The National tribune., 1883-03-22
W0MAN'S WORK,
Aunt Helen's Home Talks---Color in
Dress---0ur Letter Box, Sc.

When the Atherton family were once more
gathered around the hospitable library hearth,
Aunt Helen took up her old role, and, much to
Ethels delight, she quite unexpectedly began
the series of talks for which the latter had
been waiting.
"The merry chirping and chattering that
has been going on lately among the birds up
in the leafess trees and vines near my win
dows." read Aunt Helen, reminds me that
the winter days will soon be ended, and with
them, also, EthePs visit The busy little build
ers outside have also reminded me that it is
time to begin the planning of the home OF
which Ethel is so soon to become mistress.
The first consideration concerning home Is
that of situation, and this important question
must be decided by the purse and wisdom OF
the purchaser. We scarcely agree with the
philosopher who said that Religion is matter
OF good Digestion but we do believe that cheer
fitness, happiness, prosperity, and the like,
are attendants upon perfect health, and perfect
heel+H is mainly result of health-inducing
ons. Thus it becomes matter of ma
tional as well as individual Importance that
our hemes be healthful. In the selection of a
home-site, the first requisite is that of eleva-
ton, for low situation insures to the occu-
pants of the home the evils of drainage from
the higher points of a surrounding heighbor-
hood. The second is that of perfect sewerage
and efficient modes of ventilation. More and
more are intelligent architects coming TO the
rescue of batiied physicians and proving to
them that the feyers, the languors the unclas-
sifed sufferings of city dwerlers are largely
due to bad sewerage damp cellars, badly con-
structed heating apparatuses and imperfect ven-
tilation. 1t would be well if every home could
have trees about it, for these, planted at judi
cious distances from a house, break by their
shade the sickening heat of summer sun, and
by their roots absorb much of the poisonous
] ~. - L. II
urban, but we could wish that to every home
there might belong sward and pathways. To
| the traveller or the arriving guest there is no
/ sight more friendly than a firm, white, gleam-
| ing road or pathway winding through cool,
green lawn up to hospitable-looSing doorway.
| II the home be in the country and surrounded
| by grounds, the carriage road should pass the
| home encircling park. And for the sake OF all
! that is natural, artistic and humane, we beg
| that the margins of roads and pathways be not
bordered with the remains of defunct molluscs.
| lnvoluntarily, when we see these prim,
| shell bordered walks and flower plots, we
wonder who ate the oyster which once
| inhabited the now broken shell, and if the APP
| parent forlornness of this Obiect-rent, speech
| less in lonely exile from birthplace and kim
| dred-is really only apparent, or if some subtle
sense does not, indeed, pervade it, and make it
yearn to get back to its watery home or at
| least to the shelly beach, where the waters may
| lave it, and sing untranslatable requiems over
| it, Much more natural than a border of shells
| is one of Alpine strawberry plants. These
| graceful little plants should be placed at dis
! tances of five or six inches; the red berries
viii last late into the autumn, and the contrast
which they form with the green of grass OF
leaves, when all other things are taking on
| sombre tints, cannot fail to be refreshment.
| In a city home one must do as one can; but
even here it is possible to add something to the
outside attractions Of house. Houses have
| their physiogomies, as truly as people have
| them, and the influence which the exterior OF
! our walls and windows exert may be human
| izing or the reverse. The outsides four homes
should speak to the passer-by of the kindliness
! and cheerfIlness within. There is hospital
! ity to the outside world, not incompatible with
! Self-protection, in the management OF curtains,
1 and flowers and tranSparencies in the windows
seem to establish kind of kinship between
ourselves and the hundreds of human sisters
and brothers Oh the outside, whose hands we
never touch and whose voices we never hear.
! One of the beautiful aspects of the quaint old
| Swiss cities is, that on the window-sills of the
| humblest buildings, simple, familiar flowers
/ bloom, and seem 20 send down to every passer-
! BY silent graceful greeting. We naturally,
perhaps fall into the habit of classifying houses
| from their outside appearance. One house is
| seii-assertiye. repellant: another is negative,
ard tells us nothing; another is prim and ut
! terly without grace; another looks detected
| and neglected: another speaks only of squalor
| and thTiftleSsness; another is eloquent of by
| gone dignity while another seems to have been
| built alike TO brave the heaviest storms, or to
stard perpctualiy bathed in warm and genial
sunlight. In this house the very stones seem
TO vibrate with a human sympathy. and the
| broad doors seem to have WetcoMe inscribed on
archways and panels. We pause before this
home, with the hope that it may be the coun-
terpart OF the one which we are about to rear.
Aunt Helen had finished. and there remained
but Tabbie's offering: