THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
JAN 48 
stand on tbeir toes, if some foolish city and 
society people do still cling to the old and 
pernicious fashion. The heels of our feet are 
made to stand up< n. Let us get broad soles 
and heels on our shoes and use our feet sensibly 
aDd decently. H H 
A GOOD DIGESTION. 
“ Where be your gibes now? your gambols? 
1 /our songs? your flashes of merriment, that 
were wont to set the table in a roa" ?" 
HAM LET. 
H OW many of you have ever connected 
cheerfulness and merriment at tneal times 
wir.h a good digestion? And yet, not even 
good cookery has a more pronounced effect on 
the dige stive organs than happy thoughts and 
pleasant speech while at the table. This is 
strongly exemplified among ray friends, the 
Quiubys. There never was a more jolly, or a 
more healthy family. Happiuess and health 
beam in every countenance from ruddy-faced 
Mr. Quinby who sterns a sort of personified 
chuckle, to the crowing, dimpled, year-old 
baby, Toddles. A meal at their house is an 
episode never to be forgotten—the merry 
quips, the bad puns, which seem the funnier 
the worse they are, the general air of content¬ 
ment and good nature, make an impression 
not easily removed. Five sons and five 
daughters, and all as harmonious as birds in 
a nest, I was going to say, but any one who 
has watched a nest full of struggling, pushing 
birds, each trying to get the first worm, will 
agree with me that the author of “Birds in 
their little nests agree,” is not to be commend¬ 
ed either for his knowledge of natural history 
or his veracity. 
At the house, by mutual consent every un¬ 
pleasant subject seems to be dropped out of 
sight and mind during meals, ano although 
nothing better than a “ dinner of herbs” fre¬ 
quently graces their board, there is always 
“contentment therewith.” No worries are 
ever discussed at such times. Even a dish 
that has suffered at the hands of stupid 
Gretchen, instead of being greeted with 
frowns and ill-natured criticism, becomes a 
theme for fresh jollity. 
But what a different atmosphere at the 
Rawleys Mr. R—. bemoans his losses, his 
expenses, or his debts, scolds his sons, nags 
his daughters and complains of the food. 
Mrs. R—. who doesn’t believe in letting “ a 
man have everything his own way,” laments 
that her house is smaller, and her furniture 
shabbier than that of the Smiths who live 
across the way. She discusses the shortcom¬ 
ings of her servants, and the disobedience of 
her children, and the children, not to be 
behindhand, indulge in mauy a side squabble. 
“Breakfast,” says Leigh Hunt, “is a fore¬ 
taste of the whole day. Many a meal that 
has every other means of enjoyment, is turned 
to bitterness by unwilling, discordant looks, 
perhaps to the great misery r of some person 
present who would give and receive happiness 
if at any other table.” 
I do not wish to bore you by going 
into the medical science of a fact with which 
any physician will acquaint you, namely, that 
cheerfulness during a meal promotes digestion. 
You can prove or disprove it for yourself by 
simply trying it fora season. If you have 
been used to finding fault with your wife’s 
cookiDg, try praising it by way of a cbauge, 
and note the result. alice Chittenden. 
ABOUT WOMEN. 
I N the Women’s Training College for Teach¬ 
ers, in Cambridge, England, recently, a 
school of scientific carpentry has been started. 
The young ladies are trained in the use of 
tools one afternoon in the week. No attempt 
is made to teach a trade, says the Builder’s 
Journal, but only an effort to develop a cer¬ 
tain degree of manual dexterity on the part 
of the young women. Tne experiment has 
been so highly satisfactory that Miss Hughes, 
the principal, says: 
“ 1 cannot speak too highly of the educa 
tional value of scientific carpentry. 1 am de¬ 
lighted with the result here, although we can 
spare very little time for it. The relief from 
mental work is immense, the exercise excel¬ 
lent (one rule is, we learn, to saw equally well 
with the left and right hands so as to develop 
both sides of the body equally), the pleasure 
is very great, and the powers of observation, 
accuracy and common sense that can be de¬ 
veloped by this manual work are simply 
marvelous. It is also the very best possible 
training for a future technical training.” 
\ erily I see before me a millennium when 
every woman, as well as every man, will be 
not only the architect of her own fortune, but 
of her house as well—when we shall become 
so self-helpful that men wijl no longer be 
necessary, and when m order to find grace in 
our sight they must reach a higher standard 
of perfection than many of them have yet 
attained to. Husbands will learn to speak 
gently to wives who can handle an adz, a saw 
and a bamni°r as easily and dextrously as 
a rolling pin or a flat-iron. They will, on the 
other hand, have fewer compunctions about 
letting us split our own firewood. 
Jesting aside, however, this new departure, 
although perhaps not pertaining to the 
“ higher education of women,” will un¬ 
doubtedly prove more useful to the majority 
than a knowledge of Euclid and conic sections. 
Little things about the house are continu¬ 
ally going to pieces for the want of a 
little timely carpentry, that Jack either has 
not the time or skill to attend to, for there 
are nearly as mauy men as women, who liter¬ 
ally cannot drive a nail. 
A CHICAGO paper gives a picture of a 
“ lady of the old school,” that every 
girl must be the better for having read, and 
which we subjoin: 
“The mysteries of the kitchen had no 
terror for her, and she fully understood the 
art, as one of the old cook books expresses it, 
of ‘shaking hands with a saucepan.’ Her 
table liuen was spotless, and every plate and 
cup aud saucer, every knife and fork, every 
piece of glass and silverware, gleamed in 
resplendent purity As she sat at the table, 
opposite the gentleman of the old school, and 
surrounded by her family, her face was a 
benediction, for happiness had its abode with 
her 
Under her firm and womanly hand her 
children were dutiful, her servants respectful, 
and her husband, safely trusting in her, 
gladly gave her his love and praise. But if 
she was mistress in the kitchen, she was 
queenly in the parlor. There she received her 
friends with an ease and grace that made the 
most awkward easy and graceful, each one 
reflecting, as in a glass, her own charms. 
Many a bashful young man and many a 
modest maiden have called her blessed because 
her fine manners did not chill, but rather 
warmed them into animation and life. Her 
fine tact left no guest, however humble, ob- 
scui e or in a corner, and none ever left her 
presence without feeling how much wittier 
they were than they had supposed. Her dress 
was rot more costly than her purse could 
buy, and was as appropriate to her as the 
plumage to a bird. Its very detail harmon¬ 
ized so perfectly that it was almost indes¬ 
cribable, and the only impression it left on 
the beholder was that she was well dressed. 
Serenity shone from her eyes and content¬ 
ment smoothed every feature, and although 
the trials of life came to her as they came to 
all, she ever endured them with religious 
patience.” palmetto. 
GOLDEN GRAINS. 
D R. BEHRENDS doesn’t approve of the 
popularity of Robert Elsmere. He says it 
is a house upon the sand, a beautiful bubble, 
collapsing at the first breath of earnest pro¬ 
test. The world has no need of such a substi¬ 
tute for the old historic gospel. 
“Charity to a man’s own soul is the very 
soul of charity” is a saying we have read 
somewhere, and it is true. All that a man 
does or thinks or says has its reflex action on 
himself, hence no act of charity to others can 
help but be an act of charity to a man’s own 
heart. 
tine to the highest creative activity, which does 
not receive all that gives it quality from the 
spirit in which it is done or fashioned. Work 
without spirit is a body without soul; there is 
no life in it. 
CONDUCTED BY MRS. AGNES E. M. CARMAN. 
One of the best resolutions for the young 
year that we know of is to try to make some 
one Happier each day. You may not always 
succeed , but the effort is welt worth the trial, 
for he or she who maketh the effort bringeth 
happiness unto his or her own soul. 
WINTER WARMTH. 
MARY WAGER-FISHER. 
We are not worse at once—the course of evil 
Begins so slowly and from such slight sources 
An lufant's hand might stem Its breach with clay; 
But let the stream get deeper, and Philosophy- 
Aye, and Religion, too-shall strive in vain 
Tostem its headlong torrent. _ Soott. 
Artifice is incompatible with courteous 
frankness of manner. Rochefoucauld has 
said that nothing so much prevents our being 
natural as the desire of appearing so. 
We are apt to forget our duty toward our 
immediate relatives and friends. Dean Stan¬ 
ley says that each one of us is bound to make 
the little circle in which we live better and 
happ er; each of us is bound to see that out 
of that small circle the widest good may flow; 
each of us may have fixed in his mind the 
thought that out of a single household may 
flow influences that shall stimulate the whole 
commonwealth and the whole civilized 
world. 
‘■Hu most lives who thinks the most, 
Acts the noble-it, feels the best. 
And he hose heart beats quickest 
Lives the longest, lives iu one hour 
More than In years do some whose 
Fat blood sleeps as It slips along thefr veins 
The Christian Union says that the men 
who give their work character, distinction, 
perfection, are the men whose spirits are behind 
their hands, giving them a new dexterity, 
I here is no kind of work, from the merest rou- 
T O keep the blood up to its normal heat in 
winter,is the secret of warding off the long 
line of ailments that result from getting cold, 
or chilled. This can be best accomplished by 
warm clothing and good circulation. It 
sometimes happens that the flannels are thin, 
and to buy new ones is not within the com- 
passof the family purse. But even with worn 
underwear much can be accomplished by 
basting warm linings across the shoulders, 
both front and back, and protecting the top 
of the arms and knees in the same way. Some 
of the best ready-made woolen undergar¬ 
ments are woven so that both the chest and 
the abdomen receive a double layer of the 
fabric. For boys and girls always in a hurry 
the kind that rush out-of-doors without 
top-coats in cold weather—warm clothing is 
such a safeguard against pleuritic attacks, 
inflammation of the lungs and throat, etc., 
etc , that there seems to be nothing better in 
the way of household economy than to make 
these youngsters proof against sudden chills 
by judicious padding. For sleeping, the 
night-gowns should be warmly lined across 
the shoulders, or people should wear, over the 
gown, a woolen sack or jacket, which warm 
garment for the shoulders and arms will save 
much discomfort and even illness in the case 
of sleeping adults who are not over-robust. 
The human body is weakened by every cold 
which attacks it, and to keep it free from 
ailments of every kiud, is to keep it strong and 
hardy. It is not necessary that clothing 
should be fine or costly to be warm; but warm 
it should be, even if patched and ugly to a 
startling degree. Some one has said that one 
ha i better be a fool than be dead! —and it is 
certainly better to look like a guy than to 
suffer from the cold. Women who are much 
in-doors need especially to protect the neck, 
the sides of the face about the ears, when 
going out in cold weather, and it is much 
more sensible and profitable to wear a hood 
than a bonnet or hat in winter-time when 
riding or driving. A newspaper, folded and 
laid across the chest under the coat, when one 
is to face a biting wind, is a great protection 
to the lungs. 
The evil so many women have felt of the 
insufficient warmth afforded to the legs by 
petticoats, has led to the discarding of under 
petticoats altogether. The lower part of the 
body is clad very much as men clothe theirs, 
with warm woolen drawers coming to the 
heels, over which the stockings are drawn, 
and then another set of over-drawers or 
pantaloons of still greater warmth of cloth, or 
wadded silk or cotton, as one can afford. 
The external appearance of the non-petticoat 
wearer does not differ from that of the much 
petticoated woman, except that she is freer 
and more graceful in her movements, and is 
relieved of the heavy, bunchy look that petti¬ 
coats give. A woman who has no pattern to 
guide her in making these pantaloons for her¬ 
self, can experiment with a cast-off pair of 
her husband's or brother’s trousers, cutting 
away all the unnecessary appendages, and, of 
course, having the garments well washed and 
ironed. Her owu should fit smoothly around 
the hips, and reach to the top of the shoes. 
Some ladies have them made of quilted silk, 
and some cut them from their quilted petti' 
coats. They are such an improvement in 
dress in the way of comfort and health and of 
modesty, too, that they will win their way 
speedily. 
inter bathing is also very essential for 
warmth and health. A substitute for bathing 
is friction applied to the skin by means of a 
brush, rough mittens or towels. Standing on 
one’s toes is a good exercise for warming the 
feet, slipping off the shoes for that purpose. 
This is good for the feet before retiring, if a 
quick cold bath is too violent for them. The 
virtue that lies in a rough towel is rarely ap¬ 
preciated. The vigorous use of it is worth all 
the cosmetics in the world as a beautitier. A 
daily hand rubbing of the arms, neck, cheeks, 
chest, indeed, of every part of the body, will 
keep wrinkles, flabbiness, weakness and pains 
at bay, as nothing else can. The pores are 
kept open, the tissues are healthy and hardy, 
the blood tingles with life, the flesh forgets to 
grow old, the teeth and nails are polished by 
it; in fact, when rightly and persistently 
used, the rough towel is worth its weight in 
gold. 
One of the best exercises for every lady in 
need of chest development, is the use of In¬ 
dian clubs. They can be made at home without 
cost, aud in nearly every neighborhood some 
one can be found to show one of the best ways 
to use them. For a narrow-chested, round- 
shouldered boy or girl they are excellent. 
Another good exercise can be had by standing 
in the corner of a room, and with the hands 
on each of the two walls, inclining the body 
into the corner, so that one’s very nose fits in¬ 
to the angle. Repeat this operation 20 times 
in succession to begin with. Children quickly 
catch the knack of doing it, and it brings 
their shoulders back beautifully, and is an 
ever-readv expedient 
To allude again to the friction produced by 
rubbing, 1 have known sore throat, earache, 
neuralgia, etc , driven off, when, at the outset 
of the attack, vigorous rubbing has been 
applied about the affected parts. 
The cut-off legs of worn-out stockings, 
drawn over the stockirgs that are worn, form 
very good knee protectors for children 
much on their knees. The under sides of the 
cut-off legs are usually little worn, and should 
oe turned to the front. Economical women 
buy children’s stockings of the same color the 
year round. Creeping bags are made for in¬ 
fants, of calico, in two widths, of the length 
of the child from the neck to the heels The 
top end lets the arms through the side seams, 
and is gathered into a band large enough to 
slip easily over the head. The bottom end 
has slits cut for the feet to come through, or 
the bag may be cut uo through the center a 
little way, and each side gathered into a baud 
to fit around the aukle. It is reversible so as 
to be worn either side to the front. 
CIVIL GOVERNMENT IN SCHOOLS. 
LEILA S. TAYLOR. 
O NE branch which I am glad to see is being 
added to the course of study in mauy High 
and Grammar Schools, as well as academies 
and private institutions, is civil government, 
or the science of statesmanship. It might 
well be introduced into all district schools, 
and should be required wherever there are 
boys or girls near the dead line of 15. If our 
country ever needed wide-awake, well-in¬ 
formed American citizens it is now, and the 
years to come will probably only increase the 
necessity for them. How few of those whose 
ballots determine the nation’s fate understand 
her history, appreciate her mission, or foresee 
her dangers 1 How few realise the character 
of her constitution, or the nature of her gov¬ 
ernment! What can the German, or the 
English, or the Irish, or the Swedish man. 
fresh from his native soil, know of our polity? 
The sons of these men go to our schools and 
there must they learn, if they ever do, the 
history, nature and rtquirements of the gov¬ 
ernment their parents have given them as a 
birthright. Let our school committees see to 
it that no boy nor girl goes out from our 
country schools, till the priuc pies and methods 
of the State and National Governments are 
understood. 
There are several good text books on civil 
government. Among the best, are Town¬ 
send’s and Martin’s. First, the idea of 
government is explained and illustrated. The 
State is deflued; law, penalty, and the dif¬ 
ferent kinds of government are discussed 
Then follows a brief historic sketch of the 
growth of English law, and its development 
through colonial history, until its final crys¬ 
tallization in our present constitutions of 
the States and Nation. Then the different 
departments of the government are taken up, 
aud discussed in their various forms and 
functions. The nature of the town, county, 
and State, with that of their numerous 
offices, and requirements is explained. 
One method which may be employed by 
any wide-awake teacher, is to take the pupils 
pisrrUaucousi gutmtijssing. 
When Bahy was sick, we gave her Castoria* 
When she was a Child, she cried for Castoria, 
When she became Miss, she clung to Castoria, 
Wlu-n she had Children, she gave them Castoria 
