7i4 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
OCTOBER 26 
self in the production of flowers and seed. 
Every child should be taught how to pro¬ 
duce plants, and to guide or change their 
growth by grafting and training as a pro¬ 
fitable and ever interesting occupation for 
many a spare hour. The experimenter 
referred to, will, it is to be hoped, tell every 
body, through the papers, how his experi¬ 
ment resulted. “w.” 
Tyrone, Pa. 
IVtmau’s VUovk, 
CONDUCTED BY EMILY LOUISE TAPLIN. 
CHAT BY THE WAY. 
M ORE than once we have had some¬ 
thing to say about fashions in 
mourning—we don’t mean in actual moxern- 
ing, but in the clothes used to denote it. 
And there is no doubt that people more 
often offend canons of taste in this direc¬ 
tion than conform to them. 
It sounds heartless to tell one bereft of 
her nearest and dearest that she must wear 
just such garments for so long a time—that 
she must gradually lighten the gloom of 
her apparel until she throws it off altogeth¬ 
er. But the wearing of mourning is a pure¬ 
ly formal affair; the deepest black cannot 
express the lonely grief of a real mourner, 
or disguise the frivolity of one who puts it 
on merely because it is the fashion. It is a 
custom to be honored for its antiquity, and 
it is often a protection to the bereaved one. 
* 
* -V- 
But so many women make mourning a 
veritable byword. There are those careless 
ones who put on the inkiest of sables for a 
few months, and then flaunt out in gay 
colors without any decent interval of sober 
half-mourning garb. We have been re¬ 
peatedly shocked by seeing women in crape 
veils and mourning garb at theatres and 
other places of amusement—at fairs and 
festivals of every sort. If their feelings do 
not prevent them from enjoying any frivo¬ 
lous amusement, why advertise their levity 
by wearing mourning ? :- o long as unre¬ 
lieved black is worn, no place of public 
amusement should be frequented ; certain¬ 
ly the sight of a crape veil at a comic opera 
is not only absurd, but hardly decent. 
* 
■* * 
Next to the frivolous pleasure-seeking 
mourner comes the perpetual mourner. 
How many women do you know who, be¬ 
cause they lost a dear one three or five or 
10 years ago, still wear crape and what 
the English term first mourning, and seem 
to have devoted themselves to mourning 
for the rest of their lives? This is espec¬ 
ially the case among American women, 
because rules for mourning are not so rig¬ 
idly laid down here as they are in European 
countries. Now, in point of fact, the deep¬ 
est mourning—that of a widow—should 
not last more than three years, and this is 
longer than French fashion allows. One 
year of black with crape ; one year of plain 
black ; six months of black-and-white, and 
six months of gray or lavender is the long¬ 
est mourning one should indulge in, and 
even this is excessive. Two years is the 
longest allowable for parents, brothers or 
sisters. It is too often either selfishness or 
ostentation which prompts excessive 
mourning apparel, nor have we the right 
to obtrude our grief on every one. 
* 
* 
There a>-e several Mourning Reform As¬ 
sociations in England, organized for the 
purpose of lessening the display made 
under such circumstances, which is often a 
sore task to a slender purse. In England 
it is customary to provide mourning, usually 
two sets, for the servants of the bereaved 
family, be they many or few, and this is a 
very heavy expense. Many people of rank 
try to discourage this ostentation, but it is 
an old custom. Lady Marian Alford, an 
English woman well known for her benev¬ 
olence and philanthropy, left in her will an 
express stipulation that no mourning 
should be worn for her, and that her fu¬ 
neral should be as plain and simple as was 
consistent with respect. 
* * 
We wear mourning garments in token 
of a sorrow which we ought assuredly to 
stifle and to conquer. The loss of our dear 
ones seems scarcely expressed by the deep¬ 
est of black, and yet we must all feel the 
selfishness of such gloom. Among the new 
hymns approved by the late Episcopal Con¬ 
vention is one for the burial service which is 
so trustful and devout that we must quote 
it here, at the risk of its seeming out of 
place: 
“A voice is heard on earth of kinsfolk weeping 
The loss of one they love; 
But he is gone where the redeemed are keeping 
A festival above. 
The mourners throng the way. and from the steeple 
The funeral bell tolls slow ; 
But on the golden streets the holy people 
Are passing to and fro; 
And saying as they meet. Rejoice ! another, 
Long waited for. is come: 
The Saviour’s heart is glad : a younger brother 
Hath reached the Father’s home.” 
TAKE LIFE EASILY". 
MRS. S. H. ROWELL. 
* * * TXT"HAT an easy woman Mr. Howe 
VV has for a wife !” said Mr. Met¬ 
calf, as he laid down the paper and 
stretched his feet to the grate. “I never 
saw a person so easy and calm ! ” 
“What have you seen to make you think 
so now ? ” said his wife. 
“ I never saw much of her before to-day, 
but when Mr. Howe had that attack in the 
store yesterday morning, I happened to be 
in the store, and so called a hack, and went 
home with him. Mr. Edson rang the bell 
and when he told her that he had brought 
Mr. Howe home sick, she turned as pale as 
a ghost, but as quickly as possible wheeled 
the sofa into the center of the sitting-room, 
had the pillows on it and a blanket before 
we got him into the house. She was not 
flurried one bit, seemed to know just what 
to do. She loosened his clothes, and rub¬ 
bed his side, and got some medicine to give 
him, before she even spoke a word; then 
she got some hot water in a bath tub and 
got his feet into it. Edson and I stood by 
to see if we could help her in any way. She 
seemed adequate to the situation. She just 
rubbed his feet, legs and hands till he came 
to a little. 
‘He was not fit to goto the store this 
morningshe said, * he was sick all night, 
but he said it was necessary for him to be 
there this morning, as he had important 
business on hand.’ 
* Ought we not to call a physician ? ’ 
said Edson. 
‘I will see how he is directly; but I 
think it was only a fainting spell. He did 
not eat a mouthful of breakfast, and only 
drank a cup of coffee,’ and she was as cool 
and collected as I am now. Every one 
thought it was a fit when he fell to the 
floor in the store. 
He struck his head against something 
when he fell, and there was a big bump as 
large as an egg marking the place. When 
she saw it, she bathed it in hot suds, and 
then got a piece of raw beef-steak and 
bound it on the place; then she gave him 
some more medicine, wiped his feet, put on 
his socks; and with a smile said, to him : 
‘ You are feeling better now I think.’ She 
was feeling his pulse, and he opened his 
eyes, and the color came to his lips, as he 
said he was getting over it. 
‘ What folly to faint away ! ’ he laughed, 
as he saw us. ‘ My wife tried not to have 
me go to the store till I was able to eat 
something ; but I felt so sick that I could 
not taste a mouthful. I presume I shall be 
all right in an hour, so as to be back to the 
store this evening.’ 
We protested against it; Mrs. Howe 
said she would make him a cup of tea and a 
slice of toast before that question was set¬ 
tled. As there was nothing for us to do, 
and they did not need a doctor, Edson and 
I took our departure. Mrs. Howe followed 
us to the door, to thank us for our kind¬ 
ness, and remarked that she did not think 
her husband would go down town to-day. 
Edson and I both exclaimed, after we left 
the yard, upon her self-possession ; and Ed¬ 
son said, if he had been carried home in¬ 
sensible, his wife would have had hyster¬ 
ics, and a physician would have been sent 
for, and all the neighbors called in, and a 
general hubbub would have followed while 
everything was so quiet and easy at 
Howe’s.” 
“ Did he go to the store in the afternoon, 
Mr. Metcalf ? ” asked his wife. 
“No, but I called in, on my way home. 
He was lying on the sofa, reading. He 
said he was all right except where he hit 
his head : that was rather sore yet; but his 
wife was caring for it, so it would be nigh- 
well in the morning he thought. I saw he 
had a slice of beef upon it. When I spoke 
of his not coming to the store in the even¬ 
ing, he laughed, and said he might have 
gone, but his wife did not wish it, and he 
thought he had made her trouble enough 
for one day. Then I spoke of how calm 
and collected she was, and how she knew 
just what to do. 
‘ Oh yes, that is her way. She takes life 
easy. She never gets excited, let what will 
turn up, and I am such a nervous fellow 
that it is lucky for me that she is so cool 
and collected. Now after you and Edson 
went away this morning, she just had a 
good cry ; her feelings gave way ; the ten¬ 
sion had been too strong on her nerves. I 
expect she was awfully frightened; but 
you would never have known it by her ap¬ 
pearance, till I was all straight again.’ 
We had a real nice chat, and I left him as 
chipper as a lark, and Mrs. Howe came in 
with a face beaming with smiles.” 
“You probably thought how your wife 
would have acted” said Mrs. Metcalf; “I 
could not have done the first thing for you.” 
“I do not think you would have been as 
bad as Edson said his wife would have 
been; but I rather think you would have 
fainted away if I had been brought into 
the house looking like a corpse.” 
“ Oh, I could not have done the first 
thing, I know! and I do not see how Mrs. 
Howe could either! How could she think? ” 
“Perhaps she has learned to take life 
easy : again she may not have as excitable 
a temperament as you have; and, then, 
she may have had a different training in 
her home when a girl; or she may have 
seen the necessity of controlling her feel¬ 
ings on account of her husband’s nervous 
temperament. But it is a blessing in any 
home for a woman to take trials easy.” 
“I doubt whether I ever could learn to be 
calm under such dispensations; but I can 
understand how much better it would be 
for all if I could. I have always heard that 
Mrs. Howe was one that took life easy, let 
what would happen.” 
ABOUT PERFUMES. 
A WRITER in the New York Sun says 
that perhaps no pretty feminine sac¬ 
rifice more augments woman’s witchery 
over man than the subtle faint fragrance 
which she contrives to impart to the flutter¬ 
ing folds of her gowns and belongings. 
This is not produced by emptying a pint of 
triple extract on a handkerchief after the 
manner of men, but of sundry dainty de¬ 
vices and combinations of odors which each 
woman invents for herself, and which 
make possible a certain individuality in 
perfume so marked that an observing lover 
is aware of his lady’s presence bv the atmos 
phere, and can select her handkerchief from 
a dozen others by its odor. Some luxuriant 
women bathe in perfumed toilet waters, 
A la Mrs. Potter, whose bath of violet tinc¬ 
ture, supplemented by quantities of violet 
powder, made the fragrance of her favorite 
flower continually emanate from her pres¬ 
ence. Another pretty fancy with ladies is 
to tie up sweet grasses, clover, and rose 
leaves in little silken bags and place them 
between the folds of their wearing apparel. 
Sprigs of lavender and sweet verbena are 
folded in their lingerie, after the fashion of 
their grandmothers, and an ancient recipe 
for lavender bags, handed down from some 
dear, dead, dainty belle, is regaining popular 
favor. Its ingredients are: 
One-half pound lavender flowers. 
One-half ounce dried thyme and mint. 
One-quarter ounce ground cloves and cara¬ 
way. 
One ounce common salt. 
All tied up in a case of linen to be hung 
inside a wardrobe or chest. 
A very delicate perfume is made of a com¬ 
bination of heliotrope and violet powder, 
with an equal amount of orris root, which 
latter is said to be an excellent medium for 
the other powders and helps them to retain 
their delicate fragrance for a longer time 
than they will when used alone. Small 
sachets of lawn or linen, shaped like an 
envelope the lid of which fastens with a 
button and buttonhole, and from which the 
cotton may be easily removed to be dusted 
with fresh powder, are favorite receptacles 
for the powder, which must be renewed 
very frequently, as its perfume is as fleet¬ 
ing as it is faint. These are scattered all 
through the folded lingerie, between the 
handkerchiefs, and are placed in the pock¬ 
ets or draperies of dresses. But the most 
cunning device of all, and one which never 
fails to produce just the faint, delicious 
fragrance desired, are the corsage sachets, 
which are made of silk or satin, are about 
two inches square, and of which as many 
may be worn, fastened inside the waist, as 
desired, as they are very thin and flat, and 
can be placed inside the corset if necessary. 
The warmth imparted by the fair wearer 
causes them to send fluttering forth the 
most delightful odor with every breath or 
stir of the bodice,until the pretty conceit of 
a lover that his mistress breathes fragrance 
is verified. 
GOLDEN GRAINS. 
T O be content with what we have is the 
real secret of happiness. The real 
needs of humanity are comparatively 
few, but the artificial and conventional are 
illimitable and insatiable. 
Nothing is more expensive than penuri¬ 
ousness, nothing more anxious than care¬ 
lessness, and every duty which is bidden to 
wait returns with seven fresh duties at its 
back. 
It is not what life is to bring to a man 
but what he is able to carry into it, that 
will determine his happiness. 
Every man is his own ancestor, and every 
man his own heir. He devises his own fu¬ 
ture, and he inherits his own past. 
We have not a muscle whose law of 
strength is not action ; we have not a fac¬ 
ulty of body, mind or soul whose law of 
improvement is not energy. 
The way to do good is to be good. There 
must be light; then it will shine. 
Fortune does not change the character, 
but it reveals it. 
Languid, low-toned color or goodness 
never overcomes anything. It must be pos¬ 
itive, full of blood, radiant as an angel. 
Then a man shall go out with a conception 
of goodness into the community and wher¬ 
ever he goes he will carry conviction to 
evil, so far as conviction can be produced at 
all. 
Love those who advise but not those who 
praise you. 
One ungrateful man does an injury to all 
those who are wretched. 
Character is indicated in little things; 
hence, men are judged by little things. So 
simple a matter as the paper on which a 
man writes a note has its indication of his 
character; and it has its bearing on the es¬ 
timate which is formed of him by others... 
If to do were as easy as to know what 
were good to do, chapels had been churches, 
and poor men’s cottages princes’ palaces... 
A GRACIOUS and beautiful life is always a 
healthy one and is always associated with 
a sane and healthy mind and almost al¬ 
ways with a healthy body. 
No person of mature years cau consider 
himself properly equipped for the cares and 
responsibilities of life unless his own bodi¬ 
ly powers are strongand his brain rendered 
elastic by exercise and training. 
Oh that men could be kept courting all 
the days of their life ! What a school the 
school of love is!. 
OUR trouble is not to know what to do, 
it is to have a heart to do what we know... 
Domestic CcouoTOij 
CONDUCTED BY MRS. AGNES E. M. CARMAN. 
“ Ye who long for work of nobler mould, 
Oh, learn how common things may aid; 
Whoever digs for diamonds or gold 
Must needs use first—an iron spade.” 
FOR MOTHERS. 
M OTHERS are more apt to think of 
things which amuse the girls than 
the boys—that is, after the former reach 
their teens. Boys are expected to play out- 
of-doors most of the time, and also to se¬ 
lect their companions outside. But the 
greatest mistakes boys make in their lives 
are often made just at this period. Then, 
if ever, a boy needs his mother. Let us 
exert ourselves to keep our lads near us. 
One way to do this is to give the boys a 
room all for themselves. Here they can 
collect wdiatever their fancy may dictate. 
Do not fit it up in any great style, and do 
not be particular in regard to the care of 
the furniture. Let the youngsters have one 
place, at least, where they can make a dirt 
if they wish to. Do not growl if the floor 
is covered with chips; do not complain if 
Pi.orcUuncou,$ 
When Baby 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 
