Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1881-02-16
Written for the watchman & journal.
Practical Hints.

nv ohlo Scdoou VI bne year WueH cOluS ANU
the maladies arising from them abound,
few hints in regard to avoiding them may
not be amiss. School teachers who board
around and men who travel as runners,
agents, or any similar business, are often
obliged to sleep in cold rooms and that cold
est of all cold inventions, aspare bed. Such
persons should always carry with them a
heavy wooden blanket or shawl, and during
the evening throw it across chair by
stove for short time. When retiring for
the night, spread it, folded in the middle,
smoothly between the sheets and sleep be-
tween the two thicknesses. 1t will save
shivering for hours to warm place to sleep
in, and prevent chill in the back, at the
roots of the lungs, which has laid the foun-
dation of ill health in many persons. La
dies and children should always sleep in long
flannel gowns, made Of heavy gray flannel or
some fancy plaid, in cold weather Many
gentlemen sleep in long flannel gowns, but
even then the blanket will be comfortable
addition. The present styles of dressing
children are absurd, and | am glad to see in
the papers that school teachers are protest
ing against it. A girl of ten years, thin and
leggy, with less than eighteen inches of
skirts and drawers which only meet thin
stocking drawn over the knees, certainly is
not dressed for our cold climate, and could
hardly by any device be made to look more
ridiculous, fashion though it may be. Last
summer we saw city children returning to
their homes from the beach with the short
est of skirts and drawers and stockings
with hardly three inches Of top. The legs
were bare from the top of the button boots
to above the knee and such tanned, sun
| burned legs, covered with bites of mosqui-
toes and scratches from briars, were abso-
lutely disgusting to me. would repeat the
remarks of an old lady who was a traveller
could l do them Justice, but without the
gestures and looks of contempt and scorn
with which the fashion was denounced, II
would be idle to attempt it. The poor little
boys of fashionable mothers, with short
pants and exposed legs, go past my windows
with blue noses and pinched faces a perfect
contrast to the jolly little Irish fellows
with long pants reaching to the heel and
tied down with string at that. like to
| see them founder in the snow and have q
good time, for it gives them strength to re-
sist disease to which puny children fall vic.
Tins. Ladies who live in this cold country
should strive to make all these absurdities
unpopular by adopting more sensible styles
| themselves. Preaching goes but little way
without practicing Many ladies of my ac
| quaintance wear the good old-fashioned
quilted skirt Almost every woman has old
cashmere or silk, which can be cut into
three cores, and straight breadth for the
back. This, quilted on glazed wadding and
a warm soft lining, makes handsome and
warm garment. 1t should be quilted on a
sewing machine, in separate pieces, and
trimmed to suit the fancy, or simply bound
with braid and cut very close at the top tc
the figure. The fashionable hat is an alb
surdity on ladies and children. 1t leave:
the ears and temples exposed to the cold air
| suppose it would be useless for me to sug
gest a quilted hood, such as l remember
There was a style called the "pumpkir
hood" and the kiss me if you dare" bott
of which might look odd now, but we have
enough of Dubias and soft worsted hoods il
ladies would wear them. Men are not afrait
of wrapping themselves up from head t.
foot, and young man who would trust t.
the good sense of girl who will go ou
sleigh riding in kid gloves and turned W
hat, with bare wrists and ears, with tn,
mercury below zero, enough to marry her
must be deeply infatuated.