The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1883-01-04
THE HOME CIRCLE.
HONEST DUTY.

HONEST DUTY.
The tatcs that sow select the plough
That cuts the cleanest furrow;
That man Is only all man
Whose work is clean and thorough:
Aud the fatcs that reap for the harvest sweep
Ave choose tho kecnest sickle;
That man IL only half man
Whose course Is weak and tickle.
They err who deem lifcs busy stream
lsnt meant for craft or power;
M honest works 20 cheap and mean
I,nt hath its solemn hour;
For the lowly- poor In wallis obscure
Have still their human duty,
AZ we'll N those whose statclcr ways
Move on In light and beauty.
DO well your work, az porter, clerk,
IongShoreman. groom or carter
Tile crowns OF toll are wo as oft
In sweat Of brow as barter.
Blunt duty takes all sorts Of tracks,
Hruad narrow, dry or muddy.
As much of conscience may DC thrown
In worship az in study.
Work without flaws the custom draws
From hands that slur and blunder;
The chieftcst cause tor making laws
'Gainst false prctence and blunder
Springs out OF sloth and folly, both
With naught but scorn before thems
All honest wages scorn unless
You give good labor for them.
The toll you use in pegging shoes.
Or welding pick and shovel,
As much as that OF pen and brain,
May glorify a howell;
And mean and base to all his race,
To alien and to neighbOr.
Is he who in his heart denies
The dignity OF labor.
Then. though YOU toll above the soil,
Or underneath It burrOw
In mines and tunnels, always let
Your work be clean and thorough.
Hnmanitys family tree,
Requiring no est duty
or little twigs, as well ~ bOuRhs
That wave In strength and beauty.
FEELING HURRIED.-Probably moth
ing tires one so much as feeling hurried.
When in the early morning the days af-
fairs press upon ones attention before
hand, and there comes the wonder how
in the world everything is to be accom-
plished; when every interruption is re-
corded impatientlv, and the clock is
watched in distress as the moments fit
past, then the mind tires the body. We
are wrong to drive ourselves with the
whip in this way. Each of us is prom
iscd strength for the day, and We must
not wear ourselves out by crowding two
days. tasks into one. II we can only
keep cool and calm, not allowing our
selves to be hustered, we shall be less
worried when wehave reached the even
tide. The children may be fractions,
the servants trying, the friend We love
may fail to visit us. the letter We expect
may not arrive, but if we can preserve
our tranquility of soul and demeanor
we shall get through everything credit
ably.
THE COARSE CoMB.-It is probable
there is in the world no one instrument
which has been the agent of more tor
ture and cruelty than the coarse comb.
From the earliest period Of civilization,
tender, delicate and nervous children
have suffered terribly by the hands of
lovely, merciful and kind-hearted moth
ers women who hope for Heaven when
they die. Who is there in all of the
broad land who does not recollect as
among the crnelest agonies Of his child
hood the rash and reckless combing Of
his head? We have seen children un.
dcrgoing untold agony from kind moth
ers, sisters and friends, with tears
streaming from their eyes and agoniz-
ing but half suppressed screams,
enough, one would suppose, to chill the
blood or stay the hand of savage.
| Mercifnl and kind in every other re-
spect, but rake after rake is continued
until we have no doubt the little ones
suffer ten times more agony than per-
sons who are hung or racked. And
there is neither need or excuse for it.
The hair of child can be cleaned and
combed as tendcrly as any other act, if
only patience and care are exercised.
Bnt mothers who are patterns of pa
tience in all other things, seem to for
get or steel their sensibilities to all such
suffering. Or they have pulled or
broken combs in their own hair until
| their heads have become SO callOus to
pain from hair-pulling, until they have
not the least appreciation OF the terri
bic suffering they infiict on their inno-
| &c children. Some women, to avoid
trouble, cruelty cut off the noblest
crown Of beauty little girl ever had
her hair, and make her such fright
that no wonder the mother loses all ten
der feeling for her. But we beg for the
sweet little girls lovely locks. And we
plead for them to be saved from the
unnecessary torture inflicted upon such
lovely flowers. We fear that in the
world to come, some mothers will meet,
unexpectedly, the weeping and wailing
of tortured children, who have suffered
more than death two or three times n
week from unthoughtful mothers. Do
spare the innocents. Have more pa
thence. The recollection Of these inno-
Gently inflicted fortunes have followed
rs for seventy years. and we ask that
the present infantile generation be
spared IOWd State Register.