The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1892-06-02

| them, but then Marie was satisfied, so
John worked a little harder in order
to meet the added expense.
nv
One day when John came home
Marie's face was clouded. She was
getting more dissatisfied with that
house every day, she declared. The
bath room was such a mean little
cubbyhole, and the house faced the
north, which she never could endure,
and their next door neighbors were
foreigners, and were always cooking
onions, and she hated onions. That
was the song, with variations, that
she sung John every day, until at last
he went out to find purchaser for his
house, and to search for another cot
tage which did not face north, and
whose neighbors did not cook onions.
Nv
That was several years ago. John
lives in rented house now. He has
moved from place to place, trying to
please Marie; has changed servants
weekly and sometimes daily, for
months at time; has scarcely known
what it is to sit down to we'll cooked
or well ordered meal; and has dwelt
in house which might have been
presided over by the Lord of Misrule
such utter confusion reigns supreme
John begins to look quite grave and
old, and spends more time than ever
at his office. He finds that his work
grows harder, and that his household
expenditures are larger every year.
Marie has never seemed to realize
that she did not marry a millionaire,
and he has not the heart to tell her
what she ought to know without be-
ing told.
~
The truth is that a girl may we'll be
the dearest girl in the world without
being an especially good wife. A
lovely, fresh face is very attractive,
and so are long lashes and dainty
rings of hair and rounded form and
graceful step, but, after all, in wife
and mother one needs some-
thing better than all these.
Such attractions are good to
fall in love with, for instance, but if
one cared to stay in love there need
be some qualities of true womanhood
and genuine common sense along with
the others.
~
And now that the Home Corner has
begun going into closets and rafting
the skeletons for the diversion of the
public, here is another SIX eleton which
has hidden itself away in good
many closets, doubtless without its
presence being even suspected by the
outside world. Of course it was one
of the gentler sex that discovered the
little failing and told the Home Cor
ner about it, but she laughed as she
cold it and it may be that she was
not wholly in earnest. my dear,n
she said, with that amused laugh, 81
have done great deal of charitable
work in the course of my life-not
always for myself, oh no! more fire.
quently the agent of other people
and have discovered one of woman's
peculiarities, which has never been
mentioned by any scientist, or even
limited at by any physiognomist. You
know, of course, that women are con-
stantly sending secondhand clothing
to the poor. In many cases garments
are as good as they ever were, but out
grown, OF the fashion has changed, or
there is some little soiled spot which
units a gown for wear; and some re-
ally valuable gifts are made in this
way. But do you know, my dear,
that ninety-nine women out of every
hundred who lay aside garment to
send to the poor, first cut off the but
tons? 1t is solemn truth, and the
most unaccountableth thing lever knew.
1t is not that the buttons are especial
ly valuable, for L have known a
woman to give away good dress, the
material Of which cost $40, first cut
ting off the buttons which cost fifty
cents. Do you think it can be that
women naturally are less generous
than men, and that every generous i'm
pulse has some mental reservation with
it. wish you could have been with
me the other day, when 1 ran in to
see how some poor people | had been
helping were getting along, and there
they were, all dressed up in an outfit
of clothes dear woman that L knew
had sent them. And there wasn't a
button Oh the whole assortment, eX.
cept one that had been overlooked on
the little boys waist; and it thrust
itself on public notice in very start
ling fashion. The mothers dress was
pinned, the daughters frock was
pinned, and the poor little boys
knickerbockers were pinned to his
waist and the empty buttonholes
grinned forlornly, as though they APP
preciated the joke themselves. 1t
would be little curious some day,
wouldn't it to have voice ask, What
hast thou done for my poor p and to
be obliged to answer, Lord, have
clothed them abundantly, as thou
seest, but always cut the buttons off
the clothes before sent Them
Nv
And speaking of buttons, reminds
the Home Corner of an
other and far less worldly use
of them. There was never
house that had a grandmother that
did not have also a grandmother's
button box. 1t is little box that she
has carried around with her, doubt
less, through many journeyings. She
puts on her glasses sometimes, and
gets the box down to find a button
that will do for Bessie's doll dress, or
for Harry's waist, and there is such a