Year: 1874

poverty is no disgrace" is an old say
ing, time worn and honored, and some
witty poor fellow has added. "but it is
very inconvenient" Yet l am disposed
to CO slider poverty disgrace when it
proceeds from laziness or shiitlessness.
And if YOU are spelling for an argument,
just make an estimate of ali the instances
of poverty of which YOU have Knowledge,
and if you don't tell me that nine out OF
every ten cases of poverty are directly
traceable to either laziness or shiftless-
ness, shall ftel disposed to send you my
ent to be lazy is a sin. 4 sin to eat the
bread of idleness, for somebody must work
for all that is eaten, and he who does not
earn the food he eats, must eat what an
other earns, and that is cheating, and
cheating is sin. \ common excuse of
the lazy person is that he or she has no
citdnce to do anything. No chance. look
about you and see the work constantly
waiting to he done! When / hear man
complaining that business is dull, and he
can't get anything TO do, always set him
down in the book ofmy remembrance as
lazy, shiitless 0o-noIhing, who will
drift through The world dependent upon
anybody and everybody who may give
him lift on the way, without doing any
good himself, or helping any one else to do
any. But wouldn't like To stand in the
lazy mans (or wOmans either place
when the day of final reckoning comes,
for should expect to be sent to work
that would make me sqcedt, when / had
confessed that | had been lazy all nv life
time. Haven't we the Divine command,
Whatsoever thy hands find to do, do it
with all thy might" And wouldn't it be
a poor excuse to render the Creator. when
asked il we had obeyed this command,
tha; we couldn't find anything to do.
Go t. work, and let it not be said of You
that, having health and strength, YOU
were en- idler in the vineyard


LET YOUR WIFE KNOW YOUR cIRCUM-


STANCES.


1t is q custom too common with the
men of the world TO keep their families in
utter ignorance of the situation of their
business. The wife knows nothing-has
not even an idei of the amount of her
husbands fortune, whether ii is to be
counted by hundreds or thousands.
What can a woman, kept in such ilno-
rance learn? She spends, as matter of
course, all he gives her to spend, with the
full confidence that when that is gone,
and she asks tor it he will give her more.
II an unmarried woman works, she may
go with "A bold unblushing face and de-
mand her wages; but wife can demand
nothing, her claim is for bare necessity :;
and generous men, on that account are
wife know the exact state of their finan-
ces 'Tis all wrong.


Husband and wife have mutual inter
est; every woman should know the exact
state of her husbands S finances, understand
his plans, and aid him ifpossible with her
cOunsels, and then the terrible money
caiastrophes would not so often happen
Many wife who is plungIng her husband
deeper into debt from ignorance, would,
if she knew his embarrassments, be the
first to retrench, the first tn save, and
with womanly sympathy and generosity,
help him to reinstate his failing fortunes.


THE DEVOTION OF WOMAN.


/ can pass by the tomb of man with
somewhat Of calm indifference; but
when survey the grave OF female, a
sigh involuntarily escapes me. With the
holy name of woman l associate every
soft, tender, and delicate affection. |
think OF her as the young and bashful
virgin, with eyes sparkling, and cheeks
crimsoned with each impassioned feeling
of the heart: as the. kind and affectionate
wife, absorbed in the exercise Of domestic
duties as the chaste and virtuous matron
tired with the follies of the world, and
preparing for the grave into which she
must soon descend. OH there is some
thirg in contemplating the character o
a woman that raises the soul far above
the vulgar level of society. She is form
ed to adorn and humarize mankind, to
tighten his cares and strew his path with
flowers. In the hour of distress she is th,
rock on which he leans for support. ant
when fate calls him from existence he
tears bedew his grave Can look dowr
upon her grave with emotion? Man ha
always justice done to his memory, woman
never. The pages of history are open I.
one, but the meek and unobtrusive excel
lence of the other sleep unnoticed in tn


grave. In her may have shone the geniu


of a poet, with the virtues of saint. Sh


too, may have passed unheeded along tn


sterile pathway of her existence, and fel
+ for others as now feel for her.