California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



ijou.OfhoW I'Qdiiig, 



Words of Council With Parents. 



M — 



OIjTds. AcRrcuLTUiiisT: Notwithstanding my 

 4^ short acquaintance with your paper, I 

 feel an earnest denire to draw my chair 

 within the " domestic circle" and say a 

 few words to parents. 



I have often desired to be an able writer, 

 that I might employ a stj'le of composition so 

 charming in its power of persuasive eloquence 

 that parents every where, and in every con- 

 dition, would be forced to realize their great 

 responsibility. I am frequently astonished 

 at the manner in which parents (good people, 

 too) regard the welfare of their children. 

 They will talk eloquently about what obser- 

 vation and experience have taught them as 

 regards their horses, cows and pigs, but sel- 

 dom will a word be uttered in reference to 

 family culture. The little ones that God has 

 committed to their keeping, with the solemn 

 injuncticm to carefully train, are permitted to 

 grow up in a way to suit convenience. Not 

 because of lack of love — oh, no; but because 

 the trials and burdens of life are suffered to 

 creep iu and obscure the path of duty. How 

 many poor, tired and overworked " mothers 

 thei-e are who, in order to indulge in the un- 

 limited extravagances of the age, are forced to 

 expend all their time and energy in the vain 

 and unprofitable endeavor to serve the body, 

 while the mind is left neglected. 



How many weary, anxious and perplexed 

 fathers there are, too, who are trying iu all 

 sorts of ways to reach a higher round in life's 

 great ladder, regardless of consequences. O ! 

 the confusion, the turmoil and strife that be- 

 set us all in our journeyiugs up and down. 

 No wonder that He who planned this myste- 

 rious lailder, and set each round in wisdom, 

 should have so earnestly warned us of danger. 

 Then be careful, fathers and mothers, guard 

 wisely and well your sacred trust — your homes 

 — your children. Can there be anything more 

 beautiful than a perfect home — a spot more 

 sacred than her domain — a gift more precious 

 than little children ? 



Mothers, to you especially is a noble work 

 intrusted. Begin it early. Let your little 

 ones feel that you trust them fully. Enter- 

 tain and iustrui't them. Converse with them, 

 and encourage them to talk with you. Many 

 a child grows up hard, unimpressible, unlov- 

 ing, simply from the imposed silence in which 

 the first years of life were spent. Remember, 

 too, that innocent amusement is the very life 

 of childhood; that too much restraint is' pro- 

 ductive of evil. Teach your children to con- 

 fide in you, to counsel with you in the most 

 trivial affairs that concern them. 



liut, perhaps I have trespassed sufficiently 

 for once, therefore I will conclude my remarks 

 at some future time. M. E. Thomasson. 



A Mother's Influence. — Who can measure 

 the intluence of a mother on the young and 

 immortal minds of her children? "Her looks, 

 her actions, her smiles, or her frowns on her 

 children stamp impressions on their mimls 

 which will last forever. She gives a moulding 

 influence to their character, their course of 

 life, their tem|)oral aud eternal well being. 

 They rise to the glories and happiness of 

 heaven, or sink to the woes and ruin of a lost 

 eternity, much according as the mother trains 

 them up for God, or allows them, through 

 neglect, to grow up in selfishness and sin. 

 The mother sits at the threshold of their ex- 

 istence, aud directs their first tottering foot- 

 steps, Her duties lie at the foundations of 

 human society, and from these young springs 

 of life, flow out iu all their after existence, 

 streams of bitter or sweet, purified or poison- 

 ous. 



False Delicacy Between Mothers and 

 Daughters. — An young girls near the boun- 

 dary line where childhood and womanhood 

 meet, there comes a natural, wondering inter- 

 est as to the difercnt relationships they see 

 around them. This curiosity being the voice 

 of nature, imperatively claims satisfaction, 

 and if the mother does not give it legitimately 

 the child will be only too likely to gain it from 

 sources of whose very existence she is ignor- 

 ant, simply because to her they are superflu- 

 ous. 



There are thousands of mothers who will 

 talk with the kindest unreserve to those not 

 liound to them with any tie but that of friend- 

 ship, who yet feel the most false aud foolish 

 delicacy with their own daughters. I know 

 this to be the case. A great many young girls 

 have come to me for information and advice 

 on personal subjects, whom an unnatural re- 

 serve kept from applying to their own moth- 

 ers. I know it again by experience. I found 

 it much harder to do my duty in this respect 

 to my own daughters than to the daughters of 

 others. And yet the duty is an imperative 

 one, which requires to be attended to both 

 much earlier and more positively than was 

 necessary iu your own case. For assure your- 

 self of one thing, that the knowledge which 

 came to women half a century ago only as the 

 result of experience, is ready now at every 

 street corner and in every kitchen for your 

 little girl, as answer to her fii'st wondering in- 

 tuition. 



Nay, while she still nurses her doll and 

 wears her childhood's aprons, all the myste- 

 ries of human nature are questioning her in- 

 nocent heart. Who is to answer her? Will 

 you leave her to soil her white soul with the 

 filthy fancies c^f dime novels, or still worse 

 books. Is some servant girl, lewd and ignor- 

 ant, to usurp her mother's holy olfice, aud 

 defile the sacred sanctuary of your home? Or 

 will you with calm and reverent wisdom lead 

 herintothe "house of life," and show her 

 how "fearfully aud wonderfully we are 

 made." 



Will you not, then, explain to her that this 

 human "body is the temple of the Holy Ghost 

 bought with a price," and that it cannot be 

 defiled, even by an impure thought, without 

 sinning against Him who cleansed it with his 

 own precious blood, making our bodies ' 'mem- 

 bers of his own." Such teaching is neces- 

 sary to keep her morally healthy, and if you 

 can succeed iu inspiring her with a profound 

 reverence for purity of soul you have done 

 very much to secure her health, her intellect, 

 and that joyous, cheerful abandon which, 

 though the glorious privilege of natural 

 girlhood, is, alas! every year becoming more 

 rare. 



But this first primary instrnction neglected, 

 what follows? Physical abuse and degrada- 

 tion. A sin against nature which gradually 

 makes your child (born a little lower than the 

 angels) below the beasts of the field. 



I am quite aware that this is a very delicate 

 subject, as well as one of the saddest of social 

 problems. But ignoring an evil does not an- 

 nihilate it. And the anger of those whose 

 false refinemeut foibids them to speak of 

 things it does not forbid them to do, or the 

 scoffing of the vulgar and light-minded will 

 not deter the serious and benevolent from its 

 consideration. 



rhysicians see the mighty evil filling our 

 lunatic asylums, robbing marriage and pater- 

 nity of all its divinity, digging myriads of tiny 

 graves for infants born of parents too en- 

 feebled to give them enduring life, aud most 

 of them with a groan of pity "pass by on the 

 other side." 



There is no doubt, however, that the great 

 majority of young people now slaves of the 

 most repulsive habits might have been saved 

 had their parents earlj' explained to them the 

 eternal laws of nature, ami their intimate con- 

 nection with "whatsoever is lovely and of 

 good report." And further, it is also the duty 

 of parimts, liavini) iii.-<tnided, to iratrh until vir- 

 tue has acquired the strength of habit — of 



habit whose foundations are laid iu piety and 

 knowledge. 



Slow, insidious, unsuspected, suicide is be- 

 coming a household crime. Children make 

 their own coffins day by day, and parents are 

 either ignorant or indiS'erent to the fact. 

 Againist this sin physicians must become ac- 

 tive missionaries, for their words, weighted 

 with knowledge, will have an irresistible in- 

 fluence. 



But prevention is always better than cure. 

 And, therefore, mothers and daughters should 

 have but one heart, and fathers and sons walk 

 together as friends. — Mrs. A. E. Burr, in Sci- 

 ence of Health. 



A Cheerful Home. — A single word may 

 disquiet a whole family. One surly glance 

 cast a gloom over a whole household; while a 

 smile, like a gleam of sunshine may light up 

 the darkest and weariest hours. Like unex- 

 pected flowers which spring up along our path, 

 full of freshness, fragrance aud beauty, so 

 kind words, gentle acts, and sweet disposi- 

 tions, make glad the home where peace and 

 blessing dwell. And the influences of home 

 perpetuate themselves. The gentle grace of 

 the loving mother lives in her daughters long 

 after her head is pillowed in the dust of earth; 

 and fatherly kindness finds its echo in the 

 nobility and courtesy of sous who come to 

 wear his mantle, and fill his place; while on 

 the other hand, from an unhapjiy, mis-gov- 

 erned aud disorderly home, go forth persons 

 who shall make other homes miserable, and 

 perpetuate the sourness and sadness, the con- 

 tentions and strifes and railings, which have 

 made their own earthly lives so wretched and 

 distorted. 



Toward the cheerful home the children 

 gather "as clouds and as doves to their win- 

 dows;" while from abodes of discontent and 

 strife and trouble, they fly forth as vultures 

 to rend their prey. 'The class of men that 

 disturb aud distress the world are not those 

 born and nurtured amid the hallowed influ- 

 ence of Christian homes — but rather those 

 whose early life has been a scene of trouble 

 and vexation, who have started wrong in the 

 pilgrimage, and whose course is one of disas- 

 ter to themselves and trouble to those arouna 

 them. 



Labor-Saving Machinery. 



The saving iu the operations of husbandry 

 by the use of modern implements and meth- 

 ods is equal to one-half the former cost of 

 working. By the improved plow, labor 

 equivalent to that of one horse in three is 

 saved. By means of drills, two bushels of 

 seed will go as far as three bushels scattered 

 broadcast. The plants come up in rows, and 

 may be tended by horse-hoes; being iu the 

 bottom of little furrows, the earth tumbles 

 dowu against the plants, which is not so 

 readily heaved out by the Winter's frost. The 

 reaping machine is a saving of more than one- 

 third of the labor when it cuts and rakes, and 

 will eventually save fully three-fourths when 

 it is made to bind automatically, as it shortly 

 will be. The threshing-machine is a saving 

 of two-thirds on the old hand-flail mode. The 

 root-cutters for stock in Euglaud, aud in some 

 places iu the Northern States and Canada, 

 much reduce the labor of Winter feeding. 

 The saving in the labor of handling hay iu 

 the field aud barn by means of horse-rakes, 

 horse hay-forks, etc., is equal to one-half. 

 With the exception of a grain drill — which 

 had a jn-ecarious existence previtnis to 1776 — 

 all these improvements have bein commenced 

 and brought to the present relative perfection 

 within the century now closing. — Harper's for 

 December. 



The only objection to the female chaplain 

 of the Maine Legislature is that she has too 

 much to say. 



Butter will remove tar spots. Soap and 

 water will take out the grease stain. 



V; 



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