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DETROIT, MAY 25, 1890.

 

 

THE HOUSEHOLD-"Supplement.

 

 

WHEN JIY WEE BAIRNiE‘S A NAN.

 

I sit i’ the gathering shadows,
Wi’ my bairnie close clasped to my breast;
He's capered a' day like the lambkins.
An‘ now my sma’ laddie must rest.
An” I sit i‘ the lit=le, low rocker,
An’ hush him to sleep, an‘ 1 plan
‘40' a‘ the great comfort he‘ll bring me,
When my wee bairnie‘s a man.

We‘ll dwell i’ a snug cozy cottage,
Wi' the ivy vines clam'brin“ about.

.An' the sweetest an’ freshest o‘ posies
Abloomin’ within an’ without;

An‘ the birds will come chirpin‘ an‘ flutterin‘,
An' chatterin’ gay as they can,

To make their soft nests i‘ the roses.
When my wee bairnie’s a man.

An' a” the dear, bonnie bairnies
From over the green, grassy lea
“Will love to stop at our cottage,
An' talk to my bairnie an‘ me.
‘l‘heir bright, little innocent faces,
That I an‘ my darlin’ will scan,
Will cheer us, an’ we'll be so happy,
When my wee bairnie’ a man 1

.Fair, little, slumb‘rin’ laddie,
You‘re a” the wide country to me,
An’ a kiss from your lip red as roses
ls sweeter than'honey can be.
Sleep sweet, my dear little bonny.
An’ grow just as fast as you can,
For 0, a” the warld ‘11 be joyous,
When my wee bairnie's a man!
—Geod Housekeeping.

-—-——OO*—-—-——

At her easel, brush in hand,
Clad in silk attire,

Painting sunsets vague and grand
(Clumsy clouds of ﬁre),

‘Plaxen hair in shining sheaves;
Pink and pearly skin;
ingers, which, like lily leaves.
Neither toil nor spin;

At her belt a sunﬂower bound.
Daisies on the table,

Plaques and panels all around—
That’s asthetic Mabel!

in the kitchen, fork in hand,
Clad in coarse attire

Dishing oysters, fried and panned,
From the blazing ﬁre;

Dusty hair in frowsy knots,
Worn and withered skin;

Fingers hard and brown as nuts
When the frosts begin;

Baking-board, one side, aground,
Wash-tub on the other;

Pots and skillets all around—-
That is Mabel’s mother!

~Waverly Magazine.
W

DISTRICT SCHOOLS.

When we get beyond the personal or
- family inﬂuences surrounding the pupils
- in our districts schools, we ﬁnd the two
‘ most essential elements in success are the
. school-board and the teacher. The school
i board, ostensibly composed of three in-

 

dividuals, usually consists of one acting
member who wears the dignity vested in
the title of Director. Precedent generally
rules in the matter of wages, “ We paid so
much last summer” being considered a
good and sufﬁcient reason why no more
should be paid this year. The Director
hires the teachers, the other members
tacitly acquiescing in his action. Seems
very plain, then, since the school board
and the district are to be in eﬁect governed
by this man’s acts, that he ought to be one

abreast of the times, fully alive to the need

of education for farmers’ children, and
with business ability to see what kind of a
teacher is needed and secure such an one.
There are sometimes illiterate men who are
fully aware what they have missed in not
being better educated and who by virtue
of that knowledge make good school
ofﬁcials; but as a general thing the illiterate
man, whose untrained mind is unreceptive
and slow to comprehend and who is apt to
think no one has occasion to know more
than he himself, is not one to be trusted
with the conduct of school affairs. I once
heard a man argue with all the conviction
of a genuine belief, against the necessity of
education. Men c uld make money with-
out it, he said, and instanced himself as an
example, asif he were proud of both his
property and his ignorance. Yet he was
Director in his school district, and ﬁne
schools they had, too! The lowest bidder
and the shortest term, and almost as much
ought to have been spent for annual re-
pairs on the schoolhouse as was paid the

teacher.
It is a well known fact that any man

who wants the empty honor of holding a
school ofﬁce can get it. He can be a mem~
ber of the school board easier than he can
be pathmaster and that’s the easiest ofﬁce
on earth to get. Sometimes he’s nominated
and elected for a joke; sometimes because
everybody else has served and it’s his turn;
sometimes, I’m glad to say, because he is
known to be capable, interested, energetic.
The beginning of a good school therefore
isclosely connected with the seltction of
competent managers to compose the school
board.

I believe every mother who has children
in school ought to attend school meeting.
She has a right to be there. She may do
her best in the mental and moral training
of her children at home, and have her
work rendered null by the inﬂuences at
school. It is but a little time her children
can be in school; she has a right to demand
that they shall be given every opportunity

 

to improve it. She should go to school-
meeting, then, and be courteously treated
by her neighbors whom she meets there.
In the HOUSEHOLD, some time ago, a. lady
wrote she and a couple of friends who
were interested in school affairs and W(l'e
voters, w nt to the annual meeting, were
treated very unceremoniously, not to say
disrespectfully; and if I remember aright,
their votes were ignored. The former
action was ungentlemanly, the latter
illegal. Qualiﬁed voters need not ask
recognition; they can demand it. Mothers
are invariably most willing to make sacri-
ﬁces to advance their children’s interests,
even slow-moving law recognizes this and
gives them a voice in school matters de-
nied them in other affairs. They should
exercise the privilege.

Visiting friends in one of the most fertile
and ﬁnest townships of an old and wealthy
county in this State, my eyes lingered
rather wonderingly upon the shabby, di-
lapidated schoolhouse we passed on an
afternoon ride. “ Yes, that’s our school-
house. It‘sadisgrace to us, yet we can-
not help it. There is an element in the
district opposed to building a new one
which we have not been able to outvote
yet. They’re all rich men, who have no
children, and they vote down the proposi-
tion to build every time it comes up, be-
cause it will increase their taxesalittle,”
explained my friend. I see other districts
are troubled in the same way. Out in
Kent County such a matter came into the
courts only last week. Wealthy, childless
people living in the school district and
opposed to building the needed school-
house, enlisted the aid of Poles, telling
them if they voted against it they would
not have so much tax to pay. Oh these
taxes! What mean acts people will com-
mit to avoid paying for the privileges,
second to those of no country the sun
shines on, they enjoy! A good school is a
beneﬁt to everybody, whether they have
children to attend or not. Farm property
is higher in an intelligent community; a
man has better neighbors where a younger
generation, progressive, well educated, is
coming on to take the place of the older
one. Suppose he has to pay ﬁve dollars to
help educate h’s poorer neighbor’s children;
he can afford to do it for the reﬂex beneﬁt
that comes from having them useful mem-
bers of society rather than jailbirds and
paupers. We are not taxed as much for
educating our neighbor’s children as we
are for supporting in prisons and reforma-
tories those we don’t educate. A good


 

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THE HOUSEHOLD.

 

schoolhouse is an honor and an ornament
to every district, something every resident
may beproud of, and in which he may
and should feel a personal interest.

The many handsome, well kept public
school buildings in villages and towns, est
in the midst of ample, well shaded
grounds, where the attendance is much
larger, than in country schools and the
lawless element correspondingly increased,
are proof positive that the proverbial de-
structivenesspf children may be properly
restrained. Are indeed then the children
of farming communities so much more
lawless than those of laborers in towns,
that the plea excus'ng neglect to plant
shade trees, keep fences and outbuildings
and-the house itself in repair, “ the chil-
dren tear things to pieces so!” is a valid
one? I do not believe it. Half the wanton
destruction of which children are guilty
is due less to depravity than want of
thought. Make them think. Make the
schoolhouse neat, tidy; paint it, curtain
the windows, blacken the rusty old stove;
tear out the back-breaking, much whittled
pine desks and put in comfortable school
furniture, have it understood that “who
breaks, pays,” and make an example of
the ﬁrst transgressor, and you will have
taught a valuable lesson relative to the
property rights of others. Have Arbor
Day exercises and plant one tree each
year, naming it for ’the teacher or some
person in the district; see how fast the
school yard will ﬁll up and how the trees
will be tended—killed with kindness, per-
haps.

I should like to describe a school-house
I happened upon in the course of a long
ride in the country, a year or two ago. It
was a neat frame building that would ac-
commodate perhaps 30 pupils, painted
white, with green blinds. It was after
school hours and these were tightly closed,
or I really believe I should have got down
and insisted on peeping in. At the back a
close board fence extended from the
schoolhouse to the back of the lot, where
were two neat painted closets, with plank
walks leading to them. In front, a picket‘
fence with steps, and a plank walk to the
door; on each side of the walk, two large
round beds ﬁlled with ﬂowers and bordered
with whitewashed stones. The grass had
been out two or three times during the
season, probably, for the turf was green
and weedless. And strangest of all, there
was a woodshed and a well! I would
like to add this was in Michigan, but it was
not; it was over the river, in Canada. It

'was a model Americans might follow with

advantage, however; and I mentally con-
trasted it with the “old white school-
house,” treeless, shutterless, curtainless,

and white no longer, where the alphabet I
already knew was rapped into my head
with a big brass thimble, and I really be-
lieve it was the only time in all my life I
ever wished myself a child again.
BEATRIX.

I! you wishto keep p‘ckles in your glass
fruit jars, rub the inside of the metal caps
with lard. The cans with caps lined with
porcelain are much to be preferred for all
purposes.

 

MAKING CAKE.

With not a few housekeepers, cake-
making is a decidedly uncertain process;
they never know till the critical moment
after it comes from the oven whether the
cake is a success or a failure. In this as in
nearly every other culinary process, it is
not so much “luck” as exactness in
measuring that affects the result. A little
more than the proper quantity of butter
will make a cake too rich, so that it will
fall, hence the greatest care is necessary in
measuring this ingredient. It is always
safest to scant the measure; pack it in
closely, then see that the quantity does not
exceed by even “the least little bit ” that
named in the rule. The proportions are
usually given as “cupfuls” and “tea-
spoonfuls,” but these are of course inexact.
One person will measure an eighth or a
tenth more ﬂour to a cupful than another,
and the diﬁerence may spoil the cake. If
you sift the ﬂour, then dip the cup into it
to measure your cupful, you will get more
ﬂour than if you ﬁll the cup with the ﬂour
scoop, which isthe proper way. Baking
powder has almost entirely superceded the
use of soda and cream-of-tartar, yet I con-
fess to being old-fashioned enough to pre-
fer the latter. The cream tartar should
be as carefully sifted into the ﬂour as is
recommended for the baking-powder; the
soda thoroughly dissolved in the milk.

Cream the butter and sugar as the ﬁrst
step, which is easily done by stirring in a
warm bowl—but do not melt the butter.
If you have but a small quantity of butter
to considerable sugar, a teaspoonful of
milk will accelerate the process. Yolks
and whites of egg are of course to be
beaten separately; the yolks till they are
foamy, the whites till you can safely turn
the dish upside down. Stir the yolks
into the butter and sugar, then the milk,
then beat in the ﬂour and lastly the
whites of eggs. There is a diﬂerenoe be-
tween beating and stirring. Cake should
be stirred only enough to mix, and beaten
thoroughly to incorporate as much air
as possible and help make it light. Keep
that deposited on the sides of the bowl
well stirred in, as if stirred in later it will
make a “heavy streak.” Have the cake
pans greased and readyfor use before you
begin mixing, for it spoils the best cake in
the world to stand. For mixing, an
earthen dish is much to be preferred to a
tin one, an earthen pudding-pan is excellent
for that use. Add ﬂavoring last, just as
the cake is ready for the oven—that is if
you use alcoholic extracts; with mace and
nutmeg it doesn’t matter. When you are
tired of lemon and vanilla ﬂavoring, try
mixing them. To a teaspoonful of lemon
extract add about a third of a teaspoonful
of vanilla, and you will think you have
discovered a new ﬂavor.

Do not think to improve upon a rule by
adding more butter, more sugar or more
ﬂour. The addition of a little too much
of these may make your cake heavy. A
tablespoonful too much of ﬂour will take
all the “sponge” out of a sponge cake.
if you wish rich, tender cookies, mix them

 

soft, handle them gingerly, adding as little
ﬂour as possible in the cutting out; and if
you expect your gingerbread to attain that
condition of melt-in-your-mouth delicious-
nesscharacteristic of “mother’s," measure
your ﬂour with discretion and don’t be
tempted to add “just a little more.” It
should settle when taken from the oven,
as evidence of its goodness. ~

The baking of acake is quite as im-
portant as the mixing, and a matter more
diﬂicult to regulate since few ovens have
thermometers attached. An even, steady
ﬁre is required, then be careful With the
dampers. Try not to have to replenish
the ﬁre while baking a nice cake; if it be-
comes necessary, a small stick or two is
better than to stuff the ﬁre-box. A large
cake requires from thirty-ﬁve to fortyﬁve
minutes, according to thickn;ss; a thin
sheet will bake in ﬁfteen. When it feels
ﬁrm and cracks or breaks away from the
tin it is done. Thin cake like sponge cake,

requires a hotter oven than thick; while~

fruit cake requires long baking in a slow
oven.

These hints will be nothing new to old‘
housekeepers, but I hope the beginners

may be helped a little. L. C.

Dnrnorr.
H.“—

Ii'ROM A NEW CONTRIBUTOR.

 

I have been reading with no small degree
of interest, all pertaining to our country
schools and the government of children
that has appeared in the HOUSEHOLD for
some time. I can not see how it is that

parents can be so careless of their children’s -

best interests.

They want their children to move in the ~
best of society and be thought just as

smart or smarter than other children, but
ofttimes fail in starting them right; let
them stay at home from school when-
ever they wish, and not have any interest
there themselvts. Not one parent in a
dozen thinks of visiting the school or even
of inquiring about it, taking everything
for granted the children tell about it.
Parents, do you know how much it would

encourage the teacher if you would visit

the school, and show just one-fourth the in-
terest in it that youdo in your crops and
your housework? Try it, and see if that
teacher does not try to do her level best.

When I hear a mother say, “I'll be-

glad when school begins so you can be out

of my way,” I think is she a true mother?
If those darlings were taken from her for'

ever would she be glad? Would she not
think of those careless words and wish
they were unsaid? I do not say but
mothers get tired of having children and
their noise around and wish for rest, but
soon those little babes will be full grown.
They will wish for them then, and would
be willing to hear them all the time and
pick up after them for the sake of having
them around.

I tried using pineapple juice for sore
throat, and after twelve hours my throat

was well after being sore nearly three:

weeks. DOLLY.,
Dn-ron.

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THE HOUSEHOLD. 3

 

 

POPULAR EDU SATION.

- [Read at the Institute of the Newaygo County

Farmers’ and Bec-Keepers' Association, by
Miss Emma Walker, of Hesperia.]

It is claimed that the “ nationality of the
Greeks declined from the moment when
the philosophically cultivated separated
themselves from the mass of the people.”
Whatever may have been the case, or the
necessities of the case with the Greeks, it
goes without saying that in a republic like
our own, those who are known as the
thinking men and the working men must
keep in close proximity, breathing the
same free air, rejoicing in the same clear
light, seeking the same high ends, and
giving mutual help.

In the process by which a knowing mind
becomes to another a helping mind, we ﬁnd
the art of education. The science begets
the art. There are wise ways of winning
attention and of awakening a soul to self
activity in observation. There are ways of
holding up before a soul splendid ideals,
and inciting to resolve upon their attain-
ment and to put resolve into patient and
untiring pursuit. These wise ways are the
ways of teaching; the result is education.

There are teachers every where. Whether
one will or not, he must teach. There are
teachers at home and in every part of the
home. Sometimes the most powerful
teachers are servants of the lowest order;
they give lessons that lie dormant for
years, and that later on ﬂash out in ﬁerce
and lurid ﬂames. Some of you no doubt
have heard the story of a mother who was
ﬁlled with trouble because her fourth and
youngest son announced that he was going
to sea. She had already given up three
boys to this adventurous life. She clung
to the fourth, hoping that he would be
spared to her home and companionship.
But alas, he went the way of the others.
She tried to account for it. She had al-
ways warned her boys against the sea and
a sailor’s life. She had read to them
stories of storm and shipwreck, thinking
in this way to intimidate them. But in
boyhood they played at ship‘life; they
drew pictures of ships; they made and
sailed miniature ships, they were wild to
see ships. And ﬁrst of all the oldest ran
away that he might serve before the mast.
And then the second secured reluctant
parental consent, that he might not go
clandestinely. The third entered the
navy, and now the broken hearted mother
found the fourth bound to embark on a
merchant ship. In her trouble she sent
for her minister and laid her case before
him. "It is too late now to prevent it,
but how can you account for this singular
freak of the whole family of boys? It is
not an inherited taste, it is in dire-t
opposition to all my teachings and warn-
ings.” The minister pointed out to the sad
woman a large and remarkably ﬁne picture
of a ship in full sail hanging in the best
light on the wall of the living room in
which they were. at the time seated.
“ How long have you had that picture? ”
he asked. “ For twenty-ﬁve years,” she
replied. “It was the gift of a foreign
friend and considered an unusually good

 

painting; we prize it highly.” The minis-
ter answered: “ That picture has sent
your sons to sea. They have looked at it
and admired it from childhood. It is in-
deed a superior picture. Watch the life
and motion in the water! See the pride
and stateliness with which that high prow
faces and deﬁes the breaking wave! Look
at the sails, the clouds, the blue sky be-
yond the rifts! the movement, the power
in the picture! No wonder that your boys
were captured by it, their tastes formed
and their lives controlled by that rare bit
of art.” I cannot vouch for the literal
truth of this story, but I can answer for its
ﬁdelity to human nature. Pictures educate.
Inartistic pictures that violate every law
of color, every line of truth, corrupt the
taste of those who look at them from day
to day.

The streets of every town and village
teach. The town council may not have
the fact in mind, but it is nevertheless a
fact. Mother does not think of it. She
kisses her young daughter “good morn-
ing” as the innocent and frolicsome thing
starts down the street, not thinking of the
school on the way to school, of the lessons
on the way there; of the lessons on the
way back. What lessons! And what
teachers! But of all these father and
mother take no account. Education
they have been taught to think of as a
matter of teachers. and (.f tasks, of books
and of hours. They have not given much
thought to the teaching power of the
schoolhouse itself; nor have they thought
at all of the street lessons.

The pictures that are placed in the show
windows of bookshops, that hang at news
stands and on walls and other advertising
spaces, produce impressions that are as
lessons imparted and received. They are
mute indeed; no voice is heard while they
teach, but they speak as no tones or articu-
lation of the voice can speak. They hold
close attention; they rivet eyes and thought.
They out-teach the best professional
teachers, they may undo in ﬁve minutes,
some other teacher’s work of an hour or a
day. Alas for the girls and for the boys,
because of the street school! I think that
a joint protest by the leading ladies of a
town would cause the removal of corrupt-
ing pictures from the windows, and a
similar effort would promptly induce the
town authorities to prohibit the posting of
show bills of an objectionable character.

I commend to you the school-teacher
who cares for atmospheres, impressions and
tone, quite as much as for text books, tasks,
and for accuracy in recitations. I ask you
to help him when he tries to make his
schoolroom a place of neatness and bright-
ness with plants, ﬂowers, pictures, win-
dlws and wall hangings; and Whatever
beside may give a child ideas of taste, of
purity, of restfulness, and which will ﬁll
his soul with images and memories to go
with him to the end of life. Again, dress
and manners have reaching power. Sloven-
ly habits and tawdry garments corrupt t' e
tastes of children. Coarseness begets
coarseness. Here is a mother who has a
high-keyed, strong and ungoverned voice.

 

She uses extravagant expressions, prides»
herself on the use of slang, and takes de«
light in defying the usages of good society.
What wonder that her daughter grows up.»
to the same indel'icacy and uncouthncss T'
None but true ladies and gentlemen should:l
ever be employed as teachers. I think that
boards of instruction should require of all;
candidates that they be polite, neat, gentle-
aswell as accurate in speech; and com--
petent to teach by manners, tones of voice,,
and personal character, as readily as by;
direct class instruction.

The daily papers of the times are a great:
educating agency for good and for evil,
Both results come even to those who them-+-
selves never read, for the press produces a:
great body of oral utterance and inﬂuence,
of general information overheard, of gossips
about people and things, about lawsuits
and criminals, which affects even those:
who never read. Father may not take
the daily because he does not want his
sons and daughters to read the vile reports:
of some great criminal suit. But his sons:
and daughters have had all the worst of
the story from those who heard it from»
others.

Pleasant evenings at home spent in re-
creative rest are an education for society..
There one is taught to talk and listen, to
play and to sing, to make others happy,
and to be made happy by others, which
last is a great gift and a rare one. And
what is all the education of the schools
worth, if one who has it is not able with it
to bless society and thus to brighten the
lives of people?

Let us have books and teachers and?
schools, but let us have churches and.
homes, a pure journalism, libraries, pictures. .
laws, social customs, popular sentiments,
all of which will combine to commend to
our people “the true, the beautiful anti.
the good.” ‘

———.O~——-—

THE HOUSECLEANING EPIDEMIC:

A rainstorm gives the oppo tunity, the;-
continued biliousness or the weather gives»
a cause, and “ Polly ” has cordially giverr
the invitation; and to those reasons is added.-
the fact that my wife is suffering with a.
severe attack of the prevailing spring epi~-‘
demic—housecleaning—and so I come to»
the HOUSEHOLD for comfort and advice...
Yes, Mary Jane caught it several days
since, and has “ got it bad,” but I think.
the crisis is past, and that she will soon be
convalescent. She has been, and still "is,
under the skillful treatment and joint care
of Dr. Soap, Dr. Rainwater, Dr. Scrub
and Dr. Confusion.

If some Pasteur would bring forward' a-
reliable remedy for this severe and univerw
sal ailment, it would be a great boon to-
suiferin g man. Oh! the sorrows and trials
that housecleaning times bring to him i"
It robs him—for the time being—of home,.
of wife, of domestic joys, and all that.
makes life worth the living; it turns his
home into a long-drawn-out-desolation, and;
for food gives him stale bread, smoked}
herring and pickles; at night requires him;
to sleep on a chair or under the table, as
he may choose, and for his wife, well here

 


 

.2}. . THE HOUSEHOLD.

 

 

- ”she is, and had I the gift of a Rollo Kirk
" Bryan I’d paint Mary Jane. See, robed
. in an old faded and torn dress that right-
ifully belongs to the rag-man, with skirts
xpinned back, displaying to gocd advantage
.19. pair of old slippers that have certainly
-;--attended their last dance; dress sleeves
[rolled up, no, I mistake, one sleeve is torn
<oﬁ, and the other is gone—a ragged towel
spinned about her head—a dab of stove

polish deﬁning the end of her rose, and I

wonder can she ever be her real, own self
.tggain?

{I feel sad. I wander about the house
afar where the house was). I feel desolate,
and wish I’d been born a Hottentot, any-
thing to escape this terrible house-cleanin g
.l-epizootic.

I’d have the Legislature pass a law that
no wife should destroy her home and the
happiness of the family (and call it house-

- cleaning) oftener than once in four years,
-. and then it should be indulged in only
7 during apolitical campaign (while the hus-

band was attending to his national duties,
- listening to stump speeches at the “ cor-
. hers”).

But if I had this work to do, I’d wait
till a full grown, energetic young cyclone
came along seeking a job, then I’d just
open all of the windows and doors, and
tell it to “ go in and do its level best,” and
if I thought it was not doing a thorough

; job, I’d lend a hand and help tumble the
furniture and things around, and make it
look desolate; but how the dust would
ﬂy, and how soon things would be all sweet

—.~ and clean.

But I’m saying more than I intended,

and must refrain, or the Editress will not
bid me welcome, nor will Polly wish any
.more ‘ ‘ spring medicine.”
THEOPHOLUS.

_—_...__

“THE SELFISHNESS VSr THE SACRED-
NESS OF GRIEF.

2W hen death our loved ones bears away
We miss them everywhere;

‘Who hath not felt this cruel smart,
The anguish ard despair;

‘That desolation ruled the hour,
That hope had taken ﬂight,

'That gloom and sorrow reignr d supreme,
And darkness shrouded light.

_ ‘In that hour of supreme agony when in
the bereaved heart there is no room for
thought; only the overwhelming sense of
loss; only a numbed and dazed feeling that
life has suddenly lost all charms; while it
is yet incapable of understanding or analyz-
ing the torrent of trouble and woe that has
swept over it, covering it with a pall of
blackness of darkness, it is well to leave
the mourner in silence. Companionship
should be given, and silent sympathy be
shown at every turn, but words beyond
the most necessary are a mockery to the
wounded heart. Even words of sympathy
often hurt the torn and quivering chords;
the dimly deﬁned feeling is, “None can
know my loss, it is so much greater than
any other's. How can they pretend to
oﬁer consolation, who cannot measure my
aﬁliction?” But a reaction comes. Per-
haps it is the necessary preparation for
the coming burial that forces the sorrow-
ing one to waken to the sad realities of
life, and take up the burden of living.

Just here is where the wise friend can,

 

 

with sympathy and tact, help the bur-
dened heart to bear its load. Sometimes
consolatory words, sometimes affectionate
reference to the dead, at other times ref.
erence to the living, will most surely arouse
a new train of ideas and relieve the op—
pression; at other times a quiet but decided
appeal for direction as to some domestic
need will best arouse the attention.

Of course grief must have its sway, and
the tide will ebb and ﬂow in waves of
greater or less magnitude. This is Nature’s
moan for the breaking asunder of living
ties, and such grief is and should be held
most sacred.

But there is a form of grief (a chronic
following of some acute attack), which is
selﬁsh in a high degree, and should not be
tolerated. It is demoralizing to the suf-
ferers and unjust to all associated with
them. It ﬁlls the thoughts to the exclu-
sion of all else, it fosters morbid and false
views of life, it elevates the tr ables of the
one to a height that dwarfs the sufferings
of another and that are really quite as
severe. It colors the thoughts, words and
acts of the morbid mind; it demands at-
tention, recognition and sympathy to the
exclusion of all other topics, or the rights
or needs of others. It sobs in secret, it
sighs in the family circle, and walls aloud
in society. It proclaims, “ Respect me, for
I am the most deeply afﬂicted of any.” In
many cases this state comes of the very
fact that the sufferer is new to suffering,
andhence can not measure grief; in other
cases it is the outcome of a selﬁsh nature;
in others, again, it comes of a weak, often-
times unconscious yielding to such feel-
ings, until a morbid state is engendered,
and it becomes almost a mania. Atrue
friend will earnestly combat such a state,
even if the victim at ﬁrst feels outraged.
By kindly yet ﬁrmly showing the wrong
done to one’s self and the gross injustice
to others, a cure is almost always effected.
But if the root is in a purely selﬁsh char.
acter, justice to others requires the offend-
er to keep such unhealthy murmurings
from public exhibition, and if on all oc-
casions she is quietly ignored. when airing
her troubles, a way for a cure is opened, if
a cure is possible. All must suffer, but

there is no reason that pleasure should be
poisoned, and happiness assassinated, be-
cause of that general fact. Let us make
the most of true happiness. A. L. L.
MAPLE'rnonPE.
-—-——OOO———-

TRAPPING MOTH-MILLERS.

 

To get rid of moths kill the millers.
This is best done by trapping them before
they deposit their eggs. Take a shallow
dish—a plate is very good—in it put ﬂy
paper, cobalt or ﬂy poison of some kind; on
this put sweetened water—make it quite
sweet with good sugar or honey; honey is
the best. Set it on the window ledge in
the closet where the moths are. If the
closet is dark open the door and set the
plate in the nearest window, where the
moon shines in if possible. As the moths
ﬂy in the night they see the glitter of the
water and their curiosity is excited, they
taste it and their work is done for all time.

Omvl'r. ALZADIA.

 

SOME DOMESTIC AIDS.

 

Not long since the hired girl “up and
left.” The farmer-husband had an in-
spiration. Straightway he took an old
revolving churn, ﬁlled it with water and
potatoes, kept renewing water until the
potatoes came out white, cleaner far than
when washed by hand. A large pailful
could be made ready at one time. He
said take each one on a fork, cut off bruised
spots, and bake; she used her ﬁngers.

Another thing I ﬁnd very nice is a pair
of rather coarse woolen mits, long enough
to cover half the ﬁngers, seamed a little
way so as to draw closely around the hand;
they will keep the wrist white, the hand
soft, and will do nicely for rowing or
driving, but are particularly nice for
housework, they can be drawn on or off so
easily and look well. Old mittens are not
quite as nice, for they will curl up under
the hand. CONSTANT READER.

———...————

SCRAPS.

 

A UNIQUE form of entertainment has
been inaugurated in New York by some of
the “noble Four Hundred.” It is the
luncheon in honor of some noted hero, in
which his favorite ﬂower forms the decora-
tions, etc. Thus at a “Napoleonic
luncheon” recently given, the ﬂoral de-
corations were violets, the center piece of
the lunch table a cocked hat in blue violets,
and the menus were accompanied by steel
engravings of scenes in Napoleon’s life,
accompanied by bunches of violets.

Two sorts of visitors, says Nathalie
Sieboth Kennedy, are hard to satisfy—
those who tacitly decline to be entertained
and those who expect to be entertained
every moment. Then she adds: “Who
that has attempted to make a week’s stay
pleasant to company has not felt the de-
pressing, almost sinister, inﬂuence exerted
by some visitors? What was pleasant and
amusing before they came seems now so
trivil, so little worth doing! The very
rooms shrink in size, the curtains develop
a crushed and hopeless aspect, and our

marble mantels, the pride of the house

when it was built twentyaﬁve years ago,
turn into monuments of unfashionablencss.
We are seized with misgivings in regard
to the best Spare bed, and wonder whether
the chimney smells of soot. Our hitherto
famous view from the hill back of the
house no longer compensates for the
trouble of climbing, for tranquil, broad,
sunnyas it is, those at Lake Como, of
whose beauties we are told with tiresome
reiteration, certainly surpass it, and why
make our modest little boast of being able
to see nine counties, when it is immediately
capped with an account of the large num.
ber of lakes visible from the Righi? ”

———.-..——-—

TAKE black court plaster, moisten
enough to make it stick, and mend the
small cracks and holes in your silk um-
brella by pressing it on the wrong side
with a warm iron over a thin paper.

    

  

4'9
4
s
3

   
 
  

     

