Newspaper Page Text
8
WomaNsWork-
Entered at Second-Class Postage Rates.
A LITERARY AND DOMESTIC MAGAZINE.
PUBLISHED MONTHLY.
FIFTY CENTS ) J FIVE CENTS
FEE YEAE. t j FEB COPY.
Edited by KATE GARLAND.
abbibtbd by thb bbbt talbnt.
Welcome to thy coming, oh glorious
Easter time—time of new hope, new faith,
new love, new life; time of sunshine and
refreshing showers; time when the buds
unfold their hidden beauties which have
slept through winter’s reign; time when
the birds twitter their tales of love, and
build cradles to be rocked by the gentle
breezes of spring; time when the air is
softest, the skies are bluest, and when field
and woodland are the canvas on which
are shown the fairest pictures of Nature,
the Master Painter.
Surely this is a season for happiness—
a season when faces should be wreathed
with smiles, hearts should be filled with
contentment, and souls should abound in
pure love for our Master and all His peo
ple. It is a time for rising superior to our
old ways ot selfishness and bad temper,
for reaching up to higher purposes, broad
er views, nobler achievements; for ascend
ing above the low plane of animal beings
—who, by eating and sleeping and selfish
toiling, live for a day and pass away for
ever—-to the dignity and power of good
which belongs to immortal beings created
in the image of an Eternal God.
But I fear that many of us are deaf to
the music and blind to the beauty of Na
ture at Easter time—that we are going on,
with heads and spirits cast down, neglect
ful and unmindful of half the opportuni
ties of this life. We wonder why this is
so, and that is so, but we do not look with
in ourselves for the answer. Everyone
else is wrong, but we—well, we may not
be altogether perfect, but it is because our
lot is peculiarly hard, and the shortcom
ings of others make our little faults excus
able.
**•
If there ever was a time when we
needed to embrace and practice the doc
trine of brotherly love, we need it now;
for the spirit of censure and fault-finding
is indeed abroad in the land. How often
do you hear a person discussed by several
others, without one or more of the group
making unkind criticisms? How often do
you find a friendship so true that it will
brave the censure of opposition and de
fend the person criticised ? It is a seri
ous fault, this judging of others, and we
would do so much better if our thoughts and
energies were devoted to correcting our
own offences. Perhaps I have no right to
indulge in the very practice of which I am
accusing others, but you know that “we 1 ’
take a great many privileges, editorially,
that are not permissible in our individual
lives. If I could only claim for my daily
life, innocence of the charges which I am
making, perhaps I would be more chari
table towards others. But I indulge many
of these human weaknesses, and too often
take part in speaking evil of my neigh
bors. I criticise preachers for not being
so good as they expect other persons to be;
and in doing this I forget that we are all
preachers, and that my interpretation of
the texts which arise in daily living is be
ing watched by others when I least sus
pect it.
We criticise ministers on account of
their long sermons; yet that sermon which
ends in an hour,has fallen short of the pur
poses of preaching. The greatest text is
Life, and the most important lessons are
those which go on from day to day and
from year to year, illustrating the spirit of
love and gentleness and forgiveness. I
heard a distinguished minister, not long
since, exhorting his congregation to the
proper training of children, and I have al
so heard it said that his children exhibited
a sad neglect of training. Doubtless those
who made the comments alluded ti>, have
been as severely censured for the manners
of their children, and doubtless everyone
of my friends, from minister through the
list, would become offended if anyone
should presume to point out to them the
faults to be found in their homes.
»**
It is a pity that there is so much in
this life to bring frowns to our faces, cross
words to our lips, dark shadows to our
hearts; and it is a pity that we have so lit
sle self-control and strength of character
that we do not rise superior to such cir
cumstances. Bad humor is contagious,
and it is alarmingly prevalent among our
people. You can see it all about you—in
homes, in business houses, on the streets.
Husbands and wives fret and grow cross
with one another, brothers and sisters dis
pute and mistreat each other, friends be
come estranged, and neighbors become en
emies—all this the result of stubbornness
and selfishness. Oh, how these things do
mar the family life I How they are crush
ing hearts and wrecking lives all about us!
And they are not all hearts of women;
strong men oft tremble from very wretch
edness at the scenes and utterances in their
own homes.
Not long ago I called on a dear friend
whose home should be a very happy one,
but I fear it is far from it. We had been
in school together, and, both before and
since her marriage, were intimate associ
ates. She has always treated me accord
ingly, and perhaps concealed her true self
from me as little as from anyone. For
sometime past I have noticed that her man
ner towards her husband has shown less
and less of that delicate consideration
which I believe to be the basis of real wed
ded happiness. Soon after their marriage
every glance at him was a smile, every
wo dto him was a musical note in the
song of love. I looked upon them as al
most an ideal couple, and little dreamed
that I would witness indifference and neg
lect between those two lovers. But alas !
so many are lovers only before marriage.
For awhile after they commenced house
keeping she considered his every wish and
comfort. In conversation she respected
his views and gave an approving smile to
his every statement. Perhaps someone
will express contempt for the wife who “is
but the echo of her husband’s thoughts,
and loses her identity in the shadow of
his presence.” Well, my good friend, you
may consider me “old fogy” because of my
belief in that which you call the “clinging
vine” theory, but I have witnessed the
change from love tendrils which reached
out confidently to find sympathy and sup
port, to independent branches whose high
est ambition seemed to be to contend with
life’s storms unaided. Yes, I have wit
nessed this change, and it has invariably
been a change from happiness to misery,
from cheerful contentment to moroseness
and bitterness. It has been as the change
of the fresh rose, when all the beautiful
tints developed by the succor of earth and
the dews and sunshine of heaven are made
to fade and wither and die by clipping the
stem on which it depended for support.
But I didn’t intend to let my present
talk branch off to this subject. Perhaps I
may next month more fully express my
views on some of the “progressive ideas ot
woman’s century.”
• * *
I have noticed the change as it has
gradually come over my girlhood friend
in her treatment of him who should be
dearer than life to her. The fault may
have been partly his; perhaps if he had
known, and had treated her first indiffer
ent mood with as much love and charity
as he should, the result would have been
different; but such are the errors of human
beings that one misstep follows another,
until the feet wander far off into ways
WOMAN’S WORK.
which bruise and lacerate at every move
ment. Men have their full share of faults,
and many there are who are unworthy the
love and trust of any woman’s life ; but in
the case of which I write I am sure that
it is primarily the wife’s fault. She fixed
the boulders on which their fair life-bark
is stranded, and he either could not or
would not steer away from them.
Are they unfitted for life-mates ? Clear
ly so, either by nature or by training ; if
the first named, perhaps it is a hopeless
case, for there are elements which will not
harmonize, and the most determined ef
forts to overcome their lack of affinity seem
of no avail. From the depths of my heart
I pity those who have entered into the ho
ly estate of matrimony with one whose
nature is uncongenial, and I pray that
God will spaed the day of that enlighten
, ment which will give our race the benefit
of universal congeniality in marriage.
But I believe there can be no repulsive
quality in the nature of my friend or her
husband to make their lives unhappy.
She is self-willed as a result of her parent
al training, and she has not learned that
it is better to subdue the whims of her
spoiled childhood than to wreck the hap
piness of self, husband and children, for
ever. If her husband was tyrannical or
unreasonable I would in no sense excuse
those detestable qualities, for they are an
tagonistic to every sentiment of true man
hood and happiness; yet even then a spirit
of gentleness on the wife’s part would be
far more commendable than a defiant
course. But Ido not think that the wife
of whom I write has this excuse. She is
simply blind to the gulf that her indiffer
ence and lack of proper respect is fixing
between them; or, if she sees it, she is too
stubborn to make acknowledgment and
change while there is yet time. One of
these days, if that husband should be sud
denly taken from her, she will weep bitter
tears of regret; but tears on a coffin lid
will not warm the heart that has been neg
lected until it lies in a lifeless body before
her.
«-
* *
Their life-bark has drifted on until
it has come upon hazardous breakers.
Their little children are subjected to all
the dangers of storm and wreckage be
cause the captain and his mate have failed
to agree in every little matter. Will they
remain untrue to their most sacred obli
gations, or will they once again clasp
hands as they did at the bridal altar and
pledge their troth for aye! I would give
something, even from my little store, if it
could bring back to her face the old-time
radiance, as she looked into his eyes and
thought them brighter far than any jewels
of sea or mine. She was happy then, and
her fond expression seemed to say: ‘‘Thank
God for such a love as his.” She did not
need to praise him, for the everyday life
can tell a tale of love, beside which, words
would be mockery.
But now? She rarely looks at him, and
never as of yore. The face that once gave
him smiles that were as heaven’s sunlight
to his heart, seems now to havebaenmade
for frowns alone. The lips that once spoke
but music for him, now seem curled almost
in contempt, and ready to disparage all
that he does or says.
She has told me of his faults, and when
a wife begins to impart her domestic trou
bles to others,she has reached a deplorable
stage. No horrible crimes does she charge
on him; only chidings for his failure to
provide her with all the emptj honors and
display that she thinks are enjoyed by
other women of her acquaintance. It would
be a great lesson if this world would learn
that all the wealth of Croesus cannot buy
the happiness that springs from the true
love of a true man and a true woman for
each other.
You do not believe there are cases among
“gentle-people” so extreme as the one I
have pictured? Nor did I, until I saw it.
I could weep for sorrow that it is true, and
I fear that there are others like it. Not
bad people; oh no, jusLthe natural end of
indifference to those who are so near to us
that we do not deem it necessary to treat
them with that civility and consideration
which we accord to our society acquain
tances. There are persons who are very
entertaining except in their own homes
and with their closest associates. I would
not have them to be less agreeable abroad,
but I would beg them to consider how
much more important is the happiness
which belongs to their own firesides, than
the empty conversations which they, for
reputation’s sake, indulge elsewhere.
Rise above the faults of thoughtless hab
it or of deplorable indifference, my dear
friends, and make your home lives as pure
and beautiful as the spotless lilies which
bloom at Easter time.
*
* *
lam glad that there are not many
homes which have been so abused as the
one of my dear friend of former days, and
I hope that she may see whither she has
drifted, and may, with the help of her hus
band and her God, once more enjoy all
the blessings of the ideal wife of an ideal
husband. They say we do not find ideals
in this life. Maybe we will if we try
more faithfully to fix and attain a high
ideal for ourselves. I think if we would
live just as our Maker intended, jealously
guarding our physical and moral and spir
itual interests, that we might see many
homes that would remind us of our dreams
of heaven. We are not living right; we
are not guided by the highest principles
of living,—and the reason is, selfishness.
We think it would be of benefit mainly to
future generations, and we are caring
much more for the fashions of our time
and for what we falsely deem our com
fort, than we are for the interests of others
of the present or future. I wish we would
soar above these erroneous ideas and do
our full part towards making this world
all that its Creator intended. It is a pity
for such a beautiful world to be so abused,
so filled with false ideas, wickedness and
crime, that the human race is often termed
a wretched instead of a happy one.
We have been passing through a period
which is said to have been full of hard
ships. Business has suffered, and men
have been sorely taxed to withstand what
msy be termed the business famine. There
may or may not have been real cause for
this state of feeling. The hardships may
have been the result of real, and, we may
say, natural causes, or they may have been
only fictitious. The worst of this feeling
may have passed, or we may yet have the
greater part to experience. These are
questions which the men seem unable to
determine, and I do not propose trying to
answer them. But I think this period af
fords us an opportunity to adjust ourselves
to real circumstances, and determine on a
future of true usefulness and happiness,
whether it be financially prosperous, or the
reverse. Money does not make happiness,
though so many men and women appear
to have that impression. If our husbands
or fathers or brothers have less money
than we would like for the home expenses,
let us lighten their burdens by even great
er economy than we have ever known,
rather than weigh them down with bur
dens, and darken their lives and ours with
complaining. Consider the lilies; they
toil not (fret not) neither do they spin,
and yet Solomon, in all his glory, was not
arrayed like one of these. It doesn’t take
much to make beauty—only purity, for
this is the lily’s loveliness. It doesn t
require much to make happiness—only
contentment, and this is the heart’s privi
lege. We have our hardships, but why
complain? Christ murmured not, even
when on the cross between two thieves.
HE IS RlSEN—risen from sufferings and
hardships, to glory. His faith never wa
vered; why should not our faith be ever
strong, and especially so at EASTER
TIME?
We call attention to the attractive of
fer of Garden Seeds on another page. We
have used Mr. Cook’s seeds, and believe
there are none better.
MARCH, 1894-