1872.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
425 
THE HdMJSEHKOm 
63?” (For other Household Items, see “ Basket ” payee.) 
White Wire-Ware. 
Every one can not have table articles in silver of 
beautiful form and workmanship. We see no rea¬ 
son why beauty of form should belong only to 
costly materials. The French are much in advance 
of us in this respect, as with them nearly as much 
taste is displayed in the fashioning of articles of 
tin, iron, and copper as in the more costly metals. 
Persons of moderate means have as lively a love of 
the beautiful as those who are wealthy, and we 
welcome every attempt that brings pleasing and 
artistic things within their means. Recently there 
have appeared in our furnishing stores articles made 
of tinned twisted wire, of which many arc not only 
graceful in form, but useful articles of table furni¬ 
ture. To be sure, they are only of tinned wire, 
but if kept properly rubbed up they may well pass 
for silver, and the cost is very moderate. 
We can not enumerate the various articles made 
in this ware, but give a few selected from the large 
stock kept by our friend Baldwin, 38 Murray street. 
Fig. 3.— PICKLE-CASTER. 
Fig. 1 shows a stand for a coffee or tea pot. In 
fig. 2 we have a fruit-basket, which is really hand¬ 
some, and when filled with fruit would grace any 
table. Figure 3 shows a stand for a pickle-jar; 
these are made double, to hold two jars, and casters 
are made of the same material. A bouquet or 
flower-holder is shown in figure 4. It is a grace¬ 
fully-shaped tapering glass, supported in a frame 
of the twisted wire. Toast-racks, comb and brush- 
holders, paper-receivers, and a great variety of 
other conveniences are made in the same material. 
a i '■ ■' t ——- — ■ ■ ■ 
Home Topics. 
BY FAITH ROCHESTER. 
A Little Rest. —Miss Peabody, in speaking of 
establishing kindergartens, says: “No one person 
could possibly endure such absorption of life in 
labor unrelieved, and consequently two or three 
should unite in the undertaking, in order to be 
able to relieve each other from the enormous strain 
on life.” 
Then think of the mothers. I know very well 
that there arc mothers of 
large families (even in our 
day when children are born 
with natures that demand 
greater care and finer cul¬ 
ture than their ancestors 
did) who feel very little 
concern for their children 
except to feed and clothe 
them and send them to the 
schools provided for their 
religious and secular edu¬ 
cation. But some of us re¬ 
alize that the demand made 
upon mothers by the en¬ 
lightened spirit of our day 
is greater than mothers 
with our present poor 
preparation of health 
and culture can endure. 
It is not so much what we do as what we see 
ourselves unable to do that is driving us mothers 
distracted nowadays. The kindergarten solves 
the difficult}', only some of us must do the best 
we can without its aid, it is so slow in coming. 
Of course the minister must have his annual 
vacation, and teachers must have their holidays, 
but where and when shall a mother find rest? 
This question, to which I could find no possible 
answer, was summarily settled for me by “ our 
visitors,” of whom mention has heretofore been 
made. I was told to pack up my things and go 
home to “ mother’s ” for a visit of four weeks. 1 
suggested two weeks, and we compromised on 
three. All the lions I saw in the way were removed, 
and I went—much more for the children’s sakes 
than for my own. The eldest and the second child 
remained at home in the care of my lady visitor—a 
most motherly woman and an educated physician. 
I feared she was undertaking too great a task—to 
keep house for her husband and mine and our two 
children, with no assistance. But it was her own 
plan, and was cordially advised; and when I came 
homo she was not sorry that she had undertaken 
the task. Neither was I. More good results came 
of it than were dreamed of in our planning. 
Children need some variety in their care and 
education. A wise friend told me two years ago 
that what seemed to him at the time a great and 
irreparable calamity to his children had really 
seemed to prove the best thing for their develop¬ 
ment. They were early left motherless, and since 
then there have been several changes in their home 
and management—always pretty good care, but not 
invariable. The other day he wrote me: “I am 
glad you do not worry yourself to death about the 
disagreeable peculiarities of your children. L— 
did that almost literally, and it incapacitated her 
for doing her best by them. And now they arc 
almost model children, and it has not been accom¬ 
plished by repression either, or only in a slight 
degree.” Then he gave us two pages of happy 
father-talk about his children, now nine and seven 
years old. 
The more thoroughly a woman is a mother, in 
heart and soul as well as in name, the more does 
she need opportunities of rest and assistance in 
her labors. No individual assistance can do for 
mothers and for children what the kindergarten is 
destined yet to do. 
Madam Kriege says : “ It is the mother’s mission 
Fig. 4.— FLOWER- 
HOLLEll. 
to enter into the child’s nature, to live its life, to 
understand its impulses, to feel its needs; to bring 
her love, her sympathy, her wisdom, to this work 
of leading the child along the dark path of early 
life, and to make it acquainted with its relations to 
nature, to its fellows, and through these to bring 
it into a conscious relationship to its Heavenly 
Father.” 
I think there is not a nobler mission on earth 
than that. But if this mother who ought to do all 
that for her babe, and who longs to do it, is the 
mother also of two or three more young children 
scarcely yet amenable to reason, with all the mis¬ 
chiefs and necessities of childhood; if she has to 
be not only their wise guide and tender friend, but 
also their seamstress, cook, and washerwoman; 
and if she must also have the ordering of an es¬ 
tablishment, and is expected to follow the fashions 
in dress even afar off—then, I say, it is no wonder 
that insane asylums are so well filled, and that 
so many men are looking for their second 
and third and fourth wives; and it is no wonder 
that children have so poor home training. Let us 
accept all lawful means of refreshment, and all 
possible aids in our work. 
Good Books for Mothers.— First let me men¬ 
tion Madam Matilda H. Kriegc’s new book, from 
which I have just quoted. I found this awaiting 
me on my return from my'visit, and it was the 
book of books I most desired to see just then, 
having read Hearth and Home’s commendatory 
notice or ivelcome. The Christian Union seems 
to think that the “ average parent ” will not be 
able to get much from the book, while it commends 
it to the careful reading of the “ professional edu¬ 
cator and the profounder student.” But it seems 
to be written for parents, especially for mothers. 
It is a philosophical book, but exceedingly inter¬ 
esting. It gives the philosophy underlying the 
Kindergarten. Madam Kriege and her daughter 
are the leading kindergarten educators in this 
country. This book, “The Child; its Nature and 
Relations,” treats particularly of very vonug chil¬ 
dren, and is altogether the best book I know of 
about the education of babies from the first dawn 
of intelligence. If women’s minds were not kept 
feeble by the poor, trashy literature too many of 
them feed upon, and belittled by such constant 
consideration of dress-trimming and other trivial¬ 
ities, this book would find many more readers 
among mothers than it can hope to find at present. 
But here is Miss Alcott, who gives a deal of wis¬ 
dom in a very fascinating form. I have only lately 
read her “Little 'Women,” “Little Men,” and 
“Old-fashioned Girl.” All are useful books for 
mothers to read. We shall understand the little 
men and women under our care all the better if wo 
get acquainted with the life-like ones Miss Alcott 
shows us, and it will help us to keep up courage 
and faith while we wait for the upspringing and 
fruitage of the good seed we are trying to sow' 
patiently and cheerfully. 
Under-Clothing for Cold Weather.—I have 
written on this subject before, but there seems to 
be need of precept upon precept. Of late I have 
been learning better ways than I knew before. 
For children of three years and over there is 
nothing better, perhaps, than an under-garment 
clothing the body from the neck and WTists to the 
heels, much like the night-drawers children wear. 
They may bo made with a plain, easy, high-necked 
waist, with long, straight sleeves, and with open 
drawers sewed to the waist. The drawers should 
be rather full at the top, but small enough at the 
lower part of the leg to go inside the stocking, 
reaching to the heel, or leaving no gap above the 
shoe. “Doctors disagree” about the material of 
this under-garment, some recommending woolen 
and some cotton. Taking into account the diffi¬ 
culty of washing woolen without shrinking it, and 
the disagreeable sensation many skins experience 
in wearing it, probably the best way in most cases 
is to have this under-garment made either of cot¬ 
ton-flannel or of thin cotton-cloth, with a similar 
garment of warm woolen material over it. Buttons 
at the wuist support the other under-clothing. 
