The Indianapolis journal., 1884-04-04

combinations of the world have swept
away some Of its burdens. We buy our meal,
blankets and canned peaches, aud rejoice IN
shop-made shirts but the woman who dispenses
a narrow income, be her husband 4 whtchanded
clergyman a hard-handed mechanic. has still
to spend her days in labor, much of which Is is
primitive and coarse as that which goes on in
the wgwam; and the fact remains, critics to the
contrary Notwithstanding, the rank and file of
women are housekeepers who do the work OF
the home with their own hands,
The rhythmic periodcity that governs the life
of women rebels at monotony Of employment,
especially if it he not the work which taste and
talent crave. Nervous irritation shows itself in
different ways Some women get rid Of it by
in the back and head. which the family doctor
calls reflex phenomena, and for which
after he has prescribed till be Is tired
he advises "a trip A tiresome
visit often freshens up n iaded woman
wonderfully and a few weeks at the sea-shOre
or the spring, effects such change, pater-
familias secretly suspects that nothing allied
madam, and that he has spent money foolishly
From the very nature of her habits there Is
ingrained III the most intimate fiber Of womans
being need of frequent rest and change. One
! blessed hour in the twenty-four to follow her
own Will and pleasure in, is health cOnserver
as well as an avenue for mental improvement
and pleasure
Women living in the country are brought face
to face with nature and her woodworking
few technicalities, and GrayS Manual and
Lessons can be bought for about So. What
interest a knowledge of plants adds to a short
bit of travel The spiderwort that grew in
grandmothers garden, in New York. we find
growing rank and luXuriant in the Western
pralies, and the OXalis we have carefully cher
ished through fierce winters, smiles at us from
the corner of a Georgia cotton- field. Why
says some one anybody could see that with
out studying botany | doubt it. We see
only what our eyes have been trained to look
for.
If one can draw easily can think of nothing
more enjoyable than making an album Of me
mentoes of long walks before the leaves are out,
When the anemonies, trilliums blood-rOot and
violets are open, and the bluebird sings his
sweetest and Of Strolls after lupinS and column
bines in June There is little book on draw
ing, Jy,Ruskin, which costs dollar and is more
helpful than anything know of. Windsor and
Newtons watercolors are sold by the cake,
without the box, which is usually expensive. and
sketches that have little artistic value may be
filled with pleasant memories, as a seashell Is
full of the sound Of the sea.
Then there are the insects, or as they are
commonly called, 1.-THE bugs They can be
studied in villages and towns as well as on farms
The gay little creature, all gold and scarlet, that
thrusts his long proboscis into the disgusting
larvae of the potato beetle and sucks
them dry, follows his prey into the
tiny gardens behind the village streets
and so does the tiny like creature that
lives on the aphis, and becomes in time the
pretty beetle the children call the '1ady bird. y
Every shade tree and ornamental shrub harbors
its insect enemies. An old honey-box with a
glass top makes an excellent cage in which to
feed the larve of moths and butterflies until
they spin their cOeoons, and ''Harriss Insects
Injurious to Vegetation" can be bought for s.
Collections of plants and insects need nice hand
ling, room and care, and the general student
makes mistake to undertake them. The finest
value of these studies lies apart from them.
English literature, English history, French
literature, French history, German literature
art Greek and Roman history all offer rich
stores of reading to the general student. The
best novels by the best writer's can be bought for
twenty cents If one chooses to make the mar
gin of the day poor and commonplace, she will
be mentally poor and commonplace, and is her
self to blame for it.
To those women who turn instinctively to
some handicraft for relaxation | have only one
suggestion. Beware of rubbish 1t is scarcely
worth while to have an immortal soul and spend
its energies on lamp mats
But say score of housewives I'VE have
not time You have. Take time Even half
an hour day spent by you i'll reading or careful
study of any sort will not only pay for itself a
hundred fold in health of mind and body, but
will raise the mental plane of the whole family
By diverting the attention from the SMALL the
sordid and the mean in life, it is ennobled, and
no human being lives so little for herself as the
housewife. If one is too tired to do more than
take a nap, or sit in the sun the effect of that
change and rest will tell upon life as the years
go by. 'It will mTke a margin