Prizes! Prizes! 
$3. $2. $1. 
H ERE is a business proposition to 
readers of the Woman and Home 
Department. We wish a little more 
variety and spice in our contributions. 
We wish it homemade if possible— 
produced right in the family. To this 
end we offer monthly prizes as follows : 
For the best short article sent in before 
A pril 15, we will (jive $3; to the second best 
$2, and the third best $1, and for the next 
best one year's subscription to The R. N.-Y. 
CONDITIONS. 
All manuscripts entered in these contests will 
be retained by us. 
A different subject each month 1 
The shorter the article the better, even if but 10 
lines—we suggest 50 lines as the limit. 
For the first month we wish dialogues, either 
imaginary or real—conversations between two or 
more persons that will bring out some fact or 
truth in a striking and effective way. A conversa¬ 
tion between two farmers, or between a farmer 
and his wife, or a farmer and a city man, that will 
show up some fault or foible of human nature. 
We would like these written in such a way that 
they may serve as dialogues or charades at 
children’s entertainments if desired. 
Write to the point and make it clear. 
Distinguish between slang and wit. 
Don’t be too long. 
Teach some good lesson. 
Get close to human nature ! 
Merely as one illustration of what is 
wanted, attention is called to “ The 
Polite Pupil,” page 189. 
FROM ONE OF THE GIRLS. 
HAPPINESS MAY HE FOUND WITHOUT BEAUX. 
T HE R. N.-Y. wishes to know what 
the girls think of the “ beau” ques¬ 
tion. Well, here is what one of the girls 
thinks : It would be the hardest task I 
ever undertook, to be obliged to entertain 
a beau without the assistance of mother 
and other members of the family. My 
home had been in a city until two years 
ago. 1 was an only daughter among five 
boys. Fortunately my mother and older 
brother have always been my chums, and 
my only chums. It is my opinion that 
there lies the secret of the whole beau 
question. A mother must be her daugh¬ 
ter's companion ; then there will never 
be any question as to the mother’s wis¬ 
dom. Mothers are so often strangers to 
their girls, and how many, many fathers 
are strangers to their sons. There is so 
much coldness and bitterness in the son’s 
heart towards the father, just because of 
the father's thoughtlessness. He does 
not know it ; never dreams of it until 
some day he awakens suddenly to find 
that his boy is away from the old home 
to make one for himself, young, and 
independent of father, daring and hope¬ 
ful, but entirely without the preparation 
that might have been given by the 
father’s companionship. 
It would amuse some of you, perhaps, 
to see a man six feet, two inches, telling 
his little six-year-old son about the good 
and bad traits of this horse, and what a 
man has offered for that cow, and w hat 
would be the best feed for these pigs. 
The little chap doesn't forget it all. 
Wherever the father is, there, too, is the 
son. He is made to feel that he is of 
some importance. He is beginning al¬ 
ready to earn money, and to buy his own 
clothing, keeping his accounts, and there¬ 
by learning the value of money, and how 
to get and spend it. Do you think that 
father and son will ever be strangers ? 
Do you think that boy when 17 or 18, 
will be sitting up nights with a silly, 
giddy girl ? No, indeed, no ! His mind 
will be so full of the things that are to 
be a fortune to him, that he will have no 
time to think of those things, until he is 
a man indeed, instead of a man just in 
stature. Then, when he has given his 
heart to some woman, and they are man 
and wife, he will find that he has mar¬ 
ried a true woman, and not merely a blue 
bow, or a pretty pair of eyes. 
Friends Better Than Beaux. 
As for me, I never had a young man 
“keeping company” with me, and I am 
22, although I have had many friends 
among the gentlemen. My brother has 
always taken me with him to see his 
young lady friends, and he often brings 
a young man home with him to tea, or 
to spend the evening, so that mother and 
I could know and admire him just as 
much as he did. If we.do not agree with 
him, he feels terribly offended until 
mother explains the why and wherefore 
of it, and then he usually thinks as she 
does. 
Mother began with us, in a wise way, 
I think, when we were small children. 
There were several of us little at the 
same time. When we were not at school, 
we were at home. We had some little 
friends whom we visited once in a great 
while, as a rare treat, and they came to 
see us sometimes. Rut we were not al¬ 
lowed to think that we must go away 
from home to play, or have some one 
come to see us. In that way, we learned 
to get our enjoyment out of our own 
home circle, and that has followed us all 
our lives so far, and has been one of the 
greatest blessings to us. We have many 
pleasant gatherings of friends of both 
boys and girls here in our home, espe¬ 
cially at holiday time. Then we have a 
jubilee with our friends from some dis¬ 
tance, and father and mother are always 
A DAINTY MEMORANDUM. Fig. 59. 
in the circle, but never do they seem in 
the way. When we are at home alone we 
do have such jolly good times together, 
and father is always the liveliest one in 
the crowd. 
Girls, don’t be in a hurry to be women! 
Don’t lose your girlhood, but hold it fast, 
just as long as possible, or you will have 
cause for regret! Re a little longer pre¬ 
paring for womanhood ! The prepara¬ 
tion will be such a help to you ! Fathers, 
take a little more time from the farm 
work, and invite your girls to go out 
with you just as you used to take the 
mother on little pleasure trips, and just 
see how they will enjoy it ! You will 
soon find that they will preferyour com¬ 
pany every time. And how much safer 
it will be for your girls! Girls, don't 
worry for fear the prince won’t come, 
for he surely will! No one ever had a 
happier girlhood than 1! 
PHYLLIS HANNAH. 
A DAINTY MEMORANDUM. 
T HE best memories play their owners 
false sometimes, and usually at 
the most critical minute—when the 
butcher, or the grocer, or the candlestick 
man, is standing in the kitchen door with 
his pencil poised impatiently over his 
order book. We remember the soda, and 
the crackers, and the soup bone, but 
there was surely something else ! And 
not until the man is out of sound and 
sight, do we think of the empty ginger 
box and the gingerbread due for tea ! 
“ That’s the way the world goes, Mr. 
Tetter by,” as Dickens says. Everybody 
forgets, and everybody wishes she hadn’t! 
Our grandmothers had a good old fashion 
of keeping a slate and pencil hanging 
always in sight ; indeed, the fashion is 
still in vogue. As often as the empty 
cans and boxes appear, a memorandum 
is made on the slate, so that when the 
order man comes, if one is so fortunate 
as to have such a convenient mortal 
come to one’s door, or when “ John ” 
goes to town, there is the list of neces¬ 
saries all ready. Rut it must be copied 
upon paper, and that, in itself, is some¬ 
times a good deal of a nuisance at 
the last moment, when “ John ” is wait¬ 
ing. Resides, slate memoranda have a 
fashion of getting more or less rubbed 
and illegible. 
A very delightful and pretty memory- 
aid, is shown in the accompanying little 
illustration. It is decidedly ornamental, 
and possesses all the merits, and none of 
the demerits of the slate and pencil. It is 
not at all hard to make with a little taste 
and skill, and is sure to prove an accept¬ 
able gift to some housewifely friend on 
her birthday ; or, indeed, on any day of 
the year. The blocks or “pads” of paper 
may always be found at any stationer’s, 
of any desired shape and size. One is 
chosen and mounted on a square or 
slightly oblong sheet of heavy card¬ 
board, with a surface suitable to be 
painted upon. A pencil is attached to a 
cord beside the block, and has two little 
loops to hold it when not in use. The 
ornamentation of the whole may suit 
one's individual taste, of course. 
The one shown at Fig. 59 is surely 
dainty enough, but requires a bit of 
acquaintance with the brush or pen. 
The inside panel is painted in some deli¬ 
cate “body” color, or, if one choose, it 
may be shaded or “clouded.” Around it 
is traced a delicate blackberry vine in 
outline or with little shading. When it 
is all completed and hung on the wall in 
a conspicuous place, its owner will be 
certain to appreciate it ; but, most of 
all, when it contains its list of needed 
commodities, and she has only to tear 
off the upper sheet and tuck it into 
J ohn’s pocket or the groceryman's hand. 
As fast as one pad of paper is exhausted, 
another may take its place, and so the 
good work goes on. Try it and see for 
yourself its delightfulness. 
ANNIE HAMILTON DONNELL. 
STAYING AT HOME. 
DOES DUTY DEMAND THIS OF THE WIFE 
AND MOTHER? 
N The R. N.-V. of February 2, I find 
this sentiment : “ Happy, thrice 
happy, is the family which has a home- 
staying and a home-loving mother,” etc. 
I have had an experience of over half a 
century, but as yet I have failed to find 
a mother that has given her entire time 
and every thought to her home and fam¬ 
ily, who has reared children that treat 
her with the love and respect that is 
given the mother who wisely asserts her 
own right to be cared for and respected. 
I have seen wives and mothers whose 
thoughts were only for “the loved ones,” 
who were the veriest slaves to husband 
and children. I have seen one caring 
for the cattle in the winter, while the 
husband spent his time in the improving 
society of the loafers in a country store, 
or in still more questionable places ; she 
has sat up till midnight awaiting his re¬ 
turn so as to unharness the horse and 
put it in the stable, because the dear 
man would be cold after his drive home. 
Her children were loved and waited on 
by this devoted wife and mother, instead 
of being taught to care for and wait 
on themselves. Now when they have 
reached the legal age, when they should 
care for themselves, they have a broken- 
down mother who knows only what she 
knew of books and of the world at large 
when she was married—barring what 
any one would naturally forget in the 
course of time. Most of her early com¬ 
panions have far Outstripped her in 
knowledge. When she meets with them, 
she feels that she has been left behind 
in the race ; and what has she gained ? 
She has made her husband and children 
so selfish that they expect and demand 
her services with no thought that they 
are demanding more than their due. 
To me it looks as though God gave us 
all an individuality ; and that women as 
wives and mothers, are not required to 
give up their own lives entirely to their 
family. I do not believe that iny man 
respects his wife, or loves her any better 
for possessing such a servile, cringing 
disposition. I think that the woman 
that respects herself, and requires in¬ 
spect from others, and who meets her 
neighbors in social intercourse, or to 
lend a helping hand in sickness, who 
has a heart big enough to feel for some 
one outside of her own family circle, is 
the woman whose husband loves and re¬ 
spects her, and whose children rise up 
and call her blessed. Let the mother 
keep up with the times, live an honest, 
upright, conscientious life, doing justice 
to her own God-given faculties, and not 
only her own family, but all good men 
and women will call her blessed. 
OLD LADY. 
THE RELIGION OF HELPFULNESS. 
UR Chief Cook gives us a hint now 
and then, that we are not doing 
our part to rnak.e the Home Department 
interesting. I think that we deserve it. 
She has asked questions, and given us 
subjects of vital importance to discuss. 
I know that it is not because we are not 
interested ; but there are so many things 
crowding upon us at once ; and some of 
us have come to the place where it is so 
much easier to plan than to execute. I 
have thought of letters that did not get 
written, and hoped every week as I 
opened The R. N.-Y., that some of the 
younger readers had come to the front. 
I kept promising myself that I would 
write as soon as some helpful work I was 
doing, was finished. Rat as soon as one 
need was supplied, others were in sight. 
The holidays came all too soon, and 
brought much work for others as well as 
myself. For the Master said, “The poor 
ye have always with you.” I understand 
that they are here for us to help bear 
their burdens. I never feel as though 
I could sit down to a Christmas feast, 
without first contributing to some more 
needy ones. 
There are a great many ways to help. 
Mittens for little red hands, are a great 
comfort to a child, and do not come amiss 
to those of larger growth. 1 make them 
out of cloth, and line them with cotton 
flannel or the legs of worn-out stockings. 
Highest of all in Leavening Power.—Latest U. S. Gov’t Report 
