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A LITERARY AND DOMESTIC MAGAZINE
PUBLISHED MONTHLY.
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PER YEAR, f 1 PER COPY
Edited by KATE GARLAND,
ASSISTED BY THE BEST TALENT
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Has it ever occurred to you what peculiar
and important changes are brought to our
country and our people by this beautiful
month of June? Os course we are ac
customed to oft repeated references to
“ fleeting time and his unceasing work ;”
but in some respects June has a greater
mission with us than all the other months.
That month which, each year, changes so
many thousands of school boys and college
students into active members of our busi
ness and political systems, means a great
deal to the future of our country. I de
plore the fact that so many of those who
enter a new and broader field at each an
nual closing of our educational institutions,
content themselves to drift aimlessly on
the sea of life, and make this existence of
little value to humanity or to God. I be
lieve there is something wrong with the
home, social, or educational systems —one
or all—which give us young men lacking
in that determined ambition, and those
mental and physical qualities which con
quer obstacles and win success in life. I
believe there is no problem more worthy
of the continued, serious and prayerful
consideration of parents than this, and I
anxiously await the dawn of a new ad
vance in intellect and character.
There is no surer method of elevating
manhood—none half so sure, as striving
for a superior womanhood, and my mind
and heart turn anxiously to the vast num
bers who are this month to go forth from
our female seminaries into the broad, the
boundless field of woman’s work; into a
life whose record cannot cease, but must
go on through time, to be perpetuated in
eternity. Are they prepared for this
work ? Do they realize what one woman’s
influence for good or evil may mean?
Have they been impressed with the price
less value of a deathless soul, and will
they always remember that each is a
beacon light beckoning others to follow it
to a darker or a better sphere ? My heart
throbs in pity for the girls who enter the
sacred realm of womanhood with the idea
that frizzes and flounces, fops and flirta
tions are the objects which make existence
desirable. Their heavy-circled eyes will
soon tell of the midnight dance; pastes
and paints will poorly represent the
squandered health and color of Nature,
and a grim and gaunt old age will reach
across the beauty and strength of middle
life to grasp the wreck of youth. These
are the ideas and conditions which wrong
husbands, wreck homes and tax the world
with worthless men and women; alas!
these are thoughts which are all about us
pictured in real life with a sad pathos
which the printed page or the colored
canvas cannot imitate.
Don’t misunderstand me when I say 1
dread the effect of higher education for
women. It may be a blessing to our sex
that so many universities are opening to
them and offering our girls the same
courses in mathematics, languages and
sciences that their brothers so rarely im
prove; but lam not sure. God, in His
wisdom, has given women mental faculties
which are capable of almost limitless
development. Ido not admit that we are
in any mental respect inferior to our
stronger companions, and the enlightened
world no longer speaks of us as inferior.
But mental equality does not in any sense
imply that our Maker has intended us for
the same fields of labor as our brothers,
and I am fully convinced that our power
for good and our resources for happiness
will wane in proportion to the part we
perform in such fields. I shall not attempt
any discussion of “ Woman’s Rights,” but
I am deeply concerned as to woman’s in
terests, for these mean woman’s happiness
and usefulness.
A college diploma is not worth a great
deal in this age of individual effort and
independent action. It may testify to a
certain degree of progress in a certain
branch of learning, but that education
which makes no advance after winning a
diploma must be quite limited, and alto
gether insufficient for the tests of life.
Do not construe this into a lack of appre
ciation for college training; I simply say
that it is but the beginning of an education.
Under favorable circumstances, 1 wish
that every boy and girl in our land could
have the opportunity to obtain this be
ginning.
But what are favorable circumstances ?
If a girl receives a college course in ex
change for health, has she been benefited ?
How many thousands of girls are each
year reduced to physical wrecks by the
confinement and conditions of school life!
At the very time of her existence when
she most needs the developing influences
of air and sunshine; when her life should
be as free from care as that of the forest
squirrel, and her spirits as buoyant as the
running brook; when a loving mother
should be her daily companion and con
fidential adviser, then it is that she is often
far away from home; in most excellent
hands, perhaps, but under the worst sur
roundings—those of a fashionable school.
Not much romping and roving here; not
much slumber in early eve, to rise with
the sun and song-birds and be happy. If
a girl has ambition to excel in her studies,
the inevitable result is a too close appli
cation to books. If she has no ambition
but for mischief-making, the probability is
that she will not be benefited, either mor
ally, mentally or physically, and home
would be a much better and safer place
for her.
Is the young lady graduate usually well
equipped for life? Has she been trained
in the domestic arts, so that she is fitted
for the management of the home over
which she may be called to preside?
What would be thought of a man who ac
cepted business duties requiring skill and
experience, when he had never given
them any attention, and was altogether
ignorant of his responsibilities?
Our excellent and popular contributor,
Mrs. Howard Meriwether Lovett, else
where protests against the frequent refer
ences to winning home happiness by culi
nary knowledge rather than by literary
culture. I fully agree with her that these
admirable qualities are by no means in
compatible. Their happy combination is
most desirable, and no woman is well pre
pared to assume the duties of a woman’s
life until these have been blended into her
WOMAN’S WORK.
tastes and accomplishments. It is much
the best course to develop these simultane
ously; but I suggest that the culinary
training be accorded first place if either is
to take precedent.
The classes of this country can never
tell how soon they may belong to the
masses, and it is a wise thing in any con
dition of life to prepare for the problems
which confront the great majority of our
fellow beings. Happy marriage is the
natural existence of woman; there will
never be enough female lawyers to make a
plausible argument against this fact. If
our daughters were well prepared for this
existence they would enter it wisely, spend
it happily, and none would pine for other
spheres of labor.
It is a sorry man who cannot supply the
ordinary needs of a family and it is a
sorry woman who cannot conduct
the domestic interests of that family, in an
economical yet heart-winning manner.
That there is so frequently a “sorry” mem
ber in our matrimonial alliances, is a great
menace to private and national welfare
and advancement; that two “sorry” mem
bers are so often united in name and
worthlessness, is a sufficient explanation
of the business before our divorce courts.
What is our girl graduate going to do
when she returns to her home ? Is she
going to frolic until the nights are nearly
spent, sleep until the morning sun is far
advanced towards the west, and expect her
mother to see that there is nothing to
ruffle the idle whims of a spoiled young
lady? I have known more than one girl
to pursue this course, even when the
mother did her own work. By hard labor
and close economy those loving parents
had provided their daughter with a well
furnished parlor and a long-coveted piano,
and it is here that this petted girl spent
her evening hours, while the mother cared
for the supper dishes and did the many
things needful at the close of the day.
But suppose these duties fall on servants,
and the mother has none of the drudg
eries to perform. Doesn’t she have all
these matters to superintend,and wouldn’t
it be a pleasant rest for her if she could be
entirely relieved for awhile ?
If a college course makes our young
lady regard such affairs as beneath her
dignity, if it has caused her to regard
pride as superior to duty, then I believe
that higher education has brought her
more science than sense, and I have but
little faith that she will worthily utilize
any of its advantages. If higher educa
tion has so impaired her health and en
ergy that she is unable to perform these
home duties, ’tis a pity she cannot ex
change a large portion of acquired mathe
matics for needed muscle. If learning has
destroyed in woman her sympathetic
nature, her affectionate disposition, her
love for home and her ambition for in
strumentality in shaping an ideal home
life, then learning has stolen from her
something for which she will never receive
recompense.
My ideas may be old-fashioned, but I
cannot look with favor on the growing
disposition to introduce woman into the
professions and trades which man has
thus far conducted. I would have her
educated; I would give her such advan
tages as have never yet blessed her as an
enlightened sex. I would give her practi
cal training that would forever abolish the
tortures of fashion and the weaknesses of
our present civilization; practical ideas
that would remove the guardianship of
her soul from the hands of “society” and
“custom,” and place it in her own keeping
for the happiness and welfare of her indi
vidual life and the lives allied therewith.
And then I would give her that higher
culture of gentleness, refinement, soulful
ness that would place her anear the angels
in the lives and hearts of noble men and
in the sight of God.
©naw mib liwm.
Let our readers ask such information as they desire.
Each will confer a favor by sending as many answers
as possible. Replies to questions in thit issue must
appear in our next, and should be receiver by the 20th
of the month. Give number of each question you
answer.
ANSWERS.
No. 228. ’Twould be best to consult
your family physician about the dark mark
on your neck.
To obtain a smooth complexion, your
habits must be regular, diet simple, and
the best beautifier the complexion can
have is a daily bath. Bran, borax and oat
meal are all good for softening water.
’Tis said that olive tar, if used for a
week or ten days, will render the skin as
soft as an infant’s. To prepare it: one
spoonful of the best tar in a pint of olive
oil, put in a tin cup, and set in boiling
water. Rub on the face at night and wash
off with warm water in the morning.
Another preparation that is highly rec
ommended, having been used by the
belles of the olden time, is the following:
Take a pound of white castile or brown
Windsor soap, stir it on the fire with a
little water. Add lavender water, or any
kind of essence, when it is melted to a
smooth paste; but do not thin it too much.
Stir in a cup or more of almond meal, or
of common oat meal. Keep it in jars for
use.
No. 229. Cheese Omelet: —Four well
beaten eggs, half a teacup of grated crack
ers and three tablespoonfuls of grated
cheese. Pour in a hot pan and fry.
No. 230. We know of no sure cure for
blackheads. If any of our readers can
give one, it will be highly appreciated.
No. 231. To renew a dusty and discol
ored chandelier, apply a mixture of bronze
powder and copal varnish. Your druggist
will know in what proportion they should
be mixed.
No. 232. Chicken Salad :—For a pound
of chicken, after it is minced, use six eggs;
boil them hard; separate the yolks and
whites; mash the yolks to a smooth paste;
add half a tumbler of good, sweet olive oil
(or rather more melted butter,) half a tum
bler of vinegar (celery vinegar is best,)
two even tablespoonfuls of dry mustard
flour,a tablespoonful of loaf sugar (dissolv
ed in the vinegar,) a teaspoonful each of
pepper and salt; wet the mustard to a
paste; stir all these together. Mince a
third as much white lettuce, cabbage or
celery as meat; mix well with the meat,
tossing them together with a wooden or
silver fork; add the sauce just before
serving. Garnish with sprigs of green
parsley or celery and the whites of the
eggs cut into rings. Salad is very pretty
served within potato or rice walls, taste
fully ornamented. Serve in a glass salad
dish. Slices of lemon are sometimes used
for garnishing, and the juice of a lemon
added to the salad.
Baked Beans :—Soak a pint of beans all
night; in the morning cover with fresh
water and boil tender, then put in a bak
ing dish ; season with pepper, salt and a
tablespoonful of molasses. Slice one pound
of pickled pork and lay on the beans.
Bake five hours.
No. 233. It is proper for the hostess to
pour sauce over pudding before serving.
No. 234. Baked potatoes must be eaten
as soon as they are done. When taken
from the oven, they should be put into a
napkin and the skin broken, so as to allow
the steam to escape; this will keep the
potato mealy. If it cools without break
ing the skin, it will be watery and will
have an acrid taste, which is caused by
the retention of a kind of juice which lies
next the skin.
QUERIES.
No. 235. I wish to ask a simple, but to
mo perplexing question ; and will appre
ciate information. How can shoestrings
be tied so that they will remain so?
Misb F. H. G.
No. 236. Please tell me how to prepare
Delmonieo Stew. Mrs. B. Jones.
No. 237. How can rusty smoothing
irons be cleaned ? Ignorance.
No. 238. Please tell me when herbs
should be gathered for winter use.
Mrs. K. O.A.
No. 239. Who has said, “It is the
crushed grape that gives out the blood
red wine; it is the suffering soul that
breathes the sweetest melodies?”
L. S. R.
No. 240. What state is known as “The
Blue Hen,” and why so called? Miss M.
No. 241. Please tell me how to prepare
a black varnish for chip and straw hats.
Miss B. N.
No. 242. Please give me a good rec
ipe for snow flakes. A Friend.