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NEW ENGLAND FARiVIER. 



May 



and blood that we are. See how they come out, 

 I don't think a man of any spirit would let his 

 Wife and children go to church dressed as you let 

 us go. Look at these children. You would think 

 thtit they had .iu^t come out of some slop-house! 

 If I had mairicd as I misht have married, we 

 should have had different times — I and my chil- 

 dren!" How many men are stung to the quick 

 by such remarks from their wives! Oftentimes 

 thei^tnoral sense revolts, at first, and they feel 

 indignation ; but "continual dropping wears a 

 stjne ;" and by and by the man is dressed a little 

 bi-tter than he can afford, and hii wife and chil- 

 dren are dressed better than he can afford ; and 

 somebody must pay for the extravagance. I do 

 not say that tliey are tempted to steal ; but I do 

 say tliat they grind. They mean somebow to get 

 it out of the niilliner, out of the dress maker, or \ 

 out of the merchant. They intend to make one 

 hand wash the other somehow, and they go into 

 petty meanness t) bring it about. And this de- 

 sire to dress better than they can afibrd is taking 

 otf the very enamel of their vjrtue, and taking out j 

 the very stamma of their religious life. Unim- ! 

 portant as it ?«ems, ostentatious vanity in dress I 

 has ruined many a family, and damned many a i 

 soul! — Henri/ Ward Beecher. 



"Woman's Labor. — According to certain rules 

 of society, women are required to look upon labor 

 as a degradation and a disgrace, and to disrespect 

 the remuneration they get from manly toil. It is 

 different among the male portion of the commu- 

 nity. The schoolboy is trained to be a workman, 

 and if society shuts her door on him he has still 

 mechanical skill which brings plenty to rejoice 

 him. The female is not so ; she depends upon 

 marriage. You hear a woman say to one who 

 asks her does her daughter work : "My daughter 

 work! Never. My daughter did not ilo a single 

 piece of work in all her life; she shajl marry 

 some day." When it is asked of the painter v/ill 

 he bring his boy up to his own trade — "Bring my 

 boy up to my own trade," says the painter, "Nev- 

 er ! he shall be brought up to no labor, he shall be 

 a gentleman," as though a gentleman could mean 

 anything in America but a pure heart, a clear 

 mind, and an unsullied conscience and a manly 

 life. — Anna E, Dickinson. 



The Proper Size of a Lady's Foot. — Boots, 

 ladies' boots, are the subject of a letter from ]^r. 

 Buomi to the London Builder — a strange medium 

 for such a topic, by the way. He has been meas- 

 uring the foot of the Venus de Medici, or rather 

 (it amounts to the same thing) of an accurate cast 

 of the statue. The erect height of the figure is, as 

 is well-known, live feet two inches, and he finds 

 the length of the foot to be exactly nine inches, or 

 as nearly as possible one-seventh of the height. 

 The breadth of the widest part of the sole is three 

 and three-eighths inches, a fraction over one- 

 eighteenth of the figure's stature. From these 

 data, and a knowledge of her height, every lady 

 can determine what should be the size of her 

 boots ; she may exceed the dimensions given in 

 the formula if she sees fit, but woe to her health, 

 and, according to Mr. Buomi, good-bye to the j 

 symmetry of her pedals, if she tries to squeeze ' 

 them into anything less. But does the Venus, or 

 any other idealization, represent every case of the 

 humanity it typifies ? If, as is certainly the case, 

 some feminine extremities exceed the sculptor's 

 proportions, others as certainly fall within them ; 

 and it is hardly likely that the possessors of these 

 will wear boots too big for them merely for the 

 sake of conforming to a fancy standard. 



WoMEX AS Postmasters. — President Grant has 

 sent in to the Senate the names of Elizabeth Van 

 Lew to be f>ostmaster at Richmond, Virginia; 

 Eliza F. Evans to be postmaster at Ravenna, 

 Ohio ; and Emily J. C. Bushnell to be postmaster 

 at Sterling, Illinois. It is not a new thing under 

 the sun that a woman should be made postmaster; 

 in England many of the country offices are in 

 charge of women; in this country several Presi- 

 dents have appointed women to such places ; and 

 certainly no one can object to the appointment of 

 Elizabeth Van Lew, which is "in acknowledgment 

 of important services to the Union army during 

 the rebellion." A woman who was able to render 

 "important services" to her country during a 

 time of war, is doubtless able to manage a post- 

 ofiice. — New York Evening Post. 



Only the Truth. — An unknown lady recently 

 wrote thus, and how truly : — 



"It would be no privilege to be the wife of the 

 larger proportion of the men one meets on the 

 street; and I not unfrequcntly find myself analyz- 

 ing masculine faces, and guessing at the relation- 

 ship existing between such a one and his wife. It 

 is but rarely, I confess it, that I meet a face which 

 tempts me to say, 'Happy is the woman that calls 

 thee lord !' And yet I repeat my honest conviction 

 that the relationship of wife and mother is tne 

 purest and noblest, the most sacred, and the most 

 elevating in the entire range of the humanities." 



