Suits consisting of a jacket of solid 
color and skirts of small checks or mixed 
goods, are very popular this fall. The 
jacket is of the color of the prevailing 
tone in the skirt, with revers faced with 
the material of the skirt, and collar and 
cuffs either trimmed with the same or 
entirely of the check, according to the 
fancy of the maker. For the woman 
who is not sufficiently adept in dress¬ 
making to give a stylish, tailor-made 
effect to a jacket, here is a suggestion : 
Buy your jacket ready-made (or use one 
already on hand), of a color and material 
that you can match to a certain extent 
in material for a skirt. In buying 
material for the skirt, get enough extra 
to face the jacket, and you will not find 
it such a difficult thing, if you are a neat 
worker, to put this stylish finish to your 
jacket. Brown, blue and green are the 
colors most frequently used in these 
combinations, and the small checks are 
much more favored than mixed goods. 
* 
The plain felt hats, most of them modi¬ 
fications of the alpine shape, are as much 
in favor as ever. The ribbon band and 
binding, similar to the finish of men’s 
hats, are, usually, the only trimming. 
A quill is sometimes added, the bow at 
the side made more elaborate, or velvet 
substituted for the ribbon band. These 
plain hats are more worn than formerly, 
for fashion prescribes an untrimmed hat 
as the only suitable one for bicycling ; 
and, probably, half the time, m many 
cases, when a woman dresses for the 
street, it is to appear on the wheel. This 
is only one of the common-sense habits 
which the wheel woman is adopting. And 
her example influences others. 
* 
As a result of bicycle riding among 
women, manufacturers have placed com¬ 
fortable corsets on the market, realizing 
that many would have a comfortable 
corset or none. Underwear will be re¬ 
modeled by those who have experienced 
how much more suitable are the styles 
designed for wheelwomen. Skirts are 
being shortened by a few. This last re¬ 
form will progress more slowly, for it is 
in evidence to all, and there are few 
women who are brave enough to stand 
alone in inaugurating any reversal of old 
customs. It is, “I will if you will,” 
with most of them, and because of this, 
there are several clubs formed for the 
purpose of introducing shorter skirts on 
rainy days. 
* 
The question of dress reform affects 
all womankind, because the realm of 
dress is one of the strongholds of con¬ 
servatism and unreasonableness. Once 
woman claims liberty to follow here the 
dictates of sense and science instead of 
fashion and custom, she will be enjoying 
a large share of that emancipation of 
body and soul for which many have 
been so long clamoring. 
THE FARMER’S SOCIAL DUTIES. 
VISITING ALMOST A THING OF THE PAST. 
ARMERS are only men and women; 
their social duties are, therefore, 
the same as other classes of people— 
that is, they should be interested in the 
happiness and welfare of all with whom 
they come in contact. If they are thus 
interested, they will express it in some 
way, if only by a cheery word or smile. 
However, I fear that we country folks 
are growing remiss in the performance 
of our social duties. Indeed, I sometimes 
think that we do not realize that we 
have any, absorbed as we are in the 
daily round of labor, and the necessity 
for thought and care that our profession 
demands. In the rush for competence, 
or mere bread and butter, we seem never 
to have time for visiting or other social 
courtesy, and heedlessly, perhaps, wrong 
ourselves and others, not thinking of the 
lonely homes of people who are less 
favored than we with companions and 
home resources of literature, music, etc. 
“It is not good for man to be alone,” 
is true in more senses than one. We 
should be social creatures, mixing with 
—visiting, if you will—all our neigh¬ 
bors, sharing with them joys and sor¬ 
rows, ready always with sympathy or 
rejoicing. We may feel neighborly in 
our hearts, but it is a fact that, in our 
locality, social visiting among farmers 
is almost a thing of the past. Especially, 
I think, is this true of farm owners. In 
every neighborhood, there are more 
or less tenant farmers, who naturally 
often change residence. Yet these seem 
to visit back and forth among them¬ 
selves in the old fashion while the set¬ 
tled people keep to themselves except as 
mutual business interests make them 
neighborly. As for their women folk, 
their acquaintance rarely progresses be¬ 
yond a good night or good morning. 
Men are a little more social, and in their 
over-the-fence chats, lasting friendships 
have been formed, though they found 
little outward expression. 
There seems to be a line drawn be¬ 
tween owners and tenant farmers which, 
at first glance, might indicate “ caste 
but so far as my experience goes, the 
former try hard to make themselves 
agreeable to their neighbors, and would 
gladly be social, if allowed. 
Let me give you a bit of personal ex¬ 
perience, and it is not a rare one, I am 
sorry to say, in our town. We came to 
this farm nearly 20 years ago, fresh from 
the city and hosts of friends, though 
cities are sometimes called unsocial; in 
all these years, we have never broken 
bread with a farmer (relatives excepted). 
That we should have been glad to have 
our neighbors visit us, goes without say¬ 
ing. Those long, first winters were al¬ 
most unendurable, and will never be 
forgotten. We have not been to blame, 
for we have not stood for etiquette, but 
made first advances ourselves, until 
tired, and have, finally, given up and 
rely on our church and village friends 
for companionship. With this vivid 
memory always with me, I would gladly 
encourage neighborhood visiting, and 
think that it might be made most pleas¬ 
ant and profitable. 
Although I do not know of any case 
where people have left their homes 
solely on account of their isolation and 
loneliness, I am convinced that many a 
woman, could she have had her way, 
would gladly have done so, even at 
great sacrifice. The loneliness is so 
much harder on us than on men, whose 
varied occupations and frequent visits to 
“mill and to market” give them the 
change we so much need. We stay at 
home and grow morbid and narrow in 
our views, and, perhaps, get irritable 
and repine, when we ought to be con¬ 
tent and happy. Social visiting would, 
certainly, be helpful to us, if it did not 
degenerate into gossip, and I have little 
fear of that; we have so many things to 
talk about that we need not tell tales of 
people. 
The social feature of the Grange is to 
be commended, and I wish that all the 
discouraged, lonesome, hopeless farmers 
in the community were compelled—if 
they could not be coaxed—to join it. So 
sure am I that the relaxation of the 
social visit in the Grange room would 
benefit them, to say nothing of the prac¬ 
tical gain they might get from inter¬ 
change of ideas with others in their 
class! “Social duties” is a subject to 
which it is well to call attention, and I 
hope that it will be freely discussed; 
surely, no other lies closer to our hearts. 
MAKY MANN. 
SHOES FOR THE BABY. 
UR baby has knit and crocheted 
bootees of many styles, the gifts 
of different friends and relatives who 
wished to present His Little Majesty 
with some of their own handiwork. He 
isn’t yet old enough to wear real shoes, 
but the white bootees soil so easily and 
suggest bedroom slippers too much, to 
give the dressed-up effect that baby’s 
mother always likes, whether it be wise 
or not. So we decided that baby should 
have a pair of shop-made shoes. The 
ones we found in the shoe store were so 
cute and babyish, and of so simple a pat¬ 
tern, that they may easily be copied at 
home. Fig. 224 shows the finished shoe 
and the pattern for cutting it. 
They were made of soft leather—olive, 
finished in pink silk was my choice. 
Chamois would answer to make them, 
and also cloth in dark colors. A piece 
7 by 5% inches is needed for the shoe, 
which is cut in one piece. The tongue 
may be cut from a small piece. The 
seam c d is first sewed, then the back 
seam. Two eyelets are made on either 
side. The edges may be buttonholed or 
faced. The tongue is joined with but- 
BABY’S SHOE. Fig. 224. 
tonhole stitch, beginning at a and x. 
The toe is gathered, beginning at b. 
The fancy stitches may be according to 
taste. _ G. H. 
LEAVENED BY TACT. 
HERE is truth in the paradox that 
people should not always be as 
actively sympathetic and helpful as they 
possibly can ; for there are cases in 
which the omission of a service may 
prove to be the truest kindness. “ Why 
don’t you help her ? ” whispered a visitor 
to a young woman, indicating grandma, 
who sat at a distance, laboriously trying 
to thread a needle. “She does not like to 
have me, was the reply. “ It makes her 
realize that her sight is going, and that 
troubles her.” Every one who has lived 
in the house with old ladies, will remem¬ 
ber that they differ amazingly on this 
very point. One is grateful for the aid 
of young eyes, and another will say, with 
almost hurt emphasis, “Oh, no, thank 
you ! I like to do it myself.” 
There is quite as great a difference 
between people in regard to their crav¬ 
ing for discussion of their physical con¬ 
dition. Some have a horror of sympa¬ 
thetic inquiries, while others hear with 
melancholy gratification the remark that 
they are not looking as well as usual. 
Sympathy, unaccompanied by tact, is 
almost valueless. It may still be golden, 
but a man knocked down by a mass of the 
precious metal, is quite as likely to be in¬ 
jured as though the missile had been lead 
or iron. It is, of course, always better 
to err on the side of helpfulness than that 
of neglect; but only constant study of 
the individual preferences of others, can 
make our services perfectly acceptable 
to them. It is necessary, in the exercise 
of the truest kindliness, not only to weep 
with those that weep, but to withdraw 
our attention from those who prefer to 
be let alone. mbs. w. o. white. 
CHRISTMAS GIFTS. 
RS. WINTERS was reaching some 
vases from an upper shelf, and 
dusting them, preparatory to filling them 
with bouquets of winter flowers. Her 
work seemed to call up so many recol¬ 
lections of the past, that she fell into a 
soliloquy. “ That white vase,” said she, 
“ is one that George bought for me when 
he was 12 years old. What good taste 
the boy always had. The figures and 
vines on this are very beautiful. I did 
not realize, at the time, how carefully 
he had selected it. My good boy, always 
so conscientious and affectionate; all who 
ever knew him are better and happier 
for having had his society. And how 
much he enjoyed the Christmas season ; 
and always planned to give pleasure to 
all around him ! Oh, if my children were 
young again, and all around me, how I 
should enjoy preparing Christmas gifts 
once more ! Nothing touches me so 
deeply as the holiday season, and whether 
they are conscious of it or not, I believe 
that every one feels the same way. 
“ Mother Winters was a very reserved 
woman, but she always kept the little 
mats and pincushions which her grand¬ 
children made for her at Christmas. The 
copy of Scott’s poems that brother John 
gave me the first time we ever had a 
Christmas tree at home, has been a life¬ 
long pleasure to me ; and the set of 
Dickens’s works that Uncle William sent 
me from New York, how much they have 
brightened my laborious life ! And how 
my heart warms towards the one who 
remembered me with such thoughtful 
kindness ! ” aunt kachel. 
RENOVATING BLACK GOODS. 
NE can scarcely avoid feeling a 
little bit of impatience at seeing 
a mistaken idea persistently insisted in, 
and a course followed out simply be¬ 
cause a notion has taken root in the 
feminine mind, writes a woman of large 
experience in the New York Ledger. 
Day after day, we read directions for 
cleaning black goods, especially silks, a 
part of the process recommended being 
to begin while they are slightly damp, 
and iron them until they are thoroughly 
dry. As a matter of fact, a hot iron 
should never touch silk. It is fatal to 
its beauty, and as there are ways to 
restore this fabric that render it almost 
as handsome as new goods, it seems the 
sheerest folly to stick to such an anti¬ 
quated notion as ironing it dry. 
