The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-02-06
I IDEAS fur UNnnaen.
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succeeded BY those Which tIie kinder
garten does a great deal to supply. tilere
comes a period when mothers cry de-
spairingly: What shall my children do?
They can't and the won't read all
through their spare time. They have
several hours each day free from school
duties. 1t is not feasible that they should
spend most of these hours out of doors.
The serious question is. what besides
games and plays shall amuse them?"
Any sort of collection is an admirable
institution. The hild will busy him
self for days together gathering, ar
ranging and rearranging specimens from
postage stamps, to minerals, shells, bugs
or butterflies or flowers. He is adding
to his stock of useful information in
classifying these.
He is obliged to take more or less
beneficial exercise in collecting them. He
learns habits of order and system. and
which is the first consideration, after
all. he is kept happily and innocently
employed.
One little boy is making q scrap book
of pictures of ships. as he is especially
interested in all things pertaining to the
sea. His brother has a similar book of
soldiers and of flags. An older girl saves
pictures of typical and rather exag-
gerated fashions carefully dated. An
other housewifely little c~reatur is most
delighted with a good recipe which.
/ after the cook has tried it or pronounced
Ait undeniab,y good. she pastes in her
cook book.
Much may be done, too, with a blank
book besides using ii as a diary. Here
is one way invented by the mother of
several restless little ones. She gave
each of them a thick book. directing
their illumination and decoration of the
fiy-ieaf. which bore the words: What !
Have Seen"
Below was the date of the child's
birth. Each following page was then
headed with the succeeding years in or
der. Underneath are entries. collected
by the little owner, OF such Importance
as. for example, under the heading of
1854: Death of Gen. Gordon, Wendell
Phillips, Prince Leopold. Charles o'Con-
nor and Charles Reade; Greeley Relief
Expedition, Berthcldi statue presented.
earthquake at Charleston, ETC., etc.
Those events which the child himself
can remember could be inscribed in red
Ink. Or, as those will increase as the
-CN0A0 60CS OAAs tA4CJ 70 ~ IL R@AIhs
and those Of earlier years in red. Such
a little book wou}d always be of value.
and it VIII add to the pleasure of ali
study of history and OF investigation to
be on the lookout for new data to be
added TO the pages of the amateur
work.
It comes within the requirements of
something which is 9th pleasant and
profitable and keeps the child employed.
A man who is known to be q good
liver and who is at the head of an ex-
cellently appointed house. tells how he
keeps everything in systematic running
order.
It IS rather unique to get a masculine
view of how to manage a woman's king
dom. but things out of the usual usually
interest.
I'VE are both of US busy people, he
says, with many occupations, many
outdoor interests, and an appetite for
work as we'll as for long holidays abroad
and at home So that we can give but
few hours a week to domestic affairs,
ard early found the necessity of depart
TJngSthe household and arranging
fil1 p pd duties of the servants SO as
to ghGNNfhn scope to their capacities,
In Etldl t-4t4A tAAStA
natural pleasures and family duties.
THE upper servants are allowed to
marry and to rave separate husehoids in
the vicinity where possible. They are
our friends. We enter into their lives
as they into ours. Their griefs, their
mental and physical anxieties and suf-
ferings are known to us and are not re-
pressed. They have both time and place
ior reading and for their own amuse-
ments. Their holidays are ample and
are arranged upon q general scheme
which they approve, sand which is not
too mechanically rigid. We lave hardly
ever lost a servant except by death or
marriage. These are the rules and
principles on which good a mar. of bust
ness conducts his affairs.
They are the principles which I have
observed in connection with my out
door workers. and with the same good
results. My own conclusions are that
servants are not only as good as ever
they were, but probably much better,
because better educated, better trained,
with larger scope for happiness, and q
clearer perception of duties as well as
privileges. The common error lies in
dealing with servants as though they
were machines. bouni to a dumb and
mechanical servitude, without relatives.
without duties in their own families,
without sorrows TO be soothed, or pains
to be expressed-the slaves of the bell
for sixteen hours a day, and called upon
to wear a stolid mask, behind which ali
feelings are to be hidden, and all emo
tons suppressed.
W nave not yet sufficiently recog.
nized that the old order of things has
given way to the new, and that the SER
wants of today nave as much right to
an individual existence. to the full de-
yelopment of their human qualities, pri-
waite duties and attachments, as we our-A
selves have. and as full a right also to
enjoy the large opportunities of to-day,
or recreation. mental development, and
the enlargement of their social horizon.
The new servant requires as mucn to
be considered as the new woman, and
both are much better than their fipS |
pant detractors would nave US believe.
I repeat that If we are to be happy in
our homes. easy IN our work. tended
with devotion in sickness. n served
with cheerfulness IN health, we must
have a houseful of good servants.
-And when good masters and mis-
tresses awake to the altered conditions
of modern life, then good service viii be
universal