G3S 
SEPT n 
THE BUML WEW-YOBKER. 
all-over-design painted on it, consisting of gilt 
disks and dog-wood flowers. A large bow of 
the gray ribbon was in one corner. It was a 
very dainty-looking affair, yet more service¬ 
able than delicate silk. 
PORTIERE CURTAINS AND DRAPERIES. 
A young house keeper writes us in a little 
perplexity about her parlor curtains. She 
says: “My sitting-room has a bed-room 
opening from it, with a place for double doors; 
but instead of doors I want to put up some 
kind of thick curtains. The outside door of 
the sitting room is glass nearly the whole 
length and -will also need a thick curtain. 
Will it be in good taste to have such curtains 
in these places with simply roller curtains 
at the windows with lambrequins over 
them, made of the same material as my 
door curtain, or have the lambrequins 
gone out of date? What inexpensive ma¬ 
terial would be pretty for these curtains: 
as I shall be obliged to do my furnishing with 
a great deal of economy, I want to have my 
living-room as bright and pretty as I can make 
it with limited means. I inclose a sample, 
wondering if anything of this kind would be 
pretty and durable, or is it too showy for 
good taste?” 
The sample inclosed is wnat is called cotton 
plush, otherwise double-faced canton flannel, 
figured. It is really the best material one 
could use for inexpensive portiferes, being 
thick, soft and durable. If not exposed to full 
sunlight, there is little fear of any fading 
We should recommend our correspondent to 
use it, but we think she would prefer the 
effect of plain rather than figured stuff. Deep 
red, golden brown, or, if the room will stand 
it, dull blue or olive, would be handsome 
and tasteful, and in this stuff the plain effect 
would be richer than the figured. If desired, 
a band of the figured stuff might be put across 
the bottom, making a sort of dado. If our 
correspondent has the time or inclination for 
such work a band of coarse outline embroidery 
on linen would make a handsome dado: some 
bold, geometrical design, done in Kensington 
stitch with that coarse cotton which is almost 
like cord. One handsome curtain of dull red 
cotton plush had a dado of ordinary blue jean 
embroidered in white linen floss. But the 
plain, rich, colored curtain would look well 
without any decoration. It should, of course, 
hang from a pole. Now for the lambrequins 
—that is rather a difficult matter to decide. 
There would be no objection whatever to hav¬ 
ing these porti&res with plain roller 
blinds at the windows. Regular lambre¬ 
quins are now out of date. Sometimes 
we see carelessly looped draperies above 
the window, irregularly caught into place; 
if a woman has the knack of draping, they 
are charming and artistic, and can be very 
cheaply arranged. A good material for this 
purpose is called Florentine drapery; it is 
soft cotton, with a very silky finish, costing 
in New York but nine cents a yard. When 
over a window or above a mantel it really 
looks like Florentine silk, as it comes in 
exactly the same shades. These window 
draperies are disposed like a scarf, sometimes 
caught up at one side by a fan or dried palm 
leaf. 
We should hardly recommend window 
draperiss like the portiferes; uniformity in 
furnishing is not now insisted upon. If means 
will permit, alight curtain hanging from a 
pole, in addition to the blinds, would be 
pretty instead of a lambrequin: not ot white 
lace, which, though always pretty and fresh¬ 
looking, is now rather out of date; there 
are so many pretty and inexpensive colored 
materials. Figured scrim is often even pret¬ 
tier than madras: there are very tasteful 
designs ranging from ten to eighteen cents a 
yard, and the colors may be chosen to har¬ 
monize with anything. Either f these cur¬ 
tains or scarf draperies are the prettiest win¬ 
dow trimmings we can suggest; we trust the 
ideas presented may aid our correspondent in 
her selections. 
LOVE’S YOUNG DREAM. 
Foreigners have a fashion of attributing 
to Americans an undue love of the almighty 
dollar. A recent anonymous author makes 
the most sweeping charge of mercantilism 
against the people of the United States. I 
must in fairness admit that the acquisition of 
money, is the leading object in the lives of 
many of our nation, but I shculd like to 
know what my anonymous friend has to say 
to the almost universal custom in the United 
States of marrying for love and not for mon¬ 
ey. I am not going to argue as to the happy 
results of these, too often improvident marria¬ 
ges. I only advance the fact in disproof of 
our absolute thraldom to the root of all evil. 
I have before me two or three letters which 
I cannot perhaps do better than to answer 
through the Rural, since they come from its 
readers. One sweet miss, (I am sure 
she is sweet, for her letter bespeaks 
a loving heart) wants to know what 
her chances of happiness are in marry¬ 
ing a gentleman whom she dearly loves, but 
whose yearly income is never likely to exceed 
$1,000. She says he has no expensive hab¬ 
its, but that she has not been brought up to 
work, and that her parents are opposed to the 
match. 
Without knowing any of th e circumstances 
which it would be necessary for me to know 
in order to form any correct or helpful opin¬ 
ion, I would say generally to all very young 
girls that it is always best to go slow in the 
matter of marrying where their parents are 
not in favor of the proposed union. Where 
parents are sensible and God-fearing, 1 have 
known few cases of happy marriages that were 
not blessed with their approval. If your 
parents object to your lover only on account 
of his income, it is quite another matter, since 
you, and not they, have to live on that in¬ 
come. 
As regards the smallness of that, your 
happiness will depend quite as much upon 
yourself as upon your husband. It will not 
afford you many luxuries for your table— 
none in the matter of dress; theaters and 
parties will be quite out of your line, for while 
two people can live nicely on the sum men¬ 
tioned, two prudent people will consider the 
necessity of making some provision for the 
probable increase of their family. In a word, 
then, don’t marry unless you are willing to 
begin on a still humbler scale than your in¬ 
come would seem to warrant, and, above all, 
unless you feel that life in a cot with the ob¬ 
ject of your affections is preferable to life in a 
palace with any one else. 
Easier still to answer is my second letter, 
whose writer wants to know if I think it 
possible for a woman who loves a man who is 
addicted to drink, to reform him after 
marriage. Ah, my dear, don’t make that 
fatal mistake. If your would-be husband 
does not love you enough to stop his indul¬ 
gence before marriage, you may be sure that 
your influence will not be any greater after 
than before The marriage service has been 
read over you. 1 have known, even among 
my small circle, of so many, many instances 
where loving hearts have attempted this 
Herculean task, and all have ended in failure, 
and in the ruination, not of one life alone, 
but of several. “Men have died and the 
worms have eaten them, but not for love.” 
Of course just now you will not believe this, 
and you are equally sure that you will die ot 
a broken heart. Better so than to die of the 
sort of heart-break that will surely come to 
you in a drunkard’s home. I would go still 
further, and say, don’t marry a man who 
under any circumstances will ever taste any 
form of liquor. Every moderate drinker is a 
possible drunkard. Since like Portia, you 
have been wise enough to discern this failing 
before marriage, be wise in your decision, 
and say with her, “ I will do anything ere I 
will be married to a sponge.” 
And now I think my third inquirer had 
better ask counsel of God on her bended knees 
as to whether, khe, a church member, shall 
marry this man who is a professed skeptic, or 
rather “agnostic.” “People who are wide 
apart on matters of such vital interest, ” said 
a popular minister, preaching on matrimony, 
“ pursue divergent paths, and seldom come 
together. ” I have known a few instances 
where such marriages were apparently happy, 
but most of them resulted in .the conversion 
of the unbeliever. You know what St. Paul 
says about being unequally mated. Look for 
guidance to One who can direct you far better 
than any human friend, and you will not go 
wrong, only you must not look in the spirit 
in which we generally seek advice and guid¬ 
ance from our human friends. I have often 
found that an appeal for advice was simply a 
desire to be confirmed in the path already 
marked out, and so, although I may not have 
helped you with my trite truisms, I may have 
induced you at least to stop and think before 
it is too late. Palmetto. 
A BIT OF THE BRIGHT SIDE. 
Sister Rural Reapers.—Do you think that 
in this “workaday” world of ours, we count 
our blessings often enough* You know that 
old saying that when one feels particularly 
depressed in mind, or spirits he or she 
should count over 25 blessings especially 
his or hers to act as an antidote for such ills. 
Now, suppose, when we first wake in the early 
morning, instead of beginning to think of the 
baking to be done, and wondering whether 
or no, the sponge (we set last thing the night 
before) has risen, or worrying over the 
hard, busy day before us, we turn to 
the little face on the pillow near its. It 
may be the baby of a few months rosy and 
dimpled, sleeping with tightly clenched 
fist thrown up over its head, showing by that 
act (they tell us) perfect health, and sound 
sense. Or it may be a little maid of eight or 
ten summers is enjoying the heavy sleep of 
early childhood by your side. Kiss the quiet 
face, thanking God for the health of ymir lit¬ 
tle one, and let it count as first of your list of 
blessings. Surely it is one every mother’s 
heart will appreciate. Cover up the little one 
and step softly around. Plenty of sleep is such 
a good thing for babies youngjor older, and we 
know the little heads are safe from harm, 
when on the pillow. Let me quote a remark 
made by the good mother of a large family to 
my own mother. “Mrs Howell” she said 
“when the children are all put safely in bed, 
and none of them have been sick, or got hurt 
during the day, don’t you think it a good 
day’s work done?” 
We do, and we also think letting them sleep 
reasonably late in the morning “a good day’s 
work” well begun. 
Let us hurry down to the kitchen now, 
where the head of the house has already start¬ 
ed a fire and put the freshly filled tea¬ 
kettle over. Count that, my sisters; it’s a 
blessing not to be- overlooked, and come out 
of the door for a breath of fresh morning air. 
Look away over the hills and far beyond to 
the mountains sharply defined by the early 
sunlight, thank God for the great creation 
spread before you, and thank Him also that 
you are a part of it, doing His work under His 
guiding hand. 
Bring your gaze back again to the bounda¬ 
ries of the farm, whose every foot is owned 
(clear of mortgage) by the good man you call 
husband. Note that blessing, please, my sis¬ 
ters. 
And now count up. Have we enough of 
blessings, think you, to begin the day with ? 
If so, we will add the rest at our leisure. You 
smile. What! Is the measure full already? 
a farmer’s sister. 
GOLDEN GRAINS. 
Do you know that I have known men who 
would trust their wives with their hearts and 
their honor, but not their pocket books—not 
with a dollar ? Says Ingersoll : “ When I see 
a man of this kind I always think he knows 
which of these articles is the most valuable. 
Think of making your wife a beggar ! Think 
of her having to ask you every day for a dol¬ 
lar, or two dollars, or for fifty cents. “ Wbat 
did you do with that dollar I gave you last 
week ?’ Think of having a wife who is afraid 
of you. What kind of children do you expect 
to have with a beggar and a coward for 
their mother 1 ”. 
Be not over-exquisite 
To cast the fashion of uncertain evils; 
For grant they be so, while they rest unknown, 
What need a man forestall his date of grief, 
And run to meet what he would most avoid. 
— [Milton. 
Charlotte Bront£ said that life appeared 
to her to be too short to be spent in nursing 
animosity or registering wrongs. We are, 
and must be, one and all, burdened with faults 
in this world; but the time will come when we 
shall put them off in putting off our corrupti¬ 
ble bodies, when debasement and sin will fall 
from us with this cumbrous frame of flesh, 
and only the spark will remain, the impalpa¬ 
ble principle of life and thought, pure as when 
it left the Creator to inspire the creature. 
Burke said the true way to mourn the dead 
is to take care of the living who belong to 
them. These are the pictures and statues of 
departed friends which we ought to cultivate, 
and not such as can be had for a few guineas. 
The Independent says that the law of God 
in respect to divorce, as stated by Jesus Christ, 
is that the marriage relation is permanent 
during the life of the parties, not to be dis¬ 
solved or abrogated except for the offense of 
adultery on the part of either. Any law of 
man that terminates the relation for any 
other reason contradicts the law of God, and 
should, by the Church in dealing with the 
subject of marriage and divorce, be regarded 
as having no validity whatever. 
There is an idea, far too prevalent, that 
productive toil on the part of woman is a dis¬ 
paragement to her dignity. A sillier and 
more senseless idea never entered the brain of 
mortals, whether male or female. A woman 
must have her passage through life paid by 
somebody. Is there any good reason why she 
should have an absolutely free ticket ? None 
whatever. She owes to the world at least an 
equivalent for what she gets from it. 
We have again and again urged our readers 
to become systematic students of the Bible. 
We shall continue to do so. Those who have 
not tried the experiment have no idea of the 
effect which, in the course of a few months 
even, would be produced in their minds and 
hearts. If one will study the Book until he 
really acquires a taste for the study, he will 
be very sure to continue it during the remain¬ 
der of his life. He will feel the need of it just 
as much as he does of his daily food. 
Dr. Parker says where the work is good, 
don’t think about it; do it, and then think. 
When a person goes to a place of business, 
and turns an article over and over, and looks 
at it with hesitation, and finally says, “I will 
call again,” the master of the establishment 
says in his heart, “Never!” If Pharaoh’s 
daughter had considered the subject, the 
the probability is that Moses would have been 
left on the Nile, or under it; but she accepted 
her motherly love as a divine guide, and saved 
the life of the child. 
In a recent sermon Dr. Cuyler said that 
when the Eddystone lighthouse was to be re¬ 
built, Winstanley, the noted engineer, con¬ 
tracted to rear a structure which should with¬ 
stand the assaults of time and tempests. So 
confident was his faith in the showy structure 
of his own skill, that he offered to lodge in it 
with the keeper through the autumnal gales 
He was true to his word. But the first tre¬ 
mendous tempest which caught the flimsy 
lighthouse in the hollow of its hand hurled 
both building and builder into the foaming 
sea. We fear that too many souls are rearing 
their hopes for eternity upon the sands of 
error; when the testing floods come, and the 
winds beat upon their house, it will fall, and 
sad will be the fall thereof. 
CONDUCTED BY MRS. AGNES E. M. CARMAN. 
“ Nature impartial with her ends 
When she made man the strongest, 
In justice then, to make amends. 
Made woman’s tongue the longest.” 
MY MOTTO. 
“ ’Tis better to be ready and not go, than to 
go and not be ready.” 
The above has been my motto for years, and 
I’ve never regretted the day I adopted it. As 
a cbi : d I was the most careless, thoughtless 
youngster in the world. When I undressed I 
took my clothes off, as a matter of course, but 
whether I’d ever find them again or not was 
another thing altogether. Many a crack with 
the back of the brush did I receive from Kate, 
the nurse, when she’d ask where my hair- 
ribbon or round-comb was. I never knew; I had 
had it yesterday, but it had vanished in the 
night I remember wondering vaguely whether 
things couldn’t walk. I was sure they could; 
they must, else why didn’t I find them where I 
had left them? But where had I left them* I 
could never remember. 
Then my clothes had a way of always getting 
torn. If there was a nail anywhere about the 
house it never seemed to catch any one’s dress 
except mine—but it always caught mine. 
The door knobs, too, harf a way of making 
themselves very numerous. Just as I was 
racing in a great hurry for something im¬ 
portant, a knob (so it seemed to me) would 
reach out and grab me; I hadn’t time to stop, 
of course, so would rush on to the sound of 
swish-swish. There! My dress was all torn 
to pieces! Never mind, if it wasn’t too bad 
I’d pin it up. If it was past pinning I’d take it 
off and put on something else. So it went 
till almost everything I owned was in rags. 
Sometimes Papa would say at dinner, “I’m 
going to the village and if the children want 
to go they can do so: that is, if they hurry.” 
Immediately there was a rush for hats; a 
hasty dab with the wash cloth, the pulling up 
of stockings, and we—or rather they, were 
ready. But where was my hat? Somebody 
must have it! But no, they hadn’t. Oh! 
what should I do! Why did my things always 
get lost? “Hurry up Dol, Papa’s ready,” cry 
the children from the wagon. But I cannot 
go without something on my head. I rush to 
the house, into the sitting-room crying, “Kate, 
Kate, lend me your hat, please do, mine’s 
somewhere, but I can’t find it!” If Kate was 
in a good humor she would comply and off I 
pUjSfjeUattMuja 
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 
