The Monticellonian., 1895-04-05

really believed that she had no time to sew, and actually did not know that, in laying aside her needle and thread and thiEble. she gave mp one of the gruces of her life. She had q genuine love of kuo owledge; her studies were not wholly indulged in that they might add to her radiance. but that was one result to be attained there IS no mistaking.
 Yet it is true that this woman who had read Dante and Brown ing and French history at her club did not know that in laying aside the accomplishment. of sewing she threw away one of the charms of a woman's home life. Not that n woman in comfortable circum- stances should stitch and stitch the long and weary seam that can be better done on the sewing machine in 20 minutes, just be- cause there is fad for hand sew ing. That is not the point. But there are times when the mend Ing of z love, the sewing on of a button. the stitch in time, the stitch in need, can be best done by mother" and no "mother's room" IS complete without well-equip- ped sewing basket. It is a little thing, the dainty basket, with its threads of every color and quality from the strong linen that will mend baseball cover to the No. 100 cotton that will darn a rent in a null gown, it's silks of every hue and it's fast black yarns; its scis- sors and bodkins and tape meas. ure, and it's gold thimble. Who does not know the pretty work basket of to-day that should be an essential of every woman's home? Our grandmothers tell of the time when the household work bask ct was ot the dimensions of balf- bushel, hcaped with strong, home woven jeans and Iinseys and half. bleached linens, and even home. spun threads before the patents came Tn, and in that time not to know how to sew was disgrace. Then the work basket was neces- sity; there were no ready made garments in which to clothe a finn. fly.
 Now, to be sure, there are things ready made" when they come to us, and so little do many of us know Of the hands that wrought them, and the hearts that bled over them, we might almost us well believe that they grew on the shelves ofthe furnishing shops, or were plucked, ready fashioned, from the shcep's back and out of the cotton bales. But few ration. al people wish for the return of the "good old times of the spin. ming wheel and the loom," No woman ever longs for that time, and no man ~ ho knows what is good for woman. The spinning wheel and the loom have gone out of the home never to return, and the sewing machine and the club have come 10 stay; but in all seri. ousness, mine own sisters, let us retain what we can of the old vir. tues that abided with the old or. der of things while taking on the graces of the new. There is no sweeter picture than the mother Tn her own sewing chair, ready to make everyone trim for school or street, with just the right thing at the right time. The home cannot be managed wholly on club princi- pies, even with the light of club philosophy, and unless we wish to see a decided reaction against the high esteem in which women's clubs are now held by both men and women it behooves us, the women of the clubs, to cherish our homely fireside graues, instill them Tn our daughters and practice them for our sons and husbands. My mothers work basket was a rich mine, good Samaritan, a tender reminder of the gentle hands; one of it's bulging pockets was always filled with goodies; one with string and bits of clean, soft linen for cut fingers; in one were pieces of calamus root and ! Ieo.eo.r Ll l