The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-12-15

Till shudder of rapture loosens
The tears that hang on the eyelids
Like breeze-suspended shower,
With a sense of heavenly freshness
Blown from beyond the sunshine,
And the blood, like the sap of the roses,
Breaks into bud and flower.
"a Literary Gourmand' is by Henry
James; and "The Good-natured Pendu-
lum" is characteristic story by L. L. Hale.
Mr.. James Russell Lowell has poem en-
titled 'The Flying Dutchman." In the third
paper on "Co-operative Housekeeping" the
author asserts that our present system of
domestic service is relic Of slavery
We mistresses who try t. regulate inde-
pendently these creatures who come to us we
know not whence, and fit away we know not
where, little realize that we are bearing up
the heavy ag.end of the once universal
system under which not only domestic labor,
but every possible species of agricultural and
manufacturing art, was carried on in the
houses or on the estates of their owners by
slaves, who could no more dream of giving
their mistTesses warning and leaving the fol-
lowing week, if they disapproved her arrange
ments, than they could hope to reverse the
DEGREES of fate itself-running away, when
there was nothing but slavery to run to- not
holding out those rosy inducements that of
late the North did to the Southern bond
woman. Serfdom was at its last gasp
in Queen EliZabeths day, but the tradition of
bondage remained for a hundred years or
more. In Cromwells time servants were only
paid a few dollars a year; they seldom left
their places, and were glad to transmit them
to their children after them. But the disor-
ganizatiOn begun by emancipation has culmi-
mated in our American chaos, where from its
very foundation the domestic temple sways
and luotuates increasingly on its ever-changing
basis of ill-trained and unprincipled service
creating an antagonstc feeling which renders
the relation of mistress and servant but cold
blooded bargain, formed in suspicion, and dis
solved with pleasure on the slightest provo
cation.
All our trouble comes because we are going
against the spirit Of the age, which revolts
against submission to an individual will, but
freely subjects itself to the despOtism of an
organization. Anerican-bOTn girls, as we all
know, have long abandoned domestic service
for the factory, the shop, and the district
school, and the Irish girls are following their
example, so that under the present system it
is grave question where, when Irish emigra-
tion ceases, the servants of the next genera
ton are to come from. Even without this
problem to trouble rs, however, with the
American idea deely implanted in servants
that the maid is as good as the Mistress it
is absurd TO hope for obedience and respect,
and the only way TO control them the
organized incorporation. The community
would need fe ewer Of them, their wages would
be higher, and as service would then be as
''respectable" and independent" as factory
work, and (owing to the good meals and lodg-
ings we could easily provide for them) far
more comfortable, much better class of
women would &c into it than We ever see in
our families, while even those who do SO
badly in private houses, by the accurate
division of labor, and the having only one
kind of thing to attend TO all day long, would
reach a higher standard Of perfection than
with their present diversity OF duties they are
capable Of
"In the Teutoburger Forest' is one of
Bayard Taylor's series of articles on the By
ways of Europe. Mr.. Whittier contributes a
poem, "After the Election" Consumption
in America" is the first of series of articles
on this important subject, by Dr. Henry J.
Bowditch. We quote the following:-
We know of two families in Massachusetts,
of whom the following story may be tod. Two
healthy brothers married two healthy sisters.
Both had large families of children. One
lived on the old homestead, on the southern
slope of one of the numerous beautiful and
wsll-drained hills in that vicinity. The
whole house was bathed all day long
in sunlight, and consumption did not
touch any of the young lives under its roof.
The other brother placed his house at
very short distance of, but upon grassy
plain, covered all summer with the rankest
veIdure. In its front was large open "com-
mon.' In the centre of this water oozed up
from between the split hoofs of the COWS as
they came lowing homeward at evening and
the barefooted boy who was driving them
used to shrink from the place and preferred
to make the circuit of its edge rather than to
follow the lead of his more quiet comrades.
Back of the house was large level meadow,
reaching to the very foundations of the build
ing. Through this meadow sluggishly crept
the millstream Of the adjacent village. Still
further, all three surroundings were inclosed
by lofty hills. The life.g giving sun rose later
and set earlier upon this than upon the other
fair homestead. Till late in the forenoon,
and long before sunset left the hillside home,
damp and chilling emanatons arose from the
meadow and day alter day enveloped the
tender forms of the children that were trying
in cain to groa0 up healthily within them. But
all effort was useless. Large families were
born under both roofs. Not one of the chill
dren born in the latter homestead escaped,
whereas the other family remained healthy;
and when, at the suggestion OF medical
! friend who knew all the facts we have told,
we visited the place for the purpose of
! thoroughly investigating them, we thought
! that these two houses were terribly signih
! cant illustration of the existence of this all
! powerful law. Yet these two homes had
! nothing peculiarly noticeable by the passing
! stranger. They were situated in the same
| township and within very short distance one
| from tho Otbar and uoarcalv any nna N ha