Wb are glad to say that our readers are responding 
to our questions. And what do you suppose was the 
reason offered by one for her silence heretofore ? She 
thought some one else could do better than she could I 
It is not often that we find ourselves indebted to the 
person who can do the best for us. It is usually the 
person who does the best he can who gives us cause 
for gratitude. The Chief Cook isn’t willing to take the 
will for the deed ; but she will make generous allow¬ 
ances when one does the best he can, no matter how 
far from perfection the effort may be. Tho§e who de¬ 
sire to be helpful and make an effort to be so, are 
helpful. So here’s a question for you : Has any one 
used the Aladdin oven or cooker ? With what re- 
OxB of the duties of the policemen stationed at the 
entrance to Brooklyn Bridge is to prevent the en¬ 
trance of any vehicle or load beyond a certain size. 
The other day a wagon loaded with empty barrels was 
stopped, the long stick was brought, and the bulky 
load measured. Fortunately for the driver, his load 
was just within bounds. There are too many people 
who want to take up the whole road, and they will go 
to the last limits of their neighbors’ forbearance. If 
we are fellow travelers with such, we must, like the 
policeman, have a measure, a plain “thus far and no 
farther,” to define the limit where patience ceases to 
be a virtue. 
We read a sign, not long ago, “Mrs. So-and-So, 
cateress.” Caterer is not unusual, since catering is 
largely a masculine profession. If women do the 
work that men have originated and named, why will 
they not be content to adopt the name as it is, and 
not continue the mutilation of the Qaeen’s English ? 
The dictionary is too bulky now, and the sooner words 
ending in “ess” become obsolete, the better. That 
men and women must have different names for doing 
the same work, is just as mistaken an idea, as that 
they should have different pay. True womanliness is 
not so easily obliterated by surroundings, that one 
when outside her home, needs to wear a placard say¬ 
ing, “ I am a woman.” 
HOUSEWORK AND WAGES. 
SOME ADVANTAGES WHICH AHE WOBTH MONEY. 
W HILE it is no doubt true, as Fred Grundy says, 
that some people pay less for the services of 
girls in the kitchen than could be secured in some 
other kinds of work, I think that when he considers 
the matter of board and lodging, care when ill, and 
many other points on the other side, he will see that 
the country school teacher, the clerk in village stores, 
even many stenographers, typewriters and bookkeep¬ 
ers, have less money at the end of each week than the 
“hired girl” whose cause he espouses. There is the 
matter of dress alone. The woman who works in our 
kitchens, does not need half the outlay in that direc¬ 
tion that the other occupations make necessary. Hats, 
gloves, boots and dresses will wear twice as long, and 
the mere fact that the kitchen girl can wear her 
clothing out, instead of thrusting it aside when it be¬ 
comes the least bit shabby, is an item worth consider¬ 
ing. The kitchen girl gets her training, for the 
greater part, from her employer free of charge ; while 
the other workers must pay for their education as 
well as for their subsistence while obtaining it. Is 
this so small a matter as to demand no thought ? 
Then the question of board must be considered. 
Three dollars per week is not regarded as an extrava¬ 
gant rate for board in our country villages. Add this 
to the two and one-half dollars which Mr. Grundy 
allows as an average wage, and then find a reasonable 
proportion of women in other occupations who receive 
more than $6 per week, only 50 cents more than your 
kitchen girl commands. Even that 50 cents is easily 
saved in clothing which her daily tasks render unneces¬ 
sary, but which other occupations require. 
The hired girl may work more hours than those in 
some other vocation, but her work has more variety, 
and is rarely so confining that she does not have an 
hour or two each day for rest or recreation before 
supper time. Few kitchen girls are at extra expense 
during illness, except for the services of a physician ; 
while shop girls lose their time, pay board and usually 
the fees of a nurse, when too ill to look after them¬ 
selves. 
I fail to see the logic which goes to prove that the 
girl who measures off one’s new gown, the girl who 
records the purchase in the firm’s big ledger, the girl 
who spun and wove the goods, the girl who cut and 
made it, and the girl who cooked the dinner and 
washed the dishes for these other girls, belong to 
different social levels, except the difference which 
their own inherent refinement creates. Each of these 
may be the superior of her employer, if heart and 
mind are attuned to a better key ; but the mere fact 
that a girl spins or sews or washes the dishes for 
money rather than in her own home, does not lower 
her in the least to those whose outlook is broad enough 
and acute enough to discern the soul through its outer 
coverings. It is the girl, not the occupation, which 
makes the difference. Are the college girls degraded 
because they wait on table or do other housework at 
summer resorts, to pay for another year’s expenses ? 
Teach the girls genuine self-respect, not the rank 
egotism which cries, “ I am as good as any one,” and 
they will be ready to undertake the work for which 
they are best fitted, even though it be the much 
despised tasks required in some woman’s kitchen. 
8. A. LITTLE. 
care what my friends prepare for me to eat, if they 
only give me a welcome.” I kept the remark in 
memory and pondered it, and in my observations, 
found her words true. 
When I was a child, I went with my parents to 
visit a relative of my mother. She had not been mar¬ 
ried very long, and I had visited her with my mother 
not very long before. She welcomed my mother very 
cordially, and inquired why my elder sister (of whom 
she was very fond), had not come also. Then turning 
to me with an impatient air, she said, “ How do you 
do ? Why, you always come,” pointedly by word and 
manner giving me to understand that I had taken the 
place in the carriage of a more welcome one. It was 
an unkindly welcome, and, sensitive cuild that I was, 
I felt it to be so. With my heart burning with in¬ 
dignation at her ungracious welcome, I ran out into 
the wide, old-fashioned yard, and spent a most un¬ 
comfortable afternoon there alone till Lea time. 
INTERESTING THE CHILDREN IN THE FARM. The house was not roomy, and the table was set in 
T each the children, when young, to be careful of kitchen. My ungracious hostess had baked some- 
their own, and of the rights and property of ^^^re was a warm fire in the 
others, by giving each one a place to keep his own directly in front of which I, being of the 
small belongings and keepsakes, which, though they least consequence and unwelcome, was seated. The 
may seem small to the older ones, are dear to the intensely warm that, instinctively, I put 
hearts of the little possessors. I have in mind a behind me to ward off the burning heat. A 
mother who, when her children were quite young, “y clothing unluckily caught in the fiesh at the 
gave each one a drawer in the large bureau in which as I drew my hand back, and laid my hand open 
to keep his things. They were shown how to keep a deep, jagged wound, 
them in order, and were expected to keep them so. ^as my left hand, and I wrapped it silently in my 
They were also taught to respect each other’s rights, liandkerchief, keeping it out of sight under the table, 
and not to help themselves to anything, no matter how ^^at I can feel the pain yet, as I look 
small, belonging to another without first asking per- at the scar; but the pain of the wound was nothing to 
mission of the owner. If all children were taught at ^^® heart. 
an early age, to respect the rights of others in every 0“'' ^ ’^as glad to escape from a place now 
way, the habit of carefulness and thoughtfulness for distasteful to me, and I went home resolving that 
the rights and liberty of others, would become a fixed would be so long before I visited there again 
that the hostess would be glad to give me a different 
Let the children have something of their own worthy welcome. The resolve was well kept, and in spite of 
of the care and attention bestowed upon it. Almost all her many and urgent invitations, I was a young 
all children like to plant and care for fiowers. Stake lady grown before I repeated the visit. I was not by 
off a little spot of ground for each one to work and any means an unwelcome visitor then, but I well re¬ 
plant for his own. Do not use some spot of ground 'member the proud, cool manner in which I indiffer- 
that no one else cares for, or some shaded spot where accepted all her attentions. My former experi- 
nothing will grow. Be sure that the soil is good, so ®°®® I'ad left alasting impression, and, young as I was, 
that in due time their labors will be rewarded and ^ have carried the effects of that cruel reception 
they will not be discouraged from trying again. All through life. Perhaps that, more than anything else, 
healthy children are full of life and energy, and are “^y be the reason for my being so often chidden by 
always busy, either at work or at play. If this energy “y friends for my unsociability in the matter of vis- 
only be turned in the right direction, there may be iting. belle h. Gardner. 
much accomplished, even by children. Give them a 
few small fruit trees or ornamental shrubs, and show THE PERILS OF ANTICIPATION, 
them how to plant them, and see how carefully they j ^gfgj.g p^^ty went to the World’s Fair, she 
will be watched and cared for. When the children enjoyed, in anticipation, the rose garden, 
have grown older, and their trees become fruitful, let 
them gather the fruits of their labors, and have the appeared in one of the magazines, and she was cap- 
proceeds of the sales. Some nut trees or choice grape pl^„ VVhat a paradise it would be ! 
vines may be given them, or some rose bushes or ^ ^ ^^se the world over, and if Patty 
shrubs ; whatever it is, let it be of the best. Let them ^j^n’t see any on the “ wooded isle,” her aisappoint- 
work at their own sweet will, knowing that only by v^s-the fall of a rose leaf on a frill of 
their own work and care is the prize in view gained. lace. For there were thousands and thousands of pan- 
In this way they are given more interest in the sies lifting their sweet faces to smile at the world pass- 
farm, feeling that they are laborers together with 
their parents and not merely helpers. In after years, belonged to the pansy-loving half. She had a 
when the little hands that have planted and tended resolved to have pansies, 
with so much care, are, perhaps, gathering fairer ^ ^ ^^^g^ 
fiowers and richer fruits in a fairer land, or it may be, gj^g g^^g^ly where she would have them. A cer- 
have left the old home nest for homes of their own, tain bed that was usually filled with scarlet geraniums, 
we shall realize that he who plants a tree not only .^^t about right for pansies, and the gera- 
benefits mankind, but. in so doing, erects a monument t)etter in some sunnier spot. 
to imse . _ F. A. H. fancied her relatives and friends standing by, 
with words of admiration, while she plucked pansies 
A WELCOME TO VISITORS. for them with a liberal hand. Of course, Patty told 
D id you ever realize how much a cordial, cheery all her flower-loving friends about the pansies at the 
welcome adds to the pleasure of a call or visit ? fair and of her own ambition, as she was quite a hand 
The welcome is the beginning of the visit, and we all to talk. She planted the seed in February (the very 
know how much depends upon a good beginning for last day), in a box of “ lovely ground.” The box was 
the success of anything we undertake. A cold, for- shown to every one who called, while Patty explained 
mal reception casts a chill over the spirits of the vis- that it was her pansy bed in embryo, and asked their 
itor, which any amount of “ good cheer ” afterwards opinion about how soon she ought to expect the plants 
cannot dispel; for the 
lack of a welcome has I 
given your visitors the feel¬ 
ing that they have come at 
an unfortunate time. 
Though every effort may 
be put forward to make 
their visit pleasant, they 
will carry away a feeling 
that they have not been 
welcome. 
A wise and valued friend 
said to me years ago, 
“When I visit, I do not 
Highest of all in Leavening Power.—Latest U. S. Gov’t Report 
Ab^lutely pure 
