
 

5*;

..
1»:
‘3
i
7
'1’
5
z
,4
7
L5.
:5
:j .
V/

/ ,

 

 

 

DETROIT, DEC.

'7. 1889.

 

THE HOUSEHOLD-"Supplement.

 

R EFLEC'TIONS.

 

ﬂow little we think of each other,
As we tread the path of life,

We forget the weary brother
Amid the toil and strife.

We forget there are sad hearts round us,
To be cheered by a loving act.

0h! why do we never see the chance
Until it‘s forever past?

If we were only more careful
To do what good we could.
And try to lighten the burden
Of others, along the road,
I’m sure our own would grow lighter
For each kind deed we had done,
Till we’d ﬁnd our sorrows almost gone
At the setting of the sun.

Then how sweet would be our musing
After a day well spent;
When we knew we had helped another
Bear the trial God had sent.
And I think in the heavenly morning,
When we meet around the throne above,
We’ll be welcomed by all we’ve cheered below
By the smallest act of love.
AUNT MARY.
————¢oo———-
Nor wives nor maidens, weak or brave,
Can stand and face the public stare,
And win the plaudits that they crave,
And stem the hisses that they dare,
And modest truth and beauty save.
No woman, in her soul, is she
Who longs to poise above the roar
0f motley multitudes, and be
The idol at whose feet they pour
The wine of their idolatry. ,
Coarse labor makes its doer coarse:
Great burdens harden softest hands;
A gentle voice grows t arsh and hoarse
That warn s and threatens and commands
Beyond tne measure of its force.
——Dr. J. G. Holland.

 

STREET STUDIES.

 

There is an inﬁnite pathos in the faces of
the neglected children of the poor. Their
hard life, the unending struggle with
poverty, their few pleasures, their many
privations, give their young faces a pre-
maturely old look, and a keenness and
sharpness foreign to the child nature.
Theirs is not the free, careless, happy,
irrespOnsible life of childhood. They de-
velop a precociousness at a bargain, a
shrewd knowledge of values, an unchild-like
foresight, a self-reliance, born of their early
struggles to secure life’s barest necessi-
ties. Some of these qualities go to make
sturdy men and women of them, since the
ranks of millionaires are constantly being
recruited from the children of poverty,
who have conquered the conditions of
their early lives by determination, frugality
and foresight.

There is no sadder reading to me than

 

the line often added at the end of a brief
paragraph announcing the accident by
which some laboring man has lost his life
—“ He leaves a Wife and a large family of
children in destitute circumstances.” There
are volumes of grief, of struggle, of priva-
tion, a Whole epitome of human misery, in
those few words. The little clinging
hands hinder the woman from the work
she might ﬁnd to do, yet mother-love
would not spare one of them. What a
vista opens before her!

I went, late last autumn, into one of the
poorer quarters of the city in Search of a
washwomau who had been recommended
to me. The early twilight was closing in,
a mist swept up from the river and
wrapped everything in its ghostly pall till
even the electric lights looked ghastly
against the sky. You know how eerie
one feels in an unfamiliar spot, in such
an atmosphere. I was turning away from
an ineffectual attempt to decipher the
number on a door, wishing I had stayed by
my ﬁre and taken daylight for my pil-
grimage, when from out of the fog a slip
of a girlhad appeared from somewhere,
and stood regarding me intently. I was
too startled to speak for a moment. Where
had she come from, so silently, so sudden-
ly, with her thin, colorless face, her long
black hair, those coal black, eager eyes?
I can see her still, and were I an artist I
would paint heras “The Wraith of the
Mist,” that elﬁn face peering through the
fog which seemed to blot out all details of
ﬁgure. and leave only a pair of brilliant
eyes, like stars shining in the dark.
“ There ain’t nobody to home who’ (1’ ye
want?” spake the vision, all in a breath.
And when I told her, she said “ My! she
moved away ’s much ’s week ago.” Didn’t
know where to, didn’t know of any one
who knew, but “ mostly everybody round
here goes out a washing.” Then she
vanished, as she came, but not from my
memory. I should like to know the future
of “ The Marchioness,” as I named her in
my thoughts, for she resembled in un-
kempt hair and attire, Dickens’ famous
picture cf Sally Brass’s bound girl. Four
or ﬁve years might transform that girl into
a beauty. Round out the immature ﬁgure
and the thin face with generous food,
shear the tangled mop of hair, and let
healthful living send a rose glow through
that clear olive skin and curve the lines of
cheek and chin, and a Woodward Avenue
belle might envy the charms of this child
of poverty. But beauty is often a fatal
gift to the poor girl. King Cophetua’s

a

 

bride nowdays is not the beggar maid,
however beautiful; my Lord of Blh'leigh
mates within his circle. Will her beauty
be her downfall, or will she marry some
lusty “dock-wailoper” or truckman and
fulﬁll the chief end of woman?

I sometimes meet on a side street 1 have
occasion to traverse, a girl of eight or nine
years of age, on her way to or from a
saloon, carrying a little tin pail full of beer.
A ﬂippant youth tells me she is “ rushing
the growler.” I only know that in winter
she is scantily clad, always looking pinched
and cold, as if neither food or ﬁre were
quite sufﬁcient. Sometimes I see her
stealthily taking a sip from the pail, show-
ing she has already learned the taste. of its
contents. By inquiry I learned she is one
of the numerous family of a stove-moulder,
who earns good wages at his trade. Her
mother takes in washing, and I was told
that all the money thus laboriously earned
ﬁnds its way into the till of the saloon
above mentioned. What an errand for a
child! What a place fora girl to become
familiar with! There is little that is
childish in the prematurely old face, still
less in the pert, saucy replies to anything
said to her; the bashful diﬂidence of child.
hood is entirely wanting. What can we
expect as the harvest of such a childhood!

The parents who sigh for the privileges of
the city should be grateful that they can
bring up their children in the purer air and
healthier moral atmosphere of the country.
It is no small thing to be thankful for.
Especially if a man has lack of worldly
goods are his children better off in the
quiet of a country home, for if he is poor
he must often make his home in a neigh-
borhood where the surroundings are not at
all to his liking; where the children’s only
play-ground is the street and their asso-
ciates undesirable. Accustomed to city
sights and sounds as I am, I am often
shocked at the profanity and obscenity of
well dressed, apparently well-cared for
young children, whose parents would be
grieved and astonished at hearing such
language from the lips they press with
good night kisses. It is the education of
the street, its slang and coarseness, from
which it is almost impossible to guard
them. Count it chief among your mer«
cies, then, that your seclusion enables you
to keep your children frOm such in-
ﬂuences, until their habits and characters
are in a measure formed. I tell you it is a
great compensation for certain wants we

are apt to consider deprivations.
BEATRIX.

 


ABOUT MANNERS.

 

I suppose Beatrix thinks it is time to
drop the subject, but how can I, when she
evidently does not quite understand my
question, or if so, I am afraid her ex-
perience with country life has not been
very extensive after all. I admit that there
is no reason why we should not observe just
as good manners in the country as in the
city. My question was, how to secure
them. I do not quite agree with her that
people get just as hungry in the city, for I
think there is nothing like hard work in
the open air as an appetizer, but of course
that should make no difference. What she
says about eating is all good, sensible
advice—if she will only invent away to
convince those hungry men. N ow I want
to whisper, just to reassure Beatrix. in case
she should ever have occasion to take tea
with us, that my husband does not com-
mit the unpardonable sin of drinking tea
and coffee from his saucer, but we, like
most farmers, ﬁnd it necessary to keep hired
help, and to take just such help as we can
get, and they are not always as particular
asthey might be. We have not the ad-
vantage which we might have in town, of
having only our own family around us. It
isnot many years, either, since cup plates
were provided, even at our fashionable
tables, and I suppose it was not then con-
sidered abreach of etiquet e to use them,
and I do not think all of the husbands
take kindly to the change. N ow the ques-
tion is, how are we to train the hired men
and other grown up specimens of humanity,
who have not been brought up just accord-
ing to our ideas of propriety, so as to bring
about the desired reformation which
Beatrix seems to hold us wives responsible
for?

I have been greatly interested in the
subject of “ What to Talk About.” I ﬁnd
it so hard to keep up a conversation with
some people and so easy with others.
What a difference there is! It takes a
great deal not only of tact, but also what
we call the “gift of gab,” to talk with
everybody. My advice is, talk about al-
most everything except your neighbors’
shortcomings; if that seems to be the
only available subject, remember that
“silence is golden.” It is certainly much
more satisfactory to sit down for a cosy
chat with one other person, than for half a
dozen or so to meet for a social visit unless
particular pains has been taken to bring
together persons with congenial tastes. In
a mixed company, there are always one
or two who can talk faster than the rest,

,even though they have nothing to talk
about except their neighbors or them‘
selves, and the others must either join in
or sit silent and try to keep their disgust
from showing itself in their faces.

BURTON. S. J. B

[I shall have to remind S. J. B. of the
homely proverb, “It’s hard teaching old
dogs new tricks.” If either men or women
fail to recognize their deﬁciencies in any
respect—table manners or other things—
and fortify themselves behind “Don’t

care,” their case is hopeless. We cannot

 

 

THE' HOUSEHOLD.

improve a person’s manners or morals un-
less he sees the need of improvement and

aids our efforts by his own. For this and
kindred reasons, we must train the grow-
ing children and young people, and depend
upon our admonitions to them and the
force of our own example to modify in
some measure the carelessness and neg—
ligence of those who are older. I have
known a man who wiped his knife in his
mouth and helped himself to butter, and
stabbed a slice of bread across the table
with his fork at his ﬁrst meal at his “ new
place,” become quite mannerly after a
summer’s sojourn in his employer’s
family, without a word being said which
could offend him, simply through ﬁnding
there was always ample time for meals and
that his wants would be anticipated With-
out his spreading himself all over the
table. It was a good instance of the in-
ﬂuence of example—B]
___...__.._._.

I .
THE EDITOR WOMAN.

Well now! what a reputation I am get-
ting among my cOnstituents, that none of
them dare invade the dreadful feminine-
cditorial presence! Here’s Mrs. Serena Stew
afraid of confronting a faultlessly attired
woman who will class her as “country;”
and J annette thinking she will be expected
to stand on one foot like a meditative hen,
without even being asked to take a chair or
being able to ﬁnd anything to say; and I
don’t really know what inspired Mrs. Ed
with terror, but at least she did not call
after saying she did so wish to venture.
You are all, dear ladies, laboring under a
great misapprehension. There is no
earthly occasion to be afraid of Beatrix or
consider her at all aweinspiring. You
have all seen the great pictures on the out-
side of the side show’s tent, descriptive of
the glories within, and when you had paid
your ten cents and gone in and seen what
there was to see you said, “ My! is that
all!” And very likely that is what you
would say were you to venture into
Beatrix’s awful presence.

I have always remorselessly blue-pencilled
any comments upon myself, my appear-
ance, or impressions formed by those who
have called upon me, because they have
been so kindly complimentary that it
seemed bad taste to publish them in a
paper which I myself edit. But I will
only say that those who come once, almost
always come the second time if occasion
Offers, which proves, I think, they are not
badly hurt by the encounter.

I was born on a farm"; girlhood and
school vacations were passed in the country,
and I had nine years’ practical experience
as housekeeper, during which time I per-
formed as many and as varied tasks as fall
to the lot of most women on the farm, in-
cluding bringing up pet lambs and run-
ning the reaper when we were “short of
hands.” I have turned my dresses and
trimmed my own bonnets; and experienced
the heart-sinking incident to having a
quartette of visitors drive up at noon when
there was not even time to make a “ Sud-
den Visitation” pudding. And I have
never had occasion to deny my birthright,

 

  

or hesitated to acknowledge I am country
born and bred. I know very well from
my own past experience, how those who
seldom meet strangers dread the deliberate
encounter in which they take the initiative.
But anticipation is almost invariably worse
than the reality; once the effort is made,
the meeting becomes enjoyable. I should
feel both hurt and grieved to have any Who
wish to meet me personally stay away
through fear of being criticised. I am
neither “ faultlessly attired ” nor “ con-
descending;” but just a plain, every-day
sort of woman without “airs.”

I will not say, as old-fashioned people
sometimes do, “ The latch-string is always
outside ” to my sanctum. I can do better,
and say the door is never closed and that a
welcome is always ready for those who

come to see BEATRIX.
~00.—

CHRISTMAS HINTS.

 

As now is the time when every one is
racking her brains to know what to make
for Christmas presents, I will give the
HOUSEHOLD readers some ideas which may
be new to some of them. First are the
clock frames, made of a piece of pine
board nine inches square (eight inches will
do). . Have a hole made one inch from the
edge in the left hand lower corner, large
enough to put a small clock in, which can
be had for $1.25, and still cheaper in large
cities. Have narrow pieces put on the
back at top and bottom to prevent warping,
and a stick put on the back so it will stand
up like an easel. On some I have painted
amass of pansies, and on others wild roses;
almost any ﬂower will do. Any one who
paints can think of a great many hand
some designs having once an idea given.

Next are the memoranda slates. Ten
and a half inches by seven and a half is a
good size. Remove the red felt and shoe
lacing, then gild the frames and some of
the shoe lacing to hang up by, and
put narrow pale blue ribbon in the
holes. Hang a pencil on one side with a
piece of the ribbon. Paint any pretty
design on them. Three owls on a branch,
a golden oriole on branch of cherries, wild
roses, scarlet japonicas and cherry blossoms
are all good designs.

Bangle boards are made in the same
way by putting hooks on the lower edge of

the frame. G. F. 0.
ANN ARBOR.
—-—-.OO————

CHAT.

 

I wish to express my thanks to the ladies
who contribute to the HOUSEHOLD columns
for the help which they have given me
this summer. As I look back it seems
that I would have been almost a “failure ”
without itﬁ; I say “ God bless it” and the
dear Beatrix forever.

If any one thinks it worth while to in-
vite me to “come again,” I will tell of
some of my experiences in housekeeping,
and will close by hoping that this will not
ﬁnd a place in that awful waste

HICKORY CORNERS “B. ASK IT.”

[“ B. Ask It” is cordially invited to
come again and give us the beneﬁt of her

experiences. They are just what we want.
—ED.]

  

   


THE HOUSEHOLD.

3

 

ENTERTAINMENTS.

 

One of our correspondents recently asked
for hints about home entertainments, or
those which could be gotten up Without
much trouble or expense, and several
private inquiries of the same nature are at
hand. It is quite evident, therefore, that
there are a good many who “ want to know,
you know,” about such things.

Nothing is more fun for the boys and
girls than a sheet-and-pillow-case mas-
querade. There is no expense, but great
amusement. Every effort is made to pre-
serve the incognito of the maskers, who
arrive draped in their ghostly habiliments,
which they wear until the signal for un-
masking is given. At a party of this kind
given here Thanksgiving night, at a private
house where the parlors, halls and dining
and reception rooms could be thrown into
one great room by opening the folding
doors, the “ ball was opened ” by a grand
march which changed into a waltz when
the nimble ﬁngers of the pianist struck
one of Straus’s lilting measures. Dancing,
conversation and guessing at each other’s
identity ﬁlled in the time until the “Ba-
nana March” was called. A big bunch of
bananas—it cost a dollar at a wholesale
house—was suspended from the chandelier
in the front parlor, and under it was
placed a stand with a large glass salad
bowl upon it. The march was led by a
couple who had been previously instructed,
and the rest had only to follow their lead.
In and out through the various rooms they
marched, and ﬁnally were led into the
front parlor where the couples separated at
the bunch of bananas, the girl going on one
side, the boy on the other, and each taking
a banana. Then they united and marched
on, eating the bananas, and promenaded
until they parted again around the big
glass bowl in which the banana skins were
deposited. Then the unmasking, which
proved a merry time, then supper. “Oh
it was such fun; I never had such a lark in
my life,” said a bright-cheeked but sleepy-
eyed girl the next day.

An impromptu exhibition of waxwork is
a good deal of sport for an audience, and
not very much work for the managers. A
ten-cent tariff for revenue may be exacted.
Dickens’ Madam J arley has been often imi-
tated, with “ Little Nell ” and “ George”
as attendants. But there is now in London
a very imposing collection of waxwork
“ﬁggers” known as Madam Tussaud's.
Make the entertainment Frenchy instead of
English, and you will have a very amusing
variation. Madame has a great many airs
and graces, a great fan, a French accent
and a monstrous viniagrette. She is as.
sisted by a coquettish maid in cap, who is
“ Mademoiselle,” and who duststhe ﬁgures
and arranges them. They are “wound
up ” and go through some very mechanical
movements during which the individuals
must look very wooden-y and stare very
hard at nothing. As for characters, you
must originate them, from newspapers and
books, etc., and Madame Tussaud must
“explain the ﬁggers.” Pocahontas in
feathers and war paint, The Maid of
Athens with a_red-ﬂannel heart on her

 

thumb, The Madonna of the Tubs, Robert
Elsmere before and after he had doubts,
and lots of other characters can be thought
up, and “ realized” in this amusing mum-
mery. Two strong young men, nicely
dressed, as beﬁts a very reﬁned and ele-
gant entertainment, are necessary to
move the ﬁgures, which are brought to the
front of the stage after “ Mademoiselle”
has crooked their eloows and perhaps
twisted a head round or perked up a chin.
This bringing forward is the most difﬁcult
part. The “ﬁgger ” must stand with heels
close together and arms bent at right angles
and pressed close to the body; the attends
ants, one at each side, can, by placing one
hand under the wrist, and the other under
the elbow lift the perfectly rigid ﬁgure
from the ﬂoor and carry it safely, while
it maintains the required lifelessness.

For literary societies, it is easy to ar-
range tableaux, readings and music, per—
haps act a scene or two from some author’s
writings, Dickens is full of such possibili-
ties. Scott’s poems, Burns, Longfellow,
Whittier, Lowell, Will Carleton, are also
rich in suggestions, “Betsy and I are
Out” and “Over the Hills to the 'Poor—
house” aﬁ'ord several striking tableaux, or
may be rehearsed in character. Where
tableaux are given, it adds greatly to the
interest of the audience if some one recites,
from the shelter of a curtain, or from be-
hind the scenes, the description in verse or
prose of the scene represented.

.__...____
LOVE AND MARRIAGE.

We have had the above subject treated
from the man’s standpoint, and now just
for a change we will hear the woman’s
side. We all doubtless sympathize with
Outis in his tribulations because of miss-
ing buttons, but as wives learn “ to make
the best of it,” even when the garments
upon which the buttons should be sewed
are missing also. our sympathy cannot be
as effusive as it otherwise might be.

By what law of esthetics has it come to
pass that beauty is not as desirable in a
man as in a woman, or has the hopeless-
ness of ﬁnding it discouraged all fur her at-
tempts in that direction and the search for
the unattainable ceased? Certainly the
wife is quite as much pleased with a hus-
band well formed and well favored, as the
husband can be with a Wife ditto. But
the repulsiveness of the average man of
middle age is due as much to carelessness
of dress and manners, unkempt hair and
whiskers and untidy person as to the bane.
ful habits of smoking and drink. If the
wife needs occasional promptings to duty
in regard to home dress and home manners
how much more the husband! “The general
agreement that women should not look for
this quality in a man” must have been
made without consulting the party most
concerned, the wife. But masculine agree-
ments are quite apt to be made in this
way.

Again: “But where two independent
wills are united, some arrangement is
necessary to provide for the settlement of
practical questions on which a difference
of opinion exists, and just here is where the

 

great question of obedience arises. So
great is the effect of wifely obedience that
it is now recognized as an indisputed fact:
that the wife who gives the husband his
own way the ﬁrst year will have her own.
way ever after.” If after such an experience
she has any “ way ” to have. It is not an
over-statement to say that nine-tenths of’
wives do give their husbands their own
way the ﬁrst year. But how many of
them have their way ever after? But by
so doing a very large proportion of them
sacriﬁce health and happiness for the re
mainder of life.

The affectionate nature of woman
prompts her to make any personal sacriﬁce
to please those she loves, and the husband
soon learns to take these daily sacriﬁces as
his due and to expect them as a matter of'
course, if indeed he is not too dull to see:
that the wife has made any sacriﬁce for
him. But the wife if she is wise will deny
herself the pleasure of sacriﬁcing her com—
fort to the husband’s selﬁsh-for such
they too often are—demands upon her, not
only for her own sake but for his also, for'
his health and future happiness are con-
cerned as well as hers. She will thus com.
mand his respect, the ﬁrst essential to an;
abiding affection. In the perverted con—
dition of society the order of nature has
been reversed, and the race has suffered ac
cordingly. When that order shall be re
stored woman will choose her companion,
and the union will be more congenial, as
her intuitions are more acute and her
nature more spiritual than man's.

Right here let me ask, since woman’s—
nature is more spiritual and therefore
more capable of discerning the right,
how does it come to pass that men
are continually admonishing her of
her duty? It is a self-appointed task,
for who has made him judge over.
her? We will suggest that hereafter Outis-
and all of his ilk turn their attention to.
the masculine fraternity and expend their
admonitions upon them, for they are sadly
in need of an awakening of conscience to
the duties of husbands and fathers. The
preoccupation of the mind with business,
and too often dulled through vicious in-
dulgences, leaves the voice of conscience
unheeded and the call of duty neglected
with the so-called head of the family. It
is time for the sober second thought of
men of business, asking whither all this
rush for that which satisﬁeth not is tend-
ing; and especially When it costs the
sacriﬁce of the dearest and best interests of
the family.

Now ladies, Beatrix’s device (wise wo-
man) for stirring up the HOUSEHOLD readers
has had the desired effect in one instance-
at least. Let us not drive her again to the .
doleful expedient of calling upon a man to
ﬁll the columns of our very little paper,
which should be sacred from masculine in~
trusion.

I have something to say upon the Sab-
bath question which I will defer. But I
must assure A. L. L. that her philosophy
was very pleasing both in manner and mat-
ter. Such articles are a delight. Let us:

hear from her again. LILLA LEE.
IONIA.

 


4 . THE HOUSEHOLD.

 

 

\PETTY ECO NOMIEs.

My topic is economy this time, but be-
"Ioreregin I want to say that I practice
that spoonvhandle method of canning fruit
Bessso loudly condemns, and have never
lost as much fruit since I commenced to
suse it, as by the old hurrying way. I shall
met forget the ﬁrst experience 1 had
uniting up fruit—or rather watching a
neighbor do it for me. Cans scalded and
set in boiling water, a few spoonfuls put
in, the kettle set back to heat, taken off,
more thrown in, put back on the stove
again and soforth, until at last after haste,
hurry and worry and burning of ﬁngers it
wasdone. Now Iﬁll at my leisure and
Slot stand to settle a short time before
'aaling and my fruit never molds nor spoils
if well cooked and placed in perfect cans.
I always ﬁll the space in the top with hot
liquid before sealing, and have no other
«cams than Mason. .

Like Simon’s Wife, I too have to practice
"economy and on needed articles too
(while luxuries are out of the question).
Farmers’ wives cannot always do as we
would, but have to do as we can, and
often have to make so little do so
much that we lose sight of what real
economy is. I have thought, dreamed
and practiced economy until I really did

.rnot know where to economize next. I have

,7 had the blues until I bilieve they have be-

A

: ”Yen.
' suit for Angelina at ﬁve would not suit her

come chronic. Royal says I always look
on the dark side. Well, perhaps I do; but
«with poor health, inefﬁcient help, and a
‘family of seven to look after, I have about
lost heart. When $1 has to do the work
«if-$10, and we do not know where that $1
is to come from, an inferior article is often
purchased against our better judgment,
and it takes a good deal for a family of
The four yards that made a good

ladyship at seventeen; and Adolphus (as
tall as his father), would hardly be present.
able in the piece of his mother’s dress skirt
garnished with black braid and steel but-
.tons that made the baby of three a nobby
mﬁt; Angelina’s fastidious taste would be
shocked at the piece of velvet from the rag
bag which (minus the Diamond dye and
rooster tail), did duty for a hat and did not
look so bad either; her cloaks can no longer
be made of her mother's, for she does not
wear mother’s old clothes now. Then
there are Gustavus and Edmund, and
Miranda the maid of all work, who has to
be paid or clothed, which amounts to the
same thing in the long run.
How about the tobacco? Do all the
men but Royal use it the reason we hear
so little about it? I want to say just here
that I believe if wives and mothers would
insist upon husbands and boys cleaning
their own spittoons it would work quite a
revolution in some households, for the
masculine stomach is proverbially weak,
and I do not think they would relish the
job at all.
Cannot some one suggest some kind of

evening entertainment that can be gotten
up in a small town, or hamlet rather, to
interest and save the young people from
society where we do not want them?
BLUEBELLE.

 

USE FOR WASTE WOOLS.

Jessie wishes to ﬁnd some way to use her
zephyrs. Now that Christmas is at hand,
one thing I ﬁnd handy and quite pretty is
to buy light blue cheesecloth (or any color)
and make pads for bureau drawers; then
tie them with the wools, crochet an edge
around them; tie them either in squares or
diamonds. Make the pads the size of the
drawers; use paper cambric for the back,
put in cotton or sheet wadding sprinkled
with sachet powder.

A pretty and “ cute ” present—and it
will use the wools—is to buy baby insoles,
you can get them in No. 2, and make the
crochet slippers same as our large ones.
They are handy for baby to put on, and
are very warm.

We all enjoy the HOUSEHOLD; I ﬁnd

many suggestions to help me. TOM.
ANN ARBOR.

 

OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH.

 

I have watched with interest the account
of the experience of those who passed
through bright and cloudy weeks, the
doleful experience of Simon’s Wife and so
on. I believe the higher spiritual part of
our nature, to a great degree, is independ-
ent of outward circumstances, and that no
cloudy week can eﬁectually trammel or
crush the ﬁner instincts of the soul. I be-
lieve Simon’s Wife’s talk is all moonshine,
for in the ﬁrst place I do not believe any
man who takes and reads the MICHIGAN
FARMER would ever act so. And in the
second place I do not believe any true wife
would so recklessly expose her husband’s
faults.

But I have watched with greater
solicitude the discussion on the “ The Sab-
bath Question,” for it is a subject fraught
with terrible issues. Our nation stands in
jeopardy. Inﬁdelity and Sabbath desecra-
tion are coming in upon us like a ﬂood,
threatening to engulf our fair land, and it
is high time every lover of God and our
native land should awake to the peril of
the times. It is the duty of every parent
and instructor to impress upon the mind of
the young, both by precept and example,
the importance of the maintenance of our
Christian Sabbath as a sacred institution,
for if the coming generation sh all degen-
erate below the present standard of integrity
and morals, and the noisy demonstrations
of the rationalist, the socialist, the anarchist
be not met by a ﬁrm resolve on the part of
those who will soon guide the affairs of
our nation, that our Sabbath shall be
sacredly observed, then our grand republic
will have gone far toward a certain down-
fall. As the bow in the clouds was the
sign or token of a perpetual covenant
throughout all generations that summer
and winter and seed time and harvest
should never fail, so the establishment and
observance of the Sabbath day is a sign or
pledge of national prosperity to the end of
time; the sign or memento of the crea-
tion and Creator of all things, connecting
on the one hand the human being with the
divine Creator, and on the other hand
with his fellow creatures, brother and
stranger, children and servant, yea, the

 

 

very beast of burden, emblem of good will
to all things created, and the absolute
equality of all men.

' in all the changes which time has wrought
among the nations since the world began
the relation of man to his Maker remains
unchanged, and as the individual in the
nation is the integrant of the nation, the
character of the nation, as a whole, will be
the character of individuals comprising it,
and if we are a Christian nation, our
Christian Sabbath must be observed. The
proper observance of the Sabbath day is the
keynote to a holy, consecrated life, for it is
impossible in the turmoil and toil of this
busy life, to remember our Creator as we
should, if we spend not at least one day in
seven in worship to Him, and preparation
for an eternal abode with Him.

“ And surely in a word like this.
So rife with woes, so scant with bliss,
’Tis blest that we may pause, ’til earand heart
Somewhat of than high strain have caug it,
The p:: es of God which passeth thought. '

We must remember too, that God has
nowhere said remember the Sabbath day,
to keep half or two-thirds of it holy. The
Sabbath day comprises just as many hours
from midnight to midnight as other days,
and the sacred use for which it is set apart
cannot be transferred from one part of the
day to another, neither can we by works of
supererogation make merit in one part of
the day, and allow desire of worldly
pleasures to run riot the remainder.

The Sabbath day is emphatically the
Home Day, and there is no fairer picture
in all the world, than that of a family
circle gathered round the hearth-stone,
engaged in sacred song or in the study of
God’s word or any helpful book which
will develop the higher, holier life. And
when Time shall have shattered the home
into fragments,

“ And afar on Life’s billows
The tempest tossed children are ﬂung,
They will long for the shade of the home
weeping willow,
And for the sweet song which their mother
had sung.”

HOWELL. MRS. W. K. SEXTON.
ﬂ...—

M. J. M., of Locke, says a tiny spider
infests her house-plants, making the leaves
become spotted with white, and she wishes
to know what will prevent its depredations,
having tried everything she knows of in
vain. If the insect is very small, and red
or reddish-brown in color, it is probably

the red spider, which is one of the most .

annoying pests we have, and very d.‘ ﬂicult
to get rid of. The best way to circumvent
him is to drown him by persistent syring-
ing. Lay the plants on the side in a tub,
so as not to drown the roots. Keep in a
cool room; he thrives in a hot atmosphere.
If any one knows a better remedy we shall
be glad to hear it. If the insects are green
in color and apoplectic in habit they are
thrips or aphides, and should be smoked
with tobacco as per instructions to Mrs. H.
in the HOUSEHOLD of Nov. 23rd.
———-—.O.—-—-——
Contributed Recipes.

Prcxnnn Gators—One gallon onions, after
paring; let stand in salt and water twenty-
four hours; two quarts vinegar; heat; drop
in the onions, and cook until a fork will pene-
trate them; put in a jar, and add one ounce
white mustard seed, whole. Turn the vinegar
over while hot. HUB.

 

 

 

 

    

 

  

 

  
   
  
 
 

  
  

