Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1873-02-21


Of the room, looks up In mild wonder at
the word.
SIS 1t possible to sew too much to save
too much, when ones income Is so suiallH"
"Yes, It is possible to save in mint and
cumin' IN waste mothers lifep'
All this time that you are stitching, driv-
ing at the whirring wheel, the children are
in the nursery, left to the Ignorance of the
half-grown girl, who does, after fashion,
the "up-stairs" work, or walking out in
the bright afternoon with her. In the
kitchen, another unframed, though older
girl, is cooking dinner; dinner which
your husband will sigh over, and which
you will have neither appetite nor courage
to taste when 1t comes. And yet, to the
cooking of that dinner will have gone the
contents of that generous basket that came
home this morning. You know there is
waste, there is breakage, there is coal g.
nough burned, as your husband says some
times, to sail yacht across the ocean. And
yet you cannot make one ster to prevent
II, till your sewing be all done.
You know that up stairs the children are
learning other lessons than your gentle pa
tience would set for them you know that
in their bright-eyed, rosy walk, they ask
question after question that Nora cannot
answer. Yet you shut yourself out from
the dearest privilege of motherhood, to
share your children's playhour-for what2
That they may be elaborately dressed like
the children of Lady Midas over the way.
"But," says a voice from the sunny
ner house, "my children are not dressed
like those princesses; l wouldn't afford it,
If could. And yet ], too, sew, day in,
day out, over plain garments for every day
wear. Don't come to tell me that this is a
sin y
"Indeed, indeed, my dear little woman,
strong as you are to stand up against the
mask of folly, and shut it out from your
children's lives, you do not yet know, have
not fully weighed, those golden grains lost
and scattered from your own. They fall
about you-tbose grains of time and op-
portunity-in noseless showers, while you
sew your life away.
1t is your business to be wife, is II not
That is a helpmate, bonnie camerdde, a
sharer of your husbands thought, of his
interest and plans. When you married
him, years and years ago, you took that for
your vocation. And after, since the babies
came, 1t is your business to be mother
You took no vow to be seamstressl Nor is
there any reason why you should; while
there are thousand reasons-beginning at
the purely physical one, the injurious eff
feet of the steady cramping work and mo-
notonous wheel-drving-why should you
not
Your duty is to live, to be alive and
strong, so long as your husband and chill
dren are about you. know that the ten
derest music of a woman's life comes of
the self-sacrifice there is in it. But it must
be wise and thoughtful sacrifice; not a
wasteful. wilful, unre Isoning one.
1t Is precisely the plain sewing, the long
and tedious hem and seam, that costs SC
little when an expert does it, that is most
extravagant for you to do.
1t were as wise for President Grant to go
down from cabinet meeting, and to at
tempt to fill out an hour or two of clerks
work in a department, from some sudden
whim of economy, as for you to economic
in this way.
You are the executive officer. 1t is youl
duty to pervade all departments, to order
and control all; and not tie yourself 10 one
wheel in the corner, while all the house
hold swings helplessly elsewhere.
When you rise in the morning, you
should rise like the sun, shining every
where. If that luminary were to concen
trate his beams upon one particular gar
den, doubtless there would be wonders il
the horticultural line-mammoth cabbage
and gorgeous tulips; but what would be-
come of all the grain fields, lying cold an,
bleak among the hills?
Confine your efforts in needle and threaC
to the necessary buttons, and the stitch il
time that saves so many little stocking
and trousers. And for the rest-whicl
brings us to our corollary, and the compile
ment of your womanly wisdom. Their
are women whose business it is to sew
Did it ever occur to you that by giving thi
business more outlets Unto friendly home
for instance), these women, the slaves o
the slop-shop, or hard-hearted contractor
may rise step higher, may gain new dig
MY anu euJoy Llent III tHelr WOrh
Seek out in the garret the woman whom
Hood has immortalized. Bring her you
plethoric bundle of work, with a gentle
woman's word of cheer, and a generou
womans open hand. Wear look of in
terest, also kindly question, that bring
her life into your own. Make her feel tina
in your bond of sisterhood, nothing tn,
concerns woman's struggles or woman
pain lies foreign to your heart.
Or, If you can so arrange it, let her com
for day, now and then, to work in you
household, TO take In full breath of its haI
py air. Lend her book If she cares
read it; give her ticket to the charit
f concert, that she may slip in shyly an
hear the children sing. You are the SUI
shine of your home, we .have said b'
you'll never miss the stray CLEAN tn
lightens her dusky way.
And for yourself live out In full measu
your woman's life-many-sided, alien
t bracing, in the dear discipline of home, al
reaching out into the world with interes
, and influence, as heaven has given yo
strength to grow Christidn Union.
A QUAINT SCoTCH MINISTER was oil v,