The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-10-08
ideas for dMolnen

Madame De Staels or those Of Prosper
Merriniee's ssIngena." perhaps; he has
rot been honored by many fair cores
pondents of his own day and generation
If he does not know that the art of letter
writing was never so widely practiced as
now.
To the one or two women of former
times VINO stood alone as pre-eminently
graceful wielders of the pen in unprofes-
sional life there are hundreds to one. in
an inverse ratio, of these fin de steele ex-
perts who exercise their gift uncon-
sciously.
There is a snap and sparkle about the
modern weman's letters that no doubt
the dear Clarissas and Alethea AIMS
would have thought very unladylike. Fer
haps they would have tainted at the
Jolly bits of woman's college slarg that
sometimes point a moral or adorn a tale
in the epistles of the cap and gown girl
of today; but our Corirne does not in
crease the sale of astigmatie glasses by
the spider leg chirography that her grand
mother thought so elegant, and we have
her to thank for the courageous the
Icgible. the sensible stub.
In those days when women kept diaries
and performed every duty with a pre-
cision as of time and place that our
crowded life could not emulate. if there
were "a working hours in the day, the
pr1fn orderliness was reflected in their
letters, and the habit of keeping a jour-
nal gave a subjective, interpretive tone
to all they wrote. so that they felt inn
PEELED when sending a missive 10 any
friend whatsoever TO begin by ~chronicling
the deep experience" they had felt in
their souls that day. before going on to
enurnerate the new kittens and fox
hounds.
And yet the modern girl ought not to
laugh at this onscientiousness that has
become quaint simply because it is not
SO obviously existent among her kind;
and it were well. after all, if she re-
vealed herself more to those she thinks
worthy of her communications
The average letter-writing girl of to-
day is indeed a yelled She who rarely,
touches upon any phase of serious
thought. When. happily, she is writing
to one TO whom she upon cur
rent novels and poems she, of course, in
dieates her own mental attitude towards
the subjects and sentiments treated by
her laudation or adverse criticisn; but as
a rule she affects fippaaey on matters of
sentiment when she is. most always, cap
able of deep feeling. She fills her pages
full of bright touches about people and
things, and one refolds her letter with a
hearty laugh, or at least an appreciative
smile. enchanting, How delightfulr'
But there are. unfortunately, other
women's letters than these.
There come by the same post with the
entertaining ones those tina are the
quinsessenee OF dullness. They are inva-
riabIy written in the m-onotonously inli-
tased English up-and-down penmanship,
which does not scare" at all; but each
weri. Ike Browaing-s poems. must be
studied separately, and it skips from the
first page to anywhere, heads or tails,
of the osier three sheets that your in
gefinity omp TO seek its continuance.
Tw8-thirds of these letters are taken
UP with excuses for not having written
sooner-an e-xtenuation of Providence
think you as you read-and the other
third in dress, doctors and domestics, the
three DIS Of which We become unut-
terahIy wearied in the dun letters. And
all of these are not from stupid women.
One gets them from friends who are COM
stant contributors to the leading maga-
zines, while sometimes there will come
from an absorbed little mother of a FAM
lily such an impersonal, chatty. CHEEKY
budget that one cannot imagine where or
she had the time to take in so
many bright impressions.
Some women write letters that give
l-.-ar - a rLx1ia I,0,~at,oJ7 o-5f 4Lolf
intervals between the receipt of these is
always too brief for those who think that
a letter, as Emerson says of beauty, lis
its own excuse for being'-and that ex-
cuse for being, like beauty's, is that some
one may enjoy it.
But of all hopeless things. in this day
when all things seem to be possible, is
to get a woman to answer a question
in a -letter-unless it be a masculine wilt
thou2"
Tbs condition of a. woman's hand,
whether she is a busy housekeeper or
not. is a sure Indication of her sense of
refinement. The gentlest lady's
hands may be hard of palm and red of
knuekle because they are no strangers to
the broom and dish mop, but they need
never seem coarse or neglected. Just at
present gloves are being sold to meet the
special needs of d practical housekeeper
big, loose, red rubber g%auntlets, tina
are for slipping .on when tender fingers
must go into hot water. There are white
rubber ones, too, for use when kneading
dough; big channels skin ones for dust
ing and sweeping, and special ones to
wear on days when the family silver
must be polished or the brass n iron
touched up.
The outside service of these last acts
as a polishing cloth on all metals, and
the chores are thus e~ffectually ham
died with gloves and more or less COM
pleted for the day, let the finger nails
be brushed in tepid soap and later and
n~1anieured.
Nails that are tough, lustreless. dotted
with white bruises, surrounded with
or are painfully, brittle and
tell a simple story OF neglect. One
dollar ana q half VIII purchase all the
tools and supplies necessary.
and these will easily last three years. so
10 great expense is involved. This esti-
includes q cleaner and file in one.
d pair OF small curved scissors. a large
xnod-backed pollsher. a box of nail paste
one of powder. After nails have been
brushed in tepid suds and dried use an
orange wood toothpick to gently push
back the skin about rhe sides and bot
ON. With the scissors clip close off al