KILLING ONE’S OWN BUSINESS. 
OE and I were discussing the subject of whether 
farming paid the other evening. We had con¬ 
cluded that it paid as well as any other business, and 
that, all things considered, a farmer’s life is about the 
happiest kind of a life after all. We had weighed our 
gains and our losses, and although the crops had not 
turned out as well as usual the past year, yet the 
gains outweighed the losses. To begin with, we had 
made a fair living ; i e , we had all had enough to eat 
and drink and some to spare for friends and neigh¬ 
bors, and comfortable clothes to wear, besides needful 
household articles, Then Joe had kept his bills, taxes 
and insurance paid up, and had bought some new 
tools and stock and various other things which seemed 
almost too small to be counted, and which are often 
overlooked when farmers have a reckoning. 
There was some money left over, and we were 
having a really comfortable time of it planning how 
to invest it so as to bring a good return. Joe wanted 
to buy a few more acres of land, but I told him that 
we had enough, and he was about to compromise by 
deciding on a reaper for out-doors, and a new sewing 
machine for the house, when our.next door neighbor 
came in, and you ought to have heard those men talk 
and compare notes on farming! They seemed to 
take a special pleasure in running their business down 
to the lowest notch. Joe claimed that he hadn’t made 
a cent in the past 10 years and that the last year was 
the worst of all. 
Mr. Brown said that potatoes were selling cheap. 
He didn’t expect to get more than 25 cents per bushel; 
and his corn wasn’t half a crop; and he reckoned there 
wouldn’t be much call for hay. He had never had 
good luck raising stock, and a man couldn’t sell any 
if he had it. 
Then Joe joined in with, “ That’s so ; there’s that 
colt of mine. Horses are high enough if you want to 
buy, but I presume by the time he is old enough to 
sell, they won’t be worth more’n $15 apiece.” 
Now as he had told me that he expected to get $150 
at the least calculation for that colt, I was a trifle sur¬ 
prised and came pretty near “ speaking right out in 
meeting.” 
Well, those men ran on all the evening about farm¬ 
ers leading a dog’s life, and farms not being worth 
taking as a gift, until they would have convinced the 
most sanguine of buyers that farming was the poorest 
paying business that a man could venture into If 
they had spent as much time and breath in praising 
up their farms and advertising them, they might have 
made a sale on the spot But as far as my experience 
with farmers goes, they seem to take an especial 
delight in grumbling. Not only this, but they bi’ing 
up their sons to grumble ; and then they grumble 
because the boys and girls leave the farm. And when 
the mothers and daughters grumble too, I think God 
must be sorry He made them, and I wonder sometimes 
that He prospers them at all. 
After Mr. Brown had grumbled himself sleepy, he 
started for home, and I made up my mind that Joe 
should not sleep peacefully until he had contradicted 
his own fabrications anyway, so I spoke up “ kind of 
sharp” and asked, “Joe, are you going into bank¬ 
ruptcy rightaway ? Do you think I had better begin 
to pack up our duds to-night so as to be ready to start 
for the poorliouse when the crash comes, or shall we 
starve together ?” 
“ What crash ?” inquired Joe in a bewildered tone. 
“Who’s going to starve ? I ain’t while we can raise 
enough to eat. Bankruptcy ! What are you talking 
about, Maria ? ” 
“Why, Joe,” I answered, “I thought by the way 
you talked to Mr. Brown that you were losing money 
all the time and that you would not be able to stave 
off your creditors much longer. Are we really any 
poorer than we were 10 years ago ? ” 
“No, we ain’t,” replied Joe emphatically. “If I 
thought we were I’d give my farm away to-morrow. 
You see if Brown isn’t up before daylight to-morrow 
morning trying to get to market ahead of me so as to 
get a bigger price for his potatoes and butter and eggs. 
1 It’s the early bird catches the worm,’ and I’ll get the 
start of him for once if I have to get up in the middle 
of the night to do it. But cooperation is the one 
thing necessary to make farming a success, and it is 
coming after awhile,even if Brown and I do make more 
effort to hinder than to help it along by selling our 
stock' and produce for all sorts of prices. The agri¬ 
cultural papers all over the United States are helping 
us greatly with their market reports and crop statistics, 
and if we take hold in earnest and in an intelligent 
manner, there is no reason to complain of being at 
the mercy of the middlemen.” 
Here Joe paused to catch his breath and gave me 
an opportunity to congratulate him on his ability as a 
champion of cooperation, in speech if not in action. 
“Why didn’t you talk like that when Mr. Brown 
was here, instead of grumbling and misrepresenting 
everything until I began to fear that we were going 
to destruction immediately ? Why don’t a merchant 
or any other business man run down bis stock and 
trade until one is obliged to conclude that his stock is 
not worth taking as a gift and his trade is the poor¬ 
est-paying about ? A smart man you would call him ; 
and any farmer who does that can not expect to pros¬ 
per. If you are doing well at farming, boom your 
own trade and location instead of running them down. 
Now is the time to do it when hundreds of disap¬ 
pointed young farmers are returning East after they 
have given the West a fair trial and have made the 
startling discovery that a fortune in the West means 
hard work and poor living. Let us show them that 
the East has something better than husks to offer 
them in pla^e of the Western farmer’s fare of corn 
bread and bacon.” 
“Well, well, Maria, I reckon you are in the right 
of it,” replied Joe ; “ but don’t let’s get excited over 
it just at bedtime. Anyway, farmers would feel as 
if deprived of one of their greatest privileges if they 
were not allowed to grumble. It’s only a habit 
they’ve got; they don’t mean anything. They kind 
of enjoy having something to grumble about.” 
ALICE E FINNEY. 
NEW SPRING FURNISHINGS. 
CARPETS, WALL PAPER ANI) CURTAINS. 
HERE would be no harmony, would there, between 
1830 gowning and the furnishings of some other 
epoch ? Certainly not ; hence we find many of the 
carpet and paper patterns going back to the days of 
our grandmothers also. In the ’80’s we were wont to 
sneer at the huge cabbage-rose designs, etc., but then, 
it was the fashion thus to cast aspersions on the taste 
of by-gone times, not quite far enough gone by to be 
really antique. But now, “ floral designs are just as 
popular, and in some cases just as large as in the 
days of the cabbage roses” is the assertion. Not for a 
moment, however, can this age admit that our cabbage 
roses are to stand on an equal footing with former 
cabbage roses. That would be to admit that our 
boasted advance in art were no advance, but merely a 
round of fashion—and indeed the artful way in which 
colorings and designs are handled in the new offerings 
is a thing to be marveled at. Combinations of pale 
yellow and olive, simulating autumn tintings, with 
soft fawn and brown for a border ; of old gray-blue 
with white and drab and faint yellow ; of metallic 
gray with water lilies in pale tan, fawn and silvery 
gray, bewilder the mind, and render the would-be 
buyer unable to decide which is the most desirable, 
In the suburban towns nothing less than Wilton or 
Moquette has of late been good enough for formal 
furnishings in families of any standing. Wilton is 
merely a Brussels with the pile cut; it is the best 
wearing carpet of all styles made, but is expensive at 
first. It is said that the improvements in Brussels are 
giving it the lead again both as to beauty and econ¬ 
omy ; even the effects of the extravagant Axminster 
now being shown in Brussels makes. A new feature 
is a reversible Brussels rug, which is to be had in 
small sizes only, as yet. Those who know never fail 
to warn all intending carpet buyers to resist the 
cheaper charms of tapestry Brussels, as it will cer¬ 
tainly prove a disappointing delusion. Body Brussels 
is the standard. 
Among new mattings are those called twisted 
damask. They are jointless, reversible and about half 
an inch thick, each straw being composed of three 
others twisted and then braided. Among those of 
lower price are pretty ones, reversible, and with 
inserted patterns. Some have regular carpet pat¬ 
terns. The greenish-gray Ning-Poo mattings are shot 
with designs in blue and red. They seem tough and 
durable. 
Wall paper manuf icturers appear to have but one 
aim, viz., to copy some fabric in all the patterns. 
Accordingly, they show Gobelin tapestry effects, 
satin-striped silks and embossed papers imitating 
mail-cloth, canvas and other fabrics. The satin stripes 
are accompanied by plaided ceiling paper, and many 
styles have two friezes, either of which the buyer may 
select; the nine-inch for low ceilings, the 18-inch for 
those that are high. One way that is suggested to 
make a ceiling appear higher, is to lower the frieze 
a few inches, letting it be met on the side-wall by the 
ceiling paper. The favorite cartridge papers are no 
logger made. 
Two surprises meet the interested looker-on in the 
wall paper bazaars : the first that the cheap papers 
are so good, so truly artistic ; the second that the best 
papers are so cheap—the difference in quality is 
mainly a question of texture. Blue and silver with a 
pink frieze having pale blue blossoms is one pretty 
color combination ; shrimp pink and silver with olive 
and yellow ; and baby blue with old blue and gray 
and a touch of gold are other favorites. 
Handsome curtains are of Irish point and Cluny ; 
more simple ones are of dotted and figured Swiss, or 
of white muslin with an embroidered border. These 
are considered much more refined for country houses 
than Nottingham lace, so long used. White muslins at 
12% cents a yard, printed in pale tinted designs, are 
edged with ruffles of the same, or of a solid color to 
match the figure. These are in highest favor for 
chamber windows They are turned over 10 inches on 
the wrong side, stitched across to form a five-inch 
frill, and again stitched four inches lower down to 
form a casing in which the pole is inserted in the 
usual place of the drawing cord. Madras and cotton 
ecru curtains are shown, but are neither so new nor 
so refined as those before mentioned. Refined sim¬ 
plicity is the word as to curtains, especially for 
country houses. And this does not mean simply farm 
houses, but these summer hom a s wherein the rich 
take their simple summer leisure. myra v. norys. 
HOW I RAISED THE LAMBS. 
AM a farmer's daughter who believes in develop¬ 
ing the resources of the farm before going into 
other business. I would like to tell the girls one way 
in which I am making a little money this spring. On 
February 12 one of my father’s sheep had twin lambs. 
Neither of them was strong enough to stand on its 
feet and both were brought to the house, where I 
heated water and put them into it, letting them re¬ 
main until they were thoroughly warmed through. 
Then I wiped them dry and gave them a little warm 
milk. I wish I could send a picture of them as they 
looked then, lying by the stove with their great long 
legs stretched out. But they were soon on their feet, 
when we took them back to the barn. There, to our 
dismay, we found their poor old mother stretched out 
on the stable floor, dead. Of course I had to adopt 
the lambs. We had very little milk, not having any 
new-milch cow, so I took some hay, and having made 
a strong tea of it, diluted the milk with it. Having 
slightly sweetened the mixture I fed it to them, and 
they have grown like the proverbial weed. They 
come when I call and follow me about the barn and 
yard. I feed them from an old tin teapot, with a 
nipple such as is used for baby’s bottle, tied on to the 
spout. They are now six weeks old and, by all odds, 
the nicest lambs in the flock. If they keep on grow¬ 
ing as they have done they will be worth at least $5 
apiece by fall, but their weight in gold wou’d hardly 
tempt me to part with them. They have always been 
kept at the barn, except during the first night. 
_ LUCY TAYLOR. 
Seedling 1 Chrysanthemums. —I wish to speak a good 
word for them. On April 17 I sowed half a paper of 
seed; in five days over 80 plants were up. They 
grew rapidly and I transplanted them, setting them 
about one inch apart. Before it was time to put them 
in the garden'I took out and reset every alternate one. 
All summer I kept pinching out the tops to make them 
branch, till by August many of them had 20 to 30 long 
branches. They were late of course, for they were 
started a month later than they should have been on 
account of sickness ; but by the middle of October 
they began to bloom. Those that were taken into a 
cold room where there was a sunny window lasted 
there till Christmas, and those I cut then kept iu the 
house for three weeks longer. They were of every 
shade and color except blue, and ranged from single 
ones with petals two inches long to perfectly double 
ones, some of them with broid ribbon-like petals, 
others fine as a thistle bloom. They were of the 
Chinese and Japanese varieties mixed. Some that I 
left in the garden without any protection, are now 
starting, and I think with a little covering they might 
easily be wintered out-of-doors. Do not water the 
seed bed by sprinkling, as the seed is very fine, but let 
the water soak up from the bottom by setting the pot 
in a pan till it begins to show moisture at the surface. 
F. E. BALE. 
When Baby was sick, we gave her Castorla, 
When she was a Child, she cried for Castorla, 
When she became Miss, she clnng to Castorla, 
When she had Children, she gave them Castorla. 
