Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1871-01-12
Home Culture.

GRAY clouds send down sheets of cold
rain-drops, and dead leaves rustic on the
ground, but snugly ensconced in a cosy
library, the walls book lined, vines ramb-
ling about, the breath of flowers in the air,
bit of needle-work, that we may not feel
idle, and pleasant fire, and are we not
fortified to endure wintry storms9 Then
with what enjoyment one can read thus
surroundedl
Don't let husband, father or brother have
the library all to himself, dear sisters, but
reserve nook for yourselves in that sane
tum. Have your work-stand, easy chair
and footstool there, and enjoy it with the
masculine proprietor, / think it an excel
lent exercise of womans rights to enter
with interest into the literary pursuits of
the brotherhood, and show ourselves ap-
preciative listeners to their occasional read
ings and discourses. We can in this way
gather up great many pearls of thought,
while we are busily plying our needles, as
we busy mothers have to ply them. Then,
too, it is a good thing to return the compli
ment occasionally, and make interested lis
teners of them, when we choose to read
aloud for reading aloud is one of the most
delightful and improving pastimes pos
sible in the family circle. To read aceU
aloud is one of the richest, if not rarest,
accomplishments woman can have, and
there are surely enough of us silver-tongued
and keen of wit who can win laurels
in this way. To complete the true gentle
woman true-toned literary taste is most
essential. The older English classics, the
poets, the essayists, the best literary criti-
cism, the cream of the current magazine
literature and the best of the novels, make
a woman's mind rich and ripe, and remove
her from either fiippancy or pedantry. We
can well afford to take the time to indulge
occasionally in good old English reading,
that fair and wholesome pasturage, on
which "gentle Ella" says his "cousin
Margaret browsed at will" and he goes
on to say that chad he twenty girls, they
should be brought up in the same fashion,
and though it might diminish their chance
of wedlock, yet if the worst comes to the
worst, it makes most Incompatible old
maids" SAnd certainly, whether maid OF
matron, Charles Lamb was right-it pre-
vents woman from degenerating into the
mere housekeeper or gossip, and gives
richness and breadth of thought to her
mind. 1t gives her something to think
and talk of, over and above fashions, ser
wants, and the tales of Mrs. Grundy; for
though pleasant gossip, fashion, and ser
wants are well enough in their way and
places, yet where they are all the mind
feeds upon, it makes but dreary specta-
Gle at the best. And more than all, a
woman may have minds in her family that
need the "reciprocation of an equal mind,
or the support of a superior one" There
may be spirits in her household that will
receive from the influence of intellect what
they would not from simple and good in.
tention; and whe.e this is so, as it often
is, the woman of cultivated intellect is moi
found wanting. Particularly is the value
of this felt in the relationship of mother
and son, sister and brother, for the infiu
ence of cultivated Christian woman ovel
boys and young men is almost unbounded
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