The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-02-14
4 IDEAS fur dunnlen

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gether tl.cy talk OF nothing but their
homes. or their husbands and their chill
dren. Wefl, are not these things nearest
aud dearest to Il woman. SO why should
she not talk of them? There is no subject
in the world Of as much importance TO
us as this domestic one; and by talking
it over with our friends in the right way
and in the right spirit, we may learn
something we ought 10 know and that VIII
help us to be better wives and mothers.
There are three things q woman should
possess to make a good home, says Good
l-Iautsekeeping.7 These are cleanliness,
Industry and good temper. First of all
comes cleanliness. No home can be good
for a wife, for husband or for children
unless it be clean. The floor of the home
may be uncarpeted, but if it has the
freshness that soap and water can give
it; if the furniture, however poor, is well
cared for; if things are tldily arranged,
no one need be ashamed of it. This is the
picture of one of the brightest girls in
the school. She was very poor. but |
never saw her wear a soiled dress or
apron. Hey skin had q clear. well-kept
look, and her shining hair was always
neatly braided One day I went to the
girls home. She lived in a shabby little
house of three roo4ns-a kitchen and two
bedrooms. But, oh, how clean it was!
The floors were uncarpeted but they had
been scrubbed until they looked like the
top of d nice kitchen table. The chairs
common wooden ones. the paint worn off
by constant cleaning-were as white as
the floor. Cheese cloth curtains were at
the windows, but their whiteness put to
shame many lace curtains seen in finer
homes. The windows shone, and through
them shone what can be in every home
free CT cost-that is, flowers. On the out
side of the windows were nailed broad
boards, and on them were pots. cans and
old kettles with plants Of various kinds.
And how they blossomedt The mother
busy at the stove. was as clean as the
house; and equally neat with the two
little children in their Bingham aprons.
That picture of perfect cleanliness in
the midst of such povery cannot easily
be forgotten, for the father was a day
laborer and earned very little. 1t is hard
to care for people who are not clean.
That good mother was rewarded for her
efforts in her home. Her daughter. whom
she kept at school, Notwithstanding their
PON ( II ~ q -1 S<A1ot FtSt 49,
money earned, purchased a pretty cottage
for her parents. If the shabby little home
ooked so neat, think how that cot
tage must have appeared.
SO
Must it not be pleasant for a man to
have a. home like the one described? How
ever hard he works. however tired he
gets. he must feel 1t is worth it all to
---- - - L. r,Ir1 <ls~- A
wife can show no better appreciation or
her husbands toll than by being a tidy
housewife. A man cannot sit down to a
neat table without being the better for
it. A neatly spread table is both attrae-
tive and refining, and to have it SO there
IS no need to go to any expense. The
tablecleth can always be clean, the dishes
bright. the knives, forks and spoons shin
Ing. And what is to prevent a few flowers
from grazing the table, The g~eraniums
in the window win furnish the bouquet.
ard these eFnblens of God goodness viii
gsve a cheerful and festive air to the
p'ainest table.
Of course, cleanliness and order do not
come of themselves. We have no goat
that in the fairy tale. to which WEI
may say. Little goat bleat. clear away
meat The hands must be the fairy goat
ard the good will and the strength.
Therefore, industry is so necessary in
the home. It is no light task to keep the
house, the husband and the children neat,
but it pays SO much better in the end
than to waste our time and to sit idly by
wishing things were different. Besides we
are so much happier when We are kept
busy. and it is such a comfort to see the
result CT our work in the better condi-
ton Of everybody and everything in the
house. Remember. too. that you need not
1epend upon only one pair of hands.
There are the children, and by teaching
them industrious habits one has nc idea
how much they can help.
Mothers often say 81 have no time to
teach my children or .sif I ask them
to help l nave to coax them so long that
would rather do it myself" This is not
the right way to feel. Does it not seem
wrong not to teach children the necessary
duties of a household. whether they must
some day do it for themselves or for
others?
A plan, and an excellent one, in getting
children to assist willingly, is to make
them like TO do it. There is only one way
to do this, and that is by making it seem
not like work. but like play. 1t is very
much the same method they have in the
kindergarten, where so many useful and
beautiful things are taught by means of
play. One little girl of nine years dusts
2 room very nicely, but she plays while
doing it. She puts on her mothers dress,
gathers up her hair on the top of her
mead. makes a cap of an old piece of lace
ard puts on a long apron. Now she is a
housemaid and comes to her mistress for
orders, to be told that the bedroom should
be busted. This she does very nicely, and
forgets she is working.
Harper's Bazaar says that there are
many novelties in neckwear for the occa-
sionaI mild days when furs are not worn.
First and foremost are the ostrich-feather
boas, which were never so popular as
low. The handsomest of them are mad
to fasten at the throat with six ends,
looking as though they had been tied in a
bow-knot. They are fastened with a
rhinestone ornament. and are either of
black, gray or the natural color. There
Are a great many worn that are Just the
5ne piece, but even a one-piece boa can
De made to look much smarter by fasten-
ing at the throat with a steel or rhine
stone clasp. To wear at the opera with a
low gown there are ostrich feather boas