A
decrepit school—house yawned on a bare
and dusty road-side. The place itself told
me why the seats were whittled and Why
the scholars never got beyond the “rule
0’ three.” I did not blame them for pre—
.ferrmg to trap woodchucks in the ledges.
If I founda home adorned within and
without, I usually found young people
anxious to settle near the homestead; I
found kindly sentiments and. courteous
manners.

I visited the fruit markets of a great
city. Fruit of the same quality sold for
far different prices, but that which sold
the best bore a neat label with a picture
of an attractive residence. It came from
“ James Lee, Beech Grove Farm.” When
afterwards I visited the little village near
which this farm lay, I found both the
farm and its proprietor to be the most
popular in the neighborhood. It I asked
why, I was told that “Mr. Lee has a
beautiful farm and a nice family.” When
I visited his farm I found that his success
was no mystery. The goddess of position
and inﬂuence sat in his front yard. I
knew the man by his premises. He ad—
vertised. A farm near an eastern city is
popular and prosperous because it is at—
tractive. A half acre of embellished lawn
is more proﬁtable to its proprietor than a
dozen cows.

Our sons leave the farm and we blame
the college or the school. We should as
often blame the home surroundings. The
man never lived who was educated too
much for the farm. America ought to
become the rural queen of the world, and
the coming farmer must recognize this
fact or go the wall. It is one of the signs
of the times. Pioneer days give place to
days of relaxation, too often to days of
actual decay. Then comes the sturdy
and studious improvement and adorn-
ment, attended by the rapid elevation of.
the farmer and his calling. This last
stage has become a part of the life of
New England, it has spread itself over
many of the beautiful hills and valleys of
New York, and Michigan must feel its in-
ﬂuence. I was surprised at a recent
gathering of New England farmers to
hear a spirited commendation of all ef—
forts tOWel‘dS rural adornment, and that,
too, for the sake of the pure adornment
itself.

Landscape gardening is not planting
a ﬁne tree or making a gravel walk; a
picture is not a canvas or a paint—brush.
The most important part of landscape
gardening lies under a man’s hat. Two
men view the same landscape: one sees
a half dozen trees which wi.i make ten
cords of stovewood; the other~ sees a pic-
ture. Poetry, music, sculpture, painting.
landscape gardening, are essentially the
same and yet entirely unlike. They exist
in the mind as the ideals of beauty, beauty
of expression, not of form. So far they
are alike. They differ in the manner of
communication. Poetry is communicated

 

in words, music in sound, sculpture in
the expression of form, painting in com-
binations of form and colors on canvas,
and landscape gardening,which combines
much of the ideal of them all, endeavors
to express itself in the arrangement of
natural objects. Landscape gardening,
therefore, becomes the most real of the
ideal. There must be an appreciation
in the mind before any picture or any
landscape can give us pleasure. “ Every-
thing the individual sees without him
corresponds to his state of mind,” says
Emerson. The artist and the landscape
gardener care not so much for the exact
form of the landscape, or the kinds of ob-
jects which enliven it. as for its expres-
sion, the impression it conveys to the be—
holder. If the scene is gloomy, why is it
gloomy? If gay,why is it gay? Victor
Hugo, in his last written utterance, recog-
nized this vital truth: “Form to the
sculptor is all and yet nothing. It is
nothing without mind; with the idea it is
everything.”

As we should expect, there have been
in vogue two ‘methods of dealing with
nature in reference to ornamental garden-
ing. She has been imitated and interpret-
ed. Here lies an important difference
which we must grasp. It is the difference
between success and failure. Yonder
ﬁeld is a pleasant landscape; in the vale is
abrook, winding its way through banks
of ferns and thorns, while beyond are
clumps of prickly ash, red with cluste r-
ed berries and half hiding the crest of a
knoll upon which the maples are bedeck—

ing themselves in autumn colors. The
imitator is a literalist. The scene
pleases him, and he endeavors to repro.
duce it exactly upon his grounds. “He
holds the mirror up to nature.” He must
have the brook, the ferns and

the thorns, he must build his knoll and
plant his prickly ashes and his maples.
The interpreter is an economist—he feels
the force of the stoic’s adage, “ How
many things there are which Diogenes
can do without.” He studies the gay
scene before him, he reads its expression,
he notices the cut and the colors of na-
ture’s frock. He ﬁnds that the expression
does not depend upon the brook or the
bank, or the ashes; he has learned that the
scene is gay because of bright colors and
no deep shadows. Then he need build
no knolls, need dig no brooks, need not
even plant the ashes and the maples, for
the other trees may do as well. So, with
Emerson, the landscape gardener comes
to “value the expression of nature and
not nature itself,” to “ give the gloom of
gloom and the sunshine of sunshine.”
We have now mastered the ﬁrst and
the greatest difﬁculty in landscape garden-
ing, in fact in all ﬁne art. But if we
would ornament correctly we‘must under-
stand more than this. We must under
stand something of the laws of harmony
and contrast in color, laws of form and of
perspective. You tell me that I aim too
high, that we cannot concentrate nature
in the door-yard. We cannot aim too
high if we carry sufficient ballast. I do
not expect that anyone here will apply in
detail all that I say to you. But if we do

 

not know what perfection is we cannot

    


  

 

  

6

 

THE HOUSEHOLD.

     

 

  

know what imperfection is. The longer
the ladder the higher Ican climb. “Hitch
your wagon to a star,” and Emerson.

Our next difﬁculty is to contract nature
into the space of the front yard without
crushing her bonnet. A young man visit-
ed a famous garden. He was disappoint-
ed. He saw no great trees overladen with
ﬂowers and perfume, no magniﬁcent
fountains, no birds of paradise. He sat
down quite out of patience. Presently
he began to admire the long and enchant-
ing views in this direction and that, he
saw sheep and cows within the borders of
the garden. He expressed surprise to the
gardener th at the garden was so very large
and that the cattle did not browse the
plants. The gardener laughed. Here
I will let you into asecret, a secret which
is a vital principle in landscape garden—
ing: The landscape gardener always aims
to deceive the beholder. A truthful de-
ception is an evidence of skill. Small
gardens which look like large ones are al-
ways cheapest and best. We must let na
ture build hills and valleys and rivers.
Burke wrote, “ Designs that are vast on-
ly by their dimensions are always the sign
of a common and .low imagination. No
work of art can be great but as it deceives.
To be otherwise is the prerogative of na-
ture only.” Discard the prevalent notion
that to ornament successfully demands
profuse expenditure or money. The
farmer’s yard demands no fountains, no
statues, no expensive plants, no rows of
beer bottles about the do wet-beds. The
farmer of all others can court simple na—
ture to his purpose. It is not strange that
keen enjoyment ceased when the old
couple moved from the old house into the
new. I have seen as many attractive prem-
ises about old log houses as I ever have
about our modern buildings. The nar—
row winding path, the wild gooseberries
and hazels in theience—row or scattered
over the yard, the honeysuckle and roses
that clambered over the dccrway,the great
gnarled trees and the picturesque well-
sweep, all combined to form a fairer rural
picture than scarcely we behold to day.
There mothers and daughters grew up
with a keen but untaught sympathy with
nature. There our thoughts revert when-
ever again pure nature claims our reﬂec—
tions. About the log house centers the
choicest poetry of rural life. You know
why it is. When we build our new houses
we somehow conceive the notion that we
have outgrOWn nature. We must make
straight walks, we must plant our trees
and shrubs in rows or in corresponding
clumps, and then we must trim our ever—
greens,—not prune them,~—we must trim
them into absurd shapes and then en-
deavor to admire the idols we have made!
We try to force nature into a band—box
and laugh conceitedly if we imagine that
we succeed.

“ insult not nature with absurd expense,

Dior spoil her simple charms by vain pretense;

We igh well the subject, he with caution bold.

Profuse of genius, not profuse of gold.“

I speak of the natural style of land-
scape gardening. There is another and
an older style of ornamentation which
is known as the artiﬁcial or geomet-
rical. This latter style is adapted

 

 

 

 

  

to cities where space is limited and all the
surroundings are geometric and formal.
In this style we make our walks and
drives straight and we shear our ever-
greens. It is this style of ornament which
springs up first in a new country. The
settler tires of his irregular surroundings
and almost unavoidably casts his prem-
ises into regular ﬁgures. It is curious, al

so, that his grounds. if he pay any atten—
tion to ornament, will likely be a faint
echo of the surrounding scenery. If the
scenery in his neighborhood is rocky and
precipitinus he Will most likely desire
steep walks and piles of rocks. In fact
the distinctive characters of three peculiar
countries have been impressed upon the
artiﬁcial method of laying out grounds,
so that we speak of three schools of
geometric gardening. The Italian school
is characterized by steep ﬂights of stone
steps and massive walls in keeping with
the broken character of the c:,~untry. The
French school builds long and broad
avenues, while the Dutch school lays the
foundations of ornament in long and
straight canals and low, grassy terraces.
The natural style of ornament has also re
ceived different interpretations. It origin-
ated in England with a reﬁned and rural-
loving people, and has spread wherever
rural taste is exalted. With the advent of
natural gardening, all terraces and walls
and fountains were destroyed, and no
ornament, save what nature chose to
grant in an open ﬁeld, was introductd
about the residence. This was Kent’s
school. It was long ago superseded by
truer methods. The nearest approach to
this school at present appears in our bare
and bleak farm premises. The bareness
of Kent’s school prepared the way for a
revolution in ornamention. and the Pictur-
esque school up: cared. Now everything
must be rough and uncouth in form—
banks steep and broken. old and decayed
trees. The Picturesque had its day, peo-
ple tired of artiﬁcal wilderness, and Rep

ton’s school was ushered in. This took the
good qualities of Kent and the Pictures-
que and combined them to suit individual
circumstances. As it took different form
upon different premises, it required more
skill in its management than did the old
methods But there was one radical error
in the teaching of Repton; he advised the
planting of trees and other plants in thick
clumps where they were to grow unmo-
lested. The weak were soon crowded out
by the strong. the most delicate and often
the most beautiful could not exist. Dur-
ing the early part of this century choice
plants were introduced in great numbers
from foreign countriesand they could not
be displayed to advantage in the hetero—
geneous massing of Repton's method.
Hence arose in England the so called Gar-
dencsque school, which, while it retained
the leading features inaugurated by Rep-
ton, scattered the plants over the lawn,
those of similar sizes and shapes usually
in the same or contiguous clumps.

We ﬁnd ourselves living in a fortunate
age. Old methods and stereotyped rules
have fallen, chieﬂy because they have been
put into practice. Our ornamentation
should be pro-eminently selective, we
should select the best ideas wherever they
may be found. We learn from the history
of the art that it is unsafe to follow fash~
ion in ornamentiug a home. Fashion
may be tolerated in dress or in manners
where a change can be made to suit the
whim. but in the permanent exterior
adornment of a home we should beware
of vagaries. Fashion has cut amusing
frolics of late in the colors of residences.
The old fashion or custom of painting
houses a glaring white has given way to
the squaw- like fashion of tricking out in
incongruous red, pea—green and squash-
pie colors. We look for a speedy change
of sentiment in this direction and hope to
see the neutral and less expensive drabs
and browns which are never incongruous
with themselves or their surroundings.
come into generalfavor. But these are

     

.must have a lawn.

 

   

less permanent and therefore less serious
fashions than those which have to do with
the selection of trees and the laying out
of grounds. Fashion which pleases to-
day may disgust to morrow. The worst
part of the freeze is the thaw.

Let us discuss a few fundamental prin—
ciples of artistic but inexpensive adorn-
ment. We must get our plr asantest pros-
pects from our commonest places, fl'( m
the windows of the sitting-room and the
dining room. A little thoughtfulness ‘n
the placing of our residence Will often
add a constant blessing. I visited a friend
on the pleasant slopes of the Green
Mountains. There was not a pleasant
prospect from any of the windows of the
residence, yet from the barn-yard a noble
mountain whose indistinct summit was
wreathed with ﬁtful garlands of cloud
stood boldly before the observer.
That farm would have been worth ten
per cent more if that mountain had bee is
framed in a window. Appropriate to
yourself trees of nature’s planting, build
your residence he at them. They are to-
day what your own planting will be twen-
ty or ﬁfty years hence. We are too apt
to think that a sandy knoll and a “ good
well 0’ water” are the only requisites to a
desirable site for a. residence. Our resi—
dences are often too near the highway.
A remove of four or ﬁve rods is none too
much for convenience and pleasure. We
All attempts at orna-
ment are well nigh folly without or c.
Might as well try to paint a picture with—
out a canvas or to build a house of paint
and shingles, as to construct an attractive
residence withouta lawn. The requii i".
for a good lawn are the requisites for

com, a fertile and thoroughly sub—
uued soil. You cannot make a lawn by
tickling the ground with a slick. Pre—
pare the ground thoroughly, even if it
requires two years to accomplish it, sow
the seed very thick, mow the grass as ofﬁ
on 23 it reaches three or four inches in
height. top-dress itin the fall, and enjoy
it as long as you live. Do not grade
everything to a dead level or to a contin-
uous slope. Simply correct the little
irregularities of the surface. Do not
build terraces. Grading is expensive.
The natural undulations of a verdant sur-
face are more expressive than trees and
ﬂowers. The undulating sweep of the
prairies is grand beyond expression. A
flat surface is rarely beautiful. By a
singular optical illusion it usually ap-
pears to be concave. If our grounds ap—
pear to the best advantage they must lei is
larger than they really are. We must aim
to increase an appearance of extent. A
verdant and unbroken lawn must be rig: in
our ﬁrst requisite. The objects which
appear to be farthest away are those
which possess the least number of colors.
Distant hills are enveloped in a continu—
ous haze of blue. The remotest objects in
a picture possess the fewest colors. A
tree upon a continuous is an appears to
be a little farther off than one at the same
distance which stands among ﬂower beds,
and drooping trees whose trunks are hid-
den commonly appear to be a little more
distant than those with exposed trunks.
These illusions are of course more ap-
parent to a stranger who has not learned
the actual distance to the objects. We
should plant our trees in such a manner
as to form long views towards certain ob-
jects from our windows or porch. The
narrower the views the longer they will
look. I stand on the railroad and see the
rule converge and converge until they
meet away in the distance which appears
like miles when it may be less than one.
These slender views are vistas. “ linked
sweetness long drawn out.” If there is a
good landscape in your neighborhood.
make it a part of your premises. Bring
in the clump of trees on your ne’ghbor’s
hill. Bring in the spire from the village
church. Bring in the ravine and the
thicket by the roadside. Here is a case
of legitimate theft. Make every attrac—

   

 

 

 

 

 


is
it
it

_.v~,_—pg,<_,.

 

 

 

 

0

THE HOUSEHOLD. '7

 

tive object visible from your windows.
Cut out the trees that hide them, or if
they stand out bare and unadorned, plant
trees which will partially conceal them.
In other words frame them and hang
them as pictures in your garden. The
greensward will form the bottom of the
frame, the sky the top, and the trees the
sides. Never lay open the whole of a
scene or it will look bare. Moreover,
we always enjoy an object the most when
we have but little of it. We always de-
ceive ourselves with the fancy that ahalf
hidden object is larger and ﬁner than it
really is. This whole matter is asimple
one: it consists simply in the selection of
our objects and then in planting or cut-
ting out trees. To be sure our trees must
correspond to the objects beyond them.
If the object isa low and roundtopped
hill, plant round-headed trees;if it is a
spire mix in a few—a very few—Lumbar
dy poplars. A weeping willow is in taste
by a brook or pond. but it is out of place
near an ordinary building. Lombardy
poplars, the most ill-used of all trees, are
to he recommended for a distant hill, or
in very small numbers near ahigh and
long building or about achurch with a
spire, but they are out of placein most
yards, especially when planted in abun-
dance. If our premises are not large
enough to allow the planting of trees, we
can use shrubs in a similar manner.

If we would expose glimpses of at—
tractive objects, we must hide unattrac—
tive ones. If Smith's barn stands in
front of your window, plant trees or
vines to hide the most undesirable parts
of it. If it stands squarely across the
road fro 11 you, and if your home is near
the highway, persuade him either to
move it or to paint it, and move his
barnyard behind it.

The value of trees is seldom fully
appreciated. Much of the common es-
timation concerning them is nothing
more than sentiment. There are two
common extrun s of sentiment which are
always opposed to rural beauty. Tue one
extreme has to do with the immediate
neighborhmd of the residence, the other
with more distant views of landscape.

It is certainly a common fault With
country homes where any attempt is
made toward ornament, that too many
trees and bushes are allowed to grow. It
is perfectly proper. indeed highly nec-
essary, that in the first days and years of
ornamenting a barren home, one should
plant thickly of avsriety of trees and
shrubs. There should be small groups
of s ruces and deciduous trees of the
rapi growing sorts, which will soon
afford shelter and privacy. But it is none
the less important that those clumps
should be thinned just as fast as the in-
dividual trees begin to crowd each other.
To be sure. one loves the trees which he
has planted and nourished. but it must be
home in mind that sentiment should
never stand in the way of beauty and
utility. I do not like the hackneyed ad
vice which urges us to plant ornamental
trees at such distances as will be proper
for them to occupy twenty years hence.
Such advice is dlscouraging; we must live
in large part for the pressing present.
Moreover, twenty years hence is but a

int of time, and it does not pay to
orego the pleasure of nineteen years in
order to enjoy the perfection of the
twentieth.

What I always recommend to owners
of unadorned places, is to plant thickly;

t an immediate effect. And imme

lately thereupon I urge the inj unccion,
strongly underlined, do not neglectto this
out as soon as the trees begin to crowd.
One symmetrical and vigorous tree is
worth three one~sided. stunted ones.
Clumps of trees soon grow into tangled
thickets, the delight of mosquitoes,
moulds and vermin. They shut out sun
and health, and shut one in from en-—
chanting gl'nmpses of distant views. The
attractive clump has become an unsightly

 

tangle, and soon all the trees will have
become so lopsided that one cannot be
removed without laying bare an unsightly
side of its neighbor. This is no exagg-ra-
tion. The most difﬁcult matter to press
home to most people, in the way of
ornament, is the fact that t! ere should be
constant and systematic thinning. It is
a mistake to suppose that the surround—
ings of a home should be ﬁxed. The uni-
versal law of change applies to the
private grounds, as well as to the o:chard
or garden.

Not long since I visited a worthy
farmer who desired my advice in regard
to the improvement of his front yard. I
looked it over, and aivisel him to re—
moveagreat Norway spruce, a balsam
fir, an apple tree, a large chestnut, three
smaller Norways, a large red cellar. a
fringe tree, and several bushes. He dis—
cussed the trees seriatt'rn. Tue great
spruce he could never spare, because it
was the ﬁrst one set in the township;
ditto with the fir; the apple tree bore
good fruit; the horse-chestnut was the
largest specimen in the neighborhood;
the three small r Nuways were thrii‘ty
and attractive: the red cedar had been
“ backed in ” in an early day from the
woods at a great expense of muscle; the
fringe tree cost him a dollar, and the
bushes were all attractive who in. do yer:
therefore he could spare none of them. I
could not imorove his yard: and when he
must look a. the evening sky to note
signs of to-m-.;'row’s weather, and when
his wife must know who it is that is pass-
ing along the highway. they must either
go some rods away from the house or
scrooch under the trees. ‘ An attractive
house on a distant hill is entirely hidden;
in fact, there is no great outside world
from the windows of that residence.

This is all radically wrong. The laud~
scape gardener is often uphraided for his
so-called impractical notions, his ”ﬁne
theories of beauty,” but woe to the gar—
dener if he ever entertains notions so
much at variance with laws of happiness
and health, as does he who hibernates in
a prison of tangled trees. No,. rather
have an open ﬁeld with the fresh
verdure of the greensward and the crisp
play of winds, and an overabundance of
sunlight, than a house hidden in gloomy
foliage. But let us have the golden mean.
Kee the front of the house open to the
worﬁi, and never allow a tree to hide a
desirable view. Last spring I nnved
into a new house. From the front porch
I could see nothing but an ordinary
grove, althou h but a few rods beyond
it were tineco ege buildings with their
constant pla of life‘ and frolic. I cut
many trees roru that grove, none to its
detriment either, and now as I sit at my
dinner table I can see through the grove
to an attractive view beyond. This vista
may be “ impractical ” as the common ex
pression goes, but I am confident that I
can relish my meal better than I could if
I were shut up to my own dining-room
and the bit of gravel path which lies in
front of my window. ,

Now it is singular that these same peo-
ple who would cling tenaciously to every
old tree about the house, would often
mercilessly sacriﬁce every beautiful great
tree in a distantlandscape. Rural land—
scapes are pre-eminently beautiful when
there are drooping elms and rotund ma-
ples, clotted here and there over little emi-
nences in pastures. in cornﬁelds, and
along highways. He is a reckless tenant
who would rob nature of these isolated
beauties for the sake of the stove—wood
they contain. In rocky New .«Jngland,
where the farmers cannot covet every foot
of land, the grand old trees are picturesque.
In our western country it is not always
so. It requires some judgment, to be
sure, to know when to cut a tree and
when to let it alone, but it is j-idgment,
nevertheless, which pays the effort it costs.

Trees and bushes never appear to better
advantage than when seen in natural

 

clumps. But to interpret an attractive
natural clump is one of the runs: difﬁcult
problems in ornamental gardening. It is
almost impossible for an inexperienced
person to plant trees in nature’s regular
irregularity. He will get them in rows, in
squares, in along and irregular belt, or
in an even-bordered clump. The ﬁnest nat-
ural groups are those which possess bold
curves of large trees and recesses or
bays of smaller ones. In such srou ps the
large trees heighten the boldness and the
small ones heighten the retirement.
Then, to construct a group, drew an ire
regular outline, with deep bays and large,
rounded projectirms. and plant the largest
and most rapid growing plants he 11' the
border of the proj lotions and the smallest
ones near the hordersol the recesses. The
interior of the clump should be made up
of the largest plants also. Upon the im-
mediate borders of the group it is custom-
ary to plant low bushes to give a desirab .5.
taper from the greenswar-l to the body of
the group. The most difﬁcult part of this
wnore operation Will be to plant the trees
in such amanner that they will appear
not to have been planted. "' Throw up a
handful of peas and plant atree Wherever
apes falls,” is a gardeners rule. Some
years since a clump Was as: at the College
by an interested man, and he Se the
trees in exact ro «$5 in two directions.

Uur grounds should UC cut up as little
as possible by walks and drives. The
more continuous the lawn the larger it
will look, and the more easily it can be
cared for. There is a prevalent notion
that walks must be crooaed. and we oc-
casionally see extravagant forms of such
vagaries. In a certain eastern city is a
ﬁne residence with a wrk-screw walk
leading from the front gate to the resi—
dence, but if the person is not intoxicated
by the appearance he can walk in a bee-
line through the center of the cork-screw!
Landscape gardening never demands ex-
travagant forms. Awalk should never
appearto go where it does not go. A
direct and gently curved path from one
side or both sides of the premises is the
most desirable. The carriage drive should
enter at one side and approach the side of
the residence, reach the kitchen door and
veer off towards the barn. Directly in
front of the bone: there should be a well
kept lawn of small extent, with
enough shruhbery to intercept the
gaze of passers-by, but not enough to
c inceal desirable views. It is pleasanter
to secure side views of the highway than
direct front views, and especially so if the
residence is close to the highway. The
ﬂower-beds should be at one sine of the
residence, nearest the common windows,
and in but partial view from the high—-
way. A front yard full of ﬂowers pos—
sesses the same fault as a person with an
Over-gaudy dress.

For ordinary ornamental purposes,
common ﬂowers and native shrubs are
the best. We know them. The craze for
exotics simply because they are exotics
is drawing to a close. The craze has
been of great beneﬁt, because it has
taught us the value of native plants by
instituting a means of comparison. A
friend valued his visit to Italy because it
taught him to appreciate the sunsets of
Michigan. Many exotics are beautiful
and vigorous everywhere, but many more
are not so. They demand of the farmer
too great an expenditure of time and
money. Our woods and fence-rows are
nurseries. All our shrubs are worthy of
cultivation. We do not know how to
propagate them all to advantage, but we
can transplant them. They should be
taken up early in the fall with a liberal
amount of earth, and stored for a couple
of months in a warm cellar orccol green‘
house. The plants will then make roots.
They should then be placed in a wider
place. as out of doors on the south side
of a building with a protection of mulch.
In the spring plant them and they should
all live. Give them some culture. Al—

 


     

8 THE HOUSEIHOLD.

 

ways plant the smallest leaved and pret—
tiest plants nearest the residence.
are too coarse for the immediate vicinity
of the house. Their proper place is in a
windbreak, or rather distant screen.
Much of our territorv is wasted be—
tween highway fences. W:- are over
generous with our roads. Their sides are
bare, weedy, unsightly, nseErsv. in most
places highways l.TY.'s'.‘z "(3": v- ‘Llf‘ we pro—
ferabieOto iho -'> Winch ;-.l“‘ :cur: we could

 

 

then have bt‘it'r .-zs . pr: Y.‘ roads.
We need to .0 er.“ ‘i- ; «ﬂirts. Still
we pride my: e,.' ~ 1‘ : i1.‘-‘CL-;‘)S. n3
have mists? . .. I '= 3 ‘Llﬁi‘. We hz'rv.’
SSCI‘Iﬁ-f’eflfrlr» . . .~.-: ii stream iii"
“In lily “-41,... \‘z. -. ~. ‘ z ' it}? H H.233
said to Die; ~. ‘- in
means 91’ rad 3.x: '.‘. ~, '93::-

ing. Th: in : :

shrubs ““5. ’ “n"!i; N; i;- _ ;-~ wt
tractivo. :‘r - 1.. .. .Y.‘
straight an.’ v..w-'rl;;:'v._z.., r.
taste. teach: ::-; 1 l a} < out i. .. ‘A"tli~~
stak iii-g. I31. ._- c new, :‘a‘::ie'j,'. (HY:

 
 

change of .4’it‘";.t.iu 'rc sni
change mt VL-l'i‘ll‘t'. ,jnslzes

. , 1
. £,.’~z'i’lr

and natural i Sun‘ps are l_lI‘§f'-‘.‘l1l;il;ilily i ,. :

keeping in 7; flaws and i’sr'lt,-t*is:~.7‘_‘.'
along water turgscs. Our {:51ch hush-:2
should not be 5,51 Mon-.21: r knowledge.
Here is an «:rpplir'vimifj; Y. ~05» m: return
along our "t -~ t ‘ :“7: Val:
trees app-car wt , ..
eminence. '. €_-\.r‘..:.' r... a. -
evenna; ._ oi " _. .fau- ,.
jet“. wait“). . ._-:'.r s EL~
the Leer?“ 1's- ~.; I 3 féli’”. er: 3
The who}; ;;_ ,i. =7
tiou is one whirl Y“. mic study .
tention...-;Y'-.ther Y-iir. :1 .' i511 uxpcnih‘
t is not ‘:.:.Y3'~'xn-Z the .ﬁ"l‘.lbl.“.é grasp. .
cessful twining inns: combine with their“
enough style to rendc: it attractive. lite;
all style. it m iy {all into errors of gait. .
ness, impropriety or even ridiculousness;
nevertheless, to ignore all orname ‘t- is to
strip our agriculture of every pleasing
garment. Agriculture cannot in eke
much advancement so long as it is coar—
acterized by barencss. The boys and
girls will leave us for more attractive
pursuits. We must grapple with the
problem. The ﬁrst requisite is to screw
our courage up to the sticking point.

T514?

 

    

-¢

  

  
  

s...

 

 

 

W—— —

TO EDUCATE.

[A paper rear; :1 Mrs. N. EB. Bangs, of Paw Paw.
at the l‘armers’ institute held at Paw Paw .]
The verb Educate, like the most of our

English language, comes to us from the

Latin-speaking Romans. and really means

to bring up .gr lead fcuh all the natural

faculties.

Now, while much may be done by ju-
dicious care and pruning of the old scrag-
gy, misshapen tree toward improving both
its shape and usefulness, yet a better re-
sult would have been reached by right
training while it was still young. The
education of the child begins with its
ﬁrst breath and ceases only with its latest.
For the thoroughly educated there is
more to be learned outside of school text
books, outside of the college curriculum,
than there is in them. A good physique
is necessary to a hard course of study. A
thoroughly healthy person should make a
better man, a better scholar, than one
whose ailments are chronic.

The moral nature needs to be led up
and out of its normal condition and placed
upon a higher plane, and with these
should go the training of the men-
tal faculties. I fear that often all other
qualities except those of the brain are
lost sight of in our schools; book-learning
is ﬁrst, last, and all. '

. .

   

Pines ,

Among the teachers of my school days
there is one whose whole theme seems
now to me to have been Work; this key-
note comes sounding down to me still. I
often hear it when about my household
duties: “ Work Where you are, work al-
ways; you have no right to be idle, no
right to be a laggard. The use of all true
education is only to ﬁt one to work more
innsiligently and to do more and greater
work.”

“It is because you crawl that you never
get beyond your cabbage leaf,” the gay
butterﬂy says to the worm; but all must

% U .ml before they soar; there is no growth,

 

«» gathering of strength, but by using
1.5.91: already given us;by digging, delving
‘ ‘ ciznbing, are we enabled to reach
i..r altitudes. I would educate my
* . in nu nan kindness with the reading

' ~ «gt-ling of literary training. I would

new? in .n“ mind that it is the little
:riizgs that . rake up the sum of life; and
ti: t cultiva- it n and good breeding are as
clearly :Y in the daily home walks as
tipon tr e "rm-tad, high rostrum of public
life.

1 Li: Y. e often wondered why so much is
written upon the. course of training for
is 1.3 boys, for farmers’ girls, and What
wives should read. “ Who hath

made us to differ," the doctor’s wife and
T

n w” A 4
(.1 .5‘. L11;

r-c,

Q Li the l ivrv-sr‘s children and the farmer's?

 

 

Why tin-arid a boy be a farmer because
his tone: was one, more than every shoe-
rr..rlte:':- son shouldbe a shoemaker? I
Would tducate the child for any position
and let him choose his own life—work,
only urging upon him the importance of
ti,-ingitin the lest possible manner.
While I would not under-estimate the
value of :1 ner- classical education, I ﬁnd
that cvcrv’ (fear I r at less stress upon it.
While ilere is a culture and discipline

 

. ti: .1; ~301an from i :e study of Greek anal
Latin. ill-‘1“; is a ‘9. Yader, higher ’one that

comes from Lhe rubbing of mind against
mind: and :1 brain will receive greater
good from following the course of study
t“ .t individual taste and inclination
marks out, than from any rigid course
mapped out for " the greatest good to the
greatest number. "

So many young people go through a full
college course. ﬁnish with honors, and
are launched on the sea of life perfectly
helpless. Their real education has been
sadly neglected. They have been instruct—
ed in theories, which their reason has
not been taught to apply nor their judg-
ment to execute. They belong to the un-
appreciated class of humanity. A lies
favored playmate has been evolving his
theory from close study and observation
of mankind and passing events, its suc—
cessful execution in gaining him a con—

‘petence marks it as correct, and worthy of

consideration.

The editor of some agricultural journal
may write a high sounding exposition of
the best possible way of raising corn, and
the practical farmer in a few terse words
show you its fallacy.

I would have my boys and girls educat-
ed just alike; I would make no distinction.
I would have their moral aim the same
high standard, for both purity of thought
and purpose; and for the lowering of that

    

 

      

standard I would not excuse the boy, be—
cause he is a boy.

I would cultivate their taste for read-
ing by placing pure pages in their way,
impure ones out of it. I would ﬁll their
minds with wholesome food, that they
might have no desire for that which
would be slow poison for them.

The printing press is doing much to
make and to mar fair bright minds, nayi
lives. It is there as everywhere, the old,
old war of Good and Evil. I know that
many have fa‘ en and more are still going
down in this conﬂict, but Right will surely
prevail; my faith in the education of the
world brings me to this conclusion. It
is by teaching “line upon line, precept
upon precept” the young mind is shown
how to take things at their best and util—
ize their helps.

The belated traveler following the light
of the ignisfatuus falls on the boggy
ground and complains that deception was
practiced. “Oh! no!" says dancing Will
0’ the Wisp, “I ﬂew hither and thither
with all the light I had to show you this
was dangerous ground, but like many an-
other walking in the dark you looked only
at the light and not away from it, at what
it revealed.”

There is a great change being worked
out throughout the world. Reason is
struggling with Brain for the kingship.
Brain has long held sway but already
Reason begins her rule, and with Good
Judgment and Common Sense as hand
maidens her rule will be a successful one.

One of the most important features of
an education is one often lost sight of,
scarcely nuntionet’ in a college course,
and this is nnc’s conversational powers. It
is in part. a natural gift, but like most
others may become an acquired one.

I know of nothing that will so help one

in ihi: art as a wile knowledge of history

anc‘zlitcra urc, ancient and modern, and a
study i-i Elle; exact sciences, mathematics~
t) the Calculus if you will, to give ex—
pression to one’s thoughts. I am aware
that I am counter to the ﬁxed opinion of
many, nevertheless I am to write what I
think, not what others may soon have the
ﬂoor to say.

One may learn by traveling a short
journey even, once a year, what would
take them months of study and research
to ﬁnd out. A trip to our copper mines,
iron ore beds, to our smelting furnaces and
stamp mills, may be compassed in a few
days of time and by not much of ﬁlthy
lucre, and the beneﬁt and pleasure be life
long.

I would not wish to be understood as
not lesiring a full and complete course of
study, but there is much to be desired be-
sides, and when a course at college or
university is not possible there is much
that may be acquired even at our own
ﬁresides.

However high up the hill of science we
may go there is that impelling force be:
hind us urging us upward to see from some
loftier peak some broader, fairer scene.
However high we may stand there is a
still higher plane to be reached, till lost

to us among the clouds the weary climber
sighs “How little there is that man may
know!”

 

  

 

    

    
   

   
    
   
  
  
 

 

 

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