... g .\.\\ Mail's“ r / .- 2, V by)». 4,2,, ‘, .; ,,. ”U, 9’77"» A. -\\!\\\\\\ \ \\ . . \. W’ y u 7, I I .” l», ,9; ,, DETROIT. AUGUST 2. 1590. THE HOUSEHOLD-"Supplement. IN FL Y- TIME. There are fiends of many kinds who unbidden on us call, And make our lives a burden with their perse- cutions small; But most of all in fly-time is my patience sorely trie 1 By the fiend who Stands serenely with the screen door open wide. Though ubiquitous the others and wearing many forms, Stealing on you unawares like the fiercest dog day storms; They are nothing, you will find, when they’re rated close beside That fiend who stands in fiy-time with the screen door open wide. Oh, wise inventors, help me! make an automatic door, That will open stay five seconds and not one second more, The speed of lazy gossips how it would acce1~ eratei And the stupid bore, I think, would prefer out- side to wait. Oh, the scrambling there would be to get through that open door, And feet would dance a breakdown that had never danced before; But no more we’d sufi’er tortures when the sum- mer’s at high tide From the fiend who stands serenely with the screen deor open wide. ' -——-—-.OO—-———-— I think that moment in a woman’s life When wreaths her soul in fiercest desperation, And darkest gall and mutiny are rife, is when, in horse car borne. she grows aware 0f the keen yet respectful ooservation 0f the young man across: no clownish stare, But a charmed gaze of fine discrimination And rapt approval—till she feels a glow Through all her being, a soft, thrilled pulsation. ! think the sharpest anguish she can know The bitterest despair and desolation, Is when she looks, in sweet, shy perturbation, And notes his fine, discerning eyes full bent 'Upon the woman next to her intent, Absorbed in musing, pleasured con‘emplation. M— LIFE IN THE SOUTH. I have been much interested in the con- versation of a gentleman w 0 has recently returned from a three months’ business trip through the South, and in his opinions of Southern customs, manners and habits. “ Why on earth,” he says,” the Michigan or northern farmer should elect to emigrate to Dakota, Nebraska or Montana, and en- dure the rigors of the winters and the chances of blizzards, when within easy reach lies as fertile aterritory, as cheape lands and asdelightful a climate as man need ask for, I’m sure I cannot tell. The north- ern farmers wh 0 go South ar‘: uniformly successful. They have but to apply their northern habits of business application and industry to their farms in the South, to double the products of their Southern neighbors. A Connecticut man who grew a crop of cotton alongside of a native farmer, raised two pounds to the latter’s one without effort beyond deeper plowing and better cultivation. As good crops of corn can be raised there, and bring better prices than at the north. The great trouble with the South is the shiftlessness of the people. This in large degree is due not so much to the enervating effects of a warmer climate as to the debilitating influence of poor food. Southern cookery is vile. ‘Hog meat ’—as they call pork-com bread and coffee make up the three daily meals for the majority of the people. The hotels, W th rare exceptions are execrable. Decent, butter is unknown; cream is a luxury for the rich. What they have in the way of vegetables and fruits is spoiled in the cooking. At one hotel the dessert was dried apple pie, I had taken a paper to the table, and trying to forget I possessed the sense of taste, ate without looking at the uninviting dish. My companions—two traveling men—pushed back the pie and one said ‘He's eaten his; don’t tell him.’ Outside the dining-room, I learned the cause of their abstemi- usness was that one had found a 05mm lectuam‘s neatly baked in the pie-crust. At another place where, for want of a better, travelers were com- pelled to eat or starve, the landlord was so accustomed to the kicks of his patrons that standing on the piazza when the train whistled for the station he said ‘There they come! Blank it, they’ve begun to growl already! ’ “ I candidly believe the people become listless and unambitious simply because of the want of nutritious well cooked f4 0d. The body is not sufliciently built up and energized. I feel this is true in my own case. I share the general listlessness on a diet of corn pone and hog meat. Give me a few days’ good living and I am myself again. Missionaries are bad-y needed to introduce the gospel of good food. There are, of course, private families of the better class who live as well as we do, and as a result, they furnish the only energetic people. “I had some peculiar experiences in my travels. I left the train at one of my stop- ping places, aud found the railroad eating- house closed, although it was not yet eight o’clock in the evening. I sought the best hotel in the town, but when I signified my wish for supper to the superbly in- different clerk, he informed me it was after meal hours, the dining-room closed, and I could get no supper there. I went out in search of a restaurant, but found none open, bought some fruit and went sup- perless to bed. “The traveler must shut his eyes :and ‘go it blind.’ In one hotel dining-room on a hot day, when the thermometer was above the nineties, the languid waiters had ‘ got a hustle on themselves’ and perspira- tion was literally pouring off them. I saw one fat old darkey rub a napkin over his face and neck with alightning flourish, then with it polish off the plate he placed before a man who was waiting for. his dinner. Somehow it took awav my ap- petite. I remembered ‘ Where ignorance is bliss, ’tis folly to be wise.’ One wants to keep his eyes shut or he’ll see a good deal more than is altogether pleasing.” BEATRIX. SAVING WORK-AND PICNICS. I think we ought to send more letters to the little paper. I know very well how hard it is to collect our thoughts in shape for publication when we are tired with the work and all the care of a farm house. If we could write a letter as easily when we take up our pen, as we can think one out while sweeping or washing dishes, I am afraid our queen B— would be wearied reading the many effusions which would be pouring in upon her. I sit here at my table looking into the throat of two blossoms of the loveliest Gloxinias, white, with royal purple velvet throat; I am seeking inspiration, but it is too hot to inspire worth a cent; it is much easier to perspire when I leave this cool sitting room; and this reminds me of a question that was asked and considerably discussrd at one of our literary societies. It was “ How can we econimize work? or what can we leave undone, and live just as long, and be just as well off, and just as happy, and a little less weary each day.” This is not just as the question was asked, but it is what was meant, and would it not be an excellent idea if every housekeeper would form herself into a committee of the whole, and discuss this question and decide it to her own advantage, instead of allowing what the neighbors would say, if they knew, to decide the matter for her? I wish to whisper just one word in your ear, and it is this: The woman whose body 9 and the bodies of her family are too deli- cate to rest in unironed sheets or other— 2 THE HOUSEHOLD. wise use unironed garments, and whose stomachs must be pampered with three hot mealsa day, no matter how high the mercury has the audacity to climb, has the brownest, skinniest, most wrinkled face and hands. Just stop and think. Your whole family will gt to a picnic, take every thing cold, and think they are having the best kind of a dinner. Just fix up the table prettily and cook every thing in the cool of the morning, then invite them to a picnic; they will feel much better and every thing will taste just as good if you can only get the idea into their heads that it is the right way to do. In this section there is no danger of farmers’ wives killing themselves picking and canning fruit this season. There are very few cherries, many families having none; very few red raspberr‘es and we had strawberries. Black raspberries are more plenty. Do not go to worrying and buy fruit to put up in this hot weather; it is cheaper to buy it already canned when you wish it, so take things easy until the weather moderates, and you will live longer and be just as happy. The season of picnics is upon us; and that of camp meetings approaching. How many of the HOUSEHOLD band will take in one or both, or several of one? Ithink I would like the camping out for a week, and enjoy being where 1 could drop into the meetings at any hour the mood was upon me. I think the hour that mOst would charm me, would be the earliest one in the morning; that is the best part of the day for me. I do not wonder that the ancients who had benighted ideas of a Supreme Being worshiped the rising sun; and that their most beautiful poems were composed and dedicated to the damn. I began to say something about picnics, but got quite far away. All who read the HOUSEHOLD last summer will perhaps remember that M. E. H. thought picnics did not pay. She has not changed her mind 3 et, but she may before the summer is over, for she is one of a committee of three to engineeralarge " farmers’ pionic.” I think by the time this one is through with, she will be athorough convert on one side or the other, then perhaps she will tell you all about it; the moat im- portant part is, we’ll have a speaker from abroad and perhaps hired music, so all the people will have to do is to furnish oin- ners and slip their hands softly into their pockets and pull out a quarter to pay the expenses. Any suggestions of a nice picnic dish or easy way of serving the dinner (only not on the ground) are in order. M. E. H. ALBION. .____....._._— IT is said silk and lisle thread gloves may be washed on the hands in soft water, using a little borax and castile soap. Do not rub or twist them any more than you canhelp. Leave them on the hands till they are partially dry, then take off care- fully, pull them straight, fold the fingers as when they were new, and lay them be- tween clean cloth with a weight on them, to dry. \A MANNERLY CHILDREN. -....—. I read with much interest M. E. H.’s remarks about polite children, and the difference between city and country chil- dren in that respect, but I cannot remem- ber that any invidious comparisons between the two have been made in the HOUSE- HOLD, as suggested by the lady she quotes as thinking the country children hare been unjustly trea‘ed. For myself, I have lived in both city and country, and long ago made up my mind it is not locality but training, that is responsible for the ill behavior of children. And as M. E. H. suggests, there are all gradations in in- telligence, education and opportunity among bothfcity and country peop e. Lads and misses in the city are apt to have' more confidence in themselves and hence suffer less from self-consciousness and the resultant embarrassment than country children of the same social grade, btcause they meet more frequently, see more people, and are not so difl‘ident and stiff. One great trouble is, as soon as the boys and girlsjbegin to go out ‘in company, the fathers and mothers, especially in the country stay athome, feeling because their children are fifteen, sixteen and eighteen they need not look after them so closely as when they were five, six and eight years of age. So far as manners go, they need in- struction in the etiquette of good society more at just this period than at any other in their lives. The young people are thoughtless, heedless, and let me whisper it softly, often atrifle conceited, not easy to teach. They do many awkward things and make many blunders which cause them to blush for their own ignorance in later years. The city girl and boy are restrained by a stricter etiquette than prevails in country society and are taught more careful obser- vance of it. Even if they are not taught at home, they pick up ideas from their associates, and study to practice what they know and learn more. City society is not so tolerant of bad-mannered people; it does nut credit them with the best of intentions or a goodness of heart which palliatts brusque or rude behavior; and a person soon learns the necessity of cultivating the social graces, if he or she would retain the ' favor of those they meet. The ease which comes with habitual practice of polite manners and association with refined people cannot be gained in aday, nor is it to be expected of lads and misses. families—and those who haven’t too— open their doors more frequently to gat herings of young people, invitinga few 0 lder ones, so the party will not rest mble an orphan asylum, nor degenerate into a ho ydenish romp. And if older people would kindly tell some of the boys atd girls of their shortcomings, privately, with tact and friendliness, not in the way of re- . proof or reprimand I am sure in would ’ often do good. There are several ways of administering instruction. You can say, “ Why did you do this? You shoud. have done that,” and destroy by tone and manner, all the benefit of your teaching. Or you can, without any seeming refer- ence to the sensitive little body to be in’ structed, incidentally refer to some omiso sion or mistake, and let the idea take root in the receptive mind. When Oscar Wild was in this country he made the remark that American chil- dren were “unrestrained savages.” He met only city children. I don’t know. whether he was a judge or not, but there's; his opinion. The trouble in a good many cases is “the children ” monopolize every- thing, Everything must be done for them, their wants, their wishes, their in- terests, often their whims, must be con- sulted in everything, and they actually in eerct “ run the house,” the elders meekly acquiescing in the arrangements made for the convenience and pleasure of the young folks. And there, town or country, you find your ill mannered youngsters. Pretty manners in children are built upon thoughtfulness and respect for older people and kindness and affection for each ‘other. Selfish children are nearly always rude; though some of them put on pleasant manners toward strangers, the real dis- position shows out toward parents and mates. Moreover, if parents allow their children to be rude and impolite to them, all the instruction they can give in the- courtesies of life will fall on unfruitful soil. Politeness, like charity, begins at home. Some of the “ perfect terrors ” I have known among children have been country children, and some of them born and brought up in cities, where they had “ line upon line and precept upon precept " which were shot from them like water off a duck’s back. B. _.—...__—_— SPEAK KINDLY TO THE CHILD REN» “Like begets like” is an old and true saying, and in nothing is it more surely proven, than in the habits of speech and" action formed by our children. Note the child whose mother is a low voiced, sweet- spoken won'an, slow to anger, eventem- pered and kind. The child will, nine times out of ten, reflect these characteris» tics, which have been his example through infancy, and grow up possessing them. On the other hand, a mother whose tone is a harsh one; who seldom speaks withou t a snarl to her children, even though it is unintentional; who flies into apassion at ; every trifling annoyance; who is fretful As a means to an end, I would suggest i that people in the country who have young ' and irratable, imparts to her children the same spirit. Overworked tired mothers often times make fretful mothers. It is so easy when things go wrong—one irritat- ing occurrence after another --to soold and fret over it, and the children are pretty sure to come in for their share. It is a sort of escape valve, lettir g off the surplus- steam. But happy is the woman, who, under exasperatin g circumstances, still mainains selfcontrol. And thrice happy she, who, when sorely tried and tempted to give way to angry words, can lift her soul to the ever-willing Helper for strength, and so .».<‘wsM