Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-12-03
A WoMAN'S THOUGHTS.
THANKSGIVING TIRED WOMEN TO
BACCo.
The Flower and Fruit Mission in San
Francisco Two Sad Cases
Narrated.
SAN FRAN1sco, December l, 1851.

really over Very thankfully one oc.
casionally runs aground of holiday when
it becomes duty to be immersed in festiy-
ity to the utter exclusion OF all care of any
kind. A tired brain experiences then
very riot OF relief, and weary bones I'M
timber as though stretching to rest in un-
limited sunshine. At least I can imagine
it must be this to man. To the grand
mass of womankind the usual Thanksgiving
is hospitality and extra work in the kitchen.
the gladness OF greetings anda backache, and
afterward the pleasant memory of it all and
a thank. Goo, discover. After peculiarly
tiresome occasions | have thought half in
humor and half in soberness that it was
possible to regret being woman, notwith-
standing the few large advantages and
compensations woman possesses. For
instance,
AFTER THANKSGIVING,
Out of which the true house mother is
bound to come, sick of turkey throughout
all her five senses, as tired as if she had
been beaten on every bone. her heart fail.
ing her at the thought of the relics and
remains of the day, / wonder if she isn't
sorry that she can't turn into man, put
all these cares away and lie down on
the sofa to rest with cigar find
that most women. nowadays have
given up fighting the cigar. 1t is
not alone because fighting doesn't
do any good, but it is chiefly because they
are won over. To put it in the strong
language of woman whom strong language
doesn't startle: A cigar takes the brute
out of man. She thinks the man who is
accustomed to beat his wife doesn't beat
her right after his dinner and after-dinner
smoke. Another laments that her husband
never learned to smoke; she says ne
wouldn't be 'ssuch an old hen" if he
smoked. Fancy thinking of your husband
as ssuch an old hen /" have seen him
come fussing and pecking and clucking
and ruffiing his feathers in the face of his
family, exactly like hen that goes about
grumbling and finding fault because she
wants to set and isn't allowed to. have
thought then should like to prescribe for
him his first cigar, sit by and see him smoke
it, then watch for
THE AFTER EFFECTS.
Yet wonder what man there is but has a
pang when he first learns that his boy has
taken to cigarettes /! Does he recommend
the practice to his children as a harmless
vice, encourage them through the pangs of
imitation and urge them. along till they
become first-class buffers All, no and i
.sgonderhowitis that ne condemns for others
what he takes such an outrageous comfort
in himself Surely he is selfish when he is
content merely to point the way. The
Newspaper reader continually meets with
paragraphs which contain accounts of how
the New York ladies or Baltimore ladies,
ETC., have recently taken to cigarettes
ray, TO cigars, perhsps--and 4 have seen
the same charge and heard it brought
against the women of San Francisco but
from the privacy of the boudoir to what by
contrast seems the publicity which attends
post prandial jollity, have never observed
the practice. Now and then some thought
less girl has taken the paper cigarette be.
tween her lips and given it three or four
vigorous puffs to show how daring and how
saucy she wished to be but even that
occasion did not bespeak the habit. can
| very we'll remember, in that West to which
my childhood belonged, several old women,
who were, even then,
RELICS OF a BY-GoNE AGE.
They had high and well-to.do connec-
tions, and in their prime had share OF
brains and good looks as well. When
they took to smoking they were but follow
ing custom Of their day, and nobody
thought it detracted one whit from their
appearance or character. I used to see
Aunt Becky spinning and Aunt Sally at
her quilting frame, their pipes, sometimes
OF corn.cob, sometimes of clay, lying low
ingly side by side on the mantel-piece.
II it was sight to see one of them leave
her work, and standing by the mantel with
her elbow upon it, silently smoke and ex-
pactorate within the fireplace, what
sight was it, then, to see both, each in her
chimney. corner, fitting upon the fore-legs
of her thong bottomed chair, smoking and
expectorating in contented companionship
But on account of the habit all the nephews
and nieces, of whom there was horde,
fought shy of the two old aunties and had
a horror OF their relationship. To continue
the history, am constrained to tell that
there was
Who learned to love the weed, but submit.
ting to the circumstances of her position,
of late years she permits herself surrepti-
tious indulgence alone. And now in her
last days, and with the habit fully
settled upon her, she is coming to pay
us a visit. In the premises, what am
to do? Shall | give her a coy corner,
fill, light and hand her her pipe? or shall
discreetly leave her alone at stated periods,
and fail on my return to note the rank
richness which pervades the air. the dead
smoke that has settled in the corners, the
blue wreaths uncurling against the ceiling
| must trust to an inspiration as to what
my best course shall be. On Thanksgiving
Day the Frsit and Flower Mission made
special offering to those sharing its chart
ties. They made contract for cookies at
ten cents per dozen, bargaining that good
material should be used in the make-good,
large, round cookies, that should be tempt
ing to the eye and to the taste. Two cook
les went to a package, accompanied by
flower and some bit of fruit, and in the
hospitals the packages were given up and
down the wards by those whom the
patients have learned to look for and to
welcome. And many sick person, not in
public hands, had the day frightened by
the hasty visit that was better than sun
shine, and opened the little package as
eagerly as child might have done. The
pleasure of the children it were useless to
attempt to describe. There is
CERTAIN BASKET,
Not too large, not too small, which regu-
larly circulates in our neighborhood once
or twice week. 1t belongs to woman
whose noticeable beauty of feature is ac-
companied by great beauty of heart. The
basket goes about doing good, not begging
from house to house, but known to just
few, whospeep delightedly as at new
baby, put something hastily to its
contents, close the cover and send
it on its way. What does it contain
A dozen tiny glasses of jelly, hold.
ing perhaps a tablespoonful each; few
fresh soda crackers; score or SO of lines :;
such fruit as is in season-if oranges. so