The times., 1897-05-09
THE ECONOMY CLUB.

says. she has heard SD many sermons
preached about Marthas who were careful
and troubled about many things It is
her opinion that the preachers OF the ser
mons would not have liked to 90 home
and find their wives ready 10 sit down
and talk instead of getting the diuner.
She thinks Marthas are needed in tis
world quite as much as Marys- Ard so
she is one of them. Who shsIi say how
much her name had to do withite There
are peeple who go through life in a vain
endeavor to live up TO their nanies: there
are others who achieve names for them
selves. and others have names more or
less Inappropriate thrust upon them.
This particular Martha Is OF those
people who are always ready for enIer-
gencies- She is energetic, but not bust
ling and noisy. When she was In school,
if another girl was ill, or tired out, OF
behind with her lessons, or had the tooth
ache, or a cold, or the blues, it was al
ways Martha VINO came TO the rescue with
her good sense and sunny nature, and her
unedicinechesr and work-bag one night
Martha's roon.-mate came in 10 find a
crowd OF melancholy looking girls assem-
bied in the room. One was afflicted with
tootbache, another with cough, which
shook her TO pieces, as she said; another
had thumbed copy of Virgil, and a
fourth surveyed three-conered tear in
a pretty silk gown
= Oil of cloves on drop of cotton settled
the toorhachs until next day, when a
dentist would De accessible Some sort
of oily stuff out OF a bottle, which Martha
said had been recommended by her doctor
the week before, was given to tie girl
with cough: the rueful face which bent
over the silk gown frightened perceptibIy
as Martha showed her how to draw the
edges together over a piece of court plaster,
which, as the gown was black, made the
kear almost impeTceptible, a1d the g RI with
the Virgil departed grateful Y conscious that
d word or two Oh the suDjuuctive mood had
made her mind much clearer tnan it was
half an hour ago.
There are people. and Martha is one
OF them. who seem to have natural
gift for making rough places smooth. But
all of us are capable OF some accomplish
ments in this direction. IL is not very
hard to have things on hand that we are
sure to want. aud that other people are
sure to want; aud though the person who
has these things is always being re-
Quested to lend them. there is a certain
satisfaction in teiDg the lender and nOt
the borrower. for Z is almost a necessity
TO be one or the other bottle of oil
of cloves doesn't take up very much room.
for a tiny vial holding only > cents worth
will last a long time. Vaseiine is good
for a cold. applied as a poultice, and is
also inexpensive. Court plaster is aiway(
needed IN a hurry. when It is needed,
and very seldom at hand.
It is Jus. as easy 10 have a work basket
furnished with lhree or four numbers of
black and white thread, from shoe thread
to the finest, and with needles 70 match,
and with tape needle, and an emery. and
a lot Of daning- cotton, and an ola pair 1f
scissors to be used for cutting lamp wicks
or wire. as il is to have to borrow all
these things or use what was never in-
tended to he used for the purpose. 1t Is
just as easy 10 keep 10-cent tack amTneR
IN ones trunk, with a tOX of tacks, Sc
cured by rubber band, so that they viii
not spill out among the other things, as
it is 10 hunt all over the house for some
body that has got one. and the same thing
applies TO the screw-driver. ana the cam
opener, and tine uuoilage bottle, and the bali
OF string, large and small: and the humble
postage stamp, andthe box OF matches. and
about hundred other things which the
average girl never thinks il necessary to
have ia the house
1t is just as easy 70 buy things in quantity
as in what our grandmothers used to all,
succinctly and expressively, ''driblets,"
and it is great Ge al mere satisfactory
not TO have to run down town for soma
cent necessity two or three times a
week.
Some articles especially are always need
ed in urgent haste. A threaded needle
is one of these. The housekeeping depart
ment Of a well-known magazine once sug-
gested that a housekeeper should always
keep, on Il shelf out of the ehildTen's
reach, cushion fun of needles threaded
with various sorts Of thread. Perhaps this
isn'tnecessary, butitis very handy. when a
glove button comes off at the last minute,
TO turn to ones work basket with the GER
| tainty Of finding there a needle and q
bit of silk or thread of the light sort to
sew it on.
And it is comforting, when ones pen
knife has slipped and cut finger just at
the moment of starting downtown, to know
that there is "A little envelope fun of black
and white court-plaster in a reliable
pistCe- II - d utetA iiioit HottNitA'~tbAS
to find that eourt-plaster, snip il Off and
put it on, than it would be 60 spend several
minutes hunting for rag and tying up
the niured member
Somebody once said of type writer that
she was very, very smart girl, because
she could sharpen a pencil with pair or
scissors She undoubtedly was ingenious,
| but a knife is more satisfactory in the long
run, and, though most women learn, if they
| have to do without mascgline assistance
| more or less, to drive nails with Tat
| iron and dig out tacks with pair of
| shears. STILL a tack-hammer with claw
| to it is much more conducive to the smooth
ness of job and temper.
| Tools are cheap nowadays, and there Is
| really no more need of the cummunist.d
| arrangements that prevail In regard TO GER
/ tain rnucli-used articles than there Is OF
| chasing from house to house after a shovel
| full of Goals in order 10 start fire, as the
| oid-tine custom was IL is good thin
| for a girl to own hammer anil know how
| to use it: and it is a good thing, too, for
/ a hoy tn un Understand the use of needle rs
| some boy do. It probably won't make
| either one Gf them the less desirous OF the
| others assistance when the right time
| comes
] Europe's Opinion of Hanotaux.