The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1870-01-21

and the bereavcments of death, do ten
derly-nurtured women find themselves
compelled to learn how to perform the
duties usually assigned to the sterner
sex. Whatever is required to be done
that we should know how to do, If
respective of whether it belongs natur-
ally to man or woman. There is anoth-
er view of the case which we commend
to mothers. 1t is generally admitted
that girls ought to be raised to be good
wives, as marriage is the proper destiny
of woman. Why should it not be equal
| ly admitted that boys should be trained
| to be good husbands, to aid their wives
in The nurture of children, in the care
and management of the household, and
if necessary in the actual performance
of domestic duties?
GOOD BABIES AND BAD BABIES.
We promised not to forget the request
of young mother who writes to know
| something about managing babies in the
best manner. The old saw that "man
| is bundle of habits" is especially true
of man in the cradle-of babies. These
infantile specimens of the race differ as
widely as those of larger growth some
are nervous and irritable by nature,
others good-natured and Emphatic,
some restless and enterprising, others
timid and quiet. These differences the
mother may modify by training, though
they can never be removed. But there
are certain habits into which all child
! rem can be trained if their mothers have
perseverance and nerve to do it. You
may begin with your baby at its birth
and accustom it to take its food regu-
| larly every two hours at first, and when
it is three months old, every three hours.
By little perseverance You soon get
the stomach of the child in the habit of
receiving and digesting aliment at reg
| ular intervals, so that it no more requires
feeding between times than grown folks
need bread and butter between dinner
and supper. The sleep of baby may
be regulated also almost exactly with
the hands on the dial-plate. For in
stance, if for three or four nights in
succession you keep the baby awake
from three in the afternoon till six, then
| give it food, put its night robes and
| lay it away in the cradle or crib for the
night, it will very soon form habit of
going to sleep at that hour, which will
give you all the evenings for reading
and sewing, for visiting and receiving
company. How many mothers, instead
of creating such habits in baby as will
really conduce most perfectly to its
proper physical and moral development,
leave all these points to be arranged as
it happens, thus making themselves per-
feet slaves to the whims and caprices of
an ill-regulated baby. We have known
mothers who got up two or three times
in the night to give their children wa
ter or food, simply because the child
was in the habit of receiving it, thus
breaking their own sleep and uniting
| themselves for the cares and labors of
the ensuing day. Unless in case of sick
ness, all this is worse than unnecessary !;
it is positively injurious. When baby
is four moaths old, it should be requir-
| ed to go without food from 10 at night
| till 6 in the morning and when it is six
or eight months old, its sleep should be
unbroken from 6 till e, from sunset till
sunrise. For two or three days the
| stomach will clamor and mutiny against
this regulation, but finally submits and
quiet reigns in the nursery during the
night. Just SO with tending. You may
give your baby playthings, and let it
| learn to amuse and entertain itself, or
you may accustom it to be i'll your arms
| or somebody's from morning until night
making it dependent, eXacting, and
anything else than "a well-spring of
happiness" to the household. You may
let it fret itselfquiet, or by judicious and
salutary restraint, teach it to stop cry
ing, and bear with patience the ills of in
fancy while passing through them. AS
soon as a child is old enough to show
temper it is old enough to learn not to
show it. All these things depend upon
the mother, and she can to a great eX-
tent make the little heart that caught its
beatings from her own just what she
would have it be, if she has courage,
wisdom and patience.
ABOUT FURNITURE.
A young married pair, who are about
commencing housekeeping, write for
advice and suggestions with respect to
the purchase of furniture. Their means
are limited, and they wish to expend
them in the most economical aud Judi
cious manner. For her benefit, and all
those in like circumstances, we submit
the following hints Good secondhand
furniture is cheaper and more valuable
than that which is second rate but new.
You had better give S25 for a welI-pre-
| served sofa that has been carefully used
and well-seasoned, than $50 for one
fresh from the cabinet-maker's which is
not first-class. just so with bureaus,
chairs and tables. We have weakness
for old-fashioned, long-kept furniture.
/ 1t looks as though it might have come
down from welI-to-do ancestors, and as
though for years and years one had been
accustomed to the comforts and elegan-
ces of life. 1t brings with it associa-
tons of family reunions, weddings,
evening entertainments, rustling silks,
and brilliantly-lighted apartments. For
our part, we are always heartily glad
when the look, and especially the smell
of newness is worn off from q recent
purchase of furniture.
| So of carpets. You can buy a large,
somewhat worn carpet, which will cut
up for smaller rooms that will be hand
sOmer and cheaper than one altogether
new, but of inferior quality. 1t does
not pay to buy cheap carpeting. Brus-
sells, good three-ply, and ingram are
most economical in the end. though their
first cost is greater than that of some
other kinds. Do not, however, buy
Brussels for common use unless your
arms are proof against fatigue in sweep
ing it. Light-colored carpets show dirt
less than dark ones, and as a general
rule, wear longer. 1t is better to buy
articles along as you need and can afford
them, than to purchase everything at
once. Thus you prolong the sense of
satisfaction in your new possessions
as Irving says, you enjoy s.linked sweet
ness long drawn OUT A lamp for the
parlor, clock for the sitting-room. a
bracket here, a picture there, these added
by degrees to the attractions of your CO.
sy domicil, will give you far mere pleas
ure than if you had them all at once aud
as matter of course. For your dining
room by all means get an extension ia
Bile to begin with You can put away
all the leaves if you choose, but when
you do want 10 set long table it is
vastly convenient to have it in your
power to do so. Pictures are cheap, and
the frames you can make yourself these
long winter evenings ofcone work, shell
work, leather work, butternut shells and
spruce boughs. When you can bu- gilt
frames for your walls those made by
your own skill and taste may be re-
moved to chambers.
TASNIN AS a FREsERvATTvE OF COTTON.
An old housekeeper from Exeter, N.