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Ella Wheeler Wilcox LETTER TO A ELEPHANT POWER AND THE PLOW WA&Z2 Home Is the Ante-Room to Heaven and Should Be Patterned on That Plan By ELLA WHEELER WILCOX. NUMBER IV. T O a Young Bride: Your letter, full ^f happiness and homey ness, was a delight to read. It is good to know you are so deep ly interested in your home;'and that you have started your married life with such an ideal instead of wasting the first year in a hotel or boarding house, or on the dangerous Bohemian style of living, so often popular with young married women. Home is my idea of the ante-rbom to heaven, and should be patterned on that plan. You say your home is tiny, but that is all the better for a beginning. There is so much to think about n home making, and if you learn m have perfect details and to keep per fect order in a small home, it will be come a simple matter for you to carry out the same system when your abode enlarges. Make Your House Pretty. You are so pleasing to look upon that It will be like a jewel In a box. If you make your little house pretty in every department. I know you have great taste in col ors, and that everywhere your cur tains and rugs and walls and dra peries will be beautiful in tone, and there will be no clashing or glaring colors. And I can imagine the happiness of your husband when he comes home and sees you tastefully garbed, wag ing him in your pretty room. Remember the need of a man for a room all his own. Arrange such spa “ for him even at the sacrifice of som ■ luxuries you might enjoy otherwise. An English woman writing about American homes justly criticised them for this very lack; and the cor responding lack in the heart of lh j wife, who did not realize the fact that every man on earth wanted a room which was all his own—one into which no other person entered unless in vited as a guest; one where he coul l sit quite undisturbed and be alone if the mood for solitude or a quiet smoke .seized him. Don’t Pester Him. And be sure if such a qiooii seize your man, to leave him to its enjoy ment: and do not imagine lie lias ceased to love you, because he may like to read his paper there or smoke his cigar or take a nap, maybe, aloae by himself. ,1 hope yeur little domain lias a pieaBant kitchen and maid’s room. If this part of the house has been neglected by the architect, try to brighten it as much as possible in your treatment of it. For when you think of the important part a good domestic plays in a home, it should seem an important tiling to give hr;' as much comfort and convenience as possible, and to give her pretty and attractive things to please her eye sr.d train her taste to an understand, mg of beauty. If your husband belongs to a club make the hours of his going and com ing as pleasant as lie was accustomed to find them when a bachelor. Be- , fore lie married you, quite possibly he gave up many club evenings to be with you; but now that lie has you all the time, it is quite natural lie should want to be with bis men I friends occasionally. Bon’t Play the Martyr. L>o not play the martyr or ad the role of the neglected wife. It would be well if you joined a club of your own, and if you are musical it would be wise to arrange j a little evening of music at home Ihe night he goes to his club or lodge. Nothing keeps .a man more inter ested in a woman than the knowledge that she can interest herself, and that she can call about her an agree able circle instead of sitting at home moping. Take up some study early in your married life. Your husband is a wide-awake man j and in touch with the outer world, and you must keep abreast of the times. Learn a new language or pursue some line of reading—natural history would be excellent—for when your babies come (as J hope they will) all you learn In this matter will be of inestimable value to them. The mother who can begin in the small years of her* boy's life to tell him the beautiful and interesting things about bird and insect and animal life will never find him want ing to be a killer of dumb things. Such a mother was startled recent ly by having her little boy say. ‘Mother, 1 want to go hunting birds.” Then he added. “Please buy me a camera; 1 want to hunt with a camera; and take pictures of my lit tle friends myself." Keep Yourself Beautiful. Watch yourself after the honey moon wanes, to see that you do not grow careless in regard to your per sonal appearance. Some brides fade with the wedding finery; and lose all interest in ap pearing attractive because they feel | they have attained their goal: they are married; and settled; and there is nothing else to work for. But to win is ofttimes easier than to keep what we win. ^ Keep your house beautiful and keep yourself beautiful. Be the most amiable, the most sensible, the most agreeable, the best groomed, the most loyal and the most loving woman it will be possible for your husband to find anywhere. And make your home the most at tractive place he can find. Then if he wanders into forbidden paths or does not live up to his vowsv it will be because ho is not worthy of any woman’s faith. But a vast number of men who go wrong are really driven by the‘thoughtless, j indolent, careless, or disagreeable 1 wife. Be the very best thing on earth, and one of the rarest, a really admir able. lovable wife, and homemaker. And all other things shall be added thereunto. tH: PtWfW :***»*..■» „v*- ' *>>•?.....# 4, ....... , v ... c--. v . s>\ •• J 5 .•• Sk ... v- > • AT ■$ , At f M, M: j ALT % •••¥* Are 7 Out of 3 Married Couples Unhappy? Dorothy Dix Says if So Many Yearned to Break the Bond of Matrimony, I hey Would Do It. WOTO © UflDUtWOOP & QHbUtwoon ~ ; By DOROTHY DIX A RK seven out of eight married Couples unhappy? A nian out in Oklahoma, who has been lecturing upon the subject of the relations of the sexes, declares that they are. In this pessimistic sizing tip of the domestic situation undoubtedly he took into consideration lit* family spat, which in the majority of households j is at much a part of the matutinal j meal as the coffee and the rolls. In I fact, generally speaking, it may he as- ■ parted that no breakfast table is com j plete without one. I Likewise lie could not have failed to j notice that there is apparently no topic •under He sun. from politics to pie, { upon whtel a husband and wife can not get up a heated argument at a mo ment's notice, and that the only tiling 'upon which they cun agree is to dis- i agree 1 lie lias heard row's between ihe j Joneses over the size of the grocery bill, or whethoi the baby's hair should be lent or not. or the steak being tough, j that would seem to lead straight to the j divorce 11*1*1. | He has heard Mrs. Jones, in the heal | of anger, say things to Mr. Jones that i were past all forgiving; and lie has j listened while Mr. Jones retorted with insults that called for some able-bodied i male relative of Mrs Jones to fall i upon him and beat him to a pulp. Has Heard Spats Over Money. | He observes that when .Mrs. Jones asks her lord anti master for Ihe nec essary money to run the house upon, it ' is tlie signal for a storm of crimina tion. complaints, sneers and gibes upon her extravagance anti bad management to burst, and that Mrs. Jones dams the deluge by a series of counter charges anti re.cHffiinations about the money a I man wastes upon his cigars anti drinks and treating deadbeat friends, and eat ing expensive lunches, while his poor wife slaves her life away trying to make •me dollar do the work of two. Undoubtedly. likewise —for these i tilings are not done privately , more's ! the pity—the lecturer has been person- i ally called upon to referee one of these | domestic mix-ups, and mentally called the light a draw when the wife retired sobbing to her corner, moaning out that she was “go-go-going ba-a-ack ho-ho- home to mo-mo-inother,'' and the -man jabbed on his hat and hanged the front door behind him and hastened to the ; nearest saloon for spirituous consola- ! tion and refreshment. Any dispassionate observer, noting these facts, must conclude that the ma- jjoriiy of husband* and wives are about I as congenial as the Kilkenny cats and that their one ardent desire in fife must be to break the fetters that bind DOROTHY DIX on each together two natures that other as fire and u»w That is the logic of the situation; but, fortunately, there is no logic in love You can not judge by what you see, for the wells of affection lie deep down in the human soul: they are not on the surface for every casual passerby to cast in a line and pfummet and measure their dept is. The family scrap Is bad taste, had manner*, bad ethics, if you like; but ii is no sort of a sign that the couple that indulge in it are not devoted to each other. On Hie contrary, it is doubtful if any other man anti woman have as great a perennial fascination for each other as do those whose na tures constantly repulse and attract, and who can neither get along with nor without each other. Life for them never settles down into the commonplace It is a perpetual se ries of skirmishes, in which now one is victorious, now the other; but the fight is always worth the price of ad mission, and matrimony' becomes a sort of bushwhacking warfare, which may not be tiie ideal of the holy state, but is undeniably thrilling. Dr Holmes once said that ihe reason that families broke up and scattered to the four corners of the world was to keep tlie Browns from being Browned into the asylums, atul the Smiths from being Smithed into the grave. In tlie same way, it is evident that the family spat was devised by nature to break Ihe awful monotony of domestic life, and keep husbands and wives from The Headwaitress By HANK taking the coffee pot and the carving knife to each other when they could no longer endure hearing each other make the same remark about the same sub- | jecis every day. If they couldn’t quar rel, they must Inevitably fight; and when all is said, hard words break no bones. That married couples really enjoy a tiff is amply proven by the fact that they deliberately do things that bring It on. They introduce topics that are like the waving of a red flag before a mad 1 Lull when they might just as w'el! keep Why are men and women who are tact ; j itself in dealing with others, apparently* brutal in their relationship with each I her? Simply and solely because they’ okc the rumpus they create, they enjoy ihe verbal duet, and they couldn’t live without the fillip of the make-up. Nor do husbands and wives take each other’s saying seriously. Mrs. Jones , isn't crushed and mortified to death about Mr. Jones’ remarks about money’ every time she asks him for a penny, as one would think she would be, or she would not go to him a second time. She would fori e some financial arrangement that would save her feelings and her pride. Little Meant; Easily Forgiven. For she knows that Jones is really \ generous fellow, that he wants his far#*- - j il.v to have the very things he makes I such a pother about their having, and his attitude of being held up and robbed by his wdfe is simply the fun he gets tor Ids work—his way of bragging an>d railing attention to the luxuries in which lie indulges his wife and children. J r i He simply loves to have her come and ask him for money. That’s the reason A Tf ”1 lie doesn t make her an allowance. Furthermore, husbands and wives for give and forget tlie hard words each says in moments of anger, because maf- tied life goes so much deeper than atiry^v speech. It is not the quick outburst of tempers. j that a man remembers, but the loyalty, i the faith, the unswerving devotion thati 3 Ids wife has given him, the days she hdtf bent over the cooking stove for him, tlf® ? smiles she wore when things were dark and. hard, the vigils she has kept by his ; sickbed. It is not tiie swear word a man rips i out. or ills growling over his dinner, that a woman treasures and broods over in memory; but the way he has toiled for’ her. the tenderness he has shown her, the protecting arm that she sees him in- , 1 ter posing between her and the world. It is this that makes the marriage tie tite most elastic but the strongest bond in the world, and you can never con vince me. for one, that seven out of j eight people yearn to break it. Else they would do It. “ML Medicine Time of the Year T HIS is the medicine time of the year,” remarked the young woman who had come to call. There are I don’t know how many dif- erent assortments of medicine in our ouse in as many different places. “Papa keeps bis medicine in the bath com. I keep the baby's in the nursery, lob keep his behind the mirror in the all. Jane keeps hers in a vegetable !sh on the buffet. Tlie maid keeps ers in tlie basement. Dick keeps his onlc out in the garage. ••T did keep the baby's medicine in lie sewing machine at first, but tlie ottles accumulated so fast that I had o get more room for them. "She used to have two small bottles. Cow she has six large ones. “But papa ha* the worst assortment! Co one is allowed to meddle with his •ottles. yet he is forever roaring about oxne one disturbing them and chang- ng them around and tasting* them. “There are a few toothbrushes in the ame chest with his beverages, and he hinks they are kept there merely to five us an excuse to meddle with his •reclous medicine. He. says if we are tot careful there will be a mixup that vill result in his being poisoned. “There used to#be a small bottle of hoe polish in the very top of his rned- cine repository, ai)d papa got up in the light, rather sleepy, and took a dose »f it for his cough. Thinking it tasted ather funny, he turned on the light. tVhen he saw it was shoe polish he had iold of, he threw the polish and every thing else that wasn’t his own medi- ine out of the window. “Bob complains of the dust that gets n his medicine bottle, but as back of the mirror is the only safe ‘place for it, lie has no alternative. “The maid thinks it hard that she has to go down into the basement to get her tonic. And poor Dick! lie has to be constantly on the alert that he does not drink machine oil or turpen tine or something. He vows that lie took turpentine for a week, and thought his tonic was tasting rather mild, for it generally tasted like ground-up fire works. Then lie discovered that it was only turpentine that he had been taking. “I don’t know whether papa's are the worst doses or not. but he makes the worst faces. My! I wouldn’t look at him again when lie is in tlie act of taking his tonic for worlds! He wouldn't let any one see him take a dose of his latest tonic, anyway. It would be just like seeing a hanging, he says. So he goes into the hath room and shuts and bertts the door. After a time, we hear a sputter ami a .yell, such as you would expect from some one suddenly Im mersed in ice water. Th’en he comes out still making faces and looking very sad and injured.” T HE ivvo pictures above illus trate hoiv plowing is done in India and how an Eng lish farmer made use of an ele phant to prepare his lands. In tlie upper picture may be seen the primitive plow of India and seated upon the neck of the beast the driver. Behind tlie plow is another native who guides it. in the lower picture the Eng lishman is shown guiding a mod ern plow—made in the United States, by the way. He also does the driving by word of mouth. This Englishman declare* that lie has secured better plowing: in less time with one elephant than lie could have dome in the same time with three or four farm horses. On the Bad Habit of Apologizing Too Much By VIRGINIA TERHUNE VAN DE WATER Cutting. UT WOULD box your ears," said a * young lady to her stupid and tire some admirer, “if”—- “If what?” he asked anxiously. If," she repeated, “1 could get a box large enough for the purpose." T HE apology has become a nui sance. This may sound brutal, but it is true. Not the humble apology which the wrongdoer makes to the person he has wronged. That is dignified and to lie respected. But the needless apology with which we are all familiar ha* become a nui sance. “I don't like to take a meal in Mrs. Blank’s house,” said a woman the other day. “for she apologizes for everything she sets before one. It is, ‘I am afraid thfre is too much salt in this soup,’ or. ‘Oh. dear, this meat is tough! I am so sorry!’ or, ‘My dear, this is a very plain din ner. I hope you will pardon me for having such a. simple meal to-night.’ And nil the time everything is as nice as it can he, and the only things I can not excuse are her ex cuses. Let Them Think! A woman who does not apologize except when courtesy and common sense demand w gave a dinner on the evening of the day that a now cook had been installed in her kitchen. To her secret dismay the strawberries- -the first of the sea son—were brought to the table heap'd in tlie center of a platter' plentifully garnished with parsley. “What did you say?” asked the friend to whom the hostess men - < tioned the incident the following day. “Hay? Nothing! I had a right to garnish my strawberries with any thing i chose. 1 let my guests sup pose that it was an innovation—a new thing in decorations-if they thought anything at all about it. 1 certainly did not caii attention to my cook’s mistake." She was a wise woman. Tlie habit of apology, if persisted in, affects one’, self-confidence, for one at last assumes a deprecatory attitude about herself and her possessions. She fears that she “doesn’t look just right” when she goes abroad; she feels that her own home is not as handsome as her neighbor’s house, and intimates as much; she at last gets to the point when she is con tent with nothing that belongs to her. And all the while her long-suf fering friends pat her figuratively speaking -on the back and try to reassure her. “Do not apologize,” advised a wise man, ‘‘unless you have been guilty of actual wrongdoing. It lowers your self-respect.” Not long ago 1 heard a woman say of a piece of work into which she had put her best efforts: “There! That is done as well a* I can do it. It may not be as excel- lent at* somebody else could have made it. but I know It is as Rood a thing as I am capable of at present. S^o 1 offer no apologies for it." Was that not tire sane and honest stand to take, and was it i*u more pleasant to her hearers than to have her deprecate that she had done "so poorly?" When one has performed any task to ttie hest of one’s ability, there is no reason why one should not acknowledge the truth. ■ If one is at heart and in effort sincere, he need not be ashamed. After all, nothing is really contemptible .except affectation and sham. Yes, of Course, Why? An attitude of self-appreciation i.s entirely compatible with true mod- etfty. A man need not be conceited to lie aware that he has done well A great artist was exhibiting ' si painting he had just completed. “That is a beautiful picture!” ex claimed a friend to him. "I know it. and I love it,” was the painter’s naive rejoinder. “What a pretty dress that is you have on!” said one woman to an other. “Yes, that is why ! bought it,” the wearer replied, smilingly. “I think myself that it is very pretty.” Of course she did. If not. why purchase it? AR1IC wants to bet me five dollars that you're married,” ia1fl the Headwaitress to the Siea<i.\ Customer “Why?” he asked. "Well, she says her brother is a phiz jplogy student - “A what?'' queried the Steady Cus tomer. "WAc lie's a face expert," explained the Head wait reset, "u sort of parlor fly- cop like this feller Shy lock Holmes. He can look at anybody's phiz and tell you all about them.. That's why the\ call i.s phizology." “What is there about my face that makes Marie think I'm married?'' asked the, Steady Customer. ‘‘You’ll have to ask Marie," replied Hie Headwaitress. “I figured you were single hecguse the bottom button on your overcoat hasn't been with you for two weeks, and I’m willing to bet on my buttonology against all of her-phiz- Ology. I don't believe .in that kind of stuff anyway. Now you take that tali, dark, mysterious-looking guy that conies in here with you sometimes. I figured him to be a man with a awful past, a sort of gee-but -I-could -1ell-some- ter rible-things-if-1-wanted-to. bloke. When I first saw him I was willing to bet he’d call for black coffee and sinkers in a hoarse voice.” “And what did he do?" asked the Steady Customer. “He asked me for a bowl of milk ami crackers in the softest voice I ever heard." answered the Headwaitress. "aid cubed up with apologizing because he asked for a second glass of water. Lee. if all the blokes that came in here vtas as polite as your friend I’d hand 'em water enough to flood Dayton ah over again if they asked for It." “Nevertheless, there is something in studying faces." said the Steady Cus tomer. “When I chose to sit at you ta ble, Louise, I figured from your face that you were an attentive, fun-loving Ifirl. whose natural charms would go a great way (o aid digestion." “You don’t need no digestion-aider," said the Heudwuitress; “what you need is a license, a collar and a chain, for 1 never seen anybody get away with sau sages anti mashed potatoes like you do." "Marie,” said the Steady Customer to •lie cashier us he was paying his check, “what is there about my face that made you bet Louise I was married?" “A serious expression.’’ answered Marie. "You are a very observing girl." said tlie Steady Customer. t>?<3 Disconsolate o?<] By Wcx Jones i'oOJR little chicken looked gloomy and glum. Instead of all fiufl!\ and Hip. And fci blv it cheeped, “Oh, this world's on Ihe bum,* For the poor little thing had \he pip, The pip-ip-ip-ip. poor little thing had the pip. The sun was as bright as a new-minted dime, But that drooping wee (hick wouldn’t skip; It was having the mournfulest possible time, For the poor little thing had t lie pip, The pip-ip-Ip-lp. The poor little thing had Ihe pip. So don't think the world is a .!** nial old plac e. If mayhap you have loosened your grip; The jtun’s shining still: get a smile on your face. And never give in to the pip, The pip-ip-ip-ip. No, never give in to the pip. BACKACHE A SYMPTOM Of More Serious Illness Ap proaching. Mrs. Ben der’s Case. Backache is a symptom of organic weakness 1 or derangement. If you ; have backache don’t neglect it. To | get permanent relief you must reach • the root of the trouble. Read about | M rs. Bender's exp< rieni e. St James, Mo.—“About a year ago i was Irregular, had cramps every month, headache and constant backache. I took Lydia E. Pink- h a m’s Vegetable (‘ompound and used the Sana tive Wash and 1 am relieved of aii my troubles and am in perfect health. I shall recommend your medicine to ail my friends and lou may publish this testimonial for the benefit of other suffering women.”—Miss Anna Bender, St. James, Missouri. Another Case. Dixon. Iowa.—“1 have been tak ing Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable < ’ompound for some time and it has done me much good. My back trou bled me very much. It seemed weak. I had much pain anil I was not as regular as I should have been. The (’ompound has cured these troubles and l recommend it to all my friendB.” —Mrs. Bertha Dierksen, Box 102, Dixon. Iowa. If you have the slightest doubt that Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Com pound will help you, write to Lydia E. Pinkham Medicine Co. (confiden tial), Lynn, Mass., for advice. Ydur letter will be opened, read an#H!. swered by a woman, and hel<3 strict confidence. The WILL PUBLISH A BEAUTIFUL SUNDAY AMERICAN TO-MORROW With Photographs of all the Opera Singers, names of boxholders, goTPns of Too- men TP ho Tpill attend the performances, and all other neTPs about the perform ances that no other news paper Will give :: :: :: ORDER = YOUR SUNDAY AMERICAN