404 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



■with happy. Courtesy is a thing for '* consumption on the premises," and is 

 only an expression of generous temper, refined taste, and cultivated mind. 

 Says a Lounger in Society : " It is the duty of every member of a family, 

 to do all he can to promote the happiness of the other members. It is neces- 

 sary, therefore, to bear and forbear; to make mutual concessions; to keep 

 down selfishness; to cultivate a love of justice and honor; to get rid of our 

 petty likes and dislikes ; to conquer and control our temper. Much may be 

 done by a nice attention to the requirements of etiquette, by an observance of 

 those laws which govern the decencies and proprieties of life. There is no 

 reason why a husband should not treat his wife with exquisite politeness; why 

 a wife should not remember tliat her husband has a claim to be treated like a 

 gentleman ; why the finest manners should not be observed by brothers and 

 sisters." This mutual courtesy, inspired by mutual love, would purify the 

 atmosphere of home, and invest with a new dignity our domestic relations. 

 Let us make etiquette a matter of household concern, seeing it touches us as 

 nearly as the price per pound of soap, salt, or sugar. Why are we to throw 

 off our politeness, like a cloak, when we cross our own household? Why should 

 not our mother or sisters claim from us those graceful observances which we 

 make it a point of honor to vouchsafe to strangers? The man who stands with 

 his hat on in the presence of his mother and sister manifests thereby such a 

 want of apprehension of the requirements of filial and fraternal reverence and 

 affection — of the rudiments of true domestic loyalty — as, if circumstances do 

 not combine to correct him, will in the long-run render him fit for treason, 

 stratagems, and spoils; he sets at naught feelings and principles which would 

 interpose one of the most important barriers between himself and crime. It 

 would not be surprising if such a man were to finish his career in the dock or 

 the hulks ; he lacks the true nobility and elevation of sentiment without which 

 he will not, and he cannot, come to good. 



The happiness of home will be promoted by a due attention to recreation. 

 The heads of a family should see that its younger members are provided with 

 wholesome amusements; and the cultivation of music or drawing, the reading 

 aloud of good books, the introduction of a game, will help wonderfully to 

 facilitate the smooth passage of the hours. Man cannot live by bread alone; 

 his mind must be cheered, his heart lightened, by the supply of refining pas- 

 times. Dulce est desi23ere in loco ; that is, in the bosom of one's family, for 

 nowhere else will enjoyment be purer or more genuine. The gloom which lies 

 about some households is distressing ; the father never smooths the furrows of 

 his brow, the mother's countenance never loses its shadow, the daughter's lips 

 never brighten into a smile, the son's voice never breaks out into hearty 

 laughter. They keep their weariness and sadness for home consumption. 



Music is a good commodity to have in the house. Life is not too short nor 

 time too precious, to spend an hour a day in sawing the squeaking fiddle, 

 blowing the melancholy flute, banging the piano, puffing away at the droning 

 trombone, or screeching for dear life on difficult vocalizations. From all this 

 clatter and bang will come a moral harmony as well as a harmony of sounds, — 

 a skillful blending of voices and instruments, and sweet spiritual concord. 



A stranger visiting Boston said he could almost see the fine essence of inspi- 

 ration steaming upward as a visible vapor from the scalps of the cultured 

 Bostonians ; that when a Boston policeman hits a malefactor over the head 

 with his truncheon, the dying man observes, in one of the deceased languages: 

 '* Peeler, morituri te salutamus," and the peeler not only understands him, 

 but hits him another rap if he makes a false quantity. While there is satire 



