The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-06-19
BY MRS. J. M. DE COPIES.

same or cards may be played Or on
 the old machine rough sewing may be
 aone. Rug binding. etc. They are
 there packing trunks full of things
 that need never come to light, and they
 make seat along the wall over which
 along the wall are hung all sorts of
 things that become eye sores to Miss
 Orderly up stairs. When the two selves
 agree that an article is to be banished
 to this asylum for decrepid things"
 one makes the other sne promise that
 1t may be recalled at any time and once
 year furniture man calls and for a
 few dollars resuscitates and reinstates
 a number of old things.
 Did you ever think how queer 1t is.
 this struggle of women after old fur
 niture. l mean real old furniture. A woman never likes old fashioned
 things. She need not say she doesi
 She Is in spite of this fad, devoted to
 the fashionable, the new. the absolute ly new fashioned things. The very
 woman who searches the junk shops
 Tor old mahogany pieces for which she gives song and on which she spends
 fortune in the doing over" would not
 have given the stuff room thirty years ago when such was really old d-fashion- ed or out of style. She would have
 wanted oak, the then new Antique CD loak, or some of the other woods in vogue. She would have turned up her
 nose at grandma's mahogany hair coy- cred best parlor suit and would have
 sighed to relegate the divan to the rear
 and place in its stead the newest thing out" Let me just whisper gently to the despised walnut and oak, the ma-
 pie and the cherry, "bide your time
 hold your own; you are too new to be old enough now. so you are too old to
 pc new enough. But your day will
 come and my ladies' grandchildren will beckon you from oblivion and
 bring you back from the lumber rooms.
 or the homes of the poor in the by-
 ways and the hedges. Way of in
 those future days some young matron
 will be saying, I found beauty of a
 carved hat rack. It is an old oak that must be an hundred years old" l Yes, dear to woman's heart are
 the new fashioned old things all of
 which in turn have their. day as we
 have ours. The only difference is the
 things" have some times two days
 We never have but one. When we go
 out of fashion 1t is for all time. When
 we die-well the furniture problem is
 over for us for all time. school that is a crying need Is one where spelling, reading and writing the English language is taught above and beyond all and next-Arithmetic. A school that will turn out graduates who can dash off a well spelled, gram matical note when necessary and grad uates who can purchase three yards and half of 12 1-2 cents goods and pay for it without saying to the clerk: Take 1t out of this five dollar bill" A New York teacher in the public schools in giving her report has the following sentence:
 6T0xrt tHA all that is required by the music super visor, the drawing supervisor, the physical training supervisor, the super visor of sewing, the teacher of cooking and the shop teacher, there is little time left for reading, spelling and arithmetic"
 New York editor in an able edi- toral on the subject says: This will explain to wondering parents why their children do not learn to spell in MT | Maxwelfs school" and continuing writes:
 "1t Is becoming notorious that the public schools have broken down at the very point where taxpayers have a right to expect public schools to be strong. The justification for public education is that it enables pupils to go out into the world fitted to earn an ordinary living and to become intelli- l gent and useful citizens. But when a | boy applies for place in a store or bank and cannot spell or figure accu- rately. when he is ignorant in the use of the English language, of the ordi- 1 nary methods of government or of the outlines of American history he is use | less, or at best terribly handicapped. | These are the things which the public | schools exist to teach and to teach | well. So much more as they can do | Is great help, but the things they teach at the expense of these funda- | mentals are not a help but a draw back" |
 A school whose limitations are the three R.'s with spell | ing thrown in for good measure. would make hit but pupil should | enter it after he or she has graduated | in a few of the preparatory schools | and a college or two. I speak with feeling on this subject for if had not been studying chemistry, botany and philosophy at the tender age of ten at convent in Tuscaloosa, and all the isms and Ologies in the decalogue at the tender age of 13, in Saybrook Hall, Montreal, Canada. and naa stuck a while longer to the intricacies of ! ''b-a ba k-e-r kerr I would not now be so much trouble to the proof reader, and he and l would be better friends.
 The complaint seems to have reached serious proportions in New York where children do not learn to spell, but where there are three musical direc- tors at $4,O0O year and ffty-two teachers whose salaries bring up the cost of music there to S350, 900 a year.
 Berlin seems to be the gathering place for advancing woman at the present time and American women are taking the lead. The International ! Woman's Congress in convention there : follows immediately on the heels of the International Woman's Suffrage Association At the meeting which opened on the 18th inst, there and |, continued until yesterday, were women S rom all the continental countries, the United States and Australia. The , Countess of Aberdeen is president of the International Associa tion, and she responded to an address from Frau f Marie Strett of Dresden, president of the German League. There were 25O ad- f dresses during the week, thirty of them by American and Canadian women. Mrs. Lydia Alden spoke on the subject , Of Education and Motherhood" Mrs. | Blankenburg of Philadelphia on The ! Evolution of American Laws" concern Ing Women;" Mrs. Charlotte Perkins q Gilman of New York on The Better ! Marriage of the Future" a negress. Mrs. McTerrell, honoNlry president of \ the National Association of Colored Women spoke on The Situation of z Colored Women as House Servants"