
 

 

 

 

 
 

 

(her your fears a victory win,

 

 

DETROIT, APRIL 5, 1890.

 

 

 

THE. HOUSEHOLD-"Supplement.

 

 

.4 LESSON FOR LAGGARDS.

 

You think of taking a journey some day;

You have talked it over for years and years;
Yet somehow or other you make delay,

Until further and further away appears
The beautiful gaol: and I tell you now

To bind yourself by a solemn vow
To cross the Rubicon. Pluck up heartl

For you‘ll never get there unless you start!

There looms before you from day to day
A task that you dread to undertake;
So it hangs like a cloud upon your way
Through which the sunshine can never break.
And I tell you now that the better plan
Is to do the work as quick as you can;

For you‘ll never get through if you don't begin X

With the bravest and busiest keep abreast,
Nor through love of indolence lose your place,
For in each endeavor to do your best
You raise the hopes of the human race.
Be not contentto grovel below,
But rise to your duties with faith aglowl
Let your aims be high, and strive to excel;
For he who does bett.r must ﬁrst do well!

The heart that gives way to its doubts and fears,
That idly dreams when there‘s work to do,
Will ﬁnd itse'f, before many years,
Beggared and bankrupt through and through.
There are journeys to take and tasks to be done,
From early morning till set of sun,
And triumphs to win, as none can deny,
And you’ll never succeed unless you try!
—Josephtne Pollard, in N. Y. Ledger.

—.——.«.—_.__

THE MOTHER AGAIN.

 

I am reluctant to let this subject of the
mother’s inﬂuence drop without a few
more words upon it, though the congrega-
tion may be longing for a fresh text. Lilla
Lee, in the last HOUSEHOLD, quotes the
father’s example as more potent than the
mother’s inﬂuence. Is then the mother's
example, constantly before the child in his
most impressionable years, to go for noth—
ing? I admit that the fathers ought to hear
an equal share in the training of their chil-
dren, but we all know that the instances
arerare where'thcy do so. The children
are practically under the mother’s control.
The father is off about his work. On the
farm, the boys may follow him about the
barn and ﬁelds; in the city, the man who
pursues almost any occupation is up early
and off to work, and gets acquainted with
the children in the evenings; that is, if he
is not down town or stretched on the
lounge snoring. The wives of these men
must necessarily manage and train the

ﬁnd, in nine cases out of ten, it is because
she relaxed her hold on him. As he out-
grew her small ministrations and constant
watchfulness she let go her hold upon him
in other ways, often not intentionally, not
willingly, but none t e less surely. In
some families I have known I have been
struck by the similarity to the bird family,
where the mother bird, who is tireless in
her devotion to her little ones while they
are helpless, pushes them out of the nest
and compels them to begin an independent
existence the moment they are able to care
for themselves.

If the boy ﬁnds his mother's precepts
are not those by which the world is
governed, there has been a grievous mis-
take made somewhere, for the right train-
ing is that which ﬁts the boy for his entry
into the world by making him manly,
truthful, self-reliant, having a knowledge
of what is right and strength of character
to resist evil. I would rather a boy of
mine would make manly, unsought con-
fession of a fault than be able to say a very
great deal of catechism. I should be much
more certain he was coming up the kind of
boy I should want to raise. The great
object of youthful training is to build
character on lines of honesty, integrity and
virtue. Every reputable business is built
upon these principles and the business
world is governed by them—but not, I am
obliged to admit, as much as it should be.
Yet the trade built up by dishonesty
ﬂourishes like the “ green bay tree ” of the
wicked, and like it, it perishes at last.
Even men who have no ﬁrmness of moral
principle are forced to admit that “it
pays” to be honest, in the long run. I
don't see then why the boy need abandon
his youthful principles.

Most of our very good mothers wish to
bring up their boys like the heroes of Sun-
day school books. They would at least
model them after that precocious young
prig, “Little Lord Fauntleroy;” it’s a real
pretty story, but the average boy is not
built on those lines, and it is a healthy
thing for the world that he isn’t. One of
the axioms of natural philosophy is that to
every action there is opposed an equal re-
action. It is true as in morals as well as in
physics.

Boys of fourteen are beginning to put
away childish things and to look forward
to being “ men.” It is their nature at this
trying period to be headstrong, impatient

 

. children. The average boy of ten and
eleven years is still “ mother’s boy.” If at

of advice and full of the arrogance of
youth. If you attempt to put an extin-

explosion.

The seed sown in the garden
lies dormant for a time, the beds are bare
and brown, and perhaps we despair of a
harvest. But by and bye it comes. So
it is with our children. It is not the boy
nor the young man who acknowledges the
guiding inﬂuence of a mother's early
teachings, it is the middle-aged man, who
takes a backward glance over his life and
sees the mainspring—the impulses, that
prompted his acts and biased his character.
Nature never models two faces or two
forms alike, and in humanity’s character-
istics we ﬁnd as great—even greater—diver-
sity. The mother of a half dozen children
will tell you no two are alike in disposition,
though born of the same parents. The
means that would restrain and guide one
are useless with another. Children will
“go to the bad,” in spite of earnest and
well-directed efforts; God only in His in-
ﬁnite wisdom knows why. We cannot put
evil out of the world; the best we can do is
lay the foundations of character so wisely
that youth may have strength to resist it.
Our children must become independent,
self-governed individuals; and the best
equipment we can give them is not to re-
move all temptations from their way (we
could not do it if we would); but to estab-
lish a ﬁrmness of character which will
enable them to say with resolution that
little monosyllable which means so much
and is often so hard to speak.

But the motherless waifs of the street
drift to the jail or the reform school, and
motherless children the world over are felt
to have lost that which can never be re-
placed; when the mother dies we know the
sheet anchor of the home is lost, and why
all this unless indeed her teachings, her in-
ﬂuence, her example and precept have a
power that moves the world? Nurses and
servants could give physical care for hire,
but only the mother with the father’s aid
and example can give the ideally perfect
discipline, but the “real mother” stands
as the one thing on earth for which there
is neither substitution or adulteration pos-
sible. BEATRIX.

-————-——.O.-——-—-—

IT is not every twelve-year-old girl who
can write as neat, regular and legible a
letter, without a misspelled word or a mis-
placed capital, as that sent the HOUSEHOLD
by the little housekeeper who in this issue
tells us she can make pie, cake, cookies and
bread. If her bread is as good as her
writing and her cookies as crisp as her
letter, we would not mind taking tea with

 

fourteen he is beyond her control, you will . guisher on them, you’ll probably have an

     

her some time.


    

2- THE HOUSEHOLD.

 

IS IT A MEANS OF SALVATION OR
A TRUCE rro CIVILIZA'rroiI?

“ They are perfe ct barbarians! They eat
without napkins!” My companion, a
high stepping miss of sixteen summers,
threw her head another tack backward and
struck the toe of her stylishly shod foot to
the rocky walk in strictest harmony with
the dancing master’s directions as she closed
her little harangue with the above startling
statement. Said companion was teacher in
the primary department of a school in
which I also was licensed to say “ Toe the
mark!” and she had been giving me an in-
side view of the homes of some of our
pupils, children whose fathers worked in
the mines, men mostly of Swedish, English,
Irish and Welsh extraction or immigration.
I had not as yet been in any of their homes,
being but a stranger in this, to me, unique
land which ﬂowed with copper, and where
the homes of the “ otﬁcers” were elegant
indeed and those of the “oﬁicered ” humble
enough, generally speaking; where the
lines deﬁning the social status of the various
machines supposed to be viviﬁed by that
mysterious presence called a human soul
were so rigidly and deeply drawn that the
most democratic mind must recognize, and
in a way subscribe to the 31, I was natur-
ally much interested in all that in any way
tended to elucidate points of diiferencc.
And this was one very important point of
difference, according to my informant’s
isothermals in social geography—the un-
pardonable barbarism of eating without
napkins.

I confess that something like a broad
grin conquered my physiognomy as I
turned to look at passing cars of copper
rock going to be crushed, Which gave me
time to ejaculate “ Indeed! possible?”
Also to put on a surprised look, and con-
sider the fact that the high stepping miss
at my side was to the manner born, that she
had always eaten at an “ofﬁcer’s” table,
and that in all probability slw had never
eaten a meal in her life without a napkin
at hand. That—well, in short, that the
greatest hardship of her life was that for
the sum of $50 per month, she had been
such a fool as to allow herself to be brought
in such close communion with a small
multitude of very juvenile minds, rendered
the more irksome by the visiting or calling
across the line which it curtailed. Then
my lady proceeded to recount numerous
other domestic shortcomings, berating all
with most expressive and emphatic ad-
jectives. When she had run through the
scale of them I said, “Oh Lizzie, how little
you know of life as it is lived by the
masses whose muscle moves the enginery
of the world’s mighty workshop! Life is
bought at the price paid for labor. The
price in the case of the grand majority is
low, very low. To you it would be noth-
ing. See, you will put your year’s wages
all into a couple of articles for personal
adornment, while for three-ﬁfths or four-
ﬁfths of the same amount one of these men
must feed, clothe and warm himself, wife
and a more or less numerous family of

and rest are imperative; to fulﬁll the re-
quirements of these consumes time,

strength, ambition. You say they are

‘sodden, sordid clads.’ Possibly. It looks
to me as though they had small chance to
be more.”

But somehow Lizzie’s old index to bar-
barism often recurred to my mind, never
though, in view of certain facts, without
prOVokin g a smile, and Iinwardly resolved
that napkins “ etcetery” should henceforth
and forever be a utilized ﬁxture on the
family board in a certain far away log
house, a farmer’s home that was very dear
to me, where a lot of boys and girls were
developing, and astell knew, doing daily
this sin of omission denominated barbar-
ous by ye aristocracy, so styled.

\Vithin one short year it was my sad
duty to guide the household aifairs of that
same family; and true to my resolve I
made all reasonable endeavor to bring the
table napkin into its much hoped for in-
dispensability and usefulness in that bar-
barous(?) crowd. No use! There seemed
to be an incongruity, an out-of jointness
with the eternal ﬁtness of things, some-
way, when the boys took up 3. Snowy nap-
kin, that made them lay it down again
saying “I don’t need that!” as they sur-
veyed their dinners. The same grew to be
true of myself in my print dress and
apron. Still, the napkins were alwayson
the table ready for use if any person did
need.

But I ﬁnd that men and women who
perform actual manual labor in city or
country, no matter in what line, and who
as a rule, sit at table in working clothes,
ignore napkins. Not out of disrespect for
it, or indifference, or contempt for its use-
fulness, not because they could not if they
:tried real hard make one just as offensive
to gather up at the close of the meal as any
,“dumb foo ” of a man or woman who
must have a fresh napkin at each meal, to
save themselves from drowning in_ their
own slop. Aren’t these disgusting though?
But they don’t use it simply because they
have no use for it. And whose business is
it? E. L. NYE.

 

WOMEN OF TODAY.

Woman’s position today in these United
States is far different from that occupied by
her half a century ago. It is certainly not
yet ﬁfty years since women who had not a
house to keep, or did not teach school, or
ﬁt dresses, or work as domestic servants,
must depend on their male relatives or
friends for support, regardless of the fact
that they might not be able, or did not
wish to be so taxed. To do otherwise was
not only unfeminine and unheard of, but
they did not know how to vary the condi-
tions if they wanted to. But today woman
stands in a. different light. There is almost
nothing now that men can do with credit
and advantage that women cannot honor-
ably attempt. And it is right that they
should be able to. Some may ask, “ Why
is it right? Is it not enough that we train
our men to support those depending upon
them, without having our women enter

sphere is pre-eminently that of queen and:
guardian of the home. It is thus that
she appears to her best advantage. Why
thrust her from her natural position to
battle with the world and thereby lose her
innate delicacy?” The last census taken in
Massachusetts shows the State to contain
over sixty thousand more women than
men. This large majority does not greatly
Consist of unmarried or divorced women,
as might be supposed, but of widows; and
of these latter fully one-third have a family
depending upon them for support. Florence
Nightingale says, “ Half the trouble in
women’s lives comes from their excepting
themselves from the rules of training con
sidered necessary for men.” Undoubtedly
many of those Women, thrown on their
own resources for selfsupport, will agree
with her. Ladies who conduct helpful in-
stitutions for assisting women to ﬁnd work,
give as their experience that in asking an
applicant, “What one thing can you do
well?” they seldom get a satisfactory
reply. “ But,” some child of fortune may
exclaim, “I have wealth. Surely there is
no need for me to lend my energies to
do one thing really well!” Fortune is sub-
ject to a thousand risks, not merely from
ﬁres and failures, but it is also ofte : at the
mercy of the possessor's own ignorance.
Is it not better for a father who wishes to
guarantee a life of comfort toliis daughter;
to see that she has good health, good
abilities and a. good education, rather than
money which seems to be invested in the
safest manner? A woman now, can and
should take that position in the world
which her talents and energy ﬁt her for,
She can pr each, and practice too, as well at
least as the multitude, and take her degree
in medicine and make a fortune by means
of it, prepare her legal case and try it in
court, all without the least injury to her
position in society.

Why should not the girl as well as boy be-
asked in youth, “ What is your aim? In
the future what would you like to become?
If the question be addressed to an unthink-
ing, untaught girl, she would very likely
answer, “My mission is to marry.” A
wise parent would answer, “ Then your
education for it must begin at once. You:
have no time to lose. It is still necessary
that you attend your school, for in the-
position which you ultimately expect to
ﬁll, you will at least need to be ‘ well in-
formed.’ As your health and that of the
other members of your flmily will ina.
large measure depend upon the food eaten,
its condition and the way in which it is
prepared, you should have a thorough
knowledge of the art of preparing food
hygienically. Still almost as necessary
Will be a familiarity with sanitary regula-
tions. And if you become a mother it is
quite necessary that you should become
competent to have the care of little children.
For this latter duty your knowledge of
physiology is not sufﬁcient. What would
give you real and practical information is a
course of one or two years in attaining
school for nurses. This curriculum is quit
necessary. You may add other studies as

 

 

children—generally more. Labor, food

 

the-ranks of the wag‘eearners? Woman’s

time and inclination permit.” However, the :

‘m

7,-—

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 


um... . ..

m.»

  

THE HOUSEHOLD.

 

.3

 

 

girl addressed may have given the future
much thought and answer thus, “ Will it
pay me to work for a future? Does skilled
work remunerate women?” It does. The
tendency of modern society is “ to convert
all trades into arts,” and just as fast as this
process goes on, rude strength becomes
less essential, and ﬁneness of touch is more
needed. The reports of our college
alumni show that ln-tny women graduates
have choszn the “professions” but there
are many other ﬁelds of usefulness open to
them.

In TilIany (‘3 (Jo’s factory, in New York,
there are about twenty-five women em-
ployed as workers in silver. Wherever
their work is equal that of the men their
wages are the same. At the headquarters
of the W'estcrn lTnion Telegraph Co. in
the same city, over one hundred are em«
ployed as operators. The most skillful of
them earn sixty dollars a month. In this
establishment a somewhat higher salary is
paid to the best male workers, but the dif-
ference is not great in proportion to the
work done. In telegraphy man's endur-
ance is greater than woman’s, the men also
are liable to be called upon by night as
well as by day.

Should woman he subordinate to man?
Granted that men are stronger and per-
haps more profound thinkers than the op-
posite sex, still women have qualities to
offset these. Though Howells and James
spend their lives in trying to do justice to
the 'commonplace, they never get quite so
near it as does George Eliot. thile
physically the weaker, woman is just as
courageous as man, as well known in-
stances of her bravery will prove. She is
also persevering, and competitive examina-
tions do not result in disparagement to
women’s mental power.

Let woman be educated at her highest
and take a position in the world for which
her position ﬁts her, and not until she ﬁnds
herself to be so ought she to regard herself
as subordinate to man.

DUNDEE. CALLIOPE.

ABOUT FLOWERS .

 

I wish all my ﬂower-loving friends could
enjoy this spring the delicious fragrance of
the Hesperus, called by some sweet rocket,
confounding it with a. variety of candytuft
to which it is no kin. It is related to the
Stock, which to my mind has very few if
any superiors in gardens, and is grown
freely in greenhouses too, where it produces
it lovely white or tinted ﬂowers, laden with
spicy carnation-like odors. The Hesperus
has coarser foliage, is alarger p’ant and
suitable for backgrounds of gardens. Un-
like some of the perennials, it will continue
its blooming all summer as well as spring,
if the ﬂowers 'are gathered often, to pre-
vent the seed from ripening. The Del-
phiniums are similar in that respect. I like
some good things that will come to me
early with no spring culture, and new
plants appear from self sown seed without
deteriorating. It is pleasant, in an old-
fashioned snowy winter, after the snow is
melted away, to see some remnants of the
garden remain sturdily deﬁant of cold

 

and snow, like the glaucium, fern-leaved
parsley, carnation, Hesperus, all of which
do well in Colder latitudes than ours.

I have enjoyed many of those somewhat
rare hardy plants many years. The
meinclla, although old with florists, is
still a stranger to the majority of amateurs,
but well deserves the patient waiting for
seeds to germinate. for then you have
something uniqucnnd interesting, at least
I ﬁnd it so. Among the many visitors to
see my ﬂowers in the years past, I think
not one has recognized it or failed to ad-
mire its beauty. It is a native of Southern
Europe. The springlikc weather of Feb-
ruatry has revived the interest in out of
door plants, and if the weather king does
not give us winter in springtime, now Very
soon we may see the bulbs sending uptheir
leaves and buds again, and we will “ plot
and plan ” for ﬂower beds and borders.
We may sow seed to our heart’s content,
as it is so cheap everybody can afford it.

While purchasing seeds of annuals al-
Ways get some perennials as standbys. Sow
them in a cool bed, and if the weather be-
comes hot and dry spray occasionally, and
scatter a few dead leaves over the. bed and
they will come up all right to bloom an-
other season and all your lifetime after if
not destroyed. Shrubs, bulbs and hardy
climbers are too satisfactory to be left out,
and by a small amount of pruning into
form and keeping clear of weeds and grass
are beautiful ornaments on garden orlawn.

Darnorr. MRSJI. A. FULLER.

-—————-——Q~

A GUARDED GATE.

 

I have come from church, have had din-
ner, and rested and read a little, but our
minister’s sermon or lesson keeps going
through my mind. It seems as if it meant
me, not me only, but many more as well.
I will tell you one of the points which
impressed me so much, one which I think
we are all so apt to forget or ignore; it was
“ Let us not judge another by any different
standard than we wish to be judged by.”
And I began to think by what standard do
I judge others—and then, by what stand-
ard do I wish to be judged!

How it hurts us if some one picks up
any act of ours (which is done with no
thought and almost unconsciously) in a
criticising spirit, and represents it in a
wholly mistaken light Perhaps there is
no living person who has not been so mis-
understood or misrepresented sometime in
their life. It seems as if that alone would
be all the lesson ever needed, but we outlive
the pain, then we forget; soon we are judg-
ing some other person in the same way,
perhaps not publicly, but in our thoughts
and possibly to a friend. I think now I
can always remember; yet I know time
obliterates all impressions. But I am de-
termined to be more watchful over my own
thoughts and remember what my father,
gone to his last resting place many years
ago, taught his children, “if they could
say no good of any person to say nothing.”
I thought I had learned that lesson per-
fectly, but well, I’m human. But I am
determined to be more watchful of my
thoughts and words. If the thoughts are

 

 

 

right, the words will be, and the actions
not far wrong. No matter what others say
of us if our conscience gives us its appre-
val.

lViIh )chlnty I agree it is not good tc
pick others to pieces and show up their
faults ()IcGinty said eccentricities} for I
rcall y believe the person who does this is
more harmed by indulging in the unkind
Spirit that the person they wish to harm.

i \Vc sirtllnll be Valued pretty much at what

we are worth; people can see the good and
the weak points in us, they are not blind——
only as they blindfold themselves with
prejudice.

I found a beautiful bit of poetry in a
scrap-book in a friend’s home. a few weeks
ago. I will send you one verse which i like
so much, and have thought over and over
again: i
" Only a thought. but the work it. wrought

Could never by tongue or pen he taught.

For it rn 1 through a. life li~e a thread of gold

And the lit: here fruit a hundred fold."

Aretox. M. E. ll.

‘. .........”_._...._--

WOOL COMFORTS.

 

In the lIousEnonn of Much 32d, Carrie
wishes Mrs. No Name to tell her about
wool for comfortables. I know how to
cleanse wool the way an old clothmaker
used to cleanse it. I will tell the readers
how it is done.

If you have tag locks, prepare a warm
suds, add a gallon of chamber lye and a
quart of salt, they need not be measured,
to a half tub of water. Let the tags soak
all night; if you can, pound them, if not
stir them with sticks. I let them drain
and wash them till clean, then wring them
with the wringer, spread them out to dry.
I wash the whole ﬂeeces the same way, only
they do not need to be soaked all night.
If a sheep dies I have the wool pulled and
cleanse it. When the WOO] is dry I send it
to the woolen mill and have it made into
bats; you can open them like batting. I
use about four pounds to the comforter and
you will be surprised at their warmth and
lightness. If they can be used without
sending them away I would be glad to
know it. I have no other kind. I have a
mattress made of wool; it is very nice;
cleansed in this way all disagreeable smell
disappears. I do not know as a wool com-
forter ever wears out; I have some that
have the third new cover and are good yet.
If I did not have wool I would buy it to .

make them. MRS. MOSES.
EATON .

 

OUR HOUSEHOLD family seems “ on the
move” this spring. A. L. L. has left
beautiful Ingleside in her adopted daugh-
ter’s charge and gone to live at Birmingham,
a. pleasant village about eighteen miles
from this city. Mrs. M. A. Fuller has left
her lonely home at Fenton and established
herself with her daughter in Detroit for
the summer at least; and El. See. has
ceased to beawandering planet and be-
come a ﬁxed star at Romeo. .131. See.’s
photograph is the latest addition to the
HOUSEHOLD Album, a favor for which we
return many thanks. That Album ﬁlls up

all too slowly; at this rate we shall see the
new century before having occasion to en-
large it.

  


   

THE HOUSEHOLD.

 
 

 

 

PLAY, AND ITS INFLUENCE UPON
OUR LIVES.

 

{Paper read at the Clinton County StO ~k Bro ed-
915‘ Ins itute wt St. Johns, March 5th and 6th,
by Mrs. J. 'l‘. Daniells, of Essex]

Recreation has been suggested to me as
abetter heading for my essay. A longer
word with a Latin ancestry would give a
more digniﬁed title, but it would not give
my meaning; as play is active, its result
may be recreation or it may be the op-
posite—dissipzttion.

Wébster deﬁnes play as “Any exercise
taken for pleasure or amusement.” Dr.
Holland, in one of his lectures, deﬁnes it
thus: “ Play is the exercise Of the mind or
of the mind and body guided by the im-
pulses without any Object beyond momen-
tary satisfaction.” To more clearly bring
out his meaning we give his deﬁnition of
work: “ Work is the exercise of the mind
or body or both under the command and
control of the will for the attainment of an
object.” You see by this deﬁnition that
the same action may be work or play ac-
cording as the will or impulse is the motive
power for its performance, but the object
is always different. Work is performed
for a deﬁnite Obj act beyond the per-
formance itself, while play is taken for the
pleasure the action gives.

Play acts an important part in the Divine
economy of life, for the full development
of all the organs of body and attributes of
mind in the young. The child plays be-
cause he cannot help it. Every muscle of
his body and faculty of his mind are crying
out for action, and act he does, to the great
discomfort of those around him. He
shouts, stamps, climbs and tumbles; being
hushed or made to sit still is quite beyond
his comprehension, and his activity and
ability to make a hubbub is quite beyond
the comprehension of those who care for
him. The child has no purpose in this.
He is simply led on by his impulses. But
nature has an Object in all this seeming
surplus activity—the symmetrical develop-
ment of the whole being. He is taking
lessons from experience in motion, inertia,
gravity, color and light; and his soft mus-
cular system is being developed and har-
dened by the same action.

It was not my purpose in taking this sub.
ject to champion the privilege of Young
America to tear around to the detriment of
their clothes and the nervous systems of
their seniors. The young are a privileged
class in this country, and generally play all
that nature calls for whereVer they are.
But for the comfort of tired mothers let
me quote Dr. Holland again: “A boy
who does not play or does not love to play
is not a healthy boy mentally, morally or
physically, no matter how well he can say
his catechism.” -

Having deﬁned play and shown its object
let us consider its inﬂuence upon our lives.

I am well aware I have chosen the
weak side of our character as my subject;
that the person of mature years who lets
himself he guided by his impulses, even
when they are good, justly renders him-
self an object of ridicule, while the course
of him whose only aim in life is to have a

is abuse of a good thing. Properly used,
play becomes an important factor in that
which makes lifeasuccess. It takes the
mind Off from work, thereby relieving the
tired faculties, and miss it out of the rut
in which steady persistence in one kind of
work places it. The person who works
fourteen hours out of the twenty-four at
hard labor, and drops to bed because he
is too tired to work longer, doe i an injustice
to himself. “ All work and no play makes
Jack a dull boy” is a serious truth, as
illustrated in the burdened lives that
sometimes come under our observation.
A work is taken up and carried on. some-
times of necessity, sometimes of choice;
that the individual can but stagger under.
One set of faculties are tasked to exhaus~
tion, the rest lie dorm int. Like the galley
slave chained to his oar he becomes one-
sided; and thinks, acts and enjoys life, only
in his work. In reality he becomes the
slave of work, a fate for which his Creator
never designed him.

The different kinds Of farm work, the
open air, the ever changing landscape, give
to it, laborious as it may be, a variety that
is restful in itself; yet a noted writer says:
“ If you want to ﬁnd invalids and lunatics
go amodg the Yankees, especially Yankee
farmers.” The reason for this state was
attributed to their continually holding
their minds upon their work, not allowing
themselves the song even which the poor
slave takes while pursuing his daily task.
Are Michigan farmers taking the same
course?

Max O’Rell in “Jonathan and his Con-
tinent ” says that from observation he would
conclude “ the men of this country lived
in a furnace of activity and the women in
cotton wool.”

This remark certainly does not apply to
farmers’ wives. Had Max O‘Rell passed
one forenoou in a farmer’s kitchen he
would have excepted farmers’ wives.

The cooking, butter-making, poultry-
raising, and all the work that comes un-
avoidably in caring for the inmates and
making home pleasant, leave little chance
for rest even, much less for that happy
state of being cared for termed “ done up
in cotton woo .” The work in the house
has not the redeeming points of farm labor.
A thousand steps in small compass, a
never varying round of duties that begin
with the sun and seldom stop with it,
makes the work of the farmer’s wife very
exhausting to the nervous system as well
as wearisome to the muscular; and the fact
that there are more farmers’ wives in the
insane asylums of Michigan than any other
class gives emphasis to the call for more
play in their lives.

Then for her sake as well as your own,
my farmer friends, don’t stand on the
street corners and talk politics all the hours
of your play-spell, but lay aside work,
take her and leave the farm for a day or a
week; go to Bay View or a—ﬁshing and see
if it is not a proﬁtable investment.

The kind of play that shall be interwoven
between the warp and woof of our daily
work, each individual must determine for
himself, guided. by the inﬂuence it will

It must be that which rests from work, and
in that way prepares for it. Looking upon
play in this light we should consider it a
sacred boon to be used daily.
—-—-400———-—-
A LITTLE HELPER.

I am a little girl twelve years old and
would like to join the HOUSEHOLD band.
As we do not keep servants I assist mother
to do the housework during vacation. I
can make pie, cake, cookies and bread. I
have tried several times to make biscuit
but do not have good luck. I ﬁrst learned
to carry the salt and pepper. Oh! how
“big” I felt when I could arrange the
table for company without assistance,
and later on when I could serve the dessert!
I think Evangeline about right when she
said there were no two tables arranged
alike, but people can have manners at any
table, or at least be half way decent. Chil-
dren who have the daily use of'napkins
and are taught the fork is used to carry the
food to the mouth instead of the knife
will not act “strained up.” Our Queen
B. and Bess created quite a commotion in
our little HOUSEHOLD by their articles, and
I am not ready to have the contest cease,
although it has been partially called to a
“halt.” MAUDE Hrrcrrcocx.

STELLA.

 

HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

 

TO prepare beef for drying, rub the
pieces over with ﬁne salt, leaving on all
that adheres; pack closely in a crock, tub,
or other receptacle suited to the quantity
you have. In two days take out, drain,
resalt and pack as before. Then leave in
the brine from six to ten days according
to size of pieces. Hang in a cool airy
room or kitchen, and let hang a month.

__

A RECIPE said to be excellent for cleans-
ing the blood, consists of one ounce each
of burdock root, yellow dock, dandelion,
juniper berries, sarsaparilla, red clover
blossoms and Wintergreen leaves. Steep
in four quarts of water, covered closely,
for two hours. Two pounds of white
sugar may be added if desired. Dose, 8.
wineglassful three timesaday, after meals .

_._...___.

U seful Recipes.

 

MAPLE GINGERBREAD, WITHOUT EGGS.—
Six cups ﬂour; one and a half cups butter;
three cups maple syrup; one table3poonful
ginger: three tcasroanfuls soda, dissolved in
a cup of milk.

 

MAPLE DROP Canes—One cup maple mo—
lasses: three cups ﬂo ur: ha!i' cup butter; two
tea ipOOTlfulS lemon extract; one teaspoonful
soda. B eat well; drop in spoonfuls upon a
buttered pan. Bake eix m‘nutes.

 

MAPLE CARAMEL CAKE —Two cups gran-
ulated sugar; one cup butter; whites six eggs
beaten to a froth: one cup sweet milk; four
cups ﬂour: two tablespomiuls baking pow-
der. Carame‘: Three cups maple sugar; one
cup cream; two teaspoonfuls vanilla: boll
twenty~nve minutes: stir till cool; then spread
between the layers and on top.

The above recipes are from the “Maple
Sugar Cook Book," issued by the Vermont

 

 

good time must ever be downward. This

have upon himself and those around him. ‘

Maple S agar Exch tnge.

  

 

 

 

