Newspaper Page Text
BECAUSE OF YOU.
I.
The heavens lean nearer 4
And are blue,
Because of You.
IL
This morn I found a rose
Among my rue,
Because of You.
111.
See! my tears fall,
• In a soft storm of dew,
I am forever better, dear,
Because of You.
IV.
I hear your tender, “Bravo!”
Each upward step I take —
For dear Christ’s sake.
V.
For I see standing always,
Back of You,
The Master, making every thought
Os yours more true.
VI.
The white hand of your faith
Has touched my cross with light;
And I walk now erect, although
Dark is the Night.
VII.
No Easter Day will dawn for me,
Perhaps, this side the grave;
And yet because you care so much,
I am safe and saved.
VIII.
Your name shines like a pearl upon
My rosary of prayer,
I know you take no step, of which
Angels are unaware.
IX.
Nothing more grand and fair
Under the stars today,
Than is your life; my heart hears its appeal
Sweet, strong, alway.
X.
Through miles and miles of blue,
Between us two,
I feel the thought waves tenderly vibrate
From me to you.
XI.
Listen! dear heart, and in the silence soft
Os some fair Summer Night,
You’ll hear me say: “God’s will
To us, is right.”
XII.
Always more tender, and
More strong and true,
Because of You!
•—Adieu.
ODESSA S. PAYNE.
(Here is Mrs. Payne’s beautiful poem, and also the
Chat intended for last week. They were crowded
out, thanks to our “baby issue,” at the printing office.
But we could not afford to let you lose the sweet
trust of the first or the thoughtful words of apprecia
tion of the “Household Mother.” —Ed.)
CHAT NUMBER ONE.
I wish The Golden Age had room to expand her
Household tent this week, there are so many charm
ing visitors to entertain. Os the Sunny South favor
ites we have with us, Margaret Richard —a “true
poet” writing of true poets—but with more cheerful
vision of the “voiceless ones” than had Oliver Wen
dell Holmes, who lamented,
“Alas! for those who do not sing,
But die with all their music in them.”
We have loyal Mattie Howard, teaching in her
THE HOUSEHOLD
A Department of 'Expression Tor Those Who Eeel and Think.
The Golden Age for November 5, 1908.
wise, sweet way methods for entertaining the wee
ones, who are “lonesome” when big sister and brother
go to school. We have with us one who is a new
comer, yet an old friend of former Households —dear
Lula Gibbs. We have our sweet Old Woman, telling
us of her feathered guests, who “gather up the frag
ments” after the chicks have feasted. We feel proud
to have with us today the popular story writer, Mrs.
Odessa S. Payne, in a little heart-warm poem. She
needs no introduction to Golden Age people, as all of
these are reading her “Mission Girl.” Another of our
new visitors today is Miss Addie Mitchell, a lovely
and noble young deaconess, whose sweeet face under
her quaint, becoming deaconess cap rivited my atten
tion at a Home Mission meeting. On that occasion,
she gave in her interesting report of her work for
the quarterly term at Lindale, the town in which
the noted Massachusetts mills are located. The work
among the mill people and their children was so
beautiful and beneficent that I asked her to write
about it for The Golden Age, and she has kindly done
so. Think how busy and useful is the life of this
young woman and compare it with the empty, friv
olous existence of the girl who lives for pleasure
and vanity, finding her only triumph in the conquest
of empty-headed young men.
A correspondent asks about Hallowe’en: why it is
so called and why there is a superstitious belief that
the dead walk the night of All Hallows. All Hallows,
or All Saints’ Day, has been observed ever since 610
years after Christ, when the Pope of Rome ordered
that the heathen Pantheon should be converted into a
Christian church, and dedicated to the honor of all
martyrs. The festival was first held on the first day
of May, but in 834 it was changed to November first.
Hallowe’en is from the Saxon —haligan—to keep holy.
The belief as to the spirits of the dead “walking” the
earth on the night of All Hallows Day comes from the
fact that the second day of November is All Souls’
Day, when Catholics are required to pray for the souls
in purgatory. All Souls’ Day was first instituted in the
monastery of Clugny in 998. It was believed that the
prayers, fasting and alms giving of Christian mor
tals availed to give a respite to the sufferers in pur
gatory and permit them to walk the earth between
midnight and dawn on the night of All Hallows —or
rather on the morning of All Souls’ Day—the 2nd of
November. Burns, in his well-known poem, “Hal
lowe’en,” has recorded the weird customs observed
by his countrymen on this occasion. Many of these
customs are in use today, as a source of merry
making among the young people. Ghost parties
(sheets and pillow-slips being the spectral disguise)
are given in rooms decorated with ghostly symbols.
In Mexico the candies and cakes made for Hallow
e’en are shaped like coffins and skulls.
CHAT NUMBER TWO.
Mrs. McDaniel, I see the sense and wholesomeness
of making quilts in the way you describe —away
that does not waste time and eyesight as did the old
method of sewing together an infinite number of bits
of calico, some of them not much larger than one’s
thumbnail. I have country friends who proudly
adorn their palings from end to end all around with
quilts of every conceivable pattern and color made
by themselves when they were girls or presented to
them as wedding gifts. These elaborate pieces of
patchwork are monuments of patience and industry,
and they are serviceable and pretty, but think of the
precious hours taken up in the tedious sewing togeth
er of bits of calico when a whole piece could be
bought so cheaply, and the time saved for reading
books and magazines, or helping little brother and
sister with their lessons, or growing roses and tulips
in the garden, a thousand times prettier than those
they shape with so much pains in their quilt squares.
If any one thinks that such quilt making has be
come obsolete in these days when time is so valu
will find his mistake by visiting the woman’s depart
ment of a state fair. There can be seen quilts by the
dozen, whose makers proudly label them with the
number (away into the thousands) of pieces they
contain. The quilts call for prizes, and the industry
they represent deserves to be highly commended, but
still, it is industry that might be more usefully em
ployed—and the economy in using up calico scraps
is far overbalanced by the waste of time and eye
sight. One is reminded of the manner in which a
king once rewarded a subject who exhibited to him
his wonderful dexterity in carving cherry stones. The
kind ordered that the man be given a bushel of cher
ry stones.
Wtb ®ur Correspondents
MAKING QUILTS: THE MODERN WAY.
This is not intended to interest the “fortunate few”
who are not engaged in solving the problem of mak
ing both ends meet, but to the many women who are
helpmeets indeed in the struggle of life 1 hope my
plan will prove helpful. Like knitting socks, our
mothers’ old-time way of quilting has been relegated
to the rear. In the rush of this progressive age peo
ple seem to have lost patience with such slow meth
ods. The ready made comforts can be bought almost
as cheap as dirt. I mean the cheap kind—but my,
my, they are the shoddiest things on the market! I
would not use them if they were given to me. They
smell horribly, and are padded with factory rakings,
and no telling what else.
Pardon my digression, and I will proceed to busi
ness. My method is this: Use cloth of the same
width for top and lining. I quilt on the machine.
Make one width at the time, which can be done so
much easier, and join the widths after quilting them.
One of the nicest. I have made yet was one in which
I used, very heavy knit undershirts for the pad
ding. Having several grown men in the family natu
rally such garments will accumulate. One needs to
cut out seams, and it requires care in placing the
padding. I first laid the width of lining on the bed,
then placed three thicknesses of the knitted goods
on it, after which 1 spread on the top, and pinned it
carefully abdift six inches apart, all around the edges;
also used several rows of pins in fastening it se
curely. The pins can be taken out so easily. I fixed
about three feet at the time, which made it easier
to manage. I stitched in rows across the widths at
first, then, after removing all the pins, stitched diag
onally. This threw the work in diamond shapes,
which is really pretty. After quilting all the widths,
I then joined them together and hemmed it all
around on the machine.
It took me a day and a half steady work, but I felt
well paid for it when I folded it up to lay up in the
closet.
Many women use cheap calico for quilts, but in my
humble opinion they show poor judgment, as the
material is not worth the work it takes to make it,
consequently there is real economy in using good
material, and there are such endless varieties of col
ors and weaves that the most fastidious can surely
be pleased in making selections.
The quilt can be batted with cotton, or layers of
any old soft worn-out clothing laid smoothly will suf
fice; I would further suggest that the stitching be
done with number forty thread.
m. s. mcdaniel.
Baconton, Ga.
n
TO CUPID.
(In answer to Mr. F. L. Orton’s reply to Eugenia.)
Ah, Cupid, naughty, foolish chidl,
No wonder went your arrows wild!
No wonder that you blush so red,
And hang with shame your pretty head!
You should have been a bit more slow —
You were a stupid lad to go
To one so busy at mid-day;
To seek to lure him love’s sweet way.
Though I had heard that you were blind,
I thought you not devoid of mind;
And I believed that you well knew
The office not the place to woo.
If there be reason in my rhyme,
You should have ’bided well your time,
Till duties of the day were done,
And Mr. Orton sat alone.
And then you might have won his ear,
Your softest, sweetest words to hear,
Till yours the chance, through cunning art,
To thrust an arrow through his heart.
Now, go, in shame your face to hide,
Go, throw your weapons all aside:
That office cat, of which they tell,
Had surely done about as well!
MARGARET A. RICHARD.
Newberry, S. C.
5
