220 
THE RURAL H1W-Y0RRER. 
MARCH 84 
fcy china, discussing the while this much moot¬ 
ed question of hired help. 
“Doing one’s own work or hiring it done,” 
said this energetic lady, “is no longer six of 
one and half-a-dozen of the other: the balance 
in favor of comfort and ease is to be found in 
doing it yourself. I have tried various kinds 
of help, and without exception have worked 
harder when I have had a servant than I have 
when alone.” Every detail of this modest 
and model menage was in spotless order, and 
yet up to the date of her marriage—a year or 
two ago—this lady had scarcely been obliged 
to brush her own hair. Now she tells me she 
attends to her own marketing, carrying home 
the smaller articles because tradespeople are 
always late in delivering their orders. She 
copies all of her author’s manuscript in her 
own flowing:, legible hand, and that this task 
was no sinecure, a callous spot on her taper 
middle finger attested. Society makes many 
demands on her because of her own and her 
husband’s position, and that very day she was 
due at a four o’clock reception, a dinner at 
six, and a theater party at eight. Her lovely 
evening dress of pink crdpe was designed and 
made by her own hands. If we had more 
such brave women, the question of servants 
would cease to be the bugbear it now is. 
The old proverb that “a good mistress 
makes a good servant,” often fails in these 
degenerate times. A good servant will be a 
good servant, whether her mistress be good or 
not. One who is brought into contact with 
these helplessly helpful beings is often remind¬ 
ed of the servant who said to his master, “I 
don’t wish to be unreasonable sir, I only want 
three things: more wages, less work, and the 
keys of the wine-cellar.” 
The art of managing servants, is a much 
neglected one, and deserves to be studied as 
well as any other principle of domestic econ¬ 
omy. Mrs. R—. treats her servants with an 
undue familiarity when in a good humor, and 
when she is'not,'with‘a coldness and a severity 
that appear extreme, by contrast at least, 
and which are quickly resented. It is claimed, 
and quite justly, that many faults of servants 
are due to the carelessness of mistresses, who 
put up with badly done work, and encourage 
dishonesty by leaving things about. 
A true lady or gentleman will be even more 
considerate in the treatment of inferiors, than 
of those who are"equals. Chesterfield said: 
“I am more upon my guard as to my behavior 
to my servants and inferiors, than I am to¬ 
ward my equals, for fear of being suspected 
of that mean and ungenerous sentiment of de¬ 
siring to make others feel that difference 
which fortune has. perhaps too unreservedly, 
made between us.” 
Part of Harriet Martineau’s ideal of hapi- 
ness was to have young servants whom she 
might train and attach to herself; she was in 
the habit of calling her maids to her in the 
evening and pointing out to them on the map 
the operations of the Crimean war, for she 
thought that young English women should 
take an intelligent interest in the doings of 
their country. Mrs. Carlyle’s letters show us 
that although obliged to wage incessant war 
with what Carlyle used to call “mutinous 
maids of all work,” she was still a tender 
mother-mistress to them. 
I have a very . conscientious friend who 
emulates Harriet Martineau in taking and 
training young maids, and who meets with a 
very dubious reward for her labors. She 
teaches them well, as far as their characters 
will permit, making perfect servants of them, 
and in return for this exacts perfect obedience 
in the matter of hours and company, allowing 
them just, and only such freedom as she 
would allow a daughter. This does very well 
for a-few months until the importation from 
over the water makes friends, when half past 
ten is objected to as too early an hour for re¬ 
turning home, and Gretchen seeks pastures 
new where she may have freer range, so that 
in this case as well as in many another a good 
mistress fails to make a good servant. 
GOLDEN GRAINS. 
Danley says in spiritual things two are 
more than twice one. Two pulling together 
at a load can accomplish a hundred times as 
much as two pulling in different directions.... 
For each day God has appointed just enough 
of trials and burdens for that day’s good. If 
we add more by anxiety about the future, 
then there is too much, and the temper and 
faith and peace are marred, not by God’s ap¬ 
pointment, but by our unwise anxiety. 
Napoleon I. said that of all the liberal 
arts, music has the greatest influence over the 
passions, and is that to which the legislator 
ought to give the greatest encouragement. A 
well-composed song strikes and softens the 
mind, and produces a greater effect than a 
moral work, which convinces our reason, but 
does not warm our feelings, nor effect the 
slightest alteration in our habits.. 
Dr. Webb very truly says that whatever is 
in us must come out,.feebleness or strength, 
wisdom or folly, good or evil. Pride in our 
heart inevitably shows itself in our lives, 
Selfishne-s in heart means selfishness in every 
walk of society. Christians sometimes act as 
if they could indulge in unchristian thoughts 
and feelings and keep them a secret. Just as 
well have small-pox kept to one’s self. 
Texas Siftings is authority for the story 
of a rector who was writing his sermon for 
Sunday, when his little girl came into his 
study. Taking her upon his knee for a mo¬ 
ment, she looked at his manuscript curiously, 
and turning to him in a thoughtful way, said, 
“Pa, does God tell you what to write?” “Cer¬ 
tainly, my child.” “Then what makes you 
scratch so much of it out?” queried the little 
one. . 
Some people have the gift of finding joy 
everywhere and in everything, a gift rare and 
valuable, but not equal to the power of al¬ 
ways imparting joy to others. 
Sydney Smith concluded that children 
were excellent physiognomists and soon dis¬ 
cover their real friends. Luttrell calls them 
lunatics, and so in fact they are. What is 
childhood but a series of happy delusions?.... 
BoNNELLsaid, and how true it is, that of all 
the riches that we hug, of all the pleasure we 
enjoy, we may carry no more out of this 
world than out of a dream. 
Any part of our nature cultivated to the ex¬ 
clusion of the rest will destroy its harmony; 
and to this law the intellect is no exception. 
The thorough knowledge of the principles of 
justice will not suffice to make a just man, 
unless his heart also embrace them; nor will 
the most accurate understanding of the nature 
and results of selfishness suffice to make a be¬ 
nevolent and sympathetic man, unless the 
emotions of love or compassion are awakened 
within him . 
I part of.it, for the good lady declared “she 
could make fruit cake as good as anybody,” so 
it was decided that she should make it, and 
we commenced beating, mixing, and stirring 
for the other two kinds, which were to be 
frosted and fixed up “like they made cake out 
East.” When the baking was done we arrang¬ 
ed an unoccupied house across the way by put¬ 
ting boards on chairs aud covering them 
with blankets for seats, and spreading strips 
of carpet on the floor to make it look more 
home-like, so the company could sit there 
while supper was being prepared, for our 
hostess had brought an extension table from 
her Eastern home, and when it was spread its 
full length there wasn’t room for much else 
in her little Western cabin. 
We had everything ready by Friday after¬ 
noon, and hurried up the dinner dishes, wash¬ 
ed the dust off the extra plates and cups and 
saucers that stood on the top shelf of the little 
cupboard in the corner by the stove, which 
answered for both pantry and china closet; 
brushed our hair, changed our working 
dresses for the next plainest in our wardrobe, 
took some needle-work, for we felt that it 
would not do to be found idle in that indus¬ 
trious land, and sat down and waited. After 
what seemed a long time, I said: “I’m afraid 
none of them are coming, and it will be too 
bad after we have taken so much pains for 
them.” 
“Oh, yes, they’ll be here,” answered the 
hostess “You see they all do all their own 
work, and they’ll have to get dinner out of 
the way before they come. ” 
Presently we saw a little woman scudding 
over the prairie, drawing a home-made cart 
with a baby in it, with a little boy trotting 
along by her side. 
“That’s Mis’ Larrabe,” said the lady of the 
house, and soon Mis’ Larrabe came in, settled 
herself into a chair, took off her sun bonnet, 
: and began to talk about her babies, her house- 
Wall Pocket. Fig. 82. 
CONDUCTED BY MRS. AGNES E. M. CARMAN. 
WALL POCKET. 
The foundation of the pocket here illustrated 
(Fig. 82) is of cardboard. The front is covered 
with velvet, ornamented with appliqud work. 
Pongee silk slightly fulled on covers the back, 
and the whole is edged with a thick chenille 
cord. Bows and a ribbon loop finish it. 
A KANSAS TEA-PARTY. 
We —that is, one of my dearest friends and 
myself—were “ ’way out” on a Kansas prairie 
in a house consisting of one small room and 
two bed-rooms. 
“I tell you what I’ll do,” said our kind, 
bustling hostess, “if you’ll make the cake—its 
been so long since I made any real, nice cake 
I ’most reckon I’ve forgot how— I’ll ask in the 
neighbors some afternoon so you can get ac¬ 
quainted with ’em. They’re right nice folks, 
the most of ’em, an’ I reckon you’ll like ’em 
right well. There a’n’t many of ’em, an’ we 
ken just about ask the whole neighborhood. 
Let me see, to-day is Tuesday, an’ I reckon we 
ken get the Dakin’ done, an’ get things fixed 
up so as to be ready for ’em about Friday. 
We said we would make the cake, at least a 
keeping, and her neighbors, for all the world 
just like the women “out East.” After that 
they kept coming, uutil they were all there 
excepting two, ODe of whom had to go to the 
village, twelve miles away, “to do some 
trading,” and the other “wouldn’t come be¬ 
cause she hadn’t anything but a calico dress 
to wear.” 
1 don’t think any of them had on a dress 
that was worth more than six or eight cents 
per yard, but they were as neat and tidy as a 
pin, and had a motherly, home-like air about 
them that one misses in such gatherings in the 
older States. 
There was one dear little woman with a 
pleasant smile, a smooth, young-looking face 
and pretty brown hair without a thread of 
white in it, who told us she had seven boys. 
It almost took our breath away when she said 
it. Away from friends, relatives, society and 
all that seemingly made life worth living and 
the mother of seven boys with no daughter 
for a help or a companion! As we looked at 
her we thought what a great, brave heart her 
small body must hold and what grand possi¬ 
bilities she was helping to develop for that 
undeveloped country. 
A pretty young woman with a violet-eyed 
little girl of three or four years, whom she 
was trying to quiet, was asked what was the 
matter with her, to which she answered in an 
aside whisper, “that she wanted her sled, that 
she hadn’t wood enough to bake her bread that 
morning, and unbeknown to her, had burned 
it for fuel.” “Waal, I don’t have any wood 
to burn,” was the reply, “I have ter use cow 
chips.” 
One plump, matronly-looking woman, in a 
six penny lawn dress, told us that she had 
“come out there” to teach school and had mar¬ 
ried a man who had taken up a claim and was 
helping him pay for it by continuing her vo¬ 
cation in the new school-house that had been 
built the year before. 
“How can you do your housework and walk 
so far to teach,” I asked? 
“Oh, I have a burro which I hitch to a little 
sled and he draws me to and from my school 
as nicely as you please.” 
“But how can you go on a sled when there 
is no snow?” 
“Why, the prairie grass is so smooth and 
slick-like that you can run a sled over it ’most 
any time when it isn’t too wet.” 
We were thinking how her ponderous form 
must look on a “little sled” drawn by an ani¬ 
mal the size of a sheep, but only said, “It 
must be nice to sleighride in warm weather.” 
Wo had heard that life in the West was 
much harder for the women than for the men 
and asked a troubled-faced, white-haired 
woman if it were so. “Yes, my dear,” she 
answered, with a quavering voice and a quiv¬ 
ering chin, “it is too true; we miss so many 
things that we had at home. Why, I hardly 
know how to get a decent meal o’ victuals. 
We had such splendid fruit in New York 
State, where we came from, but we haven’t 
any here; indeed the sight of an apple is a 
feast to the eyes and a watering to the mouth. 
Why, the other day when I was digging pota¬ 
toes my little grand daughter wanted to know 
if 1 couldn’t dig some apples out o’ the ground; 
the poor little thing! 
The men don’t miss the home comforts and 
the dear home friends as wo women do, they 
don’t have to work so hard either; all they 
have to do is to jest turn over the sod an’ put 
the seed into the ground an’ if it’s a good 
season it ’ll grow without much more trouble 
an’ if it’s a dry season it won’t grow no how 
an’ the men can loaf an’ lounge about an’ lie 
around on the prairie an’ watch their cattle 
while the women have to pick up cow chips 
an’ gather'corn stalks an’ grass an’ weeds to 
make their fires, an’ draw water from 50 or 00 
feet wells, milk the cows, make the butter an’ 
cheese, tend the pigs an’ poultry an’ work an’ 
plan to fix up something that seems like home, 
an’ to keep their husbands an’ children com¬ 
fortable an’ the hardest of all is the lack of 
sympathy an’ encouragement an’ the longin 
fer what they’ve left behind that they have 
ter live through, day in an’ day out. Oh, I 
tell ye, it’s a right hard country fer the 
women! but the men do take things right 
smart’ easy!” 
We had made acquaintance and chatted 
with every woman in the company, when sup¬ 
per was announced and we all went over to 
the little house, where the table was set with 
a clean white linen table cloth, clean white 
china, silver knives and forks, such light, 
white biscuits and watermelon pickles as only 
our hostess could make, vanilla, chocolate 
and fruit cake, canned salmon aud canned 
cherries, that were imported from the East, 
and butter and cheese from the herds of the 
prairie. It was a feast for the gods, in that 
desolate, fruitless country, and how those 
women did eat and enjoy it! 
, Just as the meal was finished, some one 
said: “Mis’. Blunt, it looks as though yer 
house was afire,” and the matronly school 
teacher hurriedly arose from the table and 
went out, but soon returned and explained 
the matter bv saying she had left her little 
girls to get supper for their father and the 
hired man and they had stuffed the stove full 
of hay, to make a fire, and that was what 
made so much smoke. 
When they were all gone to their respective 
dug-outs, sod houses and-little framed cabius, 
I said: “These women are smart and intelli¬ 
gent; they love refinement, wholesome sur¬ 
roundings,and good and beautiful things; why 
do they come here, away from their home 
comforts, away from society and the ways of 
living to which they have been accustomed?” 
“Why, to have a home, to be sure,” was 
the reply. “Their husbands are too poor to 
ever buy homes for them in the East, and 
they come here because land is cheap and it 
is easy to put in the first crop and get a 
start.” 
We went out under the stars, which were 
When Baoy was sick, we gave her Castoria, 
When she was a Child, she cried for Castoria, 
When she became Miss, she clung to Castoria, 
When she had Children, she gave them Castoria. 
