The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1897-04-16
GOSSIP FOR THE LADIES
III am Her SlRYO.,'

. az am Her Slsvo."
am her slave. All, this know, s' ,,>
Although she would not have 1t SO!
The truth my heart could not deny
When her dear face first met my eye
That golden day six months ago.
Twas summer then. now chill winds blow,
Tho fields then green are white with snow,
The world has changed, but still sigh,
l am her slave!
Summer again will throb and glow
The ice-bound brooks win laughing iow,-
YIN my sweetheart then pass me by,
When once again to her ! show
Virginia. Van de Water In Harper's Bazaar.
Lenten Duties.
Lent has come. and you are telling me,
dear little debutante, that you mean to
keep it very strictly. For the last month
so many balls and such 4 splendor of
mimic courts that you are Il little satiat-
ed with it all. and the thoughts of quiet
lenten days comes WelcOmely like the cool
gray of twilight, after the hot and garish
day.
You are very earnest about wishing to
| observe Lent in the right way. YOU have
late creams, and are looking about for
something to do worthy of your lenten
vows. You think it would be fine to be
missionary, and endure hardships and
convert the heather. You even look
, with certain degree of favor on the
Salvation Army lassies, and think how
very, very sanctified Il woman must be
70 be willing to wear such hdeOus bon
nets. and wonder if you could ever bring
yourself to do it. But you are Il sensible
| little girl, and YOU know your feet will
be aching to dance before Easter, and
| that you are not of the stuff of which
heroes and martyrs are made.
Notwithstanding the old proverb about
charity beginning at home. the idea of
| finding field for missionary work i'll
ones own family has never been popu-
lar one, vet it is, nevertheless, worth con-
sidcring. The heather. who have neither
the tax collector or the gas bill to face,
| and who have not to consider WhcreWith-
al they shall be clothed in the latest FASH
ion, have not the worst of it in this trou-
hled world, and there are few of Ills who
need all the comfort and supertluous good
deeds we have to bcstow. The goodness
that is good for anything, must do good
to somebody. The piety that takes itself
out in an exalted frame is like the
ornaments on Il BRIDES cake-sweet and
piett!, btl luochelt ~ peopIe surviving
| for bread.
1t is always little dscouraging to
find that ones duty lies right under
their hands, but if you will think about
| it, dear little girl, you will see that you
could do no better deed during Lent
| than to give your mother a holiday.
This was your first season in society,
and she did everything to make it pleas
ant for YOU. ALI winter. when you We're
1>4> ,s<~I>k 40
that, she has allowed no one to disturb
your sleep the next morning. The chill
| dren were hushed and went by your
| door on tiptoe. The house WAS kept
| dark that your rest might not be broken,
| and when you did arise there was some
| special dainty for your late brea kfast.
! Suppose you pay her back, give her a
vacation. Take the housekeeping and
let her sleep of mornings. Garry her
her breakfast, and let her have it in bed.
| See that the children are sent to school
III the morning. Comb Mary's hair and
| teach Johnny his lessons, find father
| paper and hat for him, interview the
| butcher and baker; and do all ten thou
sand things mother does every day of
| her life, and Of which you never dreamed
until you became her understudy, and
tried to run the household machinery
| Mother will come out of this improyised
rest cure with renewed youth and health
and in your struggles with servants and
| tradesmen you will have learned more of
the science of domestic economy than
any lady professor of the culinary art
could teach YOU in a year.
| Then, there's your father. Heretofore
| you have been so busy in school and in
society you have never really had a
change to get acquainted with him, and
you have looked upon him as convent
ent necessity for paying bills and pro.
viding the comforts of life. Your father
| is a clearheaded business man. Did it
ever occur to you that he must regard
you as an exceedingly bad investment
You see, a daughter is a tremendously
expensive luxury. Your musical educa.
ton cost pretty penny, yet when he
asks you to play for him you are always
any music Or something. He used tC
think when you were a schoolgirl, how
nice it would be to lie on the couch after
dinner while you played annie Laurie
and Ben Bolt,' and all sorts of old
fashioned, sentimental airs, and he would
doze and drift way into dreams in a
world of music, sweeter that it was made
by his little girl than by any Paderew.
ski Well, he spent his money and he
gets no music for it, and in his own
mind he must charge up the matter tC
the bad debt account every time he thinks
of it. Then you were also very eXpens
lively educated, and he must have hoped
| he was providing himself with an intel
ligent companion. Yet how often do you
sit down and talk to him in an interest
ing way about any of the things he cares
for? Do you ever tell him the good
stories you hear? Or describe the people
and things you see? Suppose you Should
take the trouble to get acquainted with
father, and show him you loved him and
appreciated him? How would that strike
you as IL way to spend SOME of youl
time during Lent? You might like him
if you only knew him we'll enough, to de-
sire to continue the acquaintance.
Women have Il natural love for the
dramatic, and it is hard for them t.
believe that the things which have NJ
viii lie. 1t is so much more interesting tt
make nice. warm flannels for the pic
turcspuc Hottehtots than for the family
around the corner, who are only sdualid
ly poor. and dirty, and shiftless. Womel
will visit the cell Of the most brutal wife
btater and murderer and carry him flow
ers. yet how few will think to unpin tho
violets from their frocks and give then
to the woman who fits their gowns OF
waits on them behind the counter.
During Lent we always have a spasn
of philanthropy, and organize all sorts
OF clubs for doing good to all the people
who live far off, and Of WI hose pceds VIC
are totally ignorant Wouldn't it be
far, better to show little more sym
patty and appreciation and sisterly love
to those all around us, and whose wants
we can see without the use of q tele
scope? 1t is altogether possible that tho
rose that goes to a tired sewing woman
and brings smile to her face, goes on
just as worthy a mission as the one tina
is sent to condemned murderer. DID
you ever think what lovely thing ii
would be if girls who have money and
leisure, and talent, would spend some OF
it in bringing sunshine into the lives OF
girls less fortunately situated? Not in
the way of organized clubs, which arc
generally. organized failures, but individu
ally: You cant, get at people when you
are tied up i'll bylaws and strangled with
provisions of a constitution
! In this city there are hundreds of young
girls who spend their days behind tho
counters, earning the hardest subsistence
| They never know the luxury of good
lunch. or Il box of sweets or a bunch
! nf Hnyr