The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-09-11
for dMomen


of ~youth-the day of days, when school
reopens, is close at hand. Holidays are
done, playtime is over. and the lads ana
lassies trot bach to their studies health
Ter, happier and heartier for their ten
weeks vacation. 1t bchoovcs the moth
ers Of the land to see that the little men
and women remain in that desirable con-
diticn.
Most important of all is the question
of food. No schoolboy or schoolgirl can
study FIVE hours a day without exhaust
ing the vitality to a surprising degree, and
unless the fire that feeds the furnace is
constantly kept up the result is frequently
serious.
First of all the breakfast-the most
important meal of the dayl Every moth
er should insist that her growing chill
dren should eat a hearty and substantial
meal before going to school. 1t is just
as easy to cultivate the habit of eating
as of not eating, and the child may be
trained in that direction as in all others.
The hastily swallowed plate of oatmeal
too often the only solid food eaten by the
average school child-is an insufficient
basis for the days work.
In addition TO the dish of porridge, a
rare chop or a bit of steak, a cup OF
coffee or a glass of milk and a roll or
slice or two of toast should be consumed,
and 1t is the duty of the mother to see
that the meal is eaten slowly and leis-
urely. The nervous haste which most
children evince as the school hour draws
nigh is the fault of a lack Of system, and
the mother who values the health n
happiness of her children should do ev-
ervthing in her power to minimize that
unfortunate tendency by insisting upon
punctuality at the morning meal, and per-
feet calm and order while it is served.
The midday luncheon in town should
be substantial and nourishing, and in
clude at least one hot dish. If a lunch
con is taken to school that should be
varied frequently n made as inviting
as possible, otherwise the itful appetite
will be revolted and the fast will remain
unbroken.
The luncheon should never be put up in
q tin box. as the close smell of the re-
ceptacle affects the food and renders it
unfit to eat. A pasteboard box in which
small holes are bored is best, and that
should be carefully lined with a napkin
or a piece of oiled tissue paper. A sand
wien NlcH ulScty maui -
tizing. but it should be cut thin, made
into very small squares or triangles and
its contents frequently varied. Minced
chicken or ham chopped egg, a ieat OF
lettuce dipped in mayonnaise, cold roast
beef. cold tongue and choW-chow, all
make a tasty sandwich, and when sup
plemented by some good solid fruit, such
a luncheon has sufficient neurishment to
stay the stomach and feed the brain TIL
a conventional meal can be had.
SO
Next to regularity of meals comes the
inheritance of regularity of open air ex-
ercise. Unless the distance to school IS
so great as to be absolutely ~fatiguing,
boys and girls should always walk there,
as better work will be done when there
is a supply of ozone in the lungs to draw
from during the day
Nor should the student be allowed to
study Immediately after the return from
school. AT least two hours exercise
should be taken in the open air. or, II CIR
cumstance permit, in a gymnasium; then
the preparation of the next days les
sons becomes a pleasure instead OF a
hardship.
Such a regime, if carefully followed
during the school year. will bring its own
reward, and instead of the customary
complaints in the early spring of the
children being run down, the happy
mother will have the satisfaction of see
ing that her brood are, as happy, hearty
and healthy at the close of school as at
its beginning.
To those whose aim in life is to enjoy
themselves most when far from the
madding crowd now is the time for
their jauntings out of town. For two
months every available nook at mountain
or shore was filled to overlooking, and
at each hotel and boarding house there
could nave been given the Irishman's
characteristic answer: There is not one
vacant seat but what's occupied"
But the homebound trains are the
crowded ones now. and for travellers who
speed toward the famous resorts there
is q sense of roominess, q delightful lux
ury that is worth waiting two months
to get. Arrived at the shore, one is sure
to find at least four rockers in every
pavilion where one alone is needed; at
table the walters have abundant time to
attend promptly to every wish; If q bath
is wanted, there is no need to struggle
into and out of the surf among a mass
of wet humanity that makes even the
ocean seem too small, and on the board
walk there is a freedom that can come
only with few people and much space.
These are some of the dear delights by
the sea in September, and up among
the mountains, where fires are needed in
the mornings, and the nights are de-
licsously cold, the last guests have COM
pensations that are not to be found when
the season is at its height.
Indeed. as a people we are only be-
ginning to appreciate the full glory of our
American autumns. No other land shows
the gorgeous coloring of foliage that
is spread before us in the fall, and SO
it has come about that those favored
ones who have homes in town and coun-
try are prone to linger a little longer each
year among the beauties that September
and October offer. There is a tonic in the
country air after the first hints of frost
are in it; that chases away all the Ian
guor that August leaves. and driving
doubles all it's delights when one can
skim through shaded lanes with a fresh
breeze in ones face, after having lam
guidly rolled along under the pressure of
summer heat
And for those who have come home,
or who cannot go away for more than
a few hours or a day, now is the best