The Home Club The Reflection of the Home That children reflect with painful truth the standards, moral and social, of the people about them is accepted. It is a new version of "the stream can be no purer than its source." The child who grows up in an atmosphere of preten sion and deceit will carry the marks always, though a new spiritual life may give a larger comprehension of life's values. The snobbishness of children is one of the first revelations they make of their home training. One mother who had been deserted by her husband had to make her living for herself and her child by doing personal service for women able to pay to secure comfort and beauty, or rather the appearance of daintiness. This worker, by her gentle, quiet dignity, commanded a large trade, principally among women of wealth. The desertion of her husband had been duly chronicled by the newspapers whose circulation is secured by the freedom with which they publish private affairs, and the little mother withdrew her child from both school and Sunday-school lest she should hear some reference to her father and his escapade. To the child her father had gone West, and she was permitted to talk about his return. The mother deeply deplored the lonely life forced on her little girl; but the child was very sensitive and proud. One of the mother's customers, finding out that the child had been withdrawn from all child life, insisted that she should go to the Sunday-school and into the class with her own little girl, going so far as to offer to send her carriage for the child. This the working mother forbade. She took the child to the Sunday-school, which was in a section of the city remo'e from her home, and asked to have her put in the class with her supposed friend's child. The mother waited. As the strange little girl appeared, she was looked at with the frankest curiosity by the young and fashionably dressed teacher and her pupils. One little girl gushed and fussed over the little stranger, and did it with very evident self-consciousness. At last she settled back, and one of the others whispered to her. The mother saw her child's face grow crimson, and then saw it fade away until her face was marble, while she half rose as if to leave the class, and then sat back. The young teacher, with scarcely concealed smile, shook her finger at the two whisperers as the opening exercises began. The mother could hardly wait for the whitefaced child to come to her. She took her by the hand, and when they were on the street asked what was the matter. The child could not speak, but she smiled. The mother kept still. When inside the door of the room that was parlor and workroom, the little girl sobbed out: "Mamma, is it true that you cut Mrs.'s corns and nails?" The child had never seen her mother at work. "Her little girl said so, and asked the other little girls to send their mammas, 'cause we were poor. And they just looked and did not speak to me. Mamma," after a long pause, "did papa run away? Mrs.'s little girl said he did, with somebody. He didn't, did he?" The tragedy the mother had tried to keep from her child was no longer a secret. "I don't want that little girl to be good to me," with a drawing up of her little head and a throwing back of her shoulders. "I don't want any body to be good to me. I've got you. Oh, I wish my papa had not runned away!" That experience changed the whole attitude of that child toward life. She felt herself markedsomebody on whom a veil of separation had fallen. She went to school when her mother was forced to give up educating her at home. Through her en ire school and college life she shut herself out from the girls about her, and their interests. "I shall go to college, mamma, because it will enable me to make a better living for us both. We will go far away when I get a position." She must have learned the truth some time, but it was cruel beyond expression to have it come through the criminal thoughtlessness of a vulgar mother. The social standards and estimates of children are the measurements of the spiritual life of the homes of which they are a part. College-Trained Women and the Home Frequently the statement is made, sometimes in tones of sorrow, sometimes in bitter criticism, sometimes in righteous self-congratulation, that college women co not take kindly to housekeeping, and, therefore, college training for women is extra-hazardous; it takes from woman what nature gave her, and puts nothing sound or true in its place. It is doubtful if this statement is ever made in absolute belief. Let any fair-minded woman stop and mentally estimate the women she knows, and she probably will be forced to admit that the college-trained women she knows are the best housekeepers, secure the best returns for their money, run their houses with less friction, have more leisure, and make their time count for more in their homes and in the outside world than the non-collegiate woman. The collegetrained woman has learned to systematize her time. For years she has had to live with a consciousness of time; she has been compelled to recognize the rights of others in the use of time; she has acquired to a greater or less degree a sense of proportion, and she does not distort the business of life out of all relation to eternity. She has learned that life is cumulative, and that you must take the steps toward the end; that trying to do two years' work in one cripples the possibility of the completion of the third year in good condition. Certainly there are college women of whom no one is proud; but where would they be, what would they be, without the discipline and training that a college degree compelled? The college cannot supply brains or character; it is a cultivator. College education makes both men and women better, irrespective of the ability they bring to the college. Those who make shipwreck of their lives do so in spite of their education, not because of it. That college education naturally leads women to think of a professional career is not true; it leads to that if, in the course of the period of college life, the taste or necessity of the student leads to a specialty. The census of Massachusetts reveals the fact that there are seventy thousand more women than men in the State. In view of this fact, the seventy thousand, or a certain portion of them, must emigrate, become self-supporting, or charges on friends or the community. And this in a State where 88 per cent. of 100 residents live in homes. Of the 100,000 boarders in Massachusetts over 69,000 are males; less than half of this number are native-born, while two-thirds of the thirty-odd thousand female boarders are native-born. are That this army of unattached women largely self-dependent is doubtless true, and that their value to themselves and their community depends on the degree to which they are trained is, without doubt, true. The woman with a college education is almost certain to earn a good living if she must support herself, which by no means debars her from loving and being loved; and when she is placed at the head of a house the trained mind will be a giant to grapple with her ignorance of the facts she faces. The same habits of mind that enabled her to grapple with the unknown in books, that made her an investigator of phenomena, will make her the mistress indeed of her house. The following, from the New York "Sun," could never be said of the college-trained woman: "Very nice,' said one woman of another, 'but limited. She's bounded on the north by her servants, on the south by her children, on the east by her ailments, and on the west by her clothes.'" Children and Bicycles Physicians for some time have been urging great care in the fitting of bicycles to small children. They insist that the possibilities of developing hip trouble by the use of machines too large for growing boys and girls are very great. The protest, with which every sensible person will a the s can 1 The whee raise mach child fraug use i Th serio wom trimn some birds Natu state worn street and throu amou the p It a firm liners and from key, fully The cover and t tinct. condi the of On years overa The g are m freedo of the Side marke East and d labore comfo very n the n blue ing by as ba when wrung and sp POINTS IN Health, Voice, Appetite, and I Strength Failed-Completely Restored by Hood's Sarsaparilla. "My health failed entirely and paralysis stared me in the face. My limbs were so weak that I could scarcely walk, and heart trouble was one of my ailments. I had no appetite, and suffered with constipation. My voice failed me in the pulpit, and life had become a burden to me. began taking Hood's Sarsaparilla and very soon saw a great improvement. In the winter I was attacked by the grip, which left me in a bad condition. I was weak and prostrated. I went back to my old friend, Hood's Sarsaparilla. After taking a few bottles I felt like a new man. Hood's Sarsaparilla seems to be the thing for me, and I find Hood's Pills the best corrector of the liver and stomach." REV. C. S. BEAULIEU, Lowellville, Ohio. Get Hood's, because Hood's Sarsaparilla Is the One True Blood Purifier. All druggists. $1; six for $5. C. I. Hood & Co., Lowell, Mass. Hood's Pills Headache. 25c. cure all Liver Ills and Sick Candy connoisseurs find fresh delight in every piece of Whitman's Chocolates and Confections Sold everywhere. Ask for them. WHITMAN'S INSTANTANEOUS CHOCOLATE is perfect in flavor and quality, delicious and healthful. Made instantly with boiling water. STEPHEN F. WHITMAN & SON 1316 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pa. |