Northern Weekly Gazette. — 1905-12-16 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

NOTES OF THE WEEK.  This being our Annual Christmas Number, it eves me s:reat pleasure to wish I lisrry Onsuirmas Lox all my readers. The seasons slip round so quickly that one Christmaa haa hardly before another is due to arrive. And asCec:rears roll an they leave behind them the memories of Chriatmas Past whose pleasures and toeminiscences seem always to eclipse Christmas Present to those of us who are able to look back. ilt is to the children that Yuletide brings unmixed joy and gladness. and it is always a delight to eseloe the time ice them ao hrigbt that it will be something to think of in after years. Parents do Fkiances however, as a rule, fail to give their children • at this season, and any little self-sacrifice may entail is amply repi.id by the gladsome s and eager fa.oes of the youthful members of the family.  The results of the Christmas Competitions in Oonnection with thee* pages will be lou.nd in the seat columns. During my study of the pa.pers two very striking facts were brought prominently to my notice. One was the finite remarkable one that among the dozens of competitors in the Housewives' Competition almost all were the Mothers of large familiee---four children seeming Tete a. small number, the majority totalling six, *wen, and even eight. Acoording to this it seems tooneoesnery to preach, as Presialent Roosevelt is doing in America. against the race suicide in this oountry. At least as tar as the readers of this journal are concerned mothers seem to he doing their duty to their native land by rearing up seas and daughters to do her credit. It is interestin,g to notice that American women have taken up the subject of Weld-rear in g and the woman president of a loaning society has recently given it as her opinion that the absolute limit of capacity for casing for children is eight, and that no woman should have more than six. Many American women, however, think that four children are as much as one woman ism manage.  The other fact to which I should like to call attemtion has to do with domestic finance. It seems to be a rule that the lower one gets in the social scale, the greater the extravagance in regard to providing for the household. The great Steed for teaching the older girls at our schools the principles of domestic economy was never more apprarent than it is to-day; for while the working man's income is disbursed in a careless and haphazard fashion it is not wonderful that there is so much distress and poverty. Those who have the tice.ching of the young cannot do batter for their country than to strive to inculcate thrift and method in regard to all household affairs, that the peat generation may learn to use what they have ill order to get the best possible value for it.  A simple plan for frosting holly and other evergreen leaves for decorative pm-poses is as follows: .--.F' Take ilb. of margarine and the same quantity of white granulated sugar. Get the leaves and yeipo them to remove all dirt, and put in a warm been to thy. Put the margarine in a saucepan and stand it on the fire till it is liquid. Then dip each keel in separately, but take care that the fat ia sot hot enough to shrivel the leaves. When all are done, spread on a bcaird or tray to settle, and sprialrle the coarse sugar over them. They should %es be put in a box till required and kept dry.