52 THE HOME, FARM AND BUSINESS CYCDOP^EDIA, 



maid come in with bare, red arms and a frowsy cap ; the mistress must 

 bear it all in silence, nor seem to see it, however dreadful it may be. Then 

 let her descend upon the faulty one, and, in" the retirement of the front 

 basement, have it out with her. 



Some women have a gift at training servants which is like the talent 

 which generals have in handling an army. They can, by their own per- 

 sonal magnetism, make a servant refrain from clattering plates. Others 

 have no such gift. They are from first to last the slaves of their servants, 

 afraid of them, and unable to cope with them. " Oh ! fchat I could make 

 a request which is a command as you do," said one of the inefficient to the 

 efficient. 



It is, perhaps, a talent which can not be learned ; certainly, after many 

 failures, we do not wonder that the women who can not manage servants 

 give up housekeeping, and go to the hotels and boarding-houses. A model 

 hostess is said to be one who has a knowledge of the world that nothing 

 can impair, a calmness of temper which nothing can disturb, and a kind- 

 ness of disposition which can never be exhausted. Now, that is rather an 

 unusual character. A hostess should certainly have self-control, and should 

 not reprove her servants before company. She should have tact, good- 

 breeding, and self-possession. Even then she may not have the talent to 

 create good service out of the raw material the clay which Ireland sends 

 to her. She can only suffer and be silent. 



We have spoken of the impropriety of attacking our brother's friends. 

 If we can not like them, we can refrain from knowing them intimately ; 

 but let us always also refrain from speaking ill, or " making fun" of those 

 persons who are liked by other members of the family. There are some 

 families not the happiest ones where this is done constantly. If Ed- 

 mund likes Jack, who is peculiar, William and Susan make all manner of 

 " game" of Jack, and he is thus excluded from the house. Edmund hesi- 

 tates to invite him, as he knows he will be pained by these ill-natured 

 comments. Certain families have a sort of acrid disagreeability, which 

 they call wit, which overflows in this way, and which makes home any- 

 thing but a happy place. 



Young people are little aware how badly they appear as satirists. They 

 do not know enough, as a general thing, to satirize wisely. It takes a 

 great and learned person to do that. Young persons should be optimists, 

 and should admire rather than condemn. They should learn that culti- 

 vated persons rarely have to resort to such weapons as coarse censure and 

 crude ridicule. And, even if in the height of good spirits and youthful 

 fun, they feel like ridiculing the friend whom their brother has chosen, 



