The Osceola times., 1881-01-08
HOME TOPICS.
What Girls Ought to Learn-what n House
should Be - MiSed Toilets
Household Recipes.
WHAT GIRLS OUGHT TO LEARS

should lie - MIsed Toilets -
Household Recipes.
WHAT GIRLS OUGHT TO LEARN.
Nothing is more painful, TO one who
| knows what mothers may do for their
children, or wives for their husbands.
than to see the idleness OF young women
who are not compelled to work for a
| living, and to find how empty headed
they are. This may seem small matter
| in itself, but the moment q woman is
married she has to learn how to be in
teresting in her home to her husband,
and, as soon as she is a mother, the
training of her children is the foremost
| duty OF the hour. In these two spheres
of life, which are essentially the goal of
woman's existence, every thing depends
upon what the wife and mother brings
| to her several positions, every thing for
| her own, her husbands, and her chill
| dren's happiness. Women are perpetu-
ally losing their husbands because they
rely upon evanescent personal charms
to uphold affection, but the surest way
to provide against the decay Of the early
enthusiasm of married life is to culti-
vate those mental and moral qualities
which make women always charming
and attractive.
| Nothing is surer to do this, aside from
personal manners, than the improve
ment of ones mind, the growth of liter
ary tastes, the interest of what imports
new and wholesome attractions into
ones home. 1t may be the microscope,
or French or German translation, or
botany, or English literature, or history.
or music, but, whatever it is, the stlmu-
lus of knowing one thing thoroughly is
worth immensely more than the knowl-
edge itself, because it gives one the power
to know more and to enjoy more. These
studies, even in themselves, are refining,
but, pursued in the genial atmosphere
| of home, they are more than simply re-
fining; they are agencies by which the
spirit of the home is Chastened, made
moral, even made religious. Religion
in ones home is best when it is least
insisted upon, when its life is the uncon-
scious poetry of the household, when 1t
seems to be the natural elimination OF
the amenities of life; and religion and
culture 90 together in the well-ordered
life of every woman. But it is when the
wife becomes a mother, when the reli-
gion and culture find a congenial sphere
for development within the sanctlties OF
home when among children and among
friends and neighbors the tone Is always
uplifting and inspiring, that literary cul-
ture and the development of woman's
mind and heart seem to make life sweet
est and best. Fortunate is the boy or
Girl who has such a home. IL is from
such quarters, be they the log-cabin or
the house with brown.stone front, that
men and women 90 forth with the idea
that conquers the world. Every leading
person has had start somewhere, and
usually it is traced to one of these
mothers whose native or acquired cul-
ture has been impaired to Ler bright
children. Here is the true importance
of literature ut home. It pays for itself
hundreds of times over in IT. influence
upon parents. and in the early directi on
it gives to their children.
WHAT A HOUSE SHOULD BE.
well-appointed house, writes Mr.. j..
Beaver Atkinson, may perchance bear
some comparison TO thoughtful literary
composition-one motive presides fiom
preface to tinis, and episodes, when
thrown in for diversity, conform to the
common scheme and blend IN the col
lective whole. And the divers kinds
Of furniture admissible within a room
may be further indicated by the variety
of authors allowed place on the book
shelves. Some volumes may be practi-
cal and utilitarian, others poetiCal and
ornamental; yet all should propose, as a
common end, to improve the mind and
add to the enjoyment of life. And as,
in well-stored library, varied volumes
ranged IN order satisfy the mental crav-
ings, so, in a wcil-provided household,
furniture disposed methodically should
minister to the sensuous and supersen-
suous wants of body and of mind. But
above all these things, 1t is imperative
that every work admitted within the
house shall be beautiful ard then sell
dom will be found Intruding serious dis
cord, for all creations in nature and in
art possessed beauty agree well together.
| And men and women, when thus brought
into living fellowship with beauty, are
| know to grow into like fashion OF mind
and even of body, while the penalty
| hands over those who dwell with ugli-
ness that day by day they themselves
become more ugly.
MIXED TOILETS.
The mixture of plain with figured ma
terials still prevails in all toilets, as it
| Dleascs the tastes of those who prefer