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8 womWork- Entered at Second-Class Postage Rates. , ,1.. _ _i_. A LITERARY AND DOMESTIC MAGAZINE PUBLISHED MONTHLY. FIFTY CENTS > f FIVE CENTS PER YEAR, f 1 PER COPY Edited by KATE GARLAND, ASSISTED BY THE BEST TALENT 1 * 1— Subscriptions and all business communicatlena must be addressed to T. L. Mitchell, Athens, Ga. Subscription Price, 50 cents a year, strictly in advance. Remit by money order or postal note. If these cannot be procured, one or two cent stamps will be accepted. Expirations.—Woman’s Work is promptly dis continued at expiration of time paid for. We do not take advantage of the law which enables publishers to continue papers, and collect for same, until notified to stop sending. Please renew promptly when your time is out. Write name plainly and state number with which you desire subscription to commence. Give full address in every letter. To change post-oMce address the old as well as new office must be stated. Sample copies.—ls you are not a subscriber to Woman’s Wobk, and a copy reaches you, please examine it carefully and forward price for one year. Missing copies.—Woman’s Work is very care, fully mailed, but many papers are lost in transit. When a number fails to reach you, after waiting a reasonable length of time, please notify by postal. Premiums.—The price of Woman’s Wobk is too dixiall to allow any premium. However, we make liberal offers to subscbibebs who will send others. 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.