ant a duty as any which we owe to our fel¬ 
low-man, and more especially to those of our 
own household. It is not so much that we do 
not look on the bright side of life only, as that 
we resolutely refuse to look on any but the 
dark side. I do not hesitate to say that most 
of the unhappy people are those who have not 
a single real grievance. I can hardly sympa¬ 
thize with the husband whose worst trouble is 
the fact that his matutinal cup of coffee is a 
poor one and who on that, account chooses to 
embitter the life of his family. The chances 
are, too, that, it is only an imaginary griev- 
auee, aud that it is really very fair coffee. 
There is an old Italian proverb, “If all can 
not live on the Piazza, everyone may feel the 
sun.” You may, but you will not if you shut 
yourself iu a darkened room and refuse to let 
it shine on you. Epictetus, the Roman Stoic 
Philosopher says, “If a man is unhappy, re- 
member that his unhappiness is his own fault; 
for God has made all men to be happy.” 
And agaiu, “Seek not that things which hap¬ 
pen should happen as you wish; but wish the 
things which happen to be as they are, and you 
will have a tranquil flow of life.” Elsewhere 
he says, “I am always content with that 
which happeus, for I think that what God 
chooses is better than what I choose.” Mar¬ 
velously Christ-like, this doctrine of the old 
heathen, and like the shepherd of Salisbury 
Plains who wished only for such weather as 
would please his God. 
It is this rebellious Jongiug to be happy in 
our own way, instead of God’s way, that 
causes much of our unhappiness, it is also 
the little clouds, rather than the great storms, 
which most effectually and perpetually over¬ 
shadow our daily sunshine. It is truly the 
“little things” that make up the sum of hu- 
mau woe or bliss. You can cultivate a cheer¬ 
ful temper, just as you can yield to aud en¬ 
courage one naturally querulous, and you will 
be none the less happy, while others will be 
more so, if you learn to smile though the 
heart be breaking. This “duty of haopiness,” 
is one of the strongest duties of parents. A 
dismal home life, where a perpetual Scotch 
mist of nagging aud peevishness, and ill- 
temper is falling, is the worst possible atmos¬ 
phere for a child. Feed your children on 
bread and cheese if necessary, but do uot let 
the smiles and kisses that will sweeten the 
homely fair be lacking. ‘‘Most men,” says 
La Bruycre, “spend most of their lives in 
making the rest miserable.” Hard on both 
sides, for a rightly-constituted mind finds its 
best bappiuess in that of others. 
Borrowing trouble is another greut source 
of unhappiness in the lives of many who can¬ 
not be bi ought to believe that “Sufficient unto 
the day is the evil thereof.” 
Trouble must undoubtedly come, but re¬ 
member “that this is not a misfortune, but to 
bear it nobly, is good fortune.” 
To quote Epictetus, again, who, though 
only a poor slave, seems to have bad a Mark 
Tapley-like disposition, “1 must die, but must 
I then die sorrowing? I must be put in 
chains. Must I then also lament? I must go 
into exile. Can I be prevented from going 
with cheerfulness and contentment? But I 
will put you in prison. Man, what are you 
saying. You can put my body iu prison, but 
my miud not even Zeus himself can over¬ 
power.” 
Our greatest afflictions are ofteu only bless¬ 
ings in disguise, while the auticipation of 
them is a real evil. But whether or uot they 
prove to be blessings depends upon the way 
we bear them. I have in mind two ladies, 
both widowed. One lost her husband after 
many years of what might have been a happy 
married life. She wears a sad, gloomy face 
and tells you with a hard, cold, whining 
voice, that she has uothiug left in life, and 
does not see that it is her own intense selfish¬ 
ness because she cauuot enter into the joys 
and griefs of others, that prevents her from 
finding any pleasure in life. Mutual friends, 
who have known her for many years, tell me 
that when her husband was alive she was just 
as unhappy and embittered the days of one of 
the host of men by her fault-finding disposi¬ 
tion, 
The sweet, peaceful face of the Other, whose 
great sorrow came upon her early in life and 
under peculiarly distressing circumstances, 
tells you at once how differently she has borne 
that sorrow. 
Lubbock deplores the fact that people allow 
themsel ves to be so much disturbed and d istraet- 
ed by family disputes. He says: “One ought 
not to suffer from being found fault with, for if 
our condemnation is just, itshoidd be welcome 
as a warning; if it is undeserved, why allow it 
to distress us?” Now, 1 call that very good 
philosophy, but about the hardest to put into 
practice that I can imagine. The first part is 
easy enough, for he who lias not learned to 
take gratefully a merited reproof, when given 
kindly, has much to learn before he can at¬ 
tain a really happy disposition; but to bear I 
undeserved recriminations cheerfully is quite 
another thing, and I question whether one’s 
duty calls them to take too much of that sort 
of thing. A friend or relative who is in the 
daily habit of bestowing such little marks of 
friendship or kinship will seldom lie so affect¬ 
ed by the meekness with which you take the 
fault-finding as to forbear on that account, 
but will ofteu rather be incited by your meek¬ 
ness to fresh efforts. It appears to me that 
this is a case where turning t he other cheek 
also is not required. I have seen wives whose 
very life seemed to be crushed out. of them by 
the incessant, never-ending reproofs of their 
husbands, who were not at all ill-intentioned 
men, but who had allowed themselves, and 
been permitted by their meek consorts to fall 
into that habit. 
Cultivate happiness by looking around to see 
how much you have to be thankful for, and 
you will be surprised if you but look at them 
rightly how many blessings are yours. Did 
you ever pass a cripple, or a poor deformed 
person in the street without great thankful¬ 
ness that even though you might be no great 
beauty, you possessed all your members and 
features, and the use of all your senses? Our 
everyday blessings you may have been accus¬ 
tomed to regard as trifles, but “trifles make 
perfection, and perfection is no trifle.” 
“To watch the corn grow, or the blossoms 
set; to draw hard breath over the plowshare 
or spade; to read, to think, to love, to pray, 
these,” says Knskin, “are the things that make 
men happy.” 
WOMAN’S WORK. 
J. H. G. 
Why are not women paid as well for the 
same work as men? The fuct that this ques¬ 
tion is being asked and discussed is a health¬ 
ful sign. Investigation aud discussion will 
undoubtedly reveal the cause and suggest the 
remedy. The chief reason would seem to be 
the surplus of females who are seeking em¬ 
ployment within certain lines—the remedy, a 
change iu our educational system whereby 
woman may receive practical instruction in 
special lines and avoid the intense competi¬ 
tion which prevails in ordinary employments. 
Great changes in the character and employ¬ 
ment of woman and compensation therefor, 
have been brought about during the last de¬ 
cade, and it is evident that the evolutionary' 
period has just commenced. The world is 
divided as it always has beeu into two classes; 
the busy' and the idle—persons conscious of 
having a mission and who are striving to in¬ 
terpret and fulfil it. and the unoccupied, the 
anxious and the aimless. The majority of 
the latter class has been, and is likely to be 
for some time to come, woman. There are a 
number of reasons for this. A successful busi¬ 
ness man’s life is continuous, while the life 
of the average woman is full of uncertainty— 
an uncertainty uaturai and justified by ex¬ 
perience. It is natural aud in accordance 
w ith the highest instincts of fullen human na¬ 
ture that every able bodied woman should ex¬ 
pect to be married at some time and this ex¬ 
pectation is a strong element of uncertainty 
ill her life. Matrimony and maternity 
change the whole current of life and its an¬ 
ticipation must seriously detract from that 
concentration of effort without which large 
success iu almost any of the arts or profes¬ 
sions or even business is impossible. 
The London Lancet says women should 
marry before they are 25—or not at all. Suc¬ 
cess in any of the higher arts is impossible at 
that age. These facts sharply define woman’s 
sphere and limit it to three conditions. 
“ Public life and celibacy; private life and 
possible matrimony, or anxiousness and aim¬ 
lessness.” 
A woman must elect early in life, whether 
she will serve God or Mammon. Whether 
she will stay at home and help mother, aud 
finally establish a home of her own, or 
whether she will qualify herself for some 
special profession or employment. 
Success in either form of life depends upon 
absolute cuusocration—half way devotion only 
results in anxiousness and aimlessness. 
Suppose the latter is selected—she is met 
at the outset with the statement that her 
sphere is limited and the compensation l astly 
less than that of men. This statement is mis¬ 
leading. It is only partially true of a few 
employments, such as music, school teaching, 
fancy work, plain sowing aud thu like. Em¬ 
ployments of comparative ease and of slight 
utility, are overcrowded, the competition is 
keen and the compensation small. 
“ What can be done with the woman wage 
system so long as woman will run and crowd, 
aud jam and rub in two or three channels of 
employment,” 
Two elements enter into the value of educa¬ 
tion--or any product of labor; viz., scarcity 
and utility. Education or technical skill may 
be difficult to attain but of little utility, or of 
very great utility but easily attained ; iu 
either ease it is of but little value. The chief 
employments of woman outside of domestic 
life have, heretofore, been more in the nature 
of recreation than actual labor. 
A writer in a recent, issue of the Christiau 
Union says : “In the case of most working- 
women there Is a desire either for an employ¬ 
ment easily learned and promptly remunera¬ 
tive or for something which shall be 'genteel.' 
The same craving for shabby gentility 
which turns young men from the trades to the 
shop-counters exercises its demoralizing in¬ 
fluence still more strongly upon young 
women When we read that a Philadelphia 
cOOkin; school offered to train girls free as 
cooks, provided they would actually go out to 
service, and uot one applied, there is a tempta¬ 
tion to hold the multitude of underpaid, over 
worked women themselves responsible for 
their suffering.” 
The laws of supply and demand may lie 
modified temporarily hut in the long run they 
are inexorable. If there are a dozen persons 
qualified for school teachiug or music or aver¬ 
age clerical employment, while there is em¬ 
ployment but for one or two, the compensation 
for such labor is abuormally low,—even lower 
perhaps thau ordinary laborers or servants, 
who encounter little or no opposition in their 
work. 
“Every one has known of scores of women 
eager to earn money hut. unable to turn their 
hands to anv profitable work. It is useless to 
try to raise the market price of unskilled la¬ 
bor, for the law of demand and supply must 
prevail, and the supply is always in excess. 
But skilled labor commands its price, within 
apparent limits. Why not. give the girls a 
chance? Lot them learn light, trades, and be 
trained in special occupations as well as the 
boys. This would assure their independence, 
and eveu in the event of marriage they would 
know that the husbaud’s death would not 
throw them helpless upon the world. This is 
not a panacea, but wn believe that persistent 
inculcation of this idea of equipping women as 
well as men with a substantial means of sup¬ 
port, aud its practical encouragement by in¬ 
creasing opportunities for the industrial train¬ 
ing of both saxes, would lessen the amount of 
misery which tne present life of working- 
women presents. There is sore need that this 
should he done ” 
Our country is surfeited with semi-educated 
men and women who can do almost anything 
fairly well; but the number of specially edu¬ 
cated persons of either sex who can do super¬ 
lative work is limited, and the compensation 
extravagant. 
So long as the vast majority of women go 
to the same schools, study the same books, and 
get a superficial knowledge of the same arts or 
employments, so long will the cry of limited 
sphere, and unequaled compensation go up 
from our lands. 
GOLDEN GRAINS. 
All successful men have agreed iu one 
thing—they were causationists. They be¬ 
lieved that" thing went not by luck, but by 
law. Belief in compensation, or that noth¬ 
ing is got for nothing, characterizes all valu¬ 
able minds ... 
Labor! A man coins himself into his 
labor; turns his day, his strength, his affec¬ 
tion into some product which remains as the 
visible sign of his power; and to protect that, 
to secure that to him, to secure his past 
self to his future self, is the object of all gov¬ 
ernment. 
To judge religion, we must have it—not 
stare at it from the bottom of a seemingly in¬ 
terminable ladder. 
Witty sayings are as easily lost as pearls 
slipping off a broken string, but, a word of 
kindness is seldom spoken in vain. It is a seed 
which, even when dropped by chance, springs 
up a flower..... 
The last definition of “true philosophy”— 
Something which enables one to bear the losses 
of others with resignation aud cheerfulness... 
God is limited to no place. He is also ex¬ 
cluded from uone. He is iu all places, aud in 
the least of His creatures—in the petal of tho 
flower, in a blade of grass; and yet lie is in no 
place, fsowbere, comprehensively and exclu¬ 
sively; everywhere, because everywhere He is 
creating and upholding everything. 
The ability and opportunity to do good 
ought to be considered a call to do It.. 
That which is bitter to lie endured may bo 
sweet to be remembered... 
If our religion is not true we ought to 
abandon it; if it is true we ought to propagate 
it . 
As we must render an account of every idle 
word, so must we likewise of our idle silence,. 
Revivalist Sam Jones wants to stick to tho 
old Bible aud straight preaching. Ho calls the 
new name for tho old terror a silly, namby- 
pamby word. “Why," says Sam, “you 
couldn’t frighten a cat with sheol.”. 
Respect for parents is what can never be 
taught too early. Disobodieut boys seldom 
make good men, and the child that has no re¬ 
gard for its parents will have, when grown 
up, but little for the laws of its couutry. 
Pestuoy Christianity gud yovi destroy 
society. Take from the world the idea of a 
hell and there are many men who would soon 
turn this world into a hell. 
Pomfstic (I:comum} 
CONDUCTED BY MRS. AGNES E. M. CARMAN. 
Do not ivuit for extraordinary opportuni¬ 
ties for good actions, but make use of com¬ 
mon situations. .4 tong-continued walk is 
better than a short flight. 
FASHION’S FADS AND FANCIES. 
Smooth iinished dress goods have entirely 
superseded the rough goods of past popularity. 
Cashmere, serge and tricot, are favorite mate¬ 
rials. Golden browns, olives and wines are 
loading colors. Braiding is extremely popu¬ 
lar as trimming, the braid from an eighth to 
a quarter of an inch iu width, of the same 
shade or darker than the dress. Some of the 
imported patterns show the lira id i tig in black. 
Velvets, striped ami changeable, are first 
choice for dress combinations. A golden 
brown is the richest color iu the last that wo 
have seen. 
Jet trimmings are handsomer than ever, if 
possible, and have not, fallen from favor. 
Braided cloth jackets are among the latest 
importations for fall wear. Black is seeming¬ 
ly the choice 
The short jacket is botli single and double- 
breasted, aud some are fastened with ball but¬ 
tons half an inch in diameter. 
While hoods and capes are still worn on out¬ 
side garments, it is evident that their time 
has gone by. 
Wholesale houses report large fall sales of 
Jersey waists. This without question insures 
their popularity for the coming season. Plain 
black lias the preference. 
Red bids fair to be worn as much on bonnets 
aud hats this season as yellow was two years 
ago Trimmings are broadened and lowered 
Sailor hats are in velvet ami felt, the red felt 
is destined evidently to be “the hat for the mil¬ 
lions.” The low-crowned toque is also in fa¬ 
vor as it can lie worn with the hair arranged 
high or low, and is a style particularly favor¬ 
able for home making. 
Stiff, Wide-brimmed beavers for misses and 
children are to be worn, if one can judge from 
the numbers seen in the stores. 
Cocks’ feathers and quills are humanely tak¬ 
ing the place iu millinery of birds and wings. 
While black stockings will remain in favor 
during the winter, there is n growing prefer¬ 
ence for dark colors, blues and browns divid¬ 
ing popularity. 
Gloves are heavily embroidered on the backs 
in self-colored stitching or in black. The four 
buttoned glove is the usual street-length. The 
different shades of tans aud browns are still 
the choice iu colors. While the undressed 
gloves make up the bulk of the importations, 
there is a decided move towards reinstating 
those of dressed kid. 
Handkerchiefs embroidered and bordered in 
ever}' color and shade are temptingly displayed 
to purchasers, but they are not the choice of 
the fastidious woman. The finest white goods 
show embroidered borders or hems with sev¬ 
eral rows of stitching. 
The present popularity of metal belts and 
girdles has been a bonanza to merchants hav¬ 
ing a stock of handsome metal buttons on 
hand. The shnuks are removed and tho tops 
are then soldered together with or without 
links. 
ONE SUMMER—VIII. 
ANNE THRIFTY. 
EXAMINATION DAY AND—THE END OF SUM¬ 
MER. 
Summer would soon be over and my broth¬ 
ers would attend the school in town. They 
thought of this one day about four weeks be¬ 
fore the opening day of school, and Freddie 
said: “Wo wou’t have any vacation at all, 
and I just think it’s as mean as dirt to keep us 
iu school now,” aud he scowled at his un¬ 
opened books and looked just ready to cry. 
Robbie had opened his book, but lie shut it 
and looked at mo, thou at Freddie and I saw 
his sympathies were going with his brother. 
A little rapid thinking decided my answer. 
“You’ve both studied well this summer,” I 
said, “better than I expected, aud now if you 
will do well the rest of this week we will have 
an examination on Friday aud close our 
When Baby was sick, we gave her Castorla 
When she was a Chllil. she cried tor Castorla, 
When she became Miss, she clung to Castorla, 
When she had Children, «|i« uavs them Castorla. 
