The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1891-07-10

said a wealthy woman, somewhat az
fectedly. eve believe in simple living,
and | have brought my family up TO
practice it"
The lady to whom this remark was adj
dressed was interested to observe the
simple living which was thus com
placently described. She knew that al
most every one of the ten members of the
large family who were said to live thus
''simply" had been very i'll during the
preceding three or four years. They had
suffered v~ariously from erysipelas, spinal
meningitis, nervous p~rostration, typhoid
and other fevers, and quinsy and diph-
thereto sore threats. She did not be-
live that such diseases could exist where
genuine simple living was pfactlced.
She found that the food in this family
was very generally fried-that fried oys-
tiers, ~croquettes, Lyonnaise and Saratoga
potatoes, griddle cakes and similar dish
es, with always hot bread in some form
and coffee for all members Of the fam
lily, from the youngest child, a girl of
six, TO the father and mother-were the
rule for breakfast. She found that
cereals were seldom served there. They
s'hated" them, as was natural for palates
accustomed to highly seasoned fried
food. Neither was fruit popular there.
She found that the young men and
women of the family, V to the school
children of from fourteen to eighteen,
were in the habit Of sitting up until
midnight, often later, and then retiring
to sleeping rooms which were furnace
heated and into which, with M or two
honorable exceptions, no breath Of the
outside air was allowed TO penetrate.
These exceptions had learned, the
mother declared, '~cranky" notions while
away at college and boarding school.
Most of these young people had been
obliged to leave school early in life, be-
cause their health would not permit
them to study.
She found that the girls Of the family
wore corsets at the age of eleven, and
that the pretty, doll faced daughter or
eighteen, with a bust measure of thirty
six, after she had been subjected to the
manipulation of the dressmaker, had a
waist twenty-one inches round, like
thousands Of other girls who sneyeFlaced
in their lives"
She found that the boys Of the family
the younger ones surreptitiously, the
older ones openly-had smoked cigarettes
from the time they were eight or nine
years old. She found that the girls, be-
You'd making their own beds and doing
a little of their personal mending, never
exerted themselves to do any wholesome
work; that they and all the children were
allowed to take hot baths as often as
they liked, and to stay in them as long
as they liked; that all were free to 90 to
the pantry whenever they felt like it, and
that only the richest cake was ever locked
away from them, while an abundance Of
doughnuts, cookies and ordinary cake was
always at their disposal; that it was
impossible to keep them supplied with
pickles, "the children all liked them 50
much" that while the boys wore heavy
underfiannels during the severe weather,
the girls wouldn't" because such un.
derclothing made their waists and arms
look SO large; that neither the mother
nor the two elder daughters-although
the former was suffering from a chronic
disease and the two latter had had sew
eral severe illnesses and were always
very delicate-ever rested during the
daytime unless they had been ''up late"
at an entertainment the evening before.
HThey had no time to waste in lying
down." the mother declared, with con-
stantly increasing c~omplacence as she
rehearsed her way Of doing things; she
chad always brought her daughters up
to be busy-it didn't make much differ
ence what about-but to be busy about
something"
Two of the girls were really very fond
of reading, but the books which they Sc
lected were such as they would far bet
ter have left alone. They often read
themselves to sleep at night, the mother
assured her Mortified visitor proudly, and
not i~nfrequently "the gas would be
found in their rooms burning brightly
at 3 or 4 in the morning, when they had
fallen asleep before they knew it! Such
a joke or them!"
This wealthy and misguided dame is
not the only Il who imagines that she
is Giving simply" when she is living
after a manner as far as possible re-
moved from that ideal standard. Many
a comparatively poor family, too, fancy
that they are Giving simply" when they
are in reality almost as far from it as in
the case cited. In fact there seems to be
a general lack of understanding in the
popular mind as to what ''simple living
is. Yet everybody seems to approve of
it and to feel that it, and it alone, leads
to health and genuine comfort. 1t is
worth while to try and get at a proper
definition of a term which seems to be SO
widely misunderstood.
Undoubtedly our pioneer forefathers
enjoyed something akin to the "simple
living which we want. We need to
"backslide," after Mr.. Ruskin's defni-
ton Of backsliding. @On the ways most
Of us co." says that fiery apostle of SIM
plicity, "the faster we slide back, the
better. Slide back into the cradle, if
going on is to the ~graye-back, l tell
you, back, out of your long faces and
into your long clothes"
An old proverb says:
Sunrise, breakfast; sunhigh. dinner;
Shutdown, sup, makes q saint of a sinner.
The jewellers in cities cannot. well adj
just their meals to the simple hours of
our ~forefathers; but they can and should
see that their children's meals are thus
adjusted; and we can also see that they
are of proper food. But what is truly
tk..-o-1a5s e,11y