Newspaper Page Text
FEBRUARY, 1896.
For Woman’s Work.
"WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK.”
There’s always a battle to wage, you see,
And two in a combat you must agree,
Hits that are telling, hard blows there’ll be
“When Greek meets Greek.”
Is it war of opinions, political strife,
That stirs all the passionate fires to life?
There’s no need of wild cheers or bugle or fife,
“When Greeks meets Greek.”
Whatever the question of right or of wrong,
Equipped for the battle with sinews full strong,
They need no assistance to help things along,
“When Greek meets Greek.”
It may be a warfare of intellect; speech
That is sharpened by wit, double pointed for
each.
There are few lessons left for us small folks to
teach,
“When Greek meets Greek.”
For Woman’s Work.
A HOME-MADE ROOM.
BY LILIAN HOLMES.
I F WE could only do it,” sighed Mary.
A “Why not try, anyway, for at the
worst we can only fail?” hopefully sug
gested Hattie.
“Os course we can do it, and I intend
to get a pencil right now and count the
cost,” said practical Kate.
The three girls were sitting on the porch
of an old-fashioned country house, a
house overgrown with vines that kept up
a tremulous motion in the breeze and a
restless tapping at the window panes. The
yard was a wilderness of old-time roses,
just bursting into bloom, and the air was
heavy with the hum of untiring bees.
The subject under discussion was the
possibility of taking one or more summer
boarders.
“We need extra money so much,” began
Mary, “and if we can only manage about
the room it will be no more work on
Mother, for we can take our turns helping
Nancy get the meals.”
“If the room is the only trouble, we can
soon manage that,” answered Kate who
had returned with pencil and paper.
“How?” asked the other two in a breath.
“Why, we can fix up that room in the
left wing for the boarders.”
“I thought we were going to talk sense,
Kate. You know there are barely the out
side walls, and the roof over it. Fancy
expecting people from town to stay in a
room where the rafters and joists stare
them in the face,” said Hattie, severely.
“Wait until you hear my plan, and then
you may change your opinion. But sup
pose we go up to the room while we talk
it over.”
Three days later there was a great deal
of noise and bustle going on in the old
farm house. Mrs. Spears declared the girls
had lost their minds, and she feared they
meant to tear the house down. She had
been requested not to visit the left wing
until invited to do so. Kate entered the
door of the important room, her arms full
of parcels. The other two looked up from
their work, that of tacking building paper
around the walls.
“Well, here I am at last,” panted Kate,
“and I see you’ve worked pretty fast.”
“Did you get everything?” they began.
“Can’t you give me time to get a breath?
then I’ll show you what I have. Here is
the canvas—it cost three dollars and forty
cents.”
“But did you get the paper?” queried
Hattie.
“Os course I got the paper; what did I
go for, I’d like to know, and I got it blue,
too; here is a roll, see the deep blue fig
ures on a light blue ground. I call that
sweet looking; but dear me, you ought to
have seen Mr. Martin’s look, when I asked
for all the things; he can’t think what we
are going to do, when we have no man
around to help us. I told him that we
were bachelor girls and that would an
swer.”
“Did you send off the advertisement?”
asked Hattie.
“Certainly I did, you don’t think I’d
forget that important part of my trip, do
you?”
“Well, change your dress, and come
help us, and we may get the canvas on to
day,” called out Mary who had resumed
her tacking.
“This will be quite a literary room when
finished,” said Hattie. “I’ve tacked about
two years’ numbers of Harper’s Weeklies,
any number of Frank Leslie’s and some
Home Journals are in place behind the
building paper. They will help to keep
out the heat, you see.”
Soon as the paper was tacked firmly
around all sides, the canvas was stretched
tightly over it, and very closely tacked.
Then that for the ceiling was measured,
cut, run up on the machine, and tacked
firmly to prevent sagging. Not a wrinkle
appeared in the room. It then entered
the busy minds that a closet would not
only be a nice thing, but that it was a ne
cessity. Certainly, whoever the boarders
might be, they would expect a closet to
hang their clothes in,
“That’s impossible, we can’t make a
closet,” said Hattie.
“Nothing’s impossible—‘where there’s a
will, there’s away,”’ exclaimed impulsive
Kate, “Mary and I will make a closet.”
Great wonder was manifested below
stairs when the girls were seen carrying
long planks up to the room. A space
was measured off three feet from the wall,
and seven feet long, for as Hattie re
marked, “Let’s have a big one while we
are about it.”
A strong cleat was nailed to the floor, al
so one on the ceiling above at proper dis
tance from the wall, and then the planks
were measured and the hard work began
in earnest, that of sawing the planks.
Several times their arms dropped at their
sides, but their spirits kept up and soon the
planks were all the correct size. Then
came the nailing. Hattie and Mary held
them in place while Kate nailed them
securely to the cleats. The second day’s
work ended with a closet finished all save
a door.
“We shall not attempt to make a door,"
said Mary, “for curtains hung from a pole
will answer as well, and look prettier.”
The following day while Hattie and
Mary measured and cut the wall paper,
Kate painted the door and window frames,
then all together began hanging the paper,
which was an easy task, the ceiling being
low. The closet was nicely papered inside
and out. Then the floor came in for con
sideration. They had forgotten about a
carpet. “What shall we do? We can’t
make a carpet.” And Kate’s face for the
first time looked serious.
“A painted floor will be cooler as well as
pretty, and we’ll make some rugs some
how,” cheerfully responded Mary.
Half a day sufficed to change the floor
into alternate stripes of dull cream and
Pompeiian red. While the paint was dry
ing, Mary was busy with the windows
which had been carried to another room.
She transformed the upper half into stain
ed glass, using crystalline paint which she
had long had for similar purposes. This,
as well as beautifying, would cut off the
view of the dairy and kitchen, she ex
plained. Hattie busied herself making
sash curtains of pale gold cheese cloth;
and two drapes of the same material,
but blue to match the paper. Kate
polished the neat bedroom set which
had been stained cherry. While thus
busy, several letters reached them in
answer to their advertisement. They se
lected from the number, two young ladies
who wished to remain nine weeks in the
country, and were willing to pay five dol
lars each, per week. That was better
than they had expected, and as the ladies
desired to come as soon as possible, they
hurried with their work. Hattie found in
the lumber room some crimson figured
brussels carpet that she soon converted into
rugs.
In ten days the useless room was
changed into the prettiest, daintiest and
most inviting room in the house. When
Mrs. Spears was invited to inspect their
work, the girls smiled in satisfaction over
her praises. The room was indeed a little
gem. The walls pale blue with the skele
ton-like figures in a deeper tone, and
border of crimson poppies. The ceiling
dull cream with flecks of gold, the painted
floor with its crimson rugs; the crimson
and blue curtain of double-faced canton
flannel that hung from a pole over the
closet door, and the swiss curtains that
veiled the windows, added to the picture.
Over the bureau was draped a light blue
scarf, and a similar one was knotted above
the picture of a Madonna—the only picture
in the room. A small table stood near the
window, holding a pretty work basket,
while cn another table stood a large bowl
of roses, the fragrance of which filled the
room. The light fell in prismatic rays
from the stained windows, and the yellow
sash curtains mellowed the glare of light to
soft sunshine. It was a room that would
please the most fastidious taste.
“And this is all it cost us, Mother,” and
Kate handed her a paper on which she
read:
Canvas, $3.40; wall paper, $3.75, $7.15
3 half cans prepared paint, @ 60cts., 1.80
1| doz. boxes of tacks, .75
Poles, 90 cts.; cheese cloth, 88 cts., 1.78
Total, sll4B
The evening arrived for the boarders.
Hattie touched up the dining table. Kate
gathered whole handfuls of roses and placed
them everywhere. The songs of the birds
grew still, the sun sank lower, while afar
off could be heard
“From right to left,
The cuckoo tell his name to all the hills.”
Then upon the perfume-laden air came
the sound of wheels, followed by the sound
of girlish voices, and Kate cried out, “O,
girls, there they are, and I like them al
ready, their voices are so sweet,”
WOMAN’S WORK.
For Woman’s Work.
CONFIDING IN FATHER.
D
out so clearly that it held my attention, as
the silly little refrain was trilled over and
over. Soon the young singer passed from
my hearing, but the thoughts awakened
by her song still lingered.
Our home journals of to-day are over
flowing with innumerable and often ex
cellent articles of advice and direction to
girls concerning home and filial duties,
especially those relating to mothers. But
the absence of even a hint as to the claims
of father is quite noticeable. Confidence
in mother is urged again and again, and
rightly so, for the daughter will never
find a truer, safer friend in whom to con
fide—unless indeed it be her father.
Why tell Papa? It is unfortunately
true, as Macdonald says: “Most fathers
know little of their sons, and less of their
daughters.”
There are too many homes where the
inner life is almost entirely hidden from
the father; but, alas! for that home where
the children hear the injunction, “Be sure
not to speak of that to your father.”
Fathers may and do too often provoke this
unhappy state of affairs by unnecessary
reserve and sternness, or by an apparent
want of sympathetic interest in the pur
suits and companions of the young people.
But if the relation between father and
daughter be as it should—a beautiful blend
ing of trust and respect, of tender affec
tion—confidence in that father must be
quite as easy and natural as in the mother.
I was once a guest in a particularly happy
household, when one young daughter had
that day received her diploma, and in her
snowy commencement gown was flitting
about the house. “I will keep it on until
Father comes,” she said.
And when that father came in, wearied
from a long summer day’s toil at his desk,
his eyes lighted up at sight of the fair
daughter, and she, gayly telling him of
the day’s (to her) important event, ex
claimed, “And oh, Father, I wore my long,
white gloves!” She was no longer a child,
but she was entirely sure that her father
took an interest in all that concerned her,
even to the “long white gloves.”
That girl is peculiarly safe who confides
in her father.
We should not read so many tales of
elopement and dishonor if the unhappy,
self-willed girls had but confidence in
parents, and especially the father. Young
ladies, your father can tell much of the
worth, too often the worthlessness, of the
smooth flatteries and hints of devo
tion which fall very softly on your ears.
He can give you the true status of many of
your lily-handed, carefully dressed beaux.
Perchance the revelation might prove
rather mortifying to yourself, that you so
eagerly welcomed the attentions of such
characters. There is a sacred Book which
all daughters as well as sons should study,
and again and again we find in its pages,
the words: “Hearken unto thy father.”
Lucy Randolph Fleming.
Walter Baker & Co., Limited, Dor
chester, Mass., the well known manufac
turers of Breakfast Cocoa and other Cocoa
and Chocolate preparations, have an extra
ordinary collection of medals and diplomas
awarded at the great international and
other exhibitions in Europe and America.
This house has had uninterrupted prosperi
ty for nearly a century and a quarter, and
is now not only the oldest but the largest
establishment of the kind on this continent.
The high degree of perfection which the
Company has attained in its manufactured
products is the result of long experience
combined with an intelligent use of the
new forces which are constantly being in
troduced to increase the power and im
prove the quality of production, and
cheapen the cost to the consumer.
The full strength and the exquisite natural
flavor of the raw material are preserved un
impaired in all of Walter Baker & Com
pany’s preparations; so that their products
may truly be said to form the standard for
purity and excellence.
In view of the many imitations of the
name, labels and wrappers on their goods,
consumers should ask for and be sure that
they get the genuine articles made at
Dorchester, Mass.
FREE TO EXPECTANT MOTHERS.
Full information about painless child
birth, etc., avoid suffering, prevent danger
and insure a rapid recovery by writing
Dr. J. H. Dye Med. Inst., Buffalo, N. Y.
We should distribute 1,000,000 slips each
month if the friends of Woman’s Work
will help. See notice on lllth page, head
ed, “For You.”
kON’T tell Papa, don’t tell
I Papa.”
" The fresh, sweet voice rang
An Easy Second Reader,
For Supplementary Reading,
BY MARY KENNARD,
Children enjoy reading this book, and
do not take it up from a sense of duty alone
—as is the case with most Readers. Get a
copy and see. Needn’t wait for your
schools to adopt it; your child will be de
lighted with it for home reading. Read
what prominent educators say about this
new book:
I take great pleasure in saying that, in
the quantity of reading matter, the num
ber of words, the beauty of the diction, and
the spirit of the composition, Miss Ken
nard’s “Easy Second Reader” is by far the
best book now on the market. I unquali
fiedly recommend it. G. G. Bond,
Sup’t. City Schools, Athens, Ga.
Miss Kennard’s “Easy Second Reader”
has been accepted here, and is in use in our
Model School.
The style of the book is unique—typing,
size of page, contents and designs—and it
thoroughly interests children, while it
teaches them, easily, a command of the
forms of the language. The vocabulary is
comparatively small, and the quantity of
reading for it unusually large, which con
ditions any thoughtful teacher appreciates
at once. It is the best Second Reader in
existence. E. C. Branson,
Director Normal Dep’t. State Normal and
Industrial College, Milledgeville, Ga.
Woman’s Work Pub. Co.,
Athens, Ga.
Dear Sirs: I have examined with some
care, and I can assure you with genuine
pleasure, your “Easy Second Reader,” by
Miss Mary Kennard. I take pleasure in
stating that your book is a production of
more than usual merit. The subject mat
ter is well adapted to the wants and tastes
of children. The illustrations are very
appropriate, and the arrangement of the
spelling preceding the reading lessons is
especially commendable. I would be glad
to see it introduced into the schools and
home circle for general use. The price,
35 cents, places it within the reach of all.
It is a home production, worthy of com
mendation from all interested in educa
tional matters. S. D. Bradwell,
Pres. Georgia Normal School, Athens, Ga.
(Extract from an article in Southern
Educational Journal:)
I was so glad to receive a copy of it (the
Reader) in May, actually ready for Geor
gia’s little folks to use. It was big and
generous. I recalled the hateful readers I
used to study at school—six or eight stu
pid, disconnected sentences, full of hard
words. I recalled some more recent ones
which I had “fought, bled and died” in
trying to teach, and was glad to note with
a teacher’s practiced eye, the teachableness
of this one. Somebody wrote it who had
herself been over the hard places in teach
ing first and second-year pupils.
A copy of the book has been on my ta
ble for sometime; a child in the house
comes to me and begs the loan of it. “Ain’t
it a pretty book?” she asks.
“Yes, it is Miss Kennard’s Reader.”
“A Reader!”
Get thebook introduced into your school.
Mary A. Bacon,
Teacher of English, State Normal and
Industrial College, Milledgeville, Ga.
From Baltimore “Sun.”
“An Easy Second Reader.” For sup
plementary reading. By Mary Kennard.
Woman’s Work Pub. Co., Athens, Ga.
A very good example of Southern print
ing—clean, large text, excellent illustra
tions and attractive appearance. The work
is the outcome of much experience in teach
ing and is popular in Georgia, having been
adopted in the Athens and Savannah pub
lic schools, the Model School of the State
Normal College at Milledgeville, and else
where.
One thing is very noticeable —it is natu
ral to all children’s reading of this grade—
and that is, that the words are nearly all
pure Saxon. They are such simple, home
ly, every-day words as a child uses, and
these, almost to a word, belong to the more
familiar tongue which we derive from our
ancestors, and are not importations from
foreign sources. A child can learn no bet
ter foundation for either speech or writing
than this direct, sturdy Anglo-Saxon in
which Miss Kennard’s little reader abounds.
Retail Price, 35 cents.
Wholesale Price, 28 cents.
Six or more books at wholesale
prices.
WOMAN’S WORK PUB. CO.,
Athens, Georgia,
5