The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1878-09-28
WOman's Faith.

Woman is not wholly deaf to reason
where her prejudices and inherited be-
liefs are not concerned. All women
frankly admit that broken crockery
cannot be mended with mucilage. Most
of them try it surreptitiously two or
three times in their lives, but they are
always convinced that it will not do.
Nevertheless, the belief that somewhere
in the universe exists q compound that
will stick together broken seup-tureen
so firmly that it will be stronger when
thus mended than it was before cannot
be eradicated from the female breast.
The peddler who sells Smiths Celebra-
ted China Cement, or other futile mix
tUre with similar name, always finds
customers among the fair sex. What
if every one of score of bottles of china
cement has proved delusion and
snare! The very next bottle may be
the long-hoped-for cement that will
really Justify its name. And so con-
fiding woman tries to buy, while the
wicked peddlers secretly mock at her
weakness and fleece her without re-
morse.
There was a lady in West Mansfield,
VT, who had sought all her lifetime for
the tabled cement that makes old china
better than new. No knight in quest
of the Holy Grail sought more earnest
ly and persistently than did this good
woman. In the back yard lay gross
of small glass bottles partially filled
with unknown mixtures. These were
her failures-the bottles of cement that
would cement nothing. Still, she hoped
that somehow-she knew not when or
how-the true cement would reveal it.
self to her, and she would triumphant
ly and permanently mend all her
crockery.
Last winter her husband made visit
to New York, and, in accordance with
her earnest request, bought the first
bottle of china cement which came in
his way. He, of course, believed that
it was perfectly worthless, but like all
true men, he was willing to give his
wife anything, however worthless, pro-
vided it was inexpensive. The good
woman received it gladly, and that
very night, after her husband had gone
to bed, she went into the kitchen quiet
ly, lest he should ridicule her, and
essayed to mend piece of crockery.
The printed directions accompanying
the bottle told how to wet the edges of
the broken crockery with the cement,
to press them firmly together, and to
hold them in that position for five or
ten minutes until the cement should
harden. She followed these directions
implicitly, and with the determination
to give the cement fair trial, held
the pieces together for full half hour
At the end of that time. hardly daring
to hope that the pieces would not fall
apart the moment she released her
grasp, she undertook to perform that
apparently simple operation. To her
great discomfort, her hands refused to
obey her bidding. They had been
moistened with the cement, and, mi
raculous as it seemed, it was the real
cement for which she had searched
and waited for forty years. Her hands
were stuck fast to the crockery, so fast
that the strongest efforts would not
loose them. She thought of trying the
effect of hot water, but she remembered
that one of the very qualities of the
ideal cement was its ability to resist
She effect of water either hot or cold.
As it gradually dawned upon her mind
that she was permanently cemented to
the crockery she became frightened
and called her husband. He came, lis
tended to her story, tried unavailingly
to overcome the resistance of the mex
Orable cement, and then heartlessly sat
down and laughed. Through that long
night the unhappy woman sat and
wept. She refused to go to bed taking
the crockery with her, and she felt that
it was a bitter outrage when her hus-
band finally went back to bed and left her
to bear her sorrows alone. In the morn
ing doctor was called in, who released
her after painful dissection of the
skin of her hands, and the first act
which she performed after the wounds
had healed was to throw the bottle of
cement out of the window and to regis
ter VOW to never buy another bottle
This shows us that the possession of
something for which we have earnestly
longed may prove a disappointment
The Vermont lady had found at last
the true china cement, but it palled
upon her almost Immediately. She
does not even know the name of the
particular cement, so that her sex is in
no way benefited by its temporary dis
covery. Her experience, however, does
teach a great moral lesson, and if other
women were to heed it this world
would be brighter and less expensive
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