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DETROIT. AUGUST 18. 1590.

 
THE HOUSEHOLD-"Supplement.

 
‘For the Housnnonn.
F08 1171 BEST.

 
BY CLARA BELLE BOUTHWELL.

 
”The cruel winds of fate blow anguish to each
heart.
Into each mortal‘s life “ some raindrops fall,"
For every soul God loves is pierced by sorrow‘s
dart,
He metes with nicest measure grief to all.

«Our quiet hearts felt their ﬁrst bitter, awful woe,
Their ﬁrst great anguish, dread and dark and
deep.
‘When those who loved us and whom we loved
long ago.
At last forgot the world and fell asleep.
"Then came a grief still more to bear than that
was known
When friends still true the untried river
crossed;
For hearts that we thought faithful turned to
hardest stone.
And conﬁdence in man, alas! was lost.

Then sorrows came relentlessly into our life,
Not one by one as drops the summer rain.
.But crowding. rushing onward, sorrow, care
and strife,
Temptation. grief. and sin. all fraught with
pain.

‘So all the pearls which gem the crown of hap
' piness.
Which lent a separate blessing to our heart,
Not e’en Briareus in h’s hundred fold caress
Could grasp. so wide are scattered they apart.

As berries which have ripened in the deepest
shade
Are fairer and are sweeter to our taste.
‘80 lives which have matured in grief are purer
made,
Like vast untrodden snow. all white and
chaste.

Mansnun. ,'
' -——OO.————

A TRIP TO SARATOGA.

We arrived at Saratoga with a circus
procession. As we did not travel with the
circus, and as circuses are by no means un-
known in Michigan, I should not mention
the fact except to explain how it happened
that we were able to take in at one com-
prehensive glance, in the moment of our
arrival, the principal part of the popula-
tion of the place, the permanent residents
and the visiting strangers, who crowded
the wide pavements on each side of Broad-
way, the chief and most beautiful avenue
of the town. There is nothing like a circus
procession to draw a crowd. The horses
may look like the broken-down stock of a
street railway company; the Arabs and
Moors may owe their allegiance to the
shamrock of Erin, and the steam caliiope
‘be a triﬂe more ear splitting than the shriek
of a locomotive, yet everybody goes to see
the free part of the entertainment at least.

 
Saratoga is a beautiful place. It is a bit
of city built into the country. Its “ cotta-
ges” are what would be called elegant
residences anywhere else, except perhaps
at Newport; its hotels are magniﬁcent in
size, style and appointments, and the streets
are crowded with all sorts of “ turn outs,”
from the capacious barouche and the
ﬁnely appointed landau, to the cart with
the immovable footman perched behind
and the children’s pony carriages. There
are ﬁve great hotels, the United States, the
Grand Union, Congress Hall, the Windsor
and the Clarendon, each able, to accom-
modate from one thousand to eighteln
hundred guests. Then there are adt zrn
or more smaller hotels, which canjcare for
four, ﬁve or six hundred apiece; an un-
known number which have roomeor two
or three hundred each; and then begiis
the great host of private boarding housrs
which can entertain f :om ﬁfteenlo seventy.
ﬁve people. Almost all the permanent
residents take boarders during the season,
and it is claimed Saratoga can take care of
thirty thousand people, if thewaill only
present themselves, at rates ranging from
ten to two dollars a day, “you pays your
money and you takes your choice” in
accommodations.

The large hotels, lire the United States
and the Grand Union, are builtzonjthree
sides of a court, and oecupyjan entire
block. There are piazzas ﬁfteen or twenty
feet wide, fronting the street and looking
upon the court, and the Grand Union has
balconies on the second and third ﬂoors.
The courts are beautiful grassy, tree-
shaded lawns, with fountains andiﬂower-
beds, and walks lined‘with: seats where
one may rest and enjoy the morning and
evening concerts, for each hotel has a full
orchestra of more or less musical fame
during the season. We spent a delightful
evening in the park of the Grand Union,
listening to the soft, dreamy music of
Lothian’s orchestra. The piazz-as were
crowded with elegantly attired ladiesrand
gentlemen, all the setteesinthe park, under
the leafy canopy lit up by electric light,
were ﬁlled, while the two fountains were
now wavering jets of crimson and blue, of
rose and mauve, of gold and green, and
then dazzling yellow light. The effect
was indescribably beautiful.

Under the hotels all along Broadway,
are baz are ﬁlled with every variety of
fancy goods; chinaof ail descriptions, from
rare Limoges to common Majolica, jewelry,
bric-a-brac, Turkish wares, and Japanese
curios sold by a swart-sklnned subject of

 
the Mikado. Many New York ﬁrms have
branch stores here during the season, the
Jew drops out of the old clothes business
and sells plated jewelry at. three times its
value; in fact, if any triﬂe takes your
fancy you may become its possessor by
paying about three times what you could
buy it for in any other town. These
bazars seemed to me like glimpses of
Aladdin’s magic palace when I was in
Saratoga seventeen years ago; they are not
so wonderful to me now.

The rents asked for the handsome resi-
dences out North Broadway are frightful;
the ﬁgures positively made my hair turn
grey. A modest two story frame house
ren s for $1,800 for three months; a nice
brick villa for $3,000. As the fashionables
desert the place even before the butter-
ﬂies have ceased to hover over the lawns,
and the season when it is the correct thing
to be at Saratoga includes only about ten
weeks at the most, owners make their
tenants pay roundly for what they want.
But most of the houses are owned by
wealthy residents of New York City, A1.
bany, and other cities, who can afford to
gratify their tastes in the matter of sum-
mer res'dences.

'Saratoga is the most noted watering-
place in the United States. For a long
time it stood alone, famed on both con-
tinents for its medicinal springs. Its
paimy days were before the war, when the
Southerner brought his family and a
retinue of servants to spend the summer,
and threw about with lavish prodigality
the proceeds of his cotton and sugar crops.
During the war, and immediately after, it
was largely the resort of the "shoddy
aristocracy," who outvied each other in
display of diamonds and dresses, and was
consequently rather abandoned by the ex~
elusive. The opening of so many other
resorts :n the seashore, and wherever the
discovery of a spring of bad-smelling
water warranted a boom of that locality,
has ‘operated to prevent Saratogafrom
regaining its old-time prestige and popu-
larity, though there are many whose sum-
mer wanderings still include a few days at
“ the Springs.”

The water of the springs, of which there
are a great number of more or less note, is
rather pleasant than otherwise. There is
none of the disgusting odor of sulphuretted
hydrogen which nauseates the would-be
partaker of Mt. Clemens, Sandwich or Dc-
troit mineral water, and makes him think
abasket of rotten eggs has been broken
close to his nose. The Saratoga water is

 
THE HOUSEHOLD.

 
slightly saline, and is impregnated with
magnesia, iron, and other mild salts, and it
is very easy to learn to like it and sip a
glass-full with the relish of an old habitue.
Curiously, the water of each spring is
different in taste and chemical ingredients,
though all are situated in a ravine, evi-
dently once the bed of a stream. The
medicinal virtues of the waters were known
to the Indians in early days; and a number
of years ago I listened with much interest
to the recollections of an aged lady, since
deceased at the ripe age of eighty-six,
whose girlhood’s home was at Saratoga,
and who described how she used to pick
her way through the marshy hollow,
pitcher inhand, to ﬁll it at the springs
which bubbled up among the stones.
Seventeen years ago the High Rock spring
had just beer rejuvenated, a pavilion
erected above it, and everybody was ﬂock-
ing thither to drink. Now it is almost
deserted. We visited it, but were woe-
fully disappointed. The elderly custodian
accepted our nickels—in Saratoga you get

‘ “nothin’ fur nothin’ and precious little
fur tuppence”—and we descended to see
only a conical rock, perhaps four feet

across and three feet high, with a hole in

the centre through which the water is

supposed to rise and overﬂow the stone,

which has been for med by the slow deposit

of the mineral constituents of' the water

through unnumbered years. A hastily

summoned lad appeared and dipped up a

couple of glasses of water from a wooden

well near by, but it didn’t taste good and

we did not drink it. The lad said the:
had been pumping for the bottling house

and hence there was no water ﬂowing,

but till I have ocular proof to the contrary
I shall assert High Rock spring is a rock
without water. Congress Spring was I
think the ﬁrst which became noted; it is
alleged the spring has failed and that the
water is charged with its chemical con-
stituents in the basement under the beauti~
ful and capacious pavilion, the largest and
ﬁnest in the place, erected over the spring
and at the entrance to Congress Park, a
lovely park containing six or eight acres,
laid OK in terraces, with graveled walks,
fountains, ﬂower beds, statuary, a little
artiﬁcial lake—everything to make it at-
tractive.
The Hathorn spring is just now the
favorite. It was discovered while work-
men were removing the debris of a burned
building, and a handsome pavilion rose
upon the ashes of the old house. In the
centre the water bubbles up six or eight
feet in a glass cylinder, and boils and
sparkles in two great crystal globes from
which you are served. I like this water
very much; it is clear—all the Saratoga
water is beautifully clear—and the little
bubbles of gas gem the sides of the tumbler
as you drink. A drive of two miles took
us to the famous Geyser spring, which
with the Kissingen and Vichy, make a
noted trio. The gas from the Geyser
comes up with the water in a ﬁne spray
several feet high, through a tube con-
necting with underground regions; it comes

not taste the water, there is a limit to one‘s
capacity for even the untried. There is
also a “ spouting spring,” which they say
experiences an internal commotion result-
ing in an eruption which occurs with
commendable promptness and regularity at
ﬁve o’clock every afternoon. But I am
always suspicious of these “ ﬁxed events,”
especially when they take place at the
time best calculated to draw a crowd—at
ten cents admittance fee; so we missed this
phenomenon.

Saratoga people pray fervently for long
and hot summers. Such weather sends
visitors, and plenty of visitors means busi-
ness. Even a goodly number of guests
would look lonely in those great caravan-
saries, big enough to hold the population
of a small village. It was said that on
the third Sunday in July there were but
fourhundred guests at dinner at the Grand
Union, with a waiter for each guest. The
expense of maintaining one of these hotels
must be frightful in the one item of help
alone, for it is necessary to engage an army
of table waiters, cooks, chambermaids,
porters, at the opening of the season, in
expectation of the people who may not
come.

I noticed a lamentable dearth of young
men and pretty girls. Most of the people
seemed to pair off in that indeﬁnable
fashion which indicates they are already
committed to matrimony. Many of the
men were portly, middle-aged gentlemen
whose tailors were obliged to provide
ample latitude in the matter of waistcoats;
and I never saw so many fat women at
any one time and place in my life.
Whether we chanced inadvertently upon a
Fat Women’s Convention—I never heard
of one being held, but I do not see why
the right to aggregate their avoirdupois
shiuld be conﬁned to fat men—or what-
ever the reason 1 can’t say, but about half
the women on the hotel piazzas would
weigh from one hundred and seventy-ﬁve
to two hundred pounds apiece. Life at
Saratoga is very much al fresco. Ladies
go about the streets bonnetless, sheltering
themselves under beautiful parasols, and
trip to their favorite spring for the matu-
tinal glass bareheaded, or with a scarf
thrown lightly over the hair. Possibly
some of the virtue ascribed to the waters
may in some cases be due to the morning
promenade prescribed by the doctors—and
fashion. The Saratoga bootblack is the
hidalgo of his kind. He has no “ki.”
slung carelessly over his back, ready to
“ shine ’em up” on the spot if favored with
an encouraging glance. People come to
Santoga to rest and he waited upon, and
when a man has made up his mind that he
will indulge in a shine, he. deliberately
seats himself in a large chair on a platform
about two feet high, placed on the curb,
often provided with a big umbrella, puts
his feet upou a rest, and calmly surveys
the passing throng while the artist deftly
and respectfully manipulates his brushes.
It is a digniﬁed proceeding, conducted
without unseemly haste and in an eminent-
ly aristocratic and high-toned fashion.
But it seemed a triﬂe funny to me.

 
WOMEN’S SOCIETIES.
During the year several disparaging
articles have been written in regard to the
organizations of women. Some one was
not appreciated, somebody dictated; some
were not wise, and some gossipped. Now
as facts are the best arguments let me give
a few. Years ago a frail young girl came-
from India to rest. With a heart ﬁlled
with love she told us something of the
needs of that great people. The next
Thursday eleven women put their odd-
pieces of calico into their pockets, with,
thimbles, needles and thread, and went to
their ﬁrst missionary meeting. With.
Scripture reading and prayer they conse-
crated themselves to the work of the gos-A
pel. The ﬁrst quilt soon found its way to
the bed of a sick mother near by. Since
then many more beds have been made
more comfortable, college rooms furnished ,~
many garments remodeled for new owners,
many quilts sold and contributions made-
for missions at home and abroad. Homes
have been made glad at the coming of
friends, as the meetings have passed from.
house to house; many whose fare at home
might be limited have been refreshed by
an appetizing meal furnished by all.
Many groups of children have smiled
over the baskets of fragments gathered that
nothing he lost; and best of all, several
have said “ It was in the society I ﬁrst.
thought about being a Christian.”
Sometimes our membership has been
sixty, but no disturbing element has come
among us.
We have broadened our work, but our
hearts are drawn closer together. We have
seen discouragements, but our consecration
has been our balance wheel to keep us
,looking to our Great Leader. Death has
left unﬁlled vacancies, but like a river
with the bucketfull out, it moves on. In-
July was held our tenth annual meeting;
tired shoulders were rested by exchanging

ones, and thus organized we take up the
work of another year. Delighted with the
social advantages, cheered in the spiritual
and strengthened in the physical man by a

meetings.

The silence with which all these criti-
cisms have been received has made me
indignant, and I resolved to hold my peace
no longer but to boldly declare women’s
organizatiorsmay be peaceable, proﬁtable,
permanent, interesting, and in every way
equal to those of men. J. u. w.

Fsrnran.

 
HARPER’S Bazar advises that in case of'
sunburned face or neck no water should
touch the burned surface under twelve
hours, unless one wishes to retain the red
color of the skin and have it rough and
peeling. Apply vaseline or cold cream,
instead of washing the face. Before ex-
posing one’s self to the possibility of sun-

the skin either almond oil or cold cream,
and dust slightly with rice powder or
sifted starch. This is better than the
often recommended magnesia as a pre-

 
in jet: and spurts, hence its name. I did

BE ATRIX.

ventive, as it has not its drying properties.

burdens and by putting them upon younger ‘

day of rest, we say we cannot give up our

burn, or to drying or harsh winds, rub into

 
efﬁgiktmsmrm ‘msm - Itﬂr- p .. -

 
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THE HOUSEHOLD.

    
3

 
GRADING COUNTRY SCHOOLS.

During the past four weeks I have been
in attendance at the St. Clair County In-
stitute at Fort Gratiot, and I heartily wish
that all those who have been interested in
the discussion in the HOUSEHOLD concern-
ing distrtct schools might have been there.
With the conceit of a High School
graduate, I went without expectation of
much proﬁt; but I came away ashamed of
my own ignorance and full of respect for
those who are devoting their time, thought

and energy to the task of raising the

standard of the common schools.

The work done by all the instructors
was excellent, but the subject of which I
wish to speak particularly is that treated
by Secretary E. F. Law, of Yale, during
the last week of the school—the grading
and organizing of the country schools.
The outline of the plan is to have in these
schools eight grades, each grade to occupy
one year. At the end of the eight years
the pupil should be qualiﬁed to enter the
sophomore year at any high school, and
after graduation there, to enter the
University. Thus we have'a continuous
course, and if any time is lost it is the
fault of the teacher or the pupil himself.
Any boy or girl who has been obliged to go
back among the children on entering a city
schOol, will plainly see the advantage of
this.

At present we can have only loose grad-
ing for the older pupils;but those who now
enter school for the ﬁrst time will labor
under none of the difﬁculties which beset
ambitious pupils of ten or even ﬁve years
ago. Each year’s work is prescribed in a
manual made out by a committee of
capable men, and approved by Professor
Estabrook; no material deviations from
this course will be tolerated. A complete
system of examinations is provided for,
after the plan followed by most city
schools. The teacher is to have occas-
ional written reviews, and correct the
papers with quite as much regard for
punctuation, grammatical construction,
spelling and writing, as for correct answers
to the questions asked. If necessary the
pupils are required to rewrite all or
portions of the matter. At the end of each
month a regular examination is given. At
the end of the fall and spring terms, the
county secretary furnishes questions for
the three higher grades. These questions
will be on the prescribed work, and the
secretary can readily determine if the
work has been well done or slighted; for
the teacher is required to mark the papers
and place them on ﬁle for inspection by
the secretary at the earliest possible op-
portunity. At the close of the winter
term the secretary holds a township ex-
amination, and all who obtain certiﬁcates
at this are eligible to the ﬁnal examination
to be bed at Port Huron in June. Those
who pass this receive a diploma of gradua»
tion from the country schools.

A permanent record is to be kept in every
school, stating fully the work done by
each pupil, progress made in different
branches, studies ﬁnished, etc , and reports
are to be sent to parents and to the secre

O
a

 
tary. Many objections are of‘ course
oﬁered to this plan; every improvement
whether in dress, steam engines, or educa-
tion, has to ﬁght its way against many
obstacles. But the scheme has been suc-
cessfully tried in Illinois and a few ether
states, and Michigan cannot afford to bear
the reproach of old fogyism in educational
matters.

One of the objections brought against-
the plan is that uniform text-books are
necessary. While they are highly desir-
able under any system of education, the
lack of them is not so great a hindrance
under the new regime as under the old; for
teachers are now required to supplement
the text-books used in school with books
of their own. The irregular attendance is
against the success of the graded schools;
but it is also against the success of the un-
graded schools to quite as great adegree.
One absurd objection urged is that pupils
do not desire to take all the studies of the
course, and that the parents do not care to
have them do so. It is one of the chief
objects of graded schools to oblige pupils
to take the proper studies at the proper
time. If they will not do this, they must
be deprived of the privileges of the regular
pupils. On the other hand. the advan-
tages of the scheme are manifold. Pupils
would be classiﬁed according to their
ability and not their size, or the wishes of
their parents. It would lessen the num.
ber of classes; and surely any one who has
ever been in a country school and witnessed
the almost endless succession of reading,
arithmetic, and geography classes, will ap~
preciate the reduction. There would be
no going back over the old ground, for the
new teacher will have before her a record
of the work done under her predecessors.
The school would thus be made far more
interesting to the pupils; for they would
always be sure of learning something
new, and of advancing steadily. Of course
it is atruism to say that in any work what-
soever the most interested dothe best work.
Thoroughness, which has always been an
unknown quantity in district schools,
would be secured, for without it no pupil
could pass the examinations. Parents
could judge accurately of the advance-
ment of their children, while under the old
system, or rather lack of system, the
parents depended almost wholly on what
the children themselves told of their
studies. Children removing from one dis-
trict to another would not lose time, since
all districts would be expected to accom-
plish the same amount of work in the same
time.

Of course all this brings more work to
the secretary, and perhaps at ﬁrst to the
teachers, b.t after the routine is once es
tablished it will inevitably make the work
lighter and more satisfactory than the
antediluvian, goes-you please method.

In order to have the best practical re-
sults, each teacher must provide herself
with the latest and best books of all
kinds, but especially educational, and
must look upon her teaching as a profes—
sion, and not as ameans of earning pocket-
money. None of us are, or ought to be,

 
indiﬁerent to the pecuniary side of th
matter; but self interest alone should teach
us to make the best of ourselves, put alt
the force of our wills to the work, and seek
aid from the books and papers which are
so cheap as to be within the reach of all.
The teacher who does this is never at a
loss for a good position, and may be sure
that in time she will reach the foremost
rank of the profession. Wages are raised
by raising the standard of the work done.
In the report made by the secretary to the
school ofﬁcers these things are taken into
consideration, and a teacher who sticks to
the old ways must not expect new prices:
while on the contrary, one who is con~
scientiously trying to do the best work
possible, even if it is with many drawbacks
and failures, will receive all therecommen-
dation and assistance to which her efforts
entitle her.

When the coming generations look back:
upon the days of ungraded schools, they
wi 1 bless the names of those who ﬁrst
started the good work and bravely sustain.
ed it against all difﬁculties.

I only echo the words of the teachers
and of all who are interested in the school
work of St. Clair County, when I say,
“ Long may Mr. Law continue in the good
work which will owe so much of its un-
doubted success to him.” E. c.

PORT HURON.

W

UNGOVERNABLE CHILDREN.

The article by Beatrix on "Take me,
Mammaf" in a recent HOUSEHOLD is an
every day occurrence in some families of
children. Beatrix asks, “What would
you have done, good mother?” I can tell
what 1 would have done in that particular
case. If it were the ﬁrst time Tommy had
kicked up such a fuss, I would very ﬁrmly
tell him he could not go with me and leave
him at home. I should promise him a
trouncing if he repeated the scene and I’d
keep my promise, too. One good dose
would probably settle the matter ﬁnally;
if not I would repeat it. Some mothers
have no government over their children,
and it is sometimes very embarrassing to
be in such company. Yesterday I was at
one of my neighbors, and the little girl
took up my best hat and whipped the cat
with it, tore off part of the ﬂowers, and
played the mischief with it generally,
while ” mamma ” was powerless toprevent
it. The family had just left the table; the
young miss seizei one of my rubbers,
threw it at another child and it landed in
the butter dish. “Oh dear, what a
naughty child I’ve got! Mamma is
ashamed of you,” said the mother. “I
can’t do anything with her. What will I
do with her?” “ Just loan her to me for
ﬁve minutes, Mrs. Brown, and I’ll wager a
three cent calico dress she’ll destroy no
more bats—if she lives.” “Oh my! I
would n‘t whip one of my children for any-
thing; they never would forgive me.” And
that’s the trouble with many mothers.
They don’t govern their children, either
with the rod or without it.

Laxsrne. AUNT BECKEY.

\

      
t,,.m..,.._. .. Va... .

     
Skip‘

4 ' THE HOUSEHOLD.

 
A HOT DAY.

“Vacation ” for those who think there’s

no place like away fromhome, but as for
me i go out under the trees and care not
whether I live or d e, sink or swim, sur-
vive or perish, knowing full well that I
shall do my level best to “swim” when
the tide cones in, as come it will, for 'tis
not always going to be so hot that one can
do nothing but wear a three cent all
around Mother Hubbard and loll, and be
bamboozled by oily-tongued agents who
come around with things to make woman’s
life in the kitchen a sort of anterchamber to
Paradise. “ One been here today? ”
“ Yes; the mopstick man. ‘ This mopstick,
madam, is so arranged that it does all the
housework and drives up the cows. See
how it will climb to the ceiling, clean all
to perfection, windows, woodwork, ﬂoors.
By its aid you can make bread, pies,
cakes, tend the baby, iron, and hoe in the
garden all at the same moment without
washing your hands.” And the glib
tonaued young man’s illustrations as he
went along adjusting and readjusting the
stick and the rag were so deft and indis-
putal: 1e that I thought, “ Oh how nice that
will be when housecleaning time comes in
the little green cottage again.” And as he
oﬁered to “ give” it to me for ﬁfty cents I
paid the cash and took the stick, only to
ﬁnd later when I thought I would see if I
could make the invention show ed for all
it was cracked up to be, that 10! it is of
less practical value than the old mopstick
that cost “ ten cents” I guess and no more.
Well, the chap sold one in nearly every
house, and all ﬁnd themselves “sold” to
the amount of ﬁfty cents. Such is life in
hot weather. Had the weather been cool,
civilly cool, I st ould have been less easily
fooled by this labor saving machine, and
thus should have saved my money to buy
ice-cream and ﬁrecrackers—something to
cool the blood and ﬁre the imagination,
you know.

Well, it’s no use! I cannot write when it
is so sizzling hot! 'Tis no wonder to me
that natives of torrid regions are forever
indolent. What fools they would be to
work as we commonly do, when they can
get'ﬁlong with no clothes at all-scarcely—
and can take browse and bacon for food!
011, land of laziness and the lash! I long
not for thee! E. L. NYE.

 
THE HUCKLEBERRY MARSH.

 
It is said we cannot speak well on any
subject we do not thoroughly understand.
I have gotten to the bottom of one subject
at least. We live on a farm only two
miles from town, and in close pxcximity
there is a huckleberry marsh.

Since the ﬁrst of July we have had daily
callers for this dainty fruit. Sometimes
ﬁve or six hundred are here; at all hours
come knocks and inquiries.

Think of the same questions and answers
to go over twenty or thirty times a day for
a month! There are faces peering in at
you at all times. You seem to be holding
daily receptions, with the difference that
your callers request to come into the
house to perform their toilettes. You are

I

 
sensitive as to the looks of your rooms
when you are very busy with washing,
chickens, etc., but it makes no diﬁerence.
They borrow your wash-dish and then ask
for your comb. You gaze longingly at
that comb, but hand it out. If you refuse
a request you get an indignant stare, and
as they march away you catch the word,
“cranky.” One day a gentleman comes
and claims to be a cousin of your third
cousin. His wants are sundry and strange,
but he makes them all known. It will
probably end in his occupying your sitting
room and lounge for the afternoon. How
you would have appreciated his cool and
restful slumber yourself!

The contents of your camphor bottle
grow beautifully less as the days go by.
There come calls for hartshorn, lemons,
soda, peppermint, coffee, etc. They re-
quest to leave their berries, dusters, whips,
dresses and change of hats in your kitchen;
spill teagrounds all over your well plat-
form; feed their horses in your front yard;
tie to your shade trees, break down your
fences, set a ﬁre by smoking. make paths
through your grain, break the pump, and
when it isn‘t broken you hear an everlast-
ing slam-bang.

Now imagine people lounging in front
and about the house, and your friends
coming to call! It’s pleasant! This is
true, every word. Of course some don’t
bother. No wonder Joe and I look wor-
ried and tired. “Man wants but little here
below, nor wants that little long ”—es-

pecially if it is a little farm with a huckle-
berry marsh attachment.

HOMER. MRS .. JOE.

HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

, YOUR oil stove is a cOmfort or a nuisance,
just according to how you handle it. Like
a lamp, it will smoke and ﬁll the room
with soot if turned up too high, or if
allowed to get dirty. It must be kept
ﬁlled, evenly trimmed and clean.

EASTERN housekeepers make use of a
fruit which is usually ignored by Michi-
gan women —the elderberry. It is used
for “ pie timber ” in its season and canned
for the same use in winter. It is an insipid
fruit, and needs the addition of lemon
juice or vinegar to give it tartness and

ﬂavor.
———...-—_—-

WE commend to the attention of our
readers, especially those who have a lively
interest in our country schools, the article
by “ E. C.” in this issue, which outlines
the scheme of grading by which County
Secretary E. F. Law hopes to reorganize
the district schools of St. Clair County.
This plan of grades, examinations, etc.,
has been prac‘ ically tested in several States
and found to work well and be a great
beneﬁt. It appears to be the most sensible
and efﬁcient plan as yet devised to ac
complish what all will agree is badly
needed—the establishment of country
schools upon a basis which will bring
them up with the times and make them
worth the money they cost. The few ob-
jections which can be urged will be met
and adjusted in. the actual work. And one
or two very excellent results cannot fail to

 
follow. The careless and incompetent
t achers will be crowded out; there will he
an incentive to do good work; the record
of scholarship will encourage ambitious
pupils and secure their proper advance-
ment in their studies; there will be a de-
ﬁnite object or aim in view to which they
can work. Parents will see more clearly
the necessity of prompt and regular at-
tendance, and will take more interest in the
schools and their children’s progress. To
make the system efﬁcient, it should of
course be general throughout the State,
but if Secretary Law can make St. Clair
County the initial county to adopt the
graded system of district schools, he may
live to quote “ Behold howfa little leaven
leaveneth the whole lump!” A fair dis-
cussion of the merits and demerits of this
scheme, with an earnest wish tojproﬁt by
what may be said for or against ' it, might
be made a beneﬁcial topic at the annual
schoolmeetings soon to be he'd, and per-
haps make the way to reformzmore easy.

A LETTER to the lady with whom “Ame-
lia” wishes to correspond, sent under
cover to the HOUSEHOLD E litor, will be
forwarded at once toi s proper destination.
We will give information on the subject
of “Amelia’s ” inquiries at an early date.

___...__.

HON. S. S. BABCOCK, of this city, mem-
ber of the State Board of Elucation, en-
dorses “Jeanne Allison’s ” view of sum-
mer schools. He says: “ Permit me to
thank Jeanne Allison for writing, and you
for publishing the article ‘Ore of Our
Summer Phases.’ I regret that the last
word in the title had not been written
‘ Evils.’ ”

MRS. J. T. D. asks whether back num-
bers of the HOUSEHOLD can be obtained,
and how. We can usually furnish back
numbers for the current year, and they
may be obtained by sending to this office,
enclosing postage. If those who wish to
bind the HOUSEHOLD will look over.
their ﬁles at the close of the year and apply
for missing numbers at once, they can
usually be furnished. Directions for bind-
ing were given in the HOUSEHOLD last
year, by “Judith.” The bound volumes
make a nice addition to the family library,
and the HOUSEHOLD Eiitor surveys her six
neat volumes with a good deal of satisfac-
tion.

 
——-——ooO-——--
Contributed Recipes.

TOMATO JAM —-Six p mode of tomities,
sliced and p r.d; ﬁve pounds sugar: one
ounce white 3 uger-root: grated rind and juice
of one lemon. Cook to the otnsisiency of
jam.

HERMITS.—-'Ihree eggs: one cup bu ter; one
and a half cups sugar; cup seeded and chOp-
ped raisins; a very little ciron chopped line:
one tesspoonftil each of cloves, allsp’ce and
cinnamon: ﬂ )Ul‘ to rill. Cut in rounds. These
will keep like fruit cake.

GINGER Plans—One peck pears; alfow
three quarters pound of sugar to the pound.
Quarter pound ginger root out in slices, and
one bottle Jamaica ginger. Mo’sten t l9 sugar

with a bowl of water, and boil pears and gin-

ger with it. Add the Jamaica ginger at or the

pears are cooks d. Camus: Gaanmnn. .
CHARLTON, N. Y.