5 
-Jfoltcr. 
WOMAN’S ASPIRATIONS. 
i teuu tlicc what wo want, a clearer space. 
More breathing room, aorao stirring work to do! 
• To climb Ufa's bill "-how well yon state the ease I 
Those climb the hill who would enjoy the yiew. 
It' true strength lies in a calm nothingness. 
Then idiots aTO all mighty men l guess. 
Soft compliments, indeed, anil welt expressed! 
Lore, music, flowers, and other useless matters 
Suit our rich sisters. Tell mo, are the rest — 
The thousand poor ones — still to starve in tatters. 
Tis masculine to doctor, lecture, quibble ; 
Must women he content to touch or scrlhblo? 
' Man hath his fitting tasks ” — 1 grant you so ! 
And those tasks bring him good substantial pay¬ 
ment; 
AVhile woman treads the same dull world ot woe. 
But scarcely gains enough for food and nnmont. 
8lie, working-hard, is burled among paupers — 
lie leaves a fortune to his sons and daughters. 
• Our heritage of light ” sounds really charming 1 
Bnt yet it brings no money year by year. 
Now. wore it no with physio, preaching, farming, 
You mnsouHnoa would soon feel rather queer. 
Perchance we heat you in onr pious notions; 
Uttll, women can’t t rlsf on their devotions. 
To rule the heart of man ’s not our ambition, 
\Ve cannot keep our own In proper trim, 
Thus, you would place us In an odd position 
Failing at homo, can wc bamboozle him t 
Such small intrigue may give a moment’s fun; 
But, wlicii tho prize is gained, whuL liavo we won? 
Thank God! you <*au’l bring hack the Middle Ages, 
Or make us quite l’orgnt our A B C. 
Prate as you may, some women have been sages, 
And so in future timer, they yet shall be! 
Not resting, minus soul beside the mountain — 
The sweetest, flowers grow by wisdom’s fountain. 
At best all life contains its share of trial — 
’Neath freedom’s sunlight tncti can bravo the gloom: 
Our path, perforce. Is strewn with self-denial; 
Can we gaze patiently upon our doom ? 
To serve, to nurse, to tutor, and for all this 
To get sometimes a patronizing kiss, 
Then let ns still he pure, good nndtrustlng — 
No harm to wish us Just n trifle wiser? 
A woman not a. woman U disgusting, 
But Independence don’t make me despise her. 
go. when she’s homeless, friendless, and a-weary, 
Grant work, with gold, or IIfo Will he but dreary. 
[Harper’* Weekly. 
• -♦♦♦- 
MADAME DE STAEL. 
BY MISS ELIZA WOODWORTH. 
Woman lias glorified France. The salons 
A 
of her Past were made illustrious by her. 
social life existed under the old royal regime ?, 
which, for its refinement, its intelligence, its 
vivilic interest, in great movements, its 
recognition of, and its provision for, the 
higher needs of general companionship, has 
never been equaled in history. Severely cul¬ 
tured, vivacious, with all lies’natural sagacity 
fully aroused, and in constant use, tin? salon 
of the seventeenth and eighteenth cent uries 
was a kingdom over which the genius of 
woman worthily presided. To this social 
Past,—perfect in adaptations, magnificent in 
proportions, regal in surroundings, and 
mighty in capable ness, the social Present of 
France is like a cringing atomy clothed in 
rags—Napoleonic rags, gathered piece by 
piece from barbaric conditions of society— 
cast-off garments tainted with the handling 
of semi-parvenu fingers tingling with the 
hot, murderous blood of the Corsicans. 
Yet these Islanders who keep the Bourbons 
from their old-time, and, it must he acknowl¬ 
edged, much abused throne, are men of true 
might, as well as natural and coarse fighters. 
Under t heir short rule, new customs have so 
completely usurped the place ol the old, that 
even the vestiges of the latter arc to be found 
only in books. Such swift annihilation of 
the social growth and habits of two centu¬ 
ries, betokens both endurance of strength 
and brutality in using it. 
It is the old and splendid saloon life which 
is so often brought before us in the pages of 
Sajnte Beuvk’s “Portraits of Celebrated 
Women,” and which, though often disrupted, 
survived a little space into the new dis¬ 
pensation, and was never more brilliant 
than when nearing the hour of its ex¬ 
tinction. Of the celebrated women in this 
gallery of portraits, Madame De Sevtgne, 
and Madame De La Fayette, alone, died 
peacefully in the days of tho kings. The 
others, Maclaines De Souza, Roland, De 
Stael, De Du has, Oh Remusat, De Iyrud- 
ener and Guizot, lived in the era of blood 
and guillotines, and were haunted by the 
ghosts of murdered friends. 
In any comprehensive grouping of modern 
French women, Madame De Stael must 
ever be the central figure. Ilcr conversa¬ 
tional powers, her keen appreciation of dif¬ 
ficult political situations, and above all, her 
transcendent genius as a writer, win her 
this place without dispute or question. 
Gifted, fearless and many-sided, the accidents 
(if there are any such) of her outside life 
served as processes of development, sources 
of strength, to her powerful intellect. 
She was born in Paris in 1700, and died in 
that city in 1817. She was the unly child of 
, Necker, the financier, who left her an im¬ 
mense fortune. Her mother was the daugh¬ 
ter of a Swiss country minister; she became 
, a very intellectual and influential woman. 
Gibbon, while a student in Switzerland, fell 
in love with her, but fortunately for “ Cor- 
' inne,” their marriage was prevented. Both 
1 M. Necker and liis wife w r ere Protestants; 
the daughter was therefore educated at home, 
instead of in a convent. 
When twenty years of age, she married 
the Baron De Start. IIolstf.in, a Swede. 
Ho was poor, but intelligent and a Lutheran. 
Madame De Stael was left a widow at 
thirty-two. Long years afterward, she pri¬ 
vately married M. Db Rocca, a gentleman 
much younger than herself, hut. who loved 
her, as Mrs. Hale remarks, with “romantic 
enthusiasm, and she realized in his affection 
some of the dreams of her youth.” Na¬ 
poleon banished her from Paris, and she 
wandered, an exile, through many lands. 
She had, however, an extensive establish¬ 
ment at Coppet, where, surrounded by 
friends, she passed much of her time. Her 
principal works are, “ Delpliinc“ Consid¬ 
erations on the French Revolution,” “Cor¬ 
inne” “Germany,” and “Ten Years of 
Exile.” 
But Sainte Beuve’s portrait is not of 
these outward things. Tt differs from all 
others because it is of the inner life of 
Madame De Stael ; it attempts the features 
of her soul. If lie gives a date, it is of a 
mental epoch; if he describes a change, it 
is not. a removal from Paris to Italy, or an 
addition to the estate of Coppet, but. a pro¬ 
gress in wisdom an enlargement of the 
empire of mind Tho comparatively “ dull 
prosaic zone of life,” is but slightly deline¬ 
ated, for ho seeks earnestly to place before 
us those rare and precious gifts ol suffering 
which made her great—to show how and 
how much she was distinguished above 
others, “by the universality ot her intelli¬ 
gence, her need of change and renewal, her 
vast capacity for love.” This manner ol 
portraying tho real existence ot a woudcrtul 
woman is unique, and also profoundly in 
teresting in its details. Wo behold the pre¬ 
cocious child in “the semi-philosophic and 
revolutionary salon of her mother,” replying 
wisely and wittily to tho great, minds about, 
her; we follow her through a youth of sen¬ 
timentality Into the solemn years when those 
mighty changes were sonsummated, which 
rocked to their downfall the pillars of society 
and of government; we see her in hm exile 
at Coppet, exercising a vast hospitality — 
reigning like a queen as she was. over the 
woody lawns, and by the music-sounding 
shore; wo watch the ever-extending “ do- 
THE LATEST STYLES. 
BY MINNIE MINTWOOD. 
In gossiping of Fashion, we do not intend 
to talk of what Queens and Princesses wear, 
or suggest “Grecian Bends” or “ Panicrs,” 
or fly-away costumes for the town and coun¬ 
try women and maidens who welcome the 
Rural, or tell the men and boys about 
walking sticks or the “ Turkish Strut. ’ We 
“grew up” in the country, lived in a farm¬ 
house, and know all the crooks and turns of 
“ practicing economy.” And there's nothing 
like it for displaying “genius;’ 
main of her mind: the multiplicity of lofty 
ideas, profound sentiments and enviable re¬ 
lations, which she endeavors to organize 
within and around her;” we recognize the 
grand moment when, with Corinne, she 
made her “ entry upon empire and renown 
we rejoice with her; we grieve with her; we 
feel the frequent sundering of old ties; the 
pain of ever-beginning new phases of life; 
the desolations which Death makes around 
her; and, at. last, we stand by her grave and 
listen to those words from the pale lips of 
Corinne, which, after all tho grandeur and 
beauty of Madame De Stael’s life, are its 
fullest exponent and ils final sum,—“ Of all 
the faculties that were born with me, that of 
sorrow is the only one which I have exer¬ 
cised to the full.” 
-- 
GOSSIPPY PARAGRAPHS. 
If you wish to fatten a thin baby, throw 
it out of the window and it will come 
down plump. 
Cupid shoots with a rifle now, and not 
with a bow and arrow Else how is it that 
girls can hear the popping of tho question V 
When a man is in a dilemma, and is 
standing dumb waiting tor an excuse, a 
woman’s wit will have devised a thousand. 
A very modest young lady, who was a 
passenger on board a packet-ship, it it said, 
sprung out of her bed and jumped over¬ 
board on hearing the captain during a 
storm, order tile mate to “haul down the 
sheets.” 
Mrs. Partington says that Ike, having 
become enameled of a syren in Boston, lias 
led her to the menial halter. He didn’t 
appear the least decomposed. On the back 
of his wedding cards were Utile cubits 
with wings. 
The Novel style of novel reading—Hus¬ 
band (old style question.) “ What! dipping 
into the third volume, to see if every one is 
married V” Wife (new style of answer,) 
“ Oh, they were married in the first, volume. 
I only wanted to see If it was really her 
husband who poisoned her.” 
A New York daily journal advocates the 
use of the Delaware pillory, or whipping¬ 
post, uml a round of lashes on the bare back 
of the man who will beguile a young girl 
into a runaway and secret marriage; and 
the excommunication from the Church and 
society of any minister of the Gospel who 
will marry them. 
Save us from a whining, whimpering, 
wriggling woman. She is the consummation 
of uneasiness and discomfort, and generally 
contrives to worry other people into u like 
condition. As ten is greater than one, so is 
a whining woman tenfold more annoying 
than a whining man. The latter can be 
kicked, cuffed, exploded, locked up; the 
former must be mildly and passively endured 
and it. re¬ 
quires “genius” to make an old dress look 
as well as new,— turning it the other aide 
out, front side behind, top end down and put ¬ 
ting the trimming on in new figures to hide a 
darn or a patch ; to be able to gee a new suit 
for little. Rate come out. of Florin if s dress 
that she ruined in a rain storm; and tho old 
clothes David thinks too seedy to wear to 
college another term, metamorphosed into 
something tine for five-years-old Tommy. 
There is a medium In all things, and iu this 
medium lies the pith of good sense and good 
taste. Many people have a mistaken notion 
that “good taste” is a purchasable com¬ 
modity, and that only rich people can afford 
it. We kiy>w that money can and docs 
afford extrarayaid tastes,— procures velvets 
and furs, and silks and diamonds. But that 
does not prevent a woman being dressed in 
good taste in a calico or merino dress, with 
no richer ornament than a rose-bud or a knot 
of bright ribbon. y 
A little attention given to harmony of 
colors and ethetive contrasts, is often pro¬ 
ductive of most excellent results. A woman 
who is t idy and tasteful iu her dress, is quite 
apt to be so in her home arrangements. One 
such woman in a neighborhood, is a living 
gospel of one of Nature’s prime laws— 
harmony. 
For winter, the first thing to be consulted 
is warmth. Men have the good sense to 
understand tins; woolen shirts, and drawers, 
and sacks—wadded coats, warm gloves or 
mittens, and thick-soled boots. Women are 
becoming more sensible about some things 
than they used to be. But it is not uncom 
mon to find women going all winter without 
flannel wrappers and drawers, or even lining 
in their dress sleeves. Knit woolen drawers, 
such as men wear, should bo considered in 
dispensable by every woman. Have them 
come down to the ankle and draw the stock 
ing over them. High neekod, long sleeved 
wrappers, or vests, are quite necessary; and 
also thick soled halmoral or Polish hoots. 
Buttoned boots are still in vogue and are pre¬ 
ferable, being soonest fastened. For cliil 
dren, Tartan stockings are pretty and can be 
worn longer than white. Fingers that manu¬ 
facture such pretty, bright looking worsted 
scarfs, the gentlemen like so well to throw 
about their necks and shoulders, can simulate 
Tartan or Highland stockings from home¬ 
made yarn. 
Short dresses are fashionable for every 
occasion. At weddings and receptions, or 
very formal ceremonies, long trained dresses 
are tolerated. Crinoline is worn very small, 
and by many fully discarded; girls under 
twelve years of age wear none. It is a mere 
matter of taste or notion with tho wearer, 
fright colored petticoats are worn, and some 
of the girls have a jaunty way of looping 
up one side of the dress skirt, enough to 
allow a flash of the bright color underneath. 
Bright plaids are much in vogue, and make 
cheerful home or street suits. They are 
commonly made with double skirts, closely 
gored in front and on the sides, with plenti¬ 
ful fullness in the hack, small coat sleeves, and 
plain bodies. A round, elbow cape, lhied 
with flannel, and caught up a little in the 
back with a rosette or bow, completes the 
suit. Fringe is much worn, and trimming 
of velvet, satin or of the dress material, is 
also used. Scolloped or pointed edges are 
quite popular. 
Brunettes should be careful in their selec¬ 
tions of colors. As a rule they should choose 
bright, rich, deep colors—scarlet, corn color, 
garnet, or dark rich browns or black, relieved 
with bright colors, are becoming. Purple 
can be worn right royally, only by eery Mr 
blondes. For one’s best winter dress, a 
thrifty farmer’s wile or daughter can select 
nothing better, more elegant or more service¬ 
able than Irish poplin. Good quality, from 
twenty to twenty-four inches wide, can be 
bad for two and a half to three dollars per 
yard. For a bride, one in white, trimmed 
with narrow folds of white satin, would be 
superb. 
Every man, woman and child needs an 
outside wrap of water-proof. The Albe¬ 
marle or double faced water-proof, is prefer¬ 
able. It is one and a half yards wide and 
can be bad for $1.75 per yard. For men 
and boys, a sack overcoat, coming below the 
knee and buttoning downjii front. For 
women and girls, a large circular, coming to 
the bottom of the dress, buttoned down in 
front, pockets on the inside, half length 
sleeves fastened in the slit made for the arms, 
and fitting close About the wrist by means of 
a rubber cord shirred at the end of the sleeve. 
At the back should be a hood, large and 
deep enough to draw over and protect, the 
head and bonnet, if necessary. Water-proof 
makes a serviceable and genteel looking 
dress, and if the wearer is not very stout, 
looks well cut a la Gabriella. 
Round linen collars are worn, and meet in 
front with a knot or bow of ribbon. 
Hair is still worn high, and frizzed, creped 
and curled, and thrown Into general confu¬ 
sion. If one’s hair curls naturally, it should 
bo worn flowing. It is at. once more health¬ 
ful and graceful, because more natural. 
Curls cut. short, in front, and graduated to 
the back, look better for oval, delicate faces, 
than one straight row that, suggests so many 
candles just from the molds. It is a com¬ 
mon error with many excellent women who 
have their hearts and hands full of home 
cares, to twist every individual hair that still 
lingers on their heads into as small a compass 
as possible, thus giving what should be their 
finest ornament, a pinched, contracted, pe¬ 
nurious look. Coif the hair loosely—don’t 
be afraid of ils running away. 
Dandies, f'opa, swells and heart-smash¬ 
ers (?) part their hair iu the middle. Men 
continue to part theirs on the side. 
Many of the popular “hair restoratives” 
produce a palsy or paralysis. One of the 
most, noted of such venders has placed his 
property in his wife’s hands, to avoid paying 
heavy damages in tho shape of judgments 
brought, against him, per courts, for injuries 
received from his "harmless” Hair Restora¬ 
tives. Hail’ is never more, beautiful than 
when streaked with silver threads; and a 
“hoary head is a crown of glory.” Think 
of Moses, or Elm ah, or Sarah, or Esther, 
or dour, beautiful Eve, sopping their hair 
with dye-stuff! 
Persons wishing to buy furs can usually 
get them at less cost, after the Holidays. A 
handsome collar and muff of mink can be 
had for fifty dollars—some qualities for less. 
Four stripes in the mull’ is now considered 
the height of the mode. Tho dark stripe is 
the center of the skin, and the best, part, ol 
it. The deeper tho shade of st ripe, the better 
quality of tho fur, so dealers say. Cannot 
O GO 
Suibbafli Itcabmg. 
THE SUNSET LAND. 
BY A. n. unton. 
O the beautiful Sunset, Land, 
Somewhere througl) tlio antes of the West! 
Now unit then are our ebeulcs by its breezes funned, 
And wo see its rb-h beauties on every hand, 
As we wumler in dreams with the liiest! 
’Tis a land of perennial bloom I 
No flowers there wither or die ; 
And no brii'bt rays of hope are enveloped in gloom : 
Nor are treasures most prized hid away in the tomb, 
To be claimed In a dim By-nnd-By ! 
'Tis the Bind Promised 1 .uml of our hope! 
Wo wait It, tho wlldnrnoHB in. 
We shall reach it-, no move In the darkness to grope ; 
In its light we shall mount to the top of the slope 
When) the fruits of our being begin ! 
YVe. shall finish our melodies there, 
With nothing their sweetness to mar! 
Wa shall malvOthorn complete; now they float on 
tho ail*, 
fir ole on bits, like' the parts of a potiii ont.'s prayer. 
Or tho gleams of n cloud-fretted star ! 
O tho light from Hie Sunset Land ! 
i t beams now and then upon this, 
When the loved whom wekiss.and who slip from our 
blind. 
Wooed away by its song, by its l.nlniy airs fanned. 
Through tho opnl gates enter to bliss ! 
When tile jewelled gates fully unclose, 
And through them,lit length, we walk out, 
We shall stand, by tho river that dreamily flows 
With no ripples to ruffle ils pin-fool repose, 
Ever freed from all sorrow and doubt! 
-- 
some trapper boy “ out West,” tell us some¬ 
thing sure, about mink skins ? 
A new bat of felt, rather high crownet 
and broad-rimmed anil called the “ Alpine,’ 
is in vogue with gentlemen. It is very 
stylish and “ poetic” for winter, when the 
hair is worn a “poetic” length. Hats and 
bonnets tor ladies arc of a score of modes, 
and that which is becoming, is fashionable. 
-+++- 
SKATING COSTUMES. 
In the matter of skating-dresses, the fashion 
magazines will give abundant bints, and the 
ladies will consult their own tastes as to 
what they should wear. Light or brilliant 
colors will, of course, prevail, and nmny-liued 
skirts, beautiful feathers, bright furs, and gay 
ribbons, will mingle in the mazes of the 
skaters; but it may perhaps be well to sug¬ 
gest that comfort and health, ns well as 
appearance, should be considered. Skating 
is so exhilarating an exercise, it so quickens 
the pulse and warms the blood that any one 
who, on retiring from tho lake, neglects to 
take the most careful precaution against the 
chill and inaction of the return borne, is sure 
to get a serious cold as the result. For this 
reason, many have become prejudiced against 
skating. While skutimr. ladles andMcentlc- 
men should free themselves as much.wpossi- 
bl h from the burdensome clothing; but 
immediately upon stopping, thick and warm 
cloaks, ftirs, or overcoats, should be put on. 
No one should stand on the ice or sit down 
by the side of tho pond, for any length of 
time, while warm; neither should ladies un¬ 
accustomed to the exercise remain too long 
on the ice. Skate a little everyday; for too 
much skating on one day insures illness tho 
next. The disregard of these simple sug 
gestions has been the cause of a great amount 
of sickness since skating became an almost 
universal recreation. But, skating, rightly 
enjoyed, brings health, strength, beauty, and 
good spirits. 
The short dresses now worn are pretty and 
convenient; the tight-fitting Backs give free¬ 
dom of motion to the arms; the little jockey 
hats cleave tho air better than flaring bon¬ 
nets, and even the waterfall, if not worn too 
high, lias its use sometimes in breaking the 
force of the contact of tho head with the ice, 
and preventing distressful bumps. A. Y. 
Mining Post. 
-♦-*-*- 
A sporting man remarked of a belle iu 
tho habit of wearing low-necked dresses, 
who carried off a matrimonial prize in the 
shape of a rich old widower, that “she won 
the race by a neck 1” 
A frlend asks: —Why are a fashionable 
young lady’s brains like a speckled trout? 
Because they love to sport under a waterfall. 
RELIGION AT DOME AND ABROAD. 
It seems to me that any New England 
man coming to Europe must feel every¬ 
where around him an enormous letting 
down of the moral tension and lone to 
which he has been accustomed. He sees 
everywhere the Sabbath desecrated. Here, 
in Switzerland, the business day of the 
steamboats and railroads is Sunday; and I 
cannot help contrasting the unbroken still 
ness that hangs around the station at Spring 
field, during all the long Sabbath days of 
Summer, with tho hurry and hustle and 
rush of locomotives and of men, which 
prevail every Sunday at the station in 
Lausanne, within sight and bearing of my 
window. Meeting a distinguished divine 
here, oti« expects to see a man in some 
respects like those one meets at home hold¬ 
ing like positions; but one ia boor unde¬ 
ceived. Christianity does not seem to get 
hold of people here as it does at home. 
The lack of earnestness, genuine faith, abso¬ 
lute self-devotion, is painfully apparent 
Christianity would seem to he Adopted by 
these men as a beautiful system of philoso¬ 
phy and ethics; and, in the meantime, they 
manage to have a pretty good time. They 
drink their wine, visit their relations, go to 
the allows, and forget that there is a world 
to be converted. There may he something 
sad and severe in the type of New England 
religion, but it means something. There is 
a life-revolutionizing and life-commanding 
power in it. It is a power of such magni¬ 
tude, tliat a man needs to get four thousand 
miles away from it to measure its dimen¬ 
sions. Here I can see, as 1 never saw before, 
the intensity of religious feeling that pre¬ 
vails in America; and ray respect for it 
grows with every renewal of the contempla¬ 
tion. It is a thing apparently unknown 
hero, and altogether unappreciated as it 
exists among us.— Or. Holland , in Hprinyjldd 
He publican. 
A TENNESSEE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
There is a Sunday school in Tennessee, 
organized in 1800, by the American Sunday 
School Union, which survived the shock of 
war and still lives, a credit to ils founders 
and, as will bofiecw, a great blessing to the 
neighborhood. Of it. the Secretary says: 
“The school was kept in a log-cabin for two 
years, after which the neighborhood united 
and built a frame edifice for it. During 
seven years of Sunday school training, 
although in a neighborhood of ignorance 
and vice, a church has been organized ; the 
people, instead of breaking the Sabbath, are 
regular in attendance on church and Sunday 
school; ami some, who were once Sunday 
visitors and Sunday hunters, are now teach¬ 
ers in the Sunday school. During the war, 
this school passed through great trials and 
disasters. Sometimes the scholars might bo 
seen Pinking the pickets of the rebel army, in 
order to attend Sunday school. There arc 
thirteen classes, and about seventy-five 
scholars. During their last year they have 
rend 18,815 chapters in tho Bible, memorized 
1,010 verses, read and returned Ofifi volumes.” 
---- 
One of the symbols of Christianity is a 
globe surmounted by a Cross. That symbol 
does not exaggerate the truth it seeks to 
honor. The Cross is the great fact in human 
history. It will yet be seen to overshadow 
all other facts; will survive them all; will be 
an object of growing love and wonder when 
they are all forgotten. Human history will 
run its course. Only the Cross shall remain. 
That shall be monumental over the grave 
of all else.— Rev. J. M. Manning. 
