The National tribune., 1882-11-30
WOMAN'S WORK,
Home, and How to Make It Beautiful
and Happy.

writer Ia Demoren's sor December ssys:
"An English journal claims that Great Britain
produces the handsomest women in the world
1t declares that the average specimens of the
female sex on the continent cannot compare in
comeIiness with the buxom English women.
Americans will be disposed to dispute this claim,
for we, with much reason, think that our women
are better looking than those OF any other
country. Others, besides Americans, admit
that the young American girls Who so abroad
are of moro spi,'itueio type of beauty than the
young women of the old world. Tho London
World the paper which makes this claim for
the superior beauty of the EngtisL women has
| theory to account Tor It. Climate . says, has
something to do with but the principal iactOr
In the case is that there are a million moro Of
the female sox than there are men ia the
British Islands 1t follows, according to this
mode of reasoning, that men have larger
number Of women to choose from, and they
| naturally select the comliest women TO become
mothers to their children. 1t il another Hug
tration of the law of natural selcotion says
the London World: IT s true we do not drown
! all the hideous girl childon, but we practically
make it certain that the race viii die out by re-
fusing to marry them when they grow up An
| ugly woman is a social failure, and all the men
conspire against her. This theory is ingenious,
but it seems to take it for granted that ali the
men are handsome, which is far from being tho
case. Ul-f8vored men are rs likely to have
children as uncomely women. We attribute
the beauty of our American female types to the
| better physical conditions under which we live,
as compared with the peOpls of Europe. Ugli-
ness is often heritage from want or wicked
ness"
HOUSEHOLD DECORATION AyD SWEEPING
No doubt our old time ideas OF Internal deco
ration woro crude and false to ell canous of art.
The rectangular msrble mante, with its bouquet
of wax flowers under glass, the square, uncaIved
piano, the shiny horse-hair furniture, tho
carpet of many hues, the long mirror, end the
pictures in gilt frames, gave cold and hotel
like air to a room but then how easy 1t was
to keep it clean and in Order few touches
of the broom and feather dustsr q little picking
up and replacing, and not Il sign of dust or dis
order remained. Compare such task with the
herculean labor of putting to rights the modern
internal-dcCOratiOn-Cr sitting-room after a
musicale or "small and early" or even after q
few days Of careful use by tho family Such
room it were madness to trust to the unskiIful
hands of the ordinary servant. The mistress
of the house, or the daughters must attend to
1t personally; and what a labor for them 1t Of
ten isl The tspestried or embroidered hanginCs,
the tiger or leopard-skins, the heavy rugs, and
the central carpet must be taken out and care
fully whipped and shaken; tho polished par
quoted floor must be- swept with hair broom.
But this is only the beginning. The worst
is the busting and polishing of the brass
fireplace furniture, elaborate sconces old
crockery, faience, brOnzes, snd ood-carving.
Ordinary endurance is after q while exhausted,
and the duster adopts the favorite theory of
artistic souls, that dust in carving relieves
the shadows" and SO heightens it's beauty
theory as comforting, no doubt, as Il is COM
prehensble. And then the bits Of old arInor |
old bric-a- brac generally old clocks, old spindle
legged frst-empire chairs, old spinning g-wheel, |
what task to remove even one days accumu-
lation of dust from these! Dust has q passion
for sticking to such things, ana specially to the
oil-polished surface of parqucted floors. To !
remove it from these floors there is but enc |
way: first, sweep with the ardinary French |
hair broom, and then get down on the knees |
and rub briskly with woolen or silk rags The /
ordinary servant may assist in this part, only /
it will generally require one or two members |
of the family to keep guard, lest she upset .
vase Of peacock feathers or cat-tails with her .
hsnl9 ,II
A modern magazine writer says: Nothing .
can be more beautiful than modern New York .
house which has blossomed out in this fine
summer of perfected art" This may be all true:
but the opulent are better able to take care of .
such houses They can have better servants
and also humble relatives glad to take an upper
servants position, in fact if not in name for
the honor Of inhabiting princely mansion. For
people of ordinary means to feebly initiate such
artistic luxury is folly. They cannot afford
separate rooms wherein to arrange and preserve !
of rare old things, and so their draw
ing rooms often look like old bric-a-brac shops
museum is the only proper place for useless
old pottery and other things, like spinning
wheels and splindle-egged furniture, which
the art-craze collector has passion for. Would
tht every fanllly could aH0rd such museum I
Until then, the only consolation for the victim
Of medieval art dust is the reflection that these
crazes ore of short duration. By and by all the
cat-tails, old crockery, candesticks, etc, may
be gradually removed oneby one to the barn-loft
and mono will miss them.-A H., ~ Liya5n-
cotPs
SOCIETY LkDIEz' DIAnT1s
Hr. John Fl. Williams. the funny man Of ths
Norristown Herald contributes the following
to the December Harper's:
Many of the diaries kept by society ladies
one hundred years ago, and printed for tho
delectation of nincteenth-century readers, may
not be very brilliant literary efforts, but they
serve to show how simple and unas-
suning were the lives Of quality folk in
ancient times The annexed is excepted from
the recently printed diary of Lady Soumpple:
80 July l6-John took yarn 10 tho weaver and
brought back flax, spices and sugar. The stage
wagon had not arrived when he left Ipswich,
and there was no package from London. Ny
ord was to send hangings for the large drawing