St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1898-06-11

porah, but all her sisters, without prac-
teal and useful employments. Many
of them are waiting for fortunate and
prosperous matrimonial alliance; but
some lounger like themselves will
come along, and after counting the
large number Of father Jethro's sheep
and camels. will make proposals that
will be accepted; and neither OF them
having done anything more practical
than to chew chocolate caramels, the
two nothings will start on the road OF
life together, every step more and more
q failure. That daughter of the
Midianitish sheik will never find her
Moses. Girls OF America, initiate Zip
porah. Do something practical. Do
something helpful. Do something
well. Many have fathers with great
focks of absorbing duties, and such
father needs help in home, or Office. or
field. Go out and help him with the
fOcks. The reason that so many men
now condemn themselves to unbalanced
and solitary life is because they can
not support the modern young woman,
who rises at half-past ten In the morn
ing and retires after midnight, one of
the trashiest of novels in her hands
most of the time between the late ris-
ing and the late retiring-a thousand
of them not worth one Zipporah-
There is question that every father
and mother ought to ask the daughter
at breakfast or tea table, and that all
the daughters of the wealthy sheik
ought to ask each other: "What would
you do if the family fortune should
fail, if sickness should prosterate the
bread-winner, If the focks of Jethro
should be destroyed by q sudden ex-
cursion of wolves and bears and hyenas
from the mountain? What would you
do for living? Could you support
yourself? Can you take care of an in
valid mother or brother or sister as
well as yourself?" Yea, bring it
down to what any day might come
to a prosperous family. ''Can you
cook a dinner If the servants should
make a strike for higher wages and
leave that morning?" Every minute
of every hour of every day of every
year there are families flung from pros
perity into hardship, and alas! if in
such exigency the seven daughters Of
Jethro can do nothing but sit around
and cry and wait for some one to come
and hunt them up . situation for which
they have no qualification. Get at
something useful; get at 1t right
away! Do not say: IF l were
thrown upon my own resources l would
become a music teacher" There are
now more music teachers than could be
supported if they were all Mozarts and
Wagners and uandcls. Do you say:
II will go to embroidering slippers
There are more slippers now than
there are feet. Our hearts are every
day wrung by the story of elegant
women who were once afiluent, but
through catastrophe have fallen help
less, with no ability to take care Of
themselves
Our friend and Washingtonian
townsman, w. w. Corcoran, did mag
nificent thing when he built and en-
dowed the Louise House" for the sup
port of the unfortunate aristocracy Of
the south-the people who once had
everything, baf ave come to nothing.
We want another w. w. Corcoran to
build q ssLouise House" for the un-.
fortunate aristocracy .of the north
But institutions like that in every city
of the land could not take care of one
half the unfortunate aristocracy of the
north and south whose large fortunes
have failed, and who. through lack Of
acquaintance with any style of work,
can not now earn their own bread.
There needs to be peaceful yet rad
ical revolution among most of the
prosperous homes of America, by which
the elegant do-nothings may be trans
formed into practical do-sOmeshings.
Let useless women go to work and
gather the Hocks. Come, Zipporah, let
me introduce you to Moses! But you
do not mean that this man affianced to
his country girl was the great
Moses of history, do you? You do
not mean that he Vas the man
who afterwards wrought such won-
ders? Surely you do not mean
the man whose staff dropped, wrig-
gled into q serpent, and then. clutched,
stiffened again into star? You do
not mean the challenger of Egyptian
thrones and palaces? You do not mean
him who struck the rock SO hard it
wept in q stream for thirsty hosts?
Surely You do not mean the man who
stood alone with God on the quahing
Sinaitic ranges; not him to whom the
Red sea was surrendered? Yes, the
same Moses defending the seven
daughters of the Midianitish sheik;
who aftcrward rescued . nation.
Why, do You not know that this is
the way men and women get prepared
for special work? The wilderness OF
Arabia was the law school, the theo-
logical seminary. the university of rock
and sand. from which he graduated for
a mission that will balk seas, and
drown armies, and lift the lantern Of
illumined cloud by night, and start
the workmen with bleeding backs
among Egyptian brick kilns toward
the pasture lands that flow with milk
and the trees Of Canaan dripping with
honey. Gracious God, teach all the
people this lesson. You must go into
humiliation and retirement and hidden
closets of prayer, if you are too fitted
for special usefulness. How did John
the Baptist get prepared to become the
forerunner of Christ? Show me his
wardrobe. It will be hung with silken
socks and embroidered robes and attire
of Syrian purple. Show me his dining
table. On it the tankards ablush with
the richest wines of the vineyards OF
Engedi, and rarest birds that were
ever caught in net, and sweetest veni-
son that ever dropped antlers before
the hunter. No, we are distinctly told,
s'the same John had his raiment oi
camels' hairr-nOt the fine hair of the
camels which we call camelet, but the
long, coarse hair, such AS beggars in
the east wear-and his only meat was
of insects. the green locust, about two
inches long, roasted, . disgusting food.
These insects were caught .and the
wings and legs torn of, and they .were
stuck on wooden spits and turned be.
fore the fire. The Bedouins pack them
in salt and carry them in sacks. What
] = menu for John the Baptist! Through