TIIE LADIES’ FLORAL CABINET. 
181 
Kings in their progresses always took with them what 
they called the “stuff,” from bedding and tapestry 
down to spits and kettles. 
Some of the old walls gives us a curious insight into 
the character of the household belongings of the wealthy 
classes. Presses, hutches, chests and coffers seem to be 
the main articles, all being places of deposit for clothes 
and valuables. In the press, bedding and heavy articles 
of clothing were kept. The coffer was for money, 
jewels and ornaments, and was often of costly ebony or 
ivory. The hutch seems to have answered the purpose 
of a trunk, and was small or large, plain and ornamen¬ 
tal, as the case might be. In one will mention is made 
of “the little .hutch, oue broad hutch that standeth in 
my chamber, and the great broad hutch in the hall.” 
A thrifty old housekeeper of Queen Elizabeth’s time 
bequeaths her “ best spruce chest, her best coffer in the 
old chamber; her curiously carven chest of wainscot; 
and her cypress coffer for keeping linen clothing.” In 
Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew,” Gremio, who is 
suitor for the hand of Bianca, in naming over the 
property in his house in town says : 
“ In ivory cotters I liavo stuffed my crowns; 
In cypress chests my arms, counterpoints, 
Cosily apparel, tents and canopies, etc.” 
Next to these chests and coffers the tapestry and bed¬ 
ding were the housekeeper’s pride. With the tapestry 
or hangings the cold stone walls of the rooms were 
covered, and they imparted both warmth and cheerful¬ 
ness to these drear apartments. They were often made 
highly ornamental, with all sorts of colored figures and 
scenes upon them. That of Queen Matilda, at Bayeux, 
record in a series of marvelous pictures the whole Nor¬ 
man conquest of England from the departure af Harold 
to his death at Hastings. The making of these “ painted 
cloths ” was part of the labor of the lady of the castle 
and her maids; and an embroidery frame was one of 
the necessary pieces of furniture “ in my lady’s cham¬ 
ber.” 
The old English bedstead was a huge unwieldly affair, 
being sometimes twelve feet square and as many feet 
high. It had a canopy, curtains and square pillows. 
Under it was always a trundle bed for the convenience 
of body-servants and retainers. There is a story told of 
a Spanish page who visited England with his master. 
In his own country he had slept on straw in the host¬ 
ler’s loft, but in that northern land he found it too cold. 
One day in looking over the castle he came to the rooms 
where the maids were making the beds, and spying this 
arrangement, ran to bis master, saying : “ Sir, there are 
a sort of little beds under the great beds in this house, 
which they say are for servants; may I not lie in one of 
them?” 
These “ posted, sett-work bedsteads,” with their “har¬ 
den sheets,” “tear sheets,” “flock beds,” “pillow 
biers,” and “counterpoints,” were valuable property. 
Sliakespbare bequeathed his to his wife. Ann Hatha¬ 
way, together with all the other furniture, and we are 
of the opinion that the poet dealt fairly by her, despite 
the accusations of some writers. 
Clinton Montague. 
AUNT JEMIMA ON THE WOMEN QUESTION. 
Aunt Jemima gave a real old-fashioned quilting party 
the other day in honor of a neice who was visiting her, 
and freed her mind in this little lecture to her guests, 
who were all young girls: 
“ We are livin’, galls, in a fast age—a progressive age. 
they call it, when women are a-puttin’ on airs and 
a-settin’ up to be the equals of man. ’Twan’t so when 
I was a gall. Women didn’t then pretend that they’d a 
right to vote, and sing bass, and speechify in public. 
Galls didn’t go galivanting off to colleges and univarsi¬ 
ties, and rack their brains over ologies and furrin’ lin- 
gos, till they was turned inside out. 
“ Do you suppose that, if I’d a ben one of that sort of 
young women, Solon Pottibone would ever have took a 
fancy to me, and choose me out of twenty other galls 
that was just a-dying for him? For Squire Pettibone, 
whose weepin’ relict I now am, was a great man in bis 
day, a member of the.school committee, a justice of the 
peace, head of the board of selek men. He served two 
terms in the State Legislatin', and was even talked of 
for Congress ! 
“He was a man of deep lamin’, and great powers of 
mind. He read a good deal, but it was mostly in science 
hooks, too deep for me. Whenever in his weekly news¬ 
papers, he come to a artikel headed “ Women’s Spere,” 
“Advice to Wives,” and sicli like, he’d insist on readin’ 
it to me, even if I had to leave my salt risin’ a-runnin’ 
over, on the dinner-table a-standin’ in the floor, to lis¬ 
ten. Sometimes of an evenin’, arter the children was 
all asleep, and I sot in the chimbly corner a-darnin’ 
stoekins or doin’ up my week’s mendin’, he’d take 
dauwn some larned volum from the book-case that he 
allers kep under lock and key, and if he conies acrost 
anything suited to my needs or capacerty, he kindly 
read it to me. E’enamost all the lamin’ I ever got, 
come in this way. 
I remember jest as if it was yisterday how kinder 
pleased-like he’d look over at me and the work I was 
a-doin’, while he read some lines from Sheridan Knowles, 
beginnin’— 
“ Women act ther parts 
When they do make their ordered households know ’em: ” 
—or these words from another great poet.—Shakespeare 
or Martin Farquhar Tupper, I disremember which— 
“ What I do most admire in woman 
Is her affections, but not her intellek.” 
One line of Vargil was a pertikelar favorite of his’n. 
He said it in his sort of hectorin’ way to me so often 
that, though I don’t know no Latin (I should hope not), 
I larned this lingo by heart, and can repeat it naow: 
“ Varium et mutabile semper feemina.” 
(Husband said it meant, “ More fickle than the winged 
winds is woman.”) 
At famerly prayers, which he kept up constant, and 
where he was the most eddifyin’ of men, he used to 
ransack the scripturs for passages improvin’ to me and 
the galls—such as— 
“Wives, be in subjection to your husbands.” 
“ Whose adornin’ let it not be that outard adornin’ of 
plaitin’ the hair, of wearin’ of gold, or of puttin’ on of 
apparel, but the ornerment of a meek and quiet sperit.” 
