Woman's work. (Athens, Georgia) 1887-1???, May 01, 1888, Image 6

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DON’T WORRY. Don’t worry at trifles and troubles, Nor fret when misfortune appears; Repining, each burden but doubles, And evils delay not for tears. Time wasted in useless complaining Is wealth we might use, thrown away, Better wisely to use that remaining, Employing each hour of each day. Don’t worry if fortune has dowered Some others more richly than you; Sad grieving but makes one a coward, Success means to dare and do. Time’s chances have not all departed ; Rich prizes are waiting a claim ; But they fall not to those who down-hearted, Creep'feebly toward fortune and fame. Don’t worry o’er past tribulations, They’re gone, and their lesson is taught, Look forward! The future relations Are with grand possibilities fraught. Who conquers the present, improving Each hour of the here and the now. Gains a place in that circle which, moving, Brings the prized laurel-wreath to his brow. —B. AIRING ROOMS. It is a great mistake that the whole house, particularly the sleeping rooms and the dining room, receives little ventilating and purifying of the air, when it can he done with so little trouble and no expense. A pitcher of cold water placed on a table or a bureau will absorb all the gases with which a room is filled from the respiration of those eating or sleeping in the apart ment. Very few realize how important such purification is for the health of the family, or, indeed, understand or realize that there can be any impurity in the rooms, yet in a few hours a pitcher of cold water—the colder the better and more effective—will make the air of the room pure, but the water will be entirely unfit for use. In bed-rooms a bucket or pitcher of water should always be kept and chang ed often if any one stays in the room dur ing the day, and certainly be put in fresh when the inmates retire. One should never drink such water; if it is needed for drink, use a - I using water from a pump or reservoir for drinking or cooking, one should pump or draw out enough to clear the pipes before using it, particularly in the morning, after the water has been standing in the pipes all night. A CONSPICUOUS CARPET. A room is badly furnished if the first thing that strikes a person upon entering it is the carpet, and modern taste is so far educated that in well appointed homes one is seldom called upon to admire a parterre of brilliant flowers upon the drawing-room carpets, or to tread upon trees whose branches shelter humming birds. The aesthetic movement has had one good result in modifying scarlets and greens, and if we are sometimes inclined to wish that the favorite colors were a little less sombre, it is a fault in the right direction, as far, at any rate, as carpets are concerned. Neu tral tints are to be preferred, and if the walls are dingy, or there is any other rea son for wishing to introduce a little bright ness, the coloring should be in the border of the carpet rather than in the center. SOME QUESTIONS FOR HOUSE KEEPERS. How do you treat your household serv ants? “None of my business.” But it is yours; and for fear you should forget it, I take the liberty to call your attention to it. Are they overworked? underpaid? indif ferently fed? Do you ever give them a holiday? Do you ever give them a leis ure evening? Do you remember that they, like yourself, have fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, toward whom a good word or kind action from you might be the pivot upon which their whole life should turn, for good or evil, joy or sorrow? Perhaps some young girl among them, dependent and oppressed, despondent and discour aged, to whose side you might step, and to whose heart you might bring that delicious joy, the sense of protection, for the want of which so many despairing feet turn astray forever. None of my business? Make it yours then; for a woman’s heart beats in your kitchen—over your washtub, over your ironing table, down in your cellar, up in your garret. A kind word is such a little thing to you—so much to her. Your cup is so full, hers often so empty, so taste less. And Love so wings the feet of Duty. Think of it. Fanny Fern. IS HOUSEKEEPING IGNOBLE? This subject, like so many others that make life enjoyable, is ever old and yet ever new. Occupations are noble or ignoble according to the manner of their handling. In every vocation, knowledge, special knowledge, is required. This thought, in this wonderfully free America, is not suffi ciently appreciated. It is a great joy to feel a qualified fitness for whatever call ing we engage in, and, in this New World, where nothing but bare nature is found at hand, and ten thousand things seem neces sary to be done in a moment, we have in some respects become superficial. It is so with housekeeping. This is especially a woman’s right, and the women, as well as men, are ambitious to achieve something at least new, if not great, and time is short, so short, that too frequently the science of housekeeping is looked upon as a drudgery rather than a science. In a thorough study of nature and human nature, it is apparent that woman is in tended for many fields, not one field simply; yet it is equally apparent that the science of housekeeping was designed to be feminine and not masculine. The thought then of how best to ennoble the idea, or system of housekeeping, is to regard and dignify it as a science, and es pecially a woman’s science, and this will create a pride and taste and popularity that will make housekeeping in every in stance noble, and never ignoble nor menial. LJCyia noblo, fvn€L tAiere 18 nothing more noble, and few things as much so as housekeeping, which is made so by its being surpassed in its importance and value to general comfort and health by no other science extant. Our object being to prove conclusively that house keeping is not ignoble, there is no clearer way than to present the subject in its true light, and this light is purely scientific. Where the ability exists to employ do mestic help, the necessity for a scientific understanding of the work cannot be ex cused on the part of the landlady. It should be regarded as an accomplishment as well as an art and a science. Fortu nately for the convenience of man this new view is rapidly growing. There is no knowledge more important than a practi cal knowledge of cooking, still, even this art is too much slighted. As agriculture is yet pursued by far, too unscientifically, so the indoor work of the household continues slow in showing signs of happy progress. The care of the sick largely comes under our title. As a man is expected to be easy and at home in the drawing room and counting room alike, so the woman should oscillate between the parlor and kitchen with an ease and grace in a manner so captivating as to be really queenly. We are not of those who would inveigh against fashion, for in the department of ornament there is an example in nature superior to anything which art can ever equal, and which is so enjoyable, permanently enjoyable, that fashion has ground enough for its exis tence. When the science of home duties is sufficiently dignified there will no lenger be danger of being carried away by fashion. As life becomes to be guided and con trolled more and more by scientific knowl edge, it will be more orderly, and order is economy. Those who have the most system have the most leisure. System and a duly en lightened understanding, make more sav ing and less waste. Right knowledge also makes every natural ingenuity more avail able. Man is a three-fold being—spiritual, mental and physical, and while the science of housekeeping is not expected to furnish all that is demanded by these different natures, there is a limited degree in which some knowledge of the demands of each is required. All of the sciences are of such a social disposition that some knowledge of each is almost indispensible to a perfect success in either separately. The more systematically housekeeping is understood the more heartily will the work of it be enjoyed. While it might seem to have the effect of creating monotony by increasing system, the very reverse is the result. Also it sweetens temper and cheers the disposition. All the virtues of life are not centered in the single subject of housekeeping, but it is not extravagant to say that they com mence here. A DAINTY SLEEPING CHAMBER. The satin wall-paper is a delicate pink ground, strewn with tiny brown rose buds, and leaves so connected as to have the appearance of a dainty straying vine. A deep border, of a rich brown with a dash of pink, is headed with a gilt moulding having small movable hooks for pictures. The wood-work is painted pink and drab ; base board drab, moulded edge pink ; all the panels drab, and casings and mould ings shades of pink and drab, the wood bordering on the paper a darker shade of pink than its ground color. Brussels carpet dark brown ground, largely covered with small figures in Chinese patterns in shades of pink and drab, handsome border corres ponding in style and colors. The broad windows are curtained with pink sateen, over which hang lace curtains, suspended on heavy gilded rings—on a heavy gilded rod, finished at the ends by arrows, so that the curtains, parting in the middle, can be thrown by a touch entirely off the window. The furniture consists of seven pieces, each painted in delicate shades of pink and drab, i panels all drab, main body of all the pieces pink. The bed, for instance, has running over the pink moulding of the foot and head boards a delicate vine-work of trail ing arbutus; the panel at the foot a bunch of field daisies; two panels at the head, the larger, a mixed bouquet, consisting -of pink and white fuchias and sprays of mig nonette and smilax, the lesser, a spray of mignonette and a few sweet peas, pink and white. All kinds of delicate flowers, like lily-of-the-valley, snow-drops, forget-me nots and pinks; on the rails bands and simulated panels. The bed is furnished with a white lace spread and pillow shams, lined with pink silisia. Shield back of washstand the same. Toilet ware of pink and white china. Cushion of pink satin, on which is painted in water colors a bunch of pansies; a ruching of quilled ribbon, pink satin, is placed around it, with a dain ty bow on one side. A glass bottle of good size is covered with drab satin, the upper edge fringed and gathered at the top so as to set up around the neck of the bottle, and drawn and sewed securely at the bottom; a bunch of flowers to match the cushion. An elegant ground glass stop per heightens the effect. A few choice paintings on the walls and a quaintly fig ured cream-colored china basket suspended at the parting of the curtains and filled with white and blue lobelia, falling like a mist around, add the finishing grace to this most complete and charming apartment. There is a big, sleepy, hollow chair and foot-rest, a desk on which stands a bust of Poyche in marble, a dainty little table on which is a large lamp, pink and white with a globe of immense size, white, with a moss rose and bud painted on it. The mantel has a beautiful clock, bronze and gilt, then a small silver vase, full of flowers, winter and summer; a little ornament or two of costly make, and a tiny fancy box in which is a shoe and glove buttoner, pearl and sil ver, a small pen-knife and a gold pencil. Would it not be an elegant occupation for a lady to decorate her own house and fur niture with her own hands and brush? Belle. i CHEERFULNESS. “ It can so impress the mind With quietness and beauty and so feed With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues, Nor greeting where no kindness is, nor all The dreary intercourse of common life Can e’er prevail against it, or destroy Our cheerful faith that all which we behold Is full of blessings.” ****«•■» “This unclouded atmosphere of the mind, is, perhaps, the most precious gift with which humanity has been endowed. It outlives youth and strength and beauty; although not hope, for that ever attends the cheerful; nor love, which is a portion of their being. And some there are, the darlings of nature, who seem to have been born cheerful. ‘ A star danced at their birth.’ ” An imaginative writer, in his eulogy upon this beautiful virtue and its posses sors, says: “The thunder-cloud over their heads never darkens the comforting vision of the sunlight beyond. The hard prob lems which puzzle sadder intellects, never perplex their faith or crush their energies, for with an insight like unto instinct, they are let into the secret of that sacred alchemy by which patience transmutes calamities into Wisdom and power.” * * * Yet, as by far the greater portion of man and womankind are less richly gifted with this “sweet grace of nature,” can that felic ity of disposition be acquired? Assuredly. Observe the loveliness of the cheerful-tem pered and the charm'which seems to radi ate arqund them, “making sunshine in a shady place.” Endeavor, oh, seeker after happiness, to resemble these, and if you only secure immunity from the many little frets and trials of daily life, your labor will not have been in vain ! Even Cai-lyle, whose nature was less rugged than his thorough earnestness would imply, sincerely advocated this sweet and gracious quality. “ Wondrous,” he asserts, “is the strength of cheerfulness; altogether past calculation the power of its endurance. Efforts, to be permanently useful, must be uniformly joyous, a spirit all sunshine, peaceful from very gladness, beautiful because bright.” Nor is it merely the holiday making and playtime cheerfulness that we desire. ’Tis easy to wear this aspect when our brows are wreathed with roses, and our hearts are gladdened by the song and music of the fete. Wait till the work-a-day afterward, and see the contrast between one who was, perchance, the ball-room belle, now weary and languid, and another who, if regarded less brilliant by society, is blest with that sweet home spirit of usefulness which lends dignity to labor and makes our duties light. Study, then, this charm of cheerfulness, which throws sunlight on all the paths of life, in Charles Swain’s words: A charm to banish grief away, To smooth the brow of care, Turn tears to smiles, make dullness gay, Spread gladness everywhere. And yet ’tis cheap as summer-dew That gems the lily’s breast; A talisman for love, as true As ever man possessed. —C. A. The King of the Belgians has given the Sultan of Morocco a railroad. It has been laid in the park sunounding the imperial palace at Mequinez, and was lately opened with some pomp. The railway has been purposely laid with several sharp curves and steep gradients, byway of showing the Moors the wonderful things that steam can do. The saloon carriage, of which, in addition to the engine, tender and guard’s van, the rolling stock consists, is elaborate ly decorated and upholstered in a style which, although somewhat bizarre to the European eye, was thought to be suitable to the taste of a Moorish Sultan. Muley Hassan did not dare to trust himself in the strange conveyance on the opening day, but he made some of his male relations and ministers take several trips and re count to him their experiences, which seemed to be thoroughly satisfactory.