FES 28 
And then I prayed, with wisdom’s dower 
She might the better pathway choose 
For all her stops I longed to keep 
The sheen and ease—of satin shoes. 
And t hen t here on me dark days In .Tune, 
Of months, till then, the fairest one, 
And she—her sister angels joined 
And ceased the stopping scarec begun. 
No shadows canto to her sweet face, 
Nor heart, nor hand, nor foot hail bruise 
When I gave back the treasure loaned 
And kept- her little satin shoes. 
—.4 Elmore, in Chicago Current. 
OF INTEREST TO WOMEN. 
Thk London Queen says that one of the 
fashionable little “fads” of the day in fancy 
work is a Noah’s Ark quilt. The quilt can be 
of serge, dot,It, satin sheeting, or plain ereum 
sheeting, and is designed ami commenced by 
the lady who starts it. If she Is a good worker 
she embroiders or appliques the Noah’s Ark, 
which is near the centre of the quilt, but 
placed high up. The animals are all in couples, 
and form a long procession round the entire 
quilt, marching round towards the Ark. 
Sometimes the procession is curved, so as to 
form a design over the entire surface, but this 
depends on individual taste and fancy. The 
lady asks her friends and neighbors to work 
the pairs of animals, usually giving them some 
choice in the matter. Borne of these quilts 
are very amusing, and really worth keeping. 
At. a recent starting of one a lady volunteered 
to work two fleas, which she eventually did, 
with wonderful care and dexterity. I n cream 
sheeting the. animals may be. all in red Turkey 
twill, worked with red ingrained thread, or 
in various colors. 
A somewhat similar idea is a cover for baby 
carriage, or crawling blanket, decorated with 
animals. The animals are generally cut nut 
in paper first, and then in whatever material 
they are to be worked in, and are copied from 
a child’s colored picture book. In the Noah’s 
Ark coUeetiou, scraps of fur and skin arc 
used, to represent the specimen as true to na¬ 
ture as possible. It is also occasionally all 
worked by one pair of hands, on a foundation 
of double width diagonal serge, with the var¬ 
ious animals portrayed in wools, sometimes in 
cross-stitch first worked on pieces of ordinary 
canvas, afterwards drawn away, or in out¬ 
line stitdi in crewels, or in anotherstich which 
is being a good deal now used for traveling 
rugs, bath blankets, etc., which is done by 
laying wool in strands on the outlined pattern, 
ami tacking it down by small stitches of silk, 
of a contrasting color. In two shades of color 
this- works remarkably well, and the edges are 
usually widely buttonholed in both shades. 
Another style of quilt is in common cream 
sheeting or in pale blue Roman satin sheeting, 
ornamented with gigantic poppies worked in 
wools. They do not take long to work, and 
are extremely effective. Raised cloth mono¬ 
grams are sold now al most, fancy work de¬ 
pots for nppliqu£iiig on to rugs, hags, baskets, 
cushions, sachets, music cases, etc. They are 
edged with narrow cord after being appliqutfd, 
and sometimes ornamented with “dots” of col¬ 
ored silks, to give them a rough, raised look. 
A horseshoe may be had in Cloth, for interlac¬ 
ing, “for good luck,” tin ough a large mono¬ 
gram, on any gift of work. 
THE ETHICS OF COURTESY. 
“Is there really any fundamental rule of 
courtesy, applicable to all ranks and social 
positions?” asks Mr. Carman, in a talk at the 
Rural Farm, as detailed in last, week’s paper. 
That there is, uml the one underlying princi¬ 
ple of all politeness is simply this: considera¬ 
tion for the feelings of others. The golden 
rule is the first axiom of good breeding, and 
must be observed by priueeand peasant alike, 
else the one becomes a tyrant and the other a 
boor. 
“Put yourself in his place” is the one uni¬ 
versal rule of courtesy, and is current coin 
everywhere: other rules must, of necessity, lie 
modified by circumstances. 
The question of relative etiquette, as dis¬ 
played in a farm house or a home of wealth 
must differ greatly, without affecting the 
underlying principle in the slightest, degree. 
Wo certainly do not expect the busy farmer 
to make an elaborate toilet before coming to 
the table; but certainly it is <ob expecting too 
much to think that ho may, without material 
loss of time, wash hands and face and then 
slips loose linen coat, kept on a convenient 
peg for the purpose, over Ins working shirt or 
blouse. 
The farmer’s wife and daughters, for their 
part, cuunot expect neatness from the men¬ 
folk if they appear at mealtime collarless and 
disheveled, or worse yet, with an aureole of 
curl-papers above their brows. This offense 
of clirl-papers is often to be seen among wo¬ 
men neat in other respects though it is cer¬ 
tainly a crime against neatness and courtesy 
alike. 
As for table manners, what is a necessity in 
one house is not so in another. A busy farm¬ 
er’s wife does not lay her table with oyster 
forks, grape tongs, and finger bowls. But she 
can and should teach the proper use of knife 
and folk, and make her children wait to be 
served- properly, instead of reaching across 
and positively grabbing things, as wo have 
seen them do in more than one household. 
She can teach them to excuse themselves 
when they leave the table, or go out of the 
room, or pass in front of another person. And 
least of all, the busiest housewife can teach 
her children that all the little amenities dic¬ 
tated by good breeding and good nature alike 
are not expressly for company use, but are in¬ 
tended to prevent friction in the family it¬ 
self. 
Books of “etiquette” are ns a rule of little 
use. But there is one little manual of mis¬ 
takes and improprieties in manner and speech 
which may lie found of infinite service in a 
family for its simplicity; we allude to the tiny 
book entitled. “Don't:” it tells 11 s what we are 
not to do very explicitly, without, giving cum¬ 
brous rules. It is the etiquette of good sense, 
as well as good breeding. 
As for the family table itself, it is just as 
easy to set it neatly as to throw the dishes on 
in a slovenly manner. The question of clean 
table liuen is certainly a difficult ono in some 
busy households, but where there is a large 
family and, perhaps, several hired men who 
are careless at the table, the housekeeper is 
certainly justified iu using white oilcloth, 
which may lie washed after each meal. Most 
emphatically, this is preferable to soiled linen. 
Certainly, it is only the artificial ceremony 
we call etiquette that differs under different 
circumstances. The real, essential spirit of 
courtesy is the same on the prairie as in the 
city, and this is simply the embodiment of 
kindness, considerations and such gentle vir¬ 
tues iu our daily life and conduct. 
“AND GOD SAID LET THERE BE 
LIGHT.” 
SELMA CLARK. 
I think all of us who have ever lived in a 
country or village home must remember the 
traditional “best room.” In my childish 
mind it was so closely associated with fuller 
uls and semi-monthly prayer meetings, that 
on Sundays when I stole in on tip-toe for a 
book (my choice lay between “Pilgrim’s Pro¬ 
gress” and “Baxter’s Saint’s Rest,” and others 
of that ilk), 1 made my escape as quickly as 
possible, shuddering at the black and ghostly 
silence. Even in this enlightened day, I find 
few homes so republioan as to dispense with 
such uu apartment, so shut off from the 
family life that, the children have as great a 
fear of it by night as of a graveyard, where 
the glory of sunlight and the sweet country 
air arc religiously excluded, except on “com¬ 
pany’ - or sweeping days. 
Tf people would but think a little, these 
closed rooms destroy health as wpII as happi¬ 
ness. There are many instances where fami¬ 
lies returning from seaside resorts to their 
city homos, that have been shut up for 
months, have some of their members suddenly 
stricken down with typhoid or malarial fevers 
or dipthoriu. The origin of these diseases of¬ 
ten remain a mystery, or if. is attributed to 
the bad water or sewerage of the place iu 
which the summer has beeu spent. A promi¬ 
nent physician, writing to a metropolitan 
journal, attributes such attacks to the damp 
and unwholesome air of the houses that have 
been so long closed. If these closed houses 
breed disease, is it not probable that a closed 
room in a house will do the same, and that 
they very frequently give rise to diseases 
whose origin seems shrouded in mystery ? 
Have no carpets so good that you are afraid 
to let daylight iu on them, better the dust aud 
dirt aud faded colors that come with open 
windows, than the gloom and dampness of a 
closed room. Besides, what is the use of a 
room which no one enjoys. Your visitors do 
not, because the unused air clings to the 
apartment even when the sunshine is tempor¬ 
arily let in. Suppose carpets and furniture 
do not last well. Enjoy them while they do. 
One can take more solid rest and comfort, on 
an old hack of a family sofa, even if the 
stuffing does protrude at odd corners or the 
cretonne covering is all awry, than on the 
Btiffest horsehair, damask or plush sofa ever 
placed iu the most aristocratic company 
room. 
Allow your children to take u pride in the 
adornment of this room, and if you rnu have 
no pictures, make your walls gay in fall, with 
pressed autumn leaves and the beautiful vine 
of the bitter-sweet. 
Remember that, it was God himself wh > 
said “ Let there be light.” 
REMINISCENCES OF AN OLD HOUSE. 
KEEPER.—NO. 2. 
MRS. S. H. ROWELL. 
The time came to us, as it does to most 
farmers, when a hired man was a necessity, 
and the all-important question, as to whom it 
should be, was soon settled. One of the near 
neighbors had four stout, energetic sons, and 
the eldest one had just past his minority, and 
was going to strike for himself, or, in more 
stylish expression, was going to carve his own 
fortunes. Fortunately hehcardthat we need 
ed a hired man, and so offered himself for the 
situation. It did not take long to close a bar¬ 
gain, and Will Stcdmau became a member of 
our family, for a term of eight months, at ten 
dollars a month. He was a neat, tidy body, 
and meant to do right. 1 installed him in a 
pleasant chamber, made as tasty and as com¬ 
fortable as possible, with our limited means, 
and lie was delighted with his new quarters. 
He had been brought up well, aud I never had 
a qualm or scruple about his habits or appear- 
ance.aml he sal. a t t he table aud was one of us 
in every respect. Once in a while one of his 
brothel’s would come over to visit him, and 
stop all night; when it happened, he was wel¬ 
come. Will was a great reader, aud he em¬ 
ployed every spare moment in looking over 
the papers, or perusing a book, but was 
always ready to lay them aside, if there was 
a chance for him to do a chore to relieve me in 
my work about the house. 
I had always churued my butter myself 
since I began to have a dairy, but Will sug¬ 
gested that if 1 could have the cream iu the 
churn before supper, he would have plenty of 
time, before milking, to do the churning. Oh, 
what, a relief it was! One way and another, 
that young fellow got a strong hold on my affec¬ 
tions, and I felt more like he was a brother 
than simply a hired man. Everything went 
smoothly with us. Our work never drove, iu 
doors or out. Planting, hoeing, haying and 
harvesting wen: all done, aud the men took 
their axes and went into the woods to cut 
down and prepare the year’s supply of fire¬ 
wood. That was before sawing machines 
were invented, it must, lie remembered. They 
had worked chopping two days when, most 
uuluckily. Will's axe glanced and he let the 
hit of the axe into his leg. It. was a fearful 
wound; he had severed an artery and the 
blood spurted out in a stream. My husband 
called to a man in the wood that was driving 
by to come aud help get him home. By the 
time they arrived the lad had fainted from 
loss of blood, They brought him into the 
house and laid him upon the settle. I put. wa¬ 
ter on In's face to bring him out of the faint, 
then seeing the blood stream, I took a stout 
cord and tied it just above the knee and raised 
the foot up higher than the body aud soon 
stopped the flow of blood. The tnan who 
brought him home went in all haste for the 
doctor. He returned with the news that the 
physician was not at home. “Go and get 
Will's mother.” I said. He started, and I, as 
gently as possible, took off his thick shoe and 
stocking, got some warm water, and washed 
the leg. It. was a dreadful gash. He had re¬ 
covered from his swoon, so he raised himself 
up and looked at the wound, that was spread 
open wide. “It. will have to be sewed togeth¬ 
er,” he said. “ Mother can do it when she 
comes; she always does up our cuts herself,’’ 
“I supposed it needed a doctor, such a dread¬ 
ful gash,” 1 said. Mrs. Stcdmau soon arrived; 
she was perfectly calm and collected, aud af¬ 
ter looking at the wound, said, smilingly, “I 
am glad. Will, it Is no worse. It will have to 
be sewpd up.” 
“ I knew it would! T guess the bone is not 
injured,” he said. “ No, 1 think not. It will 
not take long to cure it up;”and she took from 
her bag a spool of white silk, needle, scissors 
and other etcetera, aud calmly sewed up the 
cut, bathed it in beef-gall and alcohol, then 
rolled up a big compress, sprinkled on some 
pulverized hemlock bark, laid on the compress 
and put on a bandage. “There, my son, you 
are all right now; in a few days you will be 
ou your legs again.” She was just, as calm as 
though she had only extracted a sliver from 
the flesh. I looked at her in astonishment. 
She smiled as she saw 1 was pale and trem¬ 
bling. “Never mind, my dear, there is 
nothing like getting used to such things. 
There was no doctor within 10 miles when I 
went to housekeeping, aud I had to do such 
things; and I can doit just as well as any doctor, 
and it. is a great saving. Will, you Imd best 
come home till you get well.” But he did not 
want to go, and T told her he had better stay 
till he got over the loss of blood, and so it was 
arranged. Mrs. Stcdmau came every day and 
dressed the wound, till I had learned how. and 
then 1 took the charge. It was a. tremendously 
hard lesson for me to learn, but it has saved 
lots of time, suffering and money, and I wus 
never sorry that I had learned bow to do it. Iu 
lOdays Will was all around the house,lending a 
helping hand to me and made himself generally 
useful; and in less than three weeks ho was 
doing the fall plowing. 
■ ■» -♦ — ■ ■ 
STREET FLIRTS. 
I have never yet learned what idea the 
young girls who engage iu this vulgar pas¬ 
time have iu their own minds regarding this 
amusement, but they may lay it to heart as a 
certainty, that however ready a young man 
may be to respoud to her advances, she is the 
last person whose hand he would ask in mar¬ 
riage. If young ladies would but remember 
that they leave a stain upon their names that 
no after strictness in the matter of conduct 
will he able to erase, and that they give to 
those with whom they “flirt” the privilege of 
talking about them in saloons and on street 
cornel’s, they would, perhaps, be wise in time. 
It is painful to see the amount, of silliness 
which is prevalent among school girls, and I 
cannot but think that much of the blame must 
be laid at the door of the mother. Recently iu 
thisdty an enraged father, under the influence 
of whiskey shot bis daughter’s lover because 
she had remained out with him until midnight 
at a fair. The mother calmly testifies in 
court that, she ha 1 never met this gentleman 
with whom she allows her daughter to remain 
out so late. Surely, mothers who take no 
more care tliau this of their daughter’s good 
name have only themselves to blame for dis¬ 
astrous results. 6. G. 
Sau Franeisco, Cal. 
GOLDEN GRAINS. 
The warm sunshine and the gentle zephyr 
may melt the glacier which has bid defiance 
to the howling tempest; so the voice of kind¬ 
ness will touch the heart which no severity 
could subdue... 
Work for some good, be It ever so slowly; 
Cherish some flower, be It, ever so lowly; 
Labor—all labor Is noble ami holy. 
Never forget what a man bus said to you 
when he was angry; if he has charged you 
with anything, you had better look it up: 
anger is a liow that will shoot sometime where 
another feeling will not. 
“Habit” says George Eliot, “is the purga¬ 
tory in which we suiter for our past sins.”_ 
It is a care of a very great part of mankind 
to conceal their indigence from the rest. 
A friendship that, makes the least noise is 
very often the most useful. 
He who desires more than God wills him to 
have, he also is a server of mammon, for he 
trusts in what God has made, and not in God 
Himself... ..... 
CONDUCTED HY MRS. AGNES K. M. CARMAN. 
RURAL PITHS. 
It is delightful to see a family of children 
who have been brought up to be affectionate, 
just and loyal one to the other. 
The front yards of most farm houses are 
kept tolerably clean, but the back yards often 
remind us of some people who, while careful 
enough of their outside dress, are somewhat 
negligent, of their underclothes. 
If you don’t own a good dictionary, get one 
—even if the purchase necessitates a sacrifice 
of personal comforts. 
We find that it pays to buy cloth for win¬ 
dow cleaning. Get the cheapest bleached 
muslin, cut into yard lengths and hem. There 
is less temptation for “help” to tear and use 
up such rags and, consequently, they last 
longer aud are not so often put to unlawful 
uses. 
Beware of the balmy, moisture-laden 
spring days. They are but fooling thee—be¬ 
ware. 
-» — 
ONE WINTER. 
ANNE THRIFTY.—NO. IX. 
After our visit to the Works to see the 
casting done, the days went by monotonously. 
I caught a bad cold by wearing a pair of old 
slippers while about my work, for my feet 
were so sensitive, because of an attack of 
chilblains, that I could not bear the touch of a 
still' shoe. The irritating pain affected my 
temper, aud one evening, after enduring all 
day a painful headache from my cold, I was 
so cross to the boys that poor Sammio cried 
as if his heart would break. When uncle 
cairn* home he gave himself up to the task of 
comforting Summit*. I knew I ought to do a 
share of the comforting—a largo -share—but 
an ugly spirit of martyrdom possessed me, 
and I thought myself a much-abused girl, and 
after a very uncomfortable evening I went 
early to bed, still nursing my self-pity. But 
before I fell asleep a better feeling made me 
thoroughly ushamed that I had treated my 
poor little motherless cousin so unkindly. 
To make amends, the next morning, after I 
had told Sammio 1 was sorry that 1 had been 
so cross, and received from him a woudering 
smile Of forgiveness, I made up a story about 
four boys who gave an entertainment in which 
they in turn represented all the animals of a 
menagerie, a large orchestra, a circus and the 
