St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1884-11-20

| walls, and bare and comfortless fur
nishings Why need so many women
spend so much of their time in needle
work which is quite unnecessary, and
really not beautiful. 1t does not merit
, admiration when woman has not one
single decent photograph or picture of
any sort in her house, and goes on
year after year eagerly copying the
latest fashion in tides. More money
goes in such ways in the course of five
years than would put some beautiful
thing within her reach that would be
Il constant joy and education. Our
taste grows by what it feeds upon !;
and piece of good sense in the way
of ornament puts all the nonsense to
shame.
/ believe in having pretty coIors in
room. | believe in making it dainty
and attractive and home-like as we
can; but if anybody asked me what |
thought the best way to begin, should
answer by reading.
This will seem quite apart to some
peOr>rfeom any connection with fancy
work, but this is what mean we
must take some way of providing our-
selves with the best ideas. kIf go into
a library, or even stand before one
small shelf of well chosen books, this
is the thing | think of which has more
force for me every year. Here are the
records of what the best thinkers have
thought and observed about life and
its successes and failures. Some of us
may live in the same town with u very
wise and charming man or woman !;
we may even have very helpful and
suggestive person under the same roof !;
but all of us can be on the most inti-
mate terms of friendship with the best
men and women of all ages, if we will
read what they have written aid
printed for us, and left as a legacy for
our use. The followers of the Old
Testment and of the New, have also
left testaments for us to read, and
some of the wise men and women of
our own day are telling us what they
think of the great questions of mod
ern society. If we do live in the same
town with them they may be so busy
with their work that we ought not to
claim much of their time, but we can
read what they say and be better for
it, and gain the closest sort of friend
ship with them.
Most people think that reading is
simply a thing to be enjoyed, to make
an idle hour pass pleasantly; but,
while that is Il part of the mission of
literature, it is only a small part.
am sure that we forget often that we
first of all must read for the sake of
learning something, and making our
selves more intelligent. | suppose
that one of the very first aims of ev-
cry writer is to make what he has to
|
sible. The food of our mind must be
palatable but we must bring an appe-
tite to the feast. Fortunately, we all
have IL certain instinct ut first toward
what belongs to us, az animals do for
their proper food but unfortunately,
Il large part of the reading public never
becomes civilized in it's literary taste.
| When we see some of the great piles
of absurd, if not shameful literature
that occupy much of the space on ev-
cry newsstand, it is impossible not to
feel that the readers of it are like the
Digger Indians and their kindred, who
live on dirt and vermim.
But those who really have proper
| liking for good books sometimes read
far less than they ought, because they
are always thinking that other things
must he done first. 1t is because fancy
work steals SO much of the time that
reading ought to have, that | want
some of my readers to find fault with
| it. There is too little strength and
vigor i'll American women, and it is IL
pity any of it should be wasted. We
are in this world for the sake of growth
and development in spiritual things
for the sake OF protiting by the eXpe-
rience of life we ought to learn some
thing, and grow little, mentally and
spiritually, every day of our lives we
ought to be continually elevating our
uses and emlarging our horizons.
Since this is true, Oaght we to spend
great proportion of our time in doing
things that, to all intents and purposes,
| leave us just where they find us ? Ev-
cry woman has some work to do, some
care to take and provision to make,
some duties for every day; a certain
routine, which, whether profitable or
unprOfitable, uses great part of her
| time. Then there comes an hour
when she can do what she pleases.
| Perhaps 1t is only few minutes in
the morning or ut night, but the free
time is always ours longer or shorter.
Now, if a person lives in II small
town aud has to he busy in her own
house, to look after her family's wants,
| she sometimes feels shut i'll to a small
circle of things. She grows tired of
her little round of duties, and fretful,
! perhaps, and looks u little way up and
| down the street, as if she was bird
| in IL cage. She has great deal of
happiness lis she goes along, but still
she has times of wondering if she will
ever get her work done, and get ahead
of things, to Il place where she can
take long breath.
Perhaps some neighbor with a great
deal more free time shows her triumph
antly "a great silk quilt which she has
been making, and our poor friend feels
as if she really ought to make one too.
Everybody has silk quilt and so her
own few tired evening no RS are spent
in desire to rival the tempting piece
| of work Perhaps she stitches and fits
it together with aching back and stiff
fingers and smartiug eyes. and it is
something to talk about when friends
come in, aud ut last it is done but
after it has been shown to everybody,
aud its maker has seen new pattern
which is ever so much more to her
taste, she puts it away because she
doesn't really have use for it. There
is all her time and strength wasted
next year there is fashion for max
ing elaborate tides, and she struggles
to do these too, and her sitting room
is tangled in wOrsted works of strange
shapes and discordant colors, and life
grows less and less interesting, and,
when Its emergencies come, she some
how is overthrown by them, instead of
being their eonqueror. When she
hears her husband or some of her own
| friends talk about the events of the