A young woman who had been a mem¬ 
ber of the class in designing of the 
Young Women’s Christian Association, 
recently won a prize for which there 
were 100 competitors, many of whom, 
probably, had a more expensive training 
than the winner. Such a result empha¬ 
sizes the value of the free educational 
privileges our country affords. This 
talent might have laid dormant if its 
development had depended on money ad¬ 
vantages. 
* 
A woman has opened the first vege¬ 
tarian restaurant in New York. She 
believes that there are vegetarians 
enough to insure a profitable patronage. 
The bill of fare on the opening day was 
quite lengthy, and no doubt, had suf¬ 
ficient variety to suit the tastes of the 
patrons. A woman who is first in any 
field of labor, shows good business abil¬ 
ity, and incidentally does her sex a favor: 
she is guiltless of having crowded out a 
man. This accusation is the last stone 
reserved to throw at a successful woman. 
However, it is one that doesn’t hit hard. 
* 
A book has recently come from the 
press entitled, ‘‘St. Paul and Woman, 
which undertakes to draw the lines to¬ 
day over which woman may not step. A 
review of the book says : 
After thorough inquiry into the conditions under 
which Paul’s interdict was written, the critical 
interpretation of his language, and the history of 
opinion as to its legitimate application, the 
learned author concludes that his injunction 
rests, like the forbidding to lay aside the veil, 
with which it is associated, on a custom rather 
than a principle, and has lost force with the pass¬ 
ing away of the custom itself. He insists, how¬ 
ever, that Paul’s references to the ordained sub¬ 
jection of women, involve the affirmation of a 
perennial principle, which forbids her assump¬ 
tion of the pastoral or other official function in¬ 
volving the exercise of authority. In familiar 
gatherings, her voice may lawfully be heard ; 
but not, except in extraordinary cases, on the 
rostrum or in the more public assembly. 
We are usually in advance of our critics, 
and take more privileges than they 
accord us. One of these days the critic 
above will realize that the “extraordi¬ 
nary cases ” have become very ordinary. 
What can he say then ? 
PREVENTION BETTER THAN CURE. 
Take time by the forelock, if you would solve 
the “ keeping company” problem. 
HE old adage, “ All work and no 
play makes Jack a dull boy,” is 
undoubtedly true ; for the exuberance of 
spirits, the playful disposition and desire 
for amusement are as natural to youth 
as breathing. Indeed, where these are 
lacking one is led to believe the case 
worthy of the physician’s attention. We 
must not forget the imperfections of 
youth—their love for amusement, and 
their immature judgment. Often young 
folks do not seek advice regarding their 
pleasures from those older, because there 
seems to be a lack of sympathy in that 
direction. Many people of mature age, 
parents in particular, forget that they 
were once young and that the natural 
flow of animal spirits needs some other 
outlet besides that afforded by work. 
Such have the mistaken idea that amuse¬ 
ments are wrong. 
More frequently, the parents’ lack of 
sympathy comes merely from indiffer¬ 
ence ; the worries and cares of life leave 
no time to consider the bright side, the 
pleasures, which are quite as essential. 
Yet we often find children who have 
their other necessities provided for, left 
to manage their amusements for them¬ 
selves. The children choose without 
advice, and the parents feel that their 
duties are discharged if they find fault 
and lecture the young folks for the mis¬ 
takes made. 
Forestall Outside Attractions. 
The young are more easily led by ex¬ 
ample, than compelled to follow by good 
advice. Whatever a child is denied at 
home, it will eventually seek abroad. 
The desire for congenial companionship, 
and appreciation and sympathy for small 
attentions rendered to others, when not 
satisfied at home, is often sought and 
found outside. 
A most estimable lady, speaking on the 
subject of “keeping company,” said to 
me : “ That we may profit by the lessons 
taught us in the school of our own ex¬ 
perience, I qm sure; but that others 
may be taught by them without similar 
experience, I am not so certain. When 
a young girl, I was naturally lively, of 
a loving disposition and longed for the 
companionship that would afford the 
sympathy lacking in my home. The 
love which brothers and sisters should 
show toward each other, was denied me 
by my father and brothers. My heart 
craved it and when others became inter¬ 
ested and showed their appreciation of 
my company, I was pleased. However, I 
was soundly scolded by my brothers and* 
those who could not understand. I was 
called a flirt ; and told that I was doing 
wrong by keeping company with differ¬ 
ent ones. To save my children from 
similar mistakes, I shall teach my sons 
to show the same attention to their sis¬ 
ters that they would to the sisters of 
their friends, and shall never consider 
myself too old to enter into the spirit of 
their youthful amusements.” 
The older and maturer minds should 
direct the amusements of the young by 
joining with them, showing their sym¬ 
pathy and cooperating with them in hav¬ 
ing a good time. Keep the children at 
home as long as possible. Be their com¬ 
panions and teachers in their amuse¬ 
ments as well as their work. Teach the 
brothers and sisters to show the same 
care and attention toward each other 
that they would show toward their 
friends of the same age. Lead them to 
show all deference and respect toward 
their parents. Let it be true that they 
can never keep better company, never 
find more trusting confidants, never more 
loving friends and helpful companions 
than their own parents. There should 
be none who may take their place in the 
hearts of the young. The young man 
and young woman must soon brave the 
battles of life without their parents’ 
companionship. May the pleasures of 
home always be remembered in after 
years without regret. F. A. H. 
A WINTER HOLIDAY. 
SNOW-BOUND FOB A SEASON IN THE 
FARMHOUSE. 
HERE is an old saying that nothing 
was ever made without some use. 
As the farmer’s wife looks out over hills 
and valleys from her warm, cozy sitting- 
room, and sees the blizzard-lilte storm 
sweeping along, snowdrifts piled up on 
all the well-worn paths and highway, 
and upon the window sills, while well- 
known landmarks of trees and houses 
cannot be distinguished half a mile 
away, she turns back to her cheerful 
fire resolved to make the most of this 
opportunity, and feeling sorry for those 
•who are not so pleasantly situated. It 
is the first bad storm of the season, and 
as the weather preceding it has been de¬ 
lightful, she knows that it will last for 
several days. To-day shall be a day of 
preparation ; to-morrow shall be a holi¬ 
day. So she sings as she goes about her 
work, generously filling her cupboard, 
which she so often finds in the condition 
of “Old Mother Hubbard’s.” Modern 
good housekeeping does not keep cup¬ 
boards full of provisions already cooked, 
to be placed on the table so many times 
that one would think they might have 
learned the way, but of wholesome 
food freshly cooked that tempts the 
good appetite which it satisfies. 
Morning comes fulfilling the previous 
day’s promise. The snow has piled 
higher and higher. No man ventures 
upon the highway except from urgent 
necessity. The wind whistles ’round 
the house corners, and sighs through the 
evergreens. The biting air is so filled 
with hurrying, scurrying snowflakes, 
that it seems as though Nature’s order 
must have been changed somehow, and 
that we never should again be visited by 
sultry summer days with their accom¬ 
panying fruit and bloom. ’Tis the 
farmer's season of recreation also, for 
after he has looked after all the dumb 
creatures under his care, it is too stormy 
to work out-of-doors. So he sits com¬ 
fortably by his own fireside, enjoying 
the good things in his late papers, per¬ 
chance, making some little added im¬ 
provement to the household conven¬ 
iences for his good wife’s comfort. 
The children are obliged to stay out of 
school, as the school house is a mile 
away ; so they have brought out their 
history and geography games, their dis¬ 
sected State map, and drawing materials, 
and are really learning more than they 
would in school, though they think it is 
all play. 
The mother seems to have forgotten 
all household cares and is a girl again ; 
for she has the paints and brushes that 
she loves so well, and a happy, restful 
look on her face as she daintily lays on 
the colors of the picture, which, when 
completed, will be a pleasure to her con¬ 
tinually. 
Evening comes, and after the neces¬ 
sary work is done, both indoors and out, 
made as light as possible, for this is 
mother’s holiday, all gather around the 
bright lamp lights to enjoy the new 
magazine and bodks which her wise fore¬ 
thought has provided, and laid by for 
just such a time as this, while she brings 
out the bit of fancy work she has longed 
to do. Music fills an important place in 
this happy household, not only the lat¬ 
est, liveliest tunes, but the dear old 
tunes that grandmother loved which 
bring tender memories of other days. As 
the apples, nuts and pop-corn are served 
in (Jainty perfection by willing little 
hands, all feel that there is no other 
place so delightful as the dear farm home 
in a January storm, and the season that 
looked so unpromising and dreary in a 
way, has proved its usefulness as a time 
of rest and refreshing. 
CLARA T. SISSON. 
THE MOTHER’S POWER. 
M OTHERHOOD has always been 
called woman’s crowning glory. 
If this highest privilege were more rev¬ 
erently and thoughtfully regarded, the 
“ better days coming” would not be so 
far off. Mary Lowe Dickinson, in Chris- 
tain Work, has an earnest letter from 
which we take the following : 
“Science speaks no longer with un¬ 
certain sound as to the fact that con¬ 
trollable prenatal conditions may in¬ 
fluence the physical vigor and beauty of 
the child. The mother rules, if she only 
knew how to use her power, long before 
the time to rock the cradle, and proper 
nourishment, exercise, atmosphere and 
rest, are not more potent for the forma¬ 
tion of the temple of the body than are 
inward conditions for the creation of the 
nature that shall abide therein. If 
physical characteristics and tendencies, 
bodily blemishes and beauties, reproduce 
themselves in flesh and blood, how much 
more shall the soul’s sins or virtues, its 
loves and hatreds, its desires and tastes, 
have their part in shaping the character 
and destiny of the soul. There is no 
more potent period of influence in the 
whole existence, than that in which the 
little life may be shaped by what the 
mother is, into what she would like the 
little life to be. 
“ Let the present wrongs and evils re¬ 
sult as they may, let them grow to be 
even greater giants than they are ; if 
each American mother can rear her boy 
to see the giants in all their hideousness, 
and to feel that he is to be the hero that 
is to help to overcome them one by one ; 
if she can help him choose the smooth 
pebbles of truth that the current of 
swift running events will always supply, 
teach him to hold the sling of courage 
with steady hand, then we shall see bet¬ 
ter days when the emptied cradles of to¬ 
day shall have filled the colleges, and 
• the workshops, and the Senate chambers 
of the land. It only remains for the 
mothers to pray for open eyes to see the 
vision of what is, or what ought to be, 
and of what they hold in their hands the 
power to do. The whole problem should 
be and is being studied by many mothers 
with earnestness of head and heart. 
“ This study should begin, first, with 
the question of what mothers can do to 
shape the moral and mental nature of 
the little life, even before it has been 
laid within her arms. Next, what nurs¬ 
ing and care for the little body, what 
spirit, and temper, and atmosphere 
should surround the cradle of her child, 
for on this latter point, if practice in¬ 
dicates degree of knowledge, if mothers 
really do as well as they know, the 
ignorance is appalling. When the mother 
realizes that the habits, nay, even the 
personality, the nature of the servant 
who cares for her child, affect its soul as 
a pure or foul air affects its lungs, we 
shall find much less nursing and much 
more mothering of the little ones. 
“ Further on, what can the mother do 
and be for the education of the school 
and college days ? How shall she know 
the things they know, keep their thought 
near her thought, with wide fields of 
knowledge stretching between ? And 
just here comes the whole question of 
self-culture and self-training, that is of 
such vital importance. When we realize 
that the true motherhood must reach on 
into evex - y true manhood, and be felt 
there as well as in infancy and boyhood 
—the mother of the future must know 
what is required of the citizen of the 
future. 
“Said a statesman, speaking of his 
son, ‘ Yes, I leave him a good deal to his 
mother. She is a good woman and de¬ 
vout. Let her give him her principles, 
and I wdll give him my politics, and then 
he will be about right for this world and 
the next.’ And both men laughed, for 
both knew that the mother’s principles 
and the father’s politics were diametri¬ 
cally opposed. But the worst of that 
was that the mother, who was present 
when the remark was made, did not know 
enough about politics to understand the 
laugh. Ah, the mother does not need to 
be unwomanly, but on all the abovelines 
of thought it is better for her to know .” 
Highest of all in Leavening Power.—Latest U. S. Gov’t Report 
