Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-10-14
THE DAILY PRESS.
The FIutter budget Family.


The following admirable portrait Of Q
well-known and numerous family is by DR.
J. g. Holland, Of the Springfield Republican
Mrs. Flutter Budget was at church las
Sunday. She always is at church nnC
she never forgets her fan. l have known
her for many years, and have never known
her to be in church without a fan in her
hand, and some article upon her breast that
rustled constantly. Her black silk dress is
death TO devotion over the space of twenty
feet on all sides of her She fixes the wires
in the bonnets of her little girls then takes
their hats off entirely, then wipes their
noses, then shakes her head at them, then
makes them exchange seats with each other,
then finds the text and the hymns for them,
then fuses with the cricket, and then fans
herself unremittingly until she can see
something else to do. During all this time
and throughout all these exercises, the one
article of dress on her fdgety person that
has rustles in il, rustles. 1t chafes against
the walls of silence as q Gagged bear chafes,
with feverish restlessness, against. the walls
of his cell and as if the annoyance of one
sense were not sufficient, she seems to have
adopted bob-and-sinker style of trimming
for hat and dress, and hair and cloak, and
ternals. Little pendants are everywhere
little tassels and little balls and little
tufts-and the ends of little cords and these
are all the time bobbing up and down; and
trembling and threatening to bob up and
down, like
"The once red leaf, the last OF lis clan,
That dances as oft as daJ ce it can,
Banging so light, and hanging so high,
On the topmcst bough that looks up at the sky
hn g,F
Budget, or undertakes to look at her during
divine service, loses all sense of repose, and
all power of reflection. The most solemn
exercises in which the mind engages can
not be carried on with fly upon the nose
and any teasing Of n single sense; whether
of sight or sound or touch, is fatal to re-
ligious devotion. Ipresume that if the pas
tor wishes to find the most sterile portions
Of his field, he needs only to ascertain the
names Of those who occupy pews in the vi
cinity Of this lively little lady. Her husband
died two years ago, Of sleeplessness, and q
harassing system of nursing.
NUMEROUS FAMILY.
The Flutter Budgets are a numerous fam
lily in America. They are not all as rest
less as Madame, but the characteristics of
the blood are manifested among them all.
They never know repose; and what is
worse than this, they dread if not despise it.
They are immense workers-not that
they do more work and harder than their
neighbors, but they make a great fuss
about it, and are always at it. They rise
early in the morning, and they sit up late
at night; end they do this from years end
to years end, whether they have any thing
to do or not. They can not sit still. They
have an unhealthy impression that it is
wrong for them not to be " doing something
all the time. Nothing in the world makes
them so uncomfortable and so restless as
leisure. Mrs. Flutter Budget could no more
sit down without knitting-work. or a sock
to darn, in her hand, than she could fly. AS
she has many times remarked she would
die if she could not work. To her, and to
all of her name and character, constant ac-
tion seems to be n necessity. The craving
of the smoker for his pipe or cigar, the in.
cessant hankering of the opum-eater for
his drug, the terrible thirst of the drunkard
for his cups-all these are legitimate Illus
trations of the morbid desires of the Budgets
for action and motion. The man who has
the habit of using narcotics is not more
restless and unhappy without his accustomed
stimulus than they are without any thing to
uO III lEutu, Dell6Ne Jne ueSlGe lOT dCLlou
may become just as morbid passion of the
soul as that which most degrades and de-
moralizes mankind.
NOT A HAPPY WOMAN.
Mrs. Flutter Budget is not happy wo-
man; and, as l have intirnated before, she
seriously interferes with the happiness and
the spiritual prosperity of those about her.
When she can find nothing to do then she
worries. Those children of hers are worried
nearly to death. If, in their play, they get
any dirt upon their faces they are imme-
diately sent to make themselves clean. If
they soil their clothes, they are shut up un-
til reduced to proper state of penitence.
They are kept out of all draughts of air,
for fear Of cold and if they should take
cold, why, they must take medicine of the
most repulsiVe character as q penalty. If
they cough out of the wrong corner of their
mouths, she suspects them of croupy inen-
tions; and if they venture, at some un-
guarded moment, on a cutaneous eruption,
they are Immediately charged with the
measles, or accused with the smallpox. If
they quietly sit down for the moment of re-
pose, she apprehends sickness, and stirs
them about in order to shake it off. Even
sleep is not sacred to her, for, if she finds
q flushed face among the harassed little
slumberers, she wakes it only to make af
fectionate inquiries. Her husband, as
have already stated, died two years ago.
She worked upon his nervous system to
such an extent that he was glad to be rid
of the world, and of her. think a man
would die, after a while, with constantly
looking at the motion of saw-mill. The
jar Of locomotive makes the toughest iron
brittle at last; and the wear and tear of a
restless wife is beyond The strongest mans