{w sqaw 2.9m. u-o , ,~?>4...~ slaw-“n 1’ if: “(s 4.,“ I. ‘ . wvs“d§~fiv¢‘wq. as.» »I . . ;...:;'%,-. an; Mm‘m— a», < w - rat. - \v , ' ”7/” ”.122 DETROIT, MAY 25, 1890. THE HOUSEHOLD-"Supplement. WHEN JIY WEE BAIRNiE‘S A NAN. I sit i’ the gathering shadows, Wi’ my bairnie close clasped to my breast; He's capered a' day like the lambkins. An‘ now my sma’ laddie must rest. An” I sit i‘ the lit=le, low rocker, An’ hush him to sleep, an‘ 1 plan ‘40' a‘ the great comfort he‘ll bring me, When my wee bairnie‘s a man. We‘ll dwell i’ a snug cozy cottage, Wi' the ivy vines clam'brin“ about. .An' the sweetest an’ freshest o‘ posies Abloomin’ within an’ without; An‘ the birds will come chirpin‘ an‘ flutterin‘, An' chatterin’ gay as they can, To make their soft nests i‘ the roses. When my wee bairnie’s a man. An' a” the dear, bonnie bairnies From over the green, grassy lea “Will love to stop at our cottage, An' talk to my bairnie an‘ me. ‘l‘heir bright, little innocent faces, That I an‘ my darlin’ will scan, Will cheer us, an’ we'll be so happy, When my wee bairnie’ a man 1 .Fair, little, slumb‘rin’ laddie, You‘re a” the wide country to me, An’ a kiss from your lip red as roses ls sweeter than'honey can be. Sleep sweet, my dear little bonny. An’ grow just as fast as you can, For 0, a” the warld ‘11 be joyous, When my wee bairnie's a man! —Geod Housekeeping. -—-——OO*—-—-—— At her easel, brush in hand, Clad in silk attire, Painting sunsets vague and grand (Clumsy clouds of fire), ‘Plaxen hair in shining sheaves; Pink and pearly skin; ingers, which, like lily leaves. Neither toil nor spin; At her belt a sunflower bound. Daisies on the table, Plaques and panels all around— That’s asthetic Mabel! in the kitchen, fork in hand, Clad in coarse attire Dishing oysters, fried and panned, From the blazing fire; Dusty hair in frowsy knots, Worn and withered skin; Fingers hard and brown as nuts When the frosts begin; Baking-board, one side, aground, Wash-tub on the other; Pots and skillets all around—- That is Mabel’s mother! ~Waverly Magazine. W DISTRICT SCHOOLS. When we get beyond the personal or - family influences surrounding the pupils - in our districts schools, we find the two ‘ most essential elements in success are the . school-board and the teacher. The school i board, ostensibly composed of three in- dividuals, usually consists of one acting member who wears the dignity vested in the title of Director. Precedent generally rules in the matter of wages, “ We paid so much last summer” being considered a good and sufficient reason why no more should be paid this year. The Director hires the teachers, the other members tacitly acquiescing in his action. Seems very plain, then, since the school board and the district are to be in efiect governed by this man’s acts, that he ought to be one abreast of the times, fully alive to the need of education for farmers’ children, and with business ability to see what kind of a teacher is needed and secure such an one. There are sometimes illiterate men who are fully aware what they have missed in not being better educated and who by virtue of that knowledge make good school officials; but as a general thing the illiterate man, whose untrained mind is unreceptive and slow to comprehend and who is apt to think no one has occasion to know more than he himself, is not one to be trusted with the conduct of school affairs. I once heard a man argue with all the conviction of a genuine belief, against the necessity of education. Men c uld make money with- out it, he said, and instanced himself as an example, asif he were proud of both his property and his ignorance. Yet he was Director in his school district, and fine schools they had, too! The lowest bidder and the shortest term, and almost as much ought to have been spent for annual re- pairs on the schoolhouse as was paid the teacher. It is a well known fact that any man who wants the empty honor of holding a school office can get it. He can be a mem~ ber of the school board easier than he can be pathmaster and that’s the easiest office on earth to get. Sometimes he’s nominated and elected for a joke; sometimes because everybody else has served and it’s his turn; sometimes, I’m glad to say, because he is known to be capable, interested, energetic. The beginning of a good school therefore isclosely connected with the seltction of competent managers to compose the school board. I believe every mother who has children in school ought to attend school meeting. She has a right to be there. She may do her best in the mental and moral training of her children at home, and have her work rendered null by the influences at school. It is but a little time her children can be in school; she has a right to demand that they shall be given every opportunity to improve it. She should go to school- meeting, then, and be courteously treated by her neighbors whom she meets there. In the HOUSEHOLD, some time ago, a. lady wrote she and a couple of friends who were interested in school affairs and W(l'e voters, w nt to the annual meeting, were treated very unceremoniously, not to say disrespectfully; and if I remember aright, their votes were ignored. The former action was ungentlemanly, the latter illegal. Qualified voters need not ask recognition; they can demand it. Mothers are invariably most willing to make sacri- fices to advance their children’s interests, even slow-moving law recognizes this and gives them a voice in school matters de- nied them in other affairs. They should exercise the privilege. Visiting friends in one of the most fertile and finest townships of an old and wealthy county in this State, my eyes lingered rather wonderingly upon the shabby, di- lapidated schoolhouse we passed on an afternoon ride. “ Yes, that’s our school- house. It‘sadisgrace to us, yet we can- not help it. There is an element in the district opposed to building a new one which we have not been able to outvote yet. They’re all rich men, who have no children, and they vote down the proposi- tion to build every time it comes up, be- cause it will increase their taxesalittle,” explained my friend. I see other districts are troubled in the same way. Out in Kent County such a matter came into the courts only last week. Wealthy, childless people living in the school district and opposed to building the needed school- house, enlisted the aid of Poles, telling them if they voted against it they would not have so much tax to pay. Oh these taxes! What mean acts people will com- mit to avoid paying for the privileges, second to those of no country the sun shines on, they enjoy! A good school is a benefit to everybody, whether they have children to attend or not. Farm property is higher in an intelligent community; a man has better neighbors where a younger generation, progressive, well educated, is coming on to take the place of the older one. Suppose he has to pay five dollars to help educate h’s poorer neighbor’s children; he can afford to do it for the reflex benefit that comes from having them useful mem- bers of society rather than jailbirds and paupers. We are not taxed as much for educating our neighbor’s children as we are for supporting in prisons and reforma- tories those we don’t educate. A good . m, m, , ”w r i’ V, i. t f t a [g g THE HOUSEHOLD. schoolhouse is an honor and an ornament to every district, something every resident may beproud of, and in which he may and should feel a personal interest. The many handsome, well kept public school buildings in villages and towns, est in the midst of ample, well shaded grounds, where the attendance is much larger, than in country schools and the lawless element correspondingly increased, are proof positive that the proverbial de- structivenesspf children may be properly restrained. Are indeed then the children of farming communities so much more lawless than those of laborers in towns, that the plea excus'ng neglect to plant shade trees, keep fences and outbuildings and-the house itself in repair, “ the chil- dren tear things to pieces so!” is a valid one? I do not believe it. Half the wanton destruction of which children are guilty is due less to depravity than want of thought. Make them think. Make the schoolhouse neat, tidy; paint it, curtain the windows, blacken the rusty old stove; tear out the back-breaking, much whittled pine desks and put in comfortable school furniture, have it understood that “who breaks, pays,” and make an example of the first transgressor, and you will have taught a valuable lesson relative to the property rights of others. Have Arbor Day exercises and plant one tree each year, naming it for ’the teacher or some person in the district; see how fast the school yard will fill up and how the trees will be tended—killed with kindness, per- haps. I should like to describe a school-house I happened upon in the course of a long ride in the country, a year or two ago. It was a neat frame building that would ac- commodate perhaps 30 pupils, painted white, with green blinds. It was after school hours and these were tightly closed, or I really believe I should have got down and insisted on peeping in. At the back a close board fence extended from the schoolhouse to the back of the lot, where were two neat painted closets, with plank walks leading to them. In front, a picket‘ fence with steps, and a plank walk to the door; on each side of the walk, two large round beds filled with flowers and bordered with whitewashed stones. The grass had been out two or three times during the season, probably, for the turf was green and weedless. And strangest of all, there was a woodshed and a well! I would like to add this was in Michigan, but it was not; it was over the river, in Canada. It 'was a model Americans might follow with advantage, however; and I mentally con- trasted it with the “old white school- house,” treeless, shutterless, curtainless, and white no longer, where the alphabet I already knew was rapped into my head with a big brass thimble, and I really be- lieve it was the only time in all my life I ever wished myself a child again. BEATRIX. I! you wishto keep p‘ckles in your glass fruit jars, rub the inside of the metal caps with lard. The cans with caps lined with porcelain are much to be preferred for all purposes. MAKING CAKE. With not a few housekeepers, cake- making is a decidedly uncertain process; they never know till the critical moment after it comes from the oven whether the cake is a success or a failure. In this as in nearly every other culinary process, it is not so much “luck” as exactness in measuring that affects the result. A little more than the proper quantity of butter will make a cake too rich, so that it will fall, hence the greatest care is necessary in measuring this ingredient. It is always safest to scant the measure; pack it in closely, then see that the quantity does not exceed by even “the least little bit ” that named in the rule. The proportions are usually given as “cupfuls” and “tea- spoonfuls,” but these are of course inexact. One person will measure an eighth or a tenth more flour to a cupful than another, and the difierence may spoil the cake. If you sift the flour, then dip the cup into it to measure your cupful, you will get more flour than if you fill the cup with the flour scoop, which isthe proper way. Baking powder has almost entirely superceded the use of soda and cream-of-tartar, yet I con- fess to being old-fashioned enough to pre- fer the latter. The cream tartar should be as carefully sifted into the flour as is recommended for the baking-powder; the soda thoroughly dissolved in the milk. Cream the butter and sugar as the first step, which is easily done by stirring in a warm bowl—but do not melt the butter. If you have but a small quantity of butter to considerable sugar, a teaspoonful of milk will accelerate the process. Yolks and whites of egg are of course to be beaten separately; the yolks till they are foamy, the whites till you can safely turn the dish upside down. Stir the yolks into the butter and sugar, then the milk, then beat in the flour and lastly the whites of eggs. There is a diflerenoe be- tween beating and stirring. Cake should be stirred only enough to mix, and beaten thoroughly to incorporate as much air as possible and help make it light. Keep that deposited on the sides of the bowl well stirred in, as if stirred in later it will make a “heavy streak.” Have the cake pans greased and readyfor use before you begin mixing, for it spoils the best cake in the world to stand. For mixing, an earthen dish is much to be preferred to a tin one, an earthen pudding-pan is excellent for that use. Add flavoring last, just as the cake is ready for the oven—that is if you use alcoholic extracts; with mace and nutmeg it doesn’t matter. When you are tired of lemon and vanilla flavoring, try mixing them. To a teaspoonful of lemon extract add about a third of a teaspoonful of vanilla, and you will think you have discovered a new flavor. Do not think to improve upon a rule by adding more butter, more sugar or more flour. The addition of a little too much of these may make your cake heavy. A tablespoonful too much of flour will take all the “sponge” out of a sponge cake. if you wish rich, tender cookies, mix them soft, handle them gingerly, adding as little flour as possible in the cutting out; and if you expect your gingerbread to attain that condition of melt-in-your-mouth delicious- nesscharacteristic of “mother’s," measure your flour with discretion and don’t be tempted to add “just a little more.” It should settle when taken from the oven, as evidence of its goodness. ~ The baking of acake is quite as im- portant as the mixing, and a matter more diflicult to regulate since few ovens have thermometers attached. An even, steady fire is required, then be careful With the dampers. Try not to have to replenish the fire while baking a nice cake; if it be- comes necessary, a small stick or two is better than to stuff the fire-box. A large cake requires from thirty-five to fortyfive minutes, according to thickn;ss; a thin sheet will bake in fifteen. When it feels firm and cracks or breaks away from the tin it is done. Thin cake like sponge cake, requires a hotter oven than thick; while~ fruit cake requires long baking in a slow oven. These hints will be nothing new to old‘ housekeepers, but I hope the beginners may be helped a little. L. C. Dnrnorr. H.“— Ii'ROM A NEW CONTRIBUTOR. I have been reading with no small degree of interest, all pertaining to our country schools and the government of children that has appeared in the HOUSEHOLD for some time. I can not see how it is that parents can be so careless of their children’s - best interests. They want their children to move in the ~ best of society and be thought just as smart or smarter than other children, but ofttimes fail in starting them right; let them stay at home from school when- ever they wish, and not have any interest there themselvts. Not one parent in a dozen thinks of visiting the school or even of inquiring about it, taking everything for granted the children tell about it. Parents, do you know how much it would encourage the teacher if you would visit the school, and show just one-fourth the in- terest in it that youdo in your crops and your housework? Try it, and see if that teacher does not try to do her level best. When I hear a mother say, “I'll be- glad when school begins so you can be out of my way,” I think is she a true mother? If those darlings were taken from her for' ever would she be glad? Would she not think of those careless words and wish they were unsaid? I do not say but mothers get tired of having children and their noise around and wish for rest, but soon those little babes will be full grown. They will wish for them then, and would be willing to hear them all the time and pick up after them for the sake of having them around. I tried using pineapple juice for sore throat, and after twelve hours my throat was well after being sore nearly three: weeks. DOLLY., Dn-ron. , 3,. M, “sawsz v ., “.7“ a. "feat: m aw a - M»WWWAWA;'Z‘§,U_ , ..,,, , , V .“ .Mzfll‘su,v ’W" mm THE HOUSEHOLD. 3 POPULAR EDU SATION. - [Read at the Institute of the Newaygo County Farmers’ and Bec-Keepers' Association, by Miss Emma Walker, of Hesperia.] It is claimed that the “ nationality of the Greeks declined from the moment when the philosophically cultivated separated themselves from the mass of the people.” Whatever may have been the case, or the necessities of the case with the Greeks, it goes without saying that in a republic like our own, those who are known as the thinking men and the working men must keep in close proximity, breathing the same free air, rejoicing in the same clear light, seeking the same high ends, and giving mutual help. In the process by which a knowing mind becomes to another a helping mind, we find the art of education. The science begets the art. There are wise ways of winning attention and of awakening a soul to self activity in observation. There are ways of holding up before a soul splendid ideals, and inciting to resolve upon their attain- ment and to put resolve into patient and untiring pursuit. These wise ways are the ways of teaching; the result is education. There are teachers every where. Whether one will or not, he must teach. There are teachers at home and in every part of the home. Sometimes the most powerful teachers are servants of the lowest order; they give lessons that lie dormant for years, and that later on flash out in fierce and lurid flames. Some of you no doubt have heard the story of a mother who was filled with trouble because her fourth and youngest son announced that he was going to sea. She had already given up three boys to this adventurous life. She clung to the fourth, hoping that he would be spared to her home and companionship. But alas, he went the way of the others. She tried to account for it. She had al- ways warned her boys against the sea and a sailor’s life. She had read to them stories of storm and shipwreck, thinking in this way to intimidate them. But in boyhood they played at ship‘life; they drew pictures of ships; they made and sailed miniature ships, they were wild to see ships. And first of all the oldest ran away that he might serve before the mast. And then the second secured reluctant parental consent, that he might not go clandestinely. The third entered the navy, and now the broken hearted mother found the fourth bound to embark on a merchant ship. In her trouble she sent for her minister and laid her case before him. "It is too late now to prevent it, but how can you account for this singular freak of the whole family of boys? It is not an inherited taste, it is in dire-t opposition to all my teachings and warn- ings.” The minister pointed out to the sad woman a large and remarkably fine picture of a ship in full sail hanging in the best light on the wall of the living room in which they were. at the time seated. “ How long have you had that picture? ” he asked. “ For twenty-five years,” she replied. “It was the gift of a foreign friend and considered an unusually good painting; we prize it highly.” The minis- ter answered: “ That picture has sent your sons to sea. They have looked at it and admired it from childhood. It is in- deed a superior picture. Watch the life and motion in the water! See the pride and stateliness with which that high prow faces and defies the breaking wave! Look at the sails, the clouds, the blue sky be- yond the rifts! the movement, the power in the picture! No wonder that your boys were captured by it, their tastes formed and their lives controlled by that rare bit of art.” I cannot vouch for the literal truth of this story, but I can answer for its fidelity to human nature. Pictures educate. Inartistic pictures that violate every law of color, every line of truth, corrupt the taste of those who look at them from day to day. The streets of every town and village teach. The town council may not have the fact in mind, but it is nevertheless a fact. Mother does not think of it. She kisses her young daughter “good morn- ing” as the innocent and frolicsome thing starts down the street, not thinking of the school on the way to school, of the lessons on the way there; of the lessons on the way back. What lessons! And what teachers! But of all these father and mother take no account. Education they have been taught to think of as a matter of teachers. and (.f tasks, of books and of hours. They have not given much thought to the teaching power of the schoolhouse itself; nor have they thought at all of the street lessons. The pictures that are placed in the show windows of bookshops, that hang at news stands and on walls and other advertising spaces, produce impressions that are as lessons imparted and received. They are mute indeed; no voice is heard while they teach, but they speak as no tones or articu- lation of the voice can speak. They hold close attention; they rivet eyes and thought. They out-teach the best professional teachers, they may undo in five minutes, some other teacher’s work of an hour or a day. Alas for the girls and for the boys, because of the street school! I think that a joint protest by the leading ladies of a town would cause the removal of corrupt- ing pictures from the windows, and a similar effort would promptly induce the town authorities to prohibit the posting of show bills of an objectionable character. I commend to you the school-teacher who cares for atmospheres, impressions and tone, quite as much as for text books, tasks, and for accuracy in recitations. I ask you to help him when he tries to make his schoolroom a place of neatness and bright- ness with plants, flowers, pictures, win- dlws and wall hangings; and Whatever beside may give a child ideas of taste, of purity, of restfulness, and which will fill his soul with images and memories to go with him to the end of life. Again, dress and manners have reaching power. Sloven- ly habits and tawdry garments corrupt t' e tastes of children. Coarseness begets coarseness. Here is a mother who has a high-keyed, strong and ungoverned voice. She uses extravagant expressions, prides» herself on the use of slang, and takes de« light in defying the usages of good society. What wonder that her daughter grows up.» to the same indel'icacy and uncouthncss T' None but true ladies and gentlemen should:l ever be employed as teachers. I think that boards of instruction should require of all; candidates that they be polite, neat, gentle- aswell as accurate in speech; and com-- petent to teach by manners, tones of voice,, and personal character, as readily as by; direct class instruction. The daily papers of the times are a great: educating agency for good and for evil, Both results come even to those who them-+- selves never read, for the press produces a: great body of oral utterance and influence, of general information overheard, of gossips about people and things, about lawsuits and criminals, which affects even those: who never read. Father may not take the daily because he does not want his sons and daughters to read the vile reports: of some great criminal suit. But his sons: and daughters have had all the worst of the story from those who heard it from» others. Pleasant evenings at home spent in re- creative rest are an education for society.. There one is taught to talk and listen, to play and to sing, to make others happy, and to be made happy by others, which last is a great gift and a rare one. And what is all the education of the schools worth, if one who has it is not able with it to bless society and thus to brighten the lives of people? Let us have books and teachers and? schools, but let us have churches and. homes, a pure journalism, libraries, pictures. . laws, social customs, popular sentiments, all of which will combine to commend to our people “the true, the beautiful anti. the good.” ‘ ———.O~——-— THE HOUSECLEANING EPIDEMIC: A rainstorm gives the oppo tunity, the;- continued biliousness or the weather gives» a cause, and “ Polly ” has cordially giverr the invitation; and to those reasons is added.- the fact that my wife is suffering with a. severe attack of the prevailing spring epi~-‘ demic—housecleaning—and so I come to» the HOUSEHOLD for comfort and advice... Yes, Mary Jane caught it several days since, and has “ got it bad,” but I think. the crisis is past, and that she will soon be convalescent. She has been, and still "is, under the skillful treatment and joint care of Dr. Soap, Dr. Rainwater, Dr. Scrub and Dr. Confusion. If some Pasteur would bring forward' a- reliable remedy for this severe and univerw sal ailment, it would be a great boon to- suiferin g man. Oh! the sorrows and trials that housecleaning times bring to him i" It robs him—for the time being—of home,. of wife, of domestic joys, and all that. makes life worth the living; it turns his home into a long-drawn-out-desolation, and; for food gives him stale bread, smoked} herring and pickles; at night requires him; to sleep on a chair or under the table, as he may choose, and for his wife, well here .2}. . THE HOUSEHOLD. - ”she is, and had I the gift of a Rollo Kirk " Bryan I’d paint Mary Jane. See, robed . in an old faded and torn dress that right- ifully belongs to the rag-man, with skirts xpinned back, displaying to gocd advantage .19. pair of old slippers that have certainly -;--attended their last dance; dress sleeves [rolled up, no, I mistake, one sleeve is torn