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O WOMBS' work ® A JOURNAL OF LITERATURE AND DOMESTIC ECONOMY. PUBLISHED MONTHLY. Athens, Ga., Oct., 1888. Edited by KATE GARLAND, WHO WILL BE ASSISTED BY THE BEST TALENT IN THE COUNTRY. Subscription price, 60 cents a year. Great inducements to club-raisers. Send for our terms to agents and make money. ADVERTISING RATES. Subject to Monthly Change. Sixty cents per inch each insertion. The increase in circulation during a six months or yearly contract, amounts to a very liberal difference in favor of the steady advertiser. Twelve lines nonpareil type make one inch. A column is fourteen inches. Copy should be received by the 20th of each month for the following month’s issue. Orders may be sent direct, or through any responsible advertising agency. Communications intended for editorial depart ment should be addressed to the Editress, at Athens, Georgia. All subscriptions and business communica tions should be addressed to T. L. Mitchell, Publisher and Proprietor, Athens, Ga. Let our readers make a general informa tion bureau of the Correspondence depart ment, in which all may feel free to ask and answer questions. What*more valuable feature could a home paper possess? Can’t write for Woman’s Work? Did you ever try? You won’t find it very difficult, and your recipe, or meth od of doing something to add to the brightness or comfort of home may help some one out of a difficulty. If you know nothing to tell, suppose you ask for some information and thus afford an opportunity B--UlUhars to-“•press themselves. Woman’s Work, published as Athens, Ga., has improved with every issue, and the last is, of course, an exeellent number. It is just as well adapted to the North as to the South, and is worth five times what it costs. Any woman, whether she has a family or not, will find its suggestions and instructions very valuable, and if she acts in its spirit, will be a better, happier wo man, wife, mother, sister. Try it a year; only fifty cents.— Ottawa (III.) Globe. It is a disappointment that we cannot give our usual sketch and portrait of some prominent woman in this issue, but wait ing until the last moment for closing forms did not bring the desired cut. We trust this will not occur again, and hope in each future number to continue this popular feature of Woman’s Work. We are promised pictures of several popular con tributors to our columns, and will feel a special pride in giving these to our readers. Woman’s Work probably reaches a thousand homes, each of which claims the smartest baby in America. Now it is an injustice to hide this wit and wisdom from the world. “ Why, I could Jill your ‘ Bright Baby ’ column with my little one’s smart sayings,” a subscriber recently re marked. Well do so, by all means. It will amuse our readers and give you these remarks in good shape for preservation, even if the judges do not pronounce yours the brightest of bright babies and award it the prize. Were we so inclined, page after page of complimentary notices and encouraging letters, could be published each month, but we feci that each reader individually ap preciates Woman’s Work, and the space can be more profitably devoted to other matters. There are many improvements yet to be made, as increase of patronage authorizes, and our readers can greatly assist in the good work, ’by showing the paper to friends and sending their sub scriptions. Each one could easily send several names and all parties would be benefited. Each month we welcome new names to our pages, and each month we are informed that Woman’s Work is better than ever. We hope this opinion will always prevail, and believe it will, if every reader will only tell us what she knows about promoting comfort, health and happiness in the home. Why should you hesitate to write to your paper more than to a friend? You have no better friend than Woman’s Work. Matter should reach us for an issue as early in the previous month as possible— by the 15th any way. We cannot agree with those writers who speak of the coming of autumn as a time for sadness and regret. With equal glad ness do we welcome spring, summer, autumn, winter. Each has its beauties and blessings which are not detracted from be cause of their varied nature. Autumn with its golden ripenings, and winter with its bleak and icy winds, are not more to be despised than golden hair, as ’tis streaked with silvery threads or bleached to snoWy whiteness, when the promising buds of youth have long since blossomed into full manhood and their petals begin to fade and fall. Nay, bountiful and all wise Nature, we thank thee for every change thy sea sons bring. For Woman’s Work. COMFORTABLE WOMEN. Comfortable. Yes that is just the word I want. I came across the idea not long ago in a home paper I was reading, and it set me to thinking. Am I a comfortable woman, that delight of her husband’s heart ? Do I give or impart comfort, as Webster defines the word? I think there is perhaps nothing so inducive to an irri table temper as sickness or ill health its one for long years used to robust strength. I wonder is it possible to lose energy and not ambition ? I know that when physi cally unable to do any work at all, I yet fretted because I wanted to do it. Ac customed to the utmost sympathy from my husband, I would very "often express my sense of restlessness at being unable to do for him or the baby any of the thousand and one things relegated to hired help, and oh I so poorly done. “Why fret over it?” he would say, “is not your comfort and freedom from pains of more consequence to me than anything else ?” “Oh ! you don’t understand how it makes me feel.” I would cry, with the hateful thought of being a burden constantly be fore me. A burden 1 I’m afraid I was in a fair way to become one with such constant drains on his ever ready sympathy when I was not even allowing him the luxury of seeing me comfortable. By the time I had gone over this ground in my own mind, I saw. my mistake, and set about to remedy it. “Susan,” I said to my girl, when break fast was over, “if you want to ask me any thing about the work this morning, you may come to me in the sitting room. You have been here long enough now to know how I like the work done, so I will not make the rounds of the house with you to-day.” Accordingly I established myself in my favorite easy chair with my books and writing desk within reach. When my husband asked me how I felt when he started for town, I laughed and told him I meant to be comfortable for one thing. His hearty “that’s right,” showed me I was on the right road. Since then we have talked it over, and he is very much pleased with my decision. He says my whole face is changed in expression since I quit fretting over not being able to do the work myself; and really that seemed har der to me than the physical discomfort. I am naturally domestic in my tastes, and pride myself on being a good housekeeper. Most of you will know just how it irritated me to see my cosy bright little kitchen dirty and greasy from the lack of pride on the part of the well paid and not over worked hired girl. However, when I came to think it over, the cheery aspect of my kitchen was of less importance than that of my/ace, which was certainly dearer to my husband than the condition of the house. Why, he told me just the other day that the corners of my mouth always turned up now instead of down. I think it pays; I believe he is more comfortable, rfftd I know I am. I am enough of a convert to the “mind cure” to believe that continued cheerfulness and brightness of spirit, brings renewed health and strength. Maude W. Peablee. ELEANOR KIRK’S VIEWS. “ Madam, I cannot take your case,” said a distinguished medical practitioner, the other day, to a fashionable invalid, after a careful diagnosis. “ But why not take my case?” the lady asked in some surprise. “ Because I have had my attendant weigh your garments while I was making the examination,” was the frank and most unusual response, “ and I find that your skirts weigh fifteen pounds. You have brought on the disease from which you suffer by this manner of dressing, and I do not care to risk my reputation as a physi cian by treating a patient who will, in all probability, continue to carry such loads,” “ This is the first time I ever knew a physician to tell a patient what she should wear,” said the visitor with heightened color. “ How many pounds is it lawful to carry, if you please ?” ‘‘You cannot carry over three pounds with safety ; and even such a weight should be suspended from the shoulders.” “How long shall I be obliged to limit the weight of my clothes ?” “As long as you live, madam, for you have so outraged every delicate and sensi tive internal organ, so stretched the liga ments which would have been faithful had you treated them well, that you can never exceed this weight with safety.” “ Do you think you can cure me if I obey you ?” was the next question. “ I can prevent the development of a tumor, which is now imminent, but all the medical science in creation cannot make you strong. But I can help you to help yourself to more health and comfort than you have known for many a year.” Now I heard this conversation, and it delighted my heart; and ever since I have been asking, why do not physicians more generally tell the whole truth in such cases ? They know the effect of tight lac ing, and the drag of heavy skirts upon the hips and the spine. They know the cause of the frightful increase of ovarian tumors among American women. Why will they not all come to the rescue, like the grand gentleman above mentioned. There are some time servers and fortune hunters, who will not tell the truth, because of the fear of losing moneyed patients ; and doubtless there are a few practitioners, iff good stand ing, who delight in lapped ribs and pro truding and diseased organs because of filthy lucre. But the majority of our doc tors are honest, humane men and women, who love the truth. Sons and daughters of Esculapius, please step to the front, and let us have “ the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you.” The Detroit Free Press, in a sound arti cle, says the reason so many parents do not properly educate their daughters, is because the majority are afraid of popular opinion; and calls upon fathers and moth ers to see to it that their girls are taught some trade or profession by which they can support themselves in case of need. This is another kind of humanitarian work that the world is painfully in need of. An inci pient which occurred in Brooklyn not long since shows the depths of stupidity to which so-called leaders of society not infrequently descend. The daughter of a wealthy man met the daughter of another wealthy man, and ask ed where she was going. “ To the dress-maker’s,” was the reply. “ I will go with you,” said her companion. “ But I am going to stay several hours,” was the frank response. “You seel am learning to make dresses.” The next day this sensible girl was cut by half a dozen of her former friends, and the report spread like wild-fire, that Mr. had become embarassed in business. Now, this young woman had a talent for dress making, and her parents happened to be wise enough to allow her to develop it in a scientific manner. The signs of the times are hopeful, for there is more said and written on these subjects than ever be fore. The following rule for crocheting lace caps for babies was given me by a very ac complished worker, for the Woman's Ex change, and will be found perfect: Lace caps, made to imitate the round, full-bordered caps in which German and Bavarian mothers dress their children, are now much in vogue. The sweet little faces look sweeter than ever, peering out from these quaint, foreign-looking caps. Use the yellowest of old lace, if you have it; if you haven’t don't take cheap lace and color it with coffee, for you can make a much better and more durable imitation than that. Get a spool of Flax Thread— the yellowest, unbleached, not the grey— and try this pattern : With a fine crochet hook, make a chain of three stitches, join in a ring, and work fifteen trebles in the ring. In the second reund, widen every stitch by putting two trebles in each one, making thirty in all. In the third round, widen every second stitch; in the fourth round, every third stitch, and so on for nine rounds. Break off the thread; begin fifteen stitches from where you left off, and work round with out widening, until within thirty stitches of the beginning of this tenth row. Turn the work, and repeat for the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth rows. Fourteenth row: turn, make seventeen chain, fasten with a slip stitch into the third treble; re peat all the way round, including the thir ty stitches which had been omitted for four rows. This makes an open-work space for a ribbon. Now try it on. If large enough, proceed with the border; if not, repeat from the eleventh row. For the first round of the border, make one treble in every stitch of the preceding round of the hood. Second round: four trebles in every third stitch of preceding. Third round: four trebles in the middle of each preceding four, also between, mak ing it very full. Fourth and fifth rounds; shells in the top of every, shell. Sixth round : two trebles in the middle of a shell, three chain, join back into the top of last treble; two trebles in the shell, again. Repeat. This makes little loops on the edge. Line the hood with a thin lining silk, and run ribbon in the open space, tying it in a bow on top of the head and at the back of the neck. Add strings of linen or ribbon, and you will have one of the daintiest little caps irriaginable, and one which will serve three generations of ba bies, if you get the genuine flax thread. I will give Woman’s Work an ex cellent recipe for cough syrup. Take a handful of sea moss—called by some Irish moss—and after having washed ed it carefully, pour on a quart of boiling water. Let it boil slowly five or ten min utes. Then strain through a cloth, add the juice of two lemons, and sugar enough to make it palatable. In case of a severe cold and cough and sore throat, drink freely of it as warm as it can be taken. Just as I had written the last word of my letter I received the following commu nication from a progressive and scientific Boston physician, which seems to me too valuable to wait. “ I have read,” he says, “ with great in terest what you have written of the bene ficial effect of sea moss upon invalids, and I. now send you a most valuable recipe for sea moss jelly, which I have found invalu able with patients recovering from typhoid fever and meningitis, and other illnesses causing great prostration. Take a tea cup of sea moss after it has been carefully washed, and add a pint of cold water. Let it stew, but not boil, until very glutinous, then strain through a cloth and add half a cup of sugar. Let this come to a boil. Then pour in a pint of sherry or other good wine. If not sweet enough, add more sugar, and the juice of a lemon if the pa tient objects to the sea flavor. Pour into moulds and cool. Sea moss posesses a dis tinctive healing quality, and 1 know of nothing so strengthening and appetizing as this jelly. Charitable ladies who wish to take delicacies to the sick, would do well to learn how to utilize this most valuable sea food.” Eleanor Kirk. Why shouldn’t you devote at least a half acre or an acre to the cultivation of the delicious and profitable strawberry? It is healthy work which any woman may en gage in with pleasure and gratifying re sults. At the old Brownwood Institute, situated in the suburbs of LaGrange, I have nearly four acres in strawberries and raspberries, and cordially invite any who are interested in small fruits to come "and see my place and methods. I have 100,000. plants for sale at 25 cents per 100, delivered at Brown woocj; 30 cents per 100 if shipped. Purchasers must pay express charges. The varieties for sale are—the Crescent, enor mously productive, early and sure bearer; Sharpless, early, very large with delicious taste; Glendale, later, a fine berry, good shipper and sure bearer; Jumbo, latest of all, splendid berry, beautifully shaped and excellent shipper. Raspberry plants, finest varieties and some of all, or nearly all. Best varieties for sale at 50 cents per dozen, 60 cents if shipped. Less than one acre of the foregoing varieties of strawberries yielded 3,000 quarts during the last season. They were grown by Mrs. Sarah B. Malory, from whom the farm was purchased. Ad dress, Mrs. S. P. Callaway, LaGrange, Ga. Ne’er destroy another’s Idol— Lacking though - it be in grace— Till one sweeter, purer, fairer, Thou canst offer in its place. A Lady in South Carolina writes: My labor was shorter and less painful than on two former occasoins; physicians astonished; I thank you for Mother’s Friend. It is worth its weight in gold.