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The Commoner.
8
Vol. a, No. 43.
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....the Bomt Department... j
A Parody with Purpoae.
It is not gonorally known that some
years ago, when Professor Crouch, au
thor of "Kathleen Mavourneen," was
first reported to bo in needy circum
stances, James Whitcorab Riley gave
him large assistance and wroto the
following appeal for him a parody
on the exquisite "Kathleen Mavour
noon": Kathleen Mavourneen, the song is still
ringing,
As fresh and as clear as the, trill
of, tho bird.
In world-weary hearts it is sobbing
and singing,
In pathos too sweet for the tonder-
est word.
Oh, have wo forgotten the one who
first breathed it?
And have wo forgotten his rapturous
art?
Our meed to the master whose genius
bequeathed it;
O, why art thou silent, thou voice
-"" of my heart?
"Kathleen Mavourneen," thy lover
still lingers,
The long night is.waning-the stars
pale -and few. -
Thy sad serenader, with tremulous fin
gers, Is bound with his tears as the lily
with dew.
The old harpstrings quaver, the old
voice Is 'shaking,
In sighs and in sobs moans the
yearning refrain.
The old vision dims, and the old heart
is breaking
Kathleen Mavourneen, inspire us
- '.- again! . -
V' ' : .
Hurtful Habits.
body as an enemy, and wo fall into a
state of moral and mental dyspepsia,
hating our friends, loathing ourselves,
railing at fate, and arraigning even
Providonco, because of the almost in
curable distemper into which wo have
brought ourselves.
But the habit can be overcome; the
patlont, however, must bo her own
physician. One must look upward and
outward, and keep a firm hold upon
their perishing self-respect. We must
look into our own hearts and com
pare ourselves, in all kindness, with
the successful one, trying to discover
the source of success in the one case,
and of failure in the other. Wo can
not all succeed, and it may be that we
needed just this discipline to fit us for
the work reserved for us. Through
these losses, sorrows, adversities, we
may be attaining or should be to
goodness and blessings we could not
otherwise have found. These trials
of our faith and patience and gener
osity may be the' "refining fires" to
burn away the dross which hiriders us
from fitting into the work God has
chosen for us. Wo should strive to
bo glad that another Is worthy; glad
that over another's pathway the sun
is shining. We cannot know how
great her need may have been, or what
this succeed may mean to her. Let
us always see the good side, shunning
the evil. Scourge envy and hate and
all the foul brood out of the temple
of your soul. Remember that "close
behind the bitter fountain of Marah
grew the tree that healed the "waters;
back of every sorrow awaits the com
fort needed to alleviate- its pangs."
Every loss carries in its hand golden
compensation, if only we will accept
it as. God's gift
One of the most difficult habits to
break up, when once well established,
is that of envious fault-finding, not
only with persons and things, hut with
the dealing of Providence. If things
do not go just to suit us, we rail at
circumstances, and talk of the injus
tice of fate. If some one more happily
endowed, or more suitably conditioned
than ourselves, is awarded the good
for which wo would have striven, or,
if the prize we coveted is dealt out to
another we are apt to open the door
to envy, and fret because of our fail
- ure.
Once envy has obtained a foothold,
.1mto 1a TlcrViV. .n its Tip.rIr. nnrl with
-v-vw -3 .j --- --w- - .. w i nj uiuuiiu uj. luu auuiio 31AIl
mum u jojjwu u. ueviio u,4 it miAj uui i xx ner nanus, it ib saw tnat a man
souls that make short work of our can huild a house, but only-a woman
comiort ana nappiness; once we are can make a home. To a CTeater ex-
Bulldlng One's House.
From lid to lid of the Bible, we
are warned against the sin of waste
fulness, and the wanton abuse of our
possessions. In line upon line, lesson
upon lesson, the value of economy and
care-taking is impressed, in language
so plain and direct that "tho' a fool,"
he who readsmay understand.
"Faithfulness in little things," is
especially taught he Savior, himself,
concerning" himself about the "gather
ing up of the fragments" after the
feast
There is no way in which the house
wife and mother can so clearly show
her "faithfulness and wisdom' as in
tne ordering oi tne affairs entrusted
low-priced building material. Such
purchases often prove the most ex
pensive In the end. Neither is the
hlp-hest. nriced alwavs the best Here
in must be exercised her "wisdom." A
In selecting for the culinary depart
ment, consideration should be had for
the habits and occupations of her fam
ily. The sturdy out-door worker will
not thrive on the food suited to the
toiler of sedentary habits. In select
ing meats, it is not necessary to buy
tho high-priced cuts only, for the
cheaper prices, properly cooked, will
be fully as satisfactory; vegetables,
fruits, butter, eggs, and such things,
should be as fresh as possible. Do not
buy low grades of flour. Neither is it
wise to buy the "fancy" grades, .but
make sure you get the best for your
uses. And herein will be demonstrated
tho importance of a clear, practical
knowledee of cookery. A noor cook
will waste whatever grade you place
in her hands the best or the poorest,
it will be all the same; while a good
cook will be able almost to concoct
a satisfactory meal out of "chips and
whittlings." The poor cook is the
one who "plucketh down."
In the matter of table, bed linen, or
toweling, the same common-sense wis
dom should be exercised. Select ac
cording to the uses to which it is to be
put In this, too, one should strive for
quality more than quantity. By buy
ing the most serviceable the most
suitable, and caring for it properly,
you will find your store increasing in
stead of being always "short," ba
.cause of the constant "giving out" or
wretched appearance of the cheaper
grades you have allowed yourself to
buy.
One should try to have at least one
set of really nice table linen, for
nothing adds so much to a well-cooked
meal as the refinement of good table
furnishings. But even for. every day,
family use, one good article is better
than two poor ones.. It Is better to
buy the one' good one; and use oil-'
cloth until you can get a second. A
mixture of cotton and linen will never
launder well, and will be a constant
disappointment, while all linen costs
but a few cents more per yard, and
keeps its appearance. Unbleached all
linen, purchased by the yard, at a
cost of from 75c to $1.25, is the best
for ordinary use, will soon bleach out
perfectly white, and will look better
and better as long as it wears. The
fabric is heavy, and the patterns' hand
some. With care, seve'ral of these
will last for every-day use for several
years. The same reasoning will ap
ply to the purchase of the red table
damask.
in the hands of our friends, we lose
control of even the little sense we may
have previously possessed, and our
jaundiced eyes see in every act of our
more fortunate rival a covert triumph
ing over our discomfiture. Wo can see
nothing good or meritorious in any
thing that is done; everything Is ill
done; and we could have done so much
better, had tho work been entrusted
to our hands.
When our friend comes to us, Bure
-of our sympathy with her In her re- the scantest necessities, will be literal
tent than many are willing to allow.
the happiness, health and comfort of
the family are dependent upon thes8
qualities in tho woman who rules over
it A house may be so filled and
fitted up with expensive elegance as
to look like the "sample rooms" of a
house furnishing store, but if the
womanly touch Is wanting, there will
never be found within it the slightest
trace of a true home; while a noor.
bare, battered room, .containing only
1 the scantest nfioflsqlMna -win vo Hfmvii
joiclng, It is on our tongue to stab
' - her, and, if wo do not-wound her out
N right, wo "damn with faint praise"
her achievements, or chill with cold
ness and averted eyes, her happy en
thusiasm. Before we are aware of It,
our heartsome friend is turned to a
,., scornful foe; the breacli widens, and
.we go through life with a sorrowful
sense of something gone. We have
lost our friend.
The habit grows, and every loss adds
to our discomfort; we blame every
. body and everything, except ourselves,
. and wo become peevish, fretful, ill
tempered, Irritable, unjust, .unthank
ful and ungracious. We treat every-
ly transformed by a few thoughtful
touches of a woman's deft hands.
"A wise woman buildeth her house,
but a foolish one plucketh it down
with her hands." And one of the
sweet ways to prove valid our claim
to the distinction of the former, Is by
the careful and wise expenditure of
wnatever amount of money Is entrust
ed to us for household expenses. A
woman of modest means one who has
to "count her pennies" should be care
ful in making her purchases, ft is
well to practice the small economies,
but economy does not moan niggardli
ness, and in "bulldlnor hor hnnno . it
lis not always economical to buy the
Bridge Building. "
In many sparsely settled farming re
gions, the sight of a human being out
side the family is or exceedingly rare
occurrence. To visit a "neighbor"
means a long, tiresome ride on horse
back, or in a rough farm wagon, and
an absence of several days' duration
from the farm. As both cannot often
be spared fronuthe farm at the same
time, It Is generally the man who
makes the "trip" to town, or on neigh
borly errands, while the wife and
children are left to "look after
things." Statistics show conclusively
that a large percentage of tho women
in our insane v asylums are from tho
farms. .
Tho reason Is obvious. They have
lew of the joys of life, and none of
the social stimulus to active thought
given by mingling with other think
ing beings. Thought stagnates, and
the brain grows dull from disuse.
Their latent abilities are not devel
oped. Because of the awful monotony
of existence, many drift into melan
choly, and, as mind hn-a large con
trolling Influence over matter, we have,
the bent back, the withered face, the
dumb, pathetic wistfulnesg of faded
eyes, so pitiful to see in even the dumb
brute. Hard work, disappointment,
tho baptism of pain, haye eaten out
her heart, until there is but on iv,i
left her to look forward tuSg
of tho grave. As. the years drift bv
her bodily, health fails, the rnentoi
faculties lose their power to act an i
many thus become certainly in!"
It is notj&lways that this deadening
of mentality necessitates Incarcera
tion; tho vacant mind does not at all
times Invalidate the bodily strength
and in these cases, the physical ma
chine creaks on automatically; but tho
woman is dead, practically, and for
her, there is no resurrection this side
the grave.
Too often the husband also suffers
from this isolation, until he, too
through long hours of hard labor and
dangerous exposure, becomes simply a
machine, and, when this is the case
it Is so muoh the more dreadful, for
all the refinements and courtesies of
love die with tne death of his better
self, and tho woman is but tho slave
of a slave the home but little, if any,
better than the shed that shelters the
stock, and they learn to live llko
dumb, driven cattle.
It Is hard to suggest a remedy for
conditions like these, and it is well
that thes are exceptions to the rule
in some strong, sterling natures that
conquer all things and make of fron
tier life a glory that shines on all
who come within their radiance. But
it seems that "such things needs must
be" in blazing the way through the
wilderness, and these far away, isol
ated homes upon the confines of civil
ization are but the beginning of bet
ter conditions to follow.
In order to prepare the way for tho
thousands and thousands pf tho fu
ture, there is but one only way
"down the banks of Labor and through
thQ. waters of Suffering." There is no
bridge, and the waters are deep; "the
track to show the best fording" of tho
stream must be marked out by human
saTifice.
In one of hor "Dreams," Olive
Schreiner has the: following: "Havo
you seen the locusts, how' they cross a
stream? First, , one cpmes down to
the water edge; then another comes;
then another, then another, and at
last, with their bodies piled up, a
bridge is built, and. the rest pass
over.
"hd of those that come first, some
are swept away and are heard of no
more; their bodies do not even help
to build the bridge!
"What of that? They make a track
to tho water's edge.
"Over that bridge which shall be
built with our bodies, who will pass?
"Tho entire human race."
...'
There are always human souls, who,
through courr.ge and a sublimo faith,
or through restlessness and ignorance,
are willing to-r"turn down the dark
patfh to tho river'bridging with their
lives the stream that others must
cross. And who shall say it is not
well?
Death of Elizabeth Cady Stnnton.
In the passing away of this wide
ly known and wonderfully endowed
woman, all womankind has lost a true,
courageous, helpful friend. Mrs. Cady
Stanton was, for over fifty years, one
of the' ablest leaders of the woman
movement She was born November
12, 1815, at Johnstown, N. Y., and
died at her homo in New York city
October 26, 1902, of old age. Althougn
partly blind for two or three years,
she has retained her interest In ana
activity for the cause she loved, ana
for which she fought to tho last, bub
a week before her death she dictatea
to her secretary several letters
publication on her favorite theme.
She was not only a successful wruor
and lecturer, but her homo life w
ideal; her husband, who was a lawy
and statesman, died In 1887. He was in
full sympathy with her in her u
work. She leaves four sons and I i
daughters, all honorable and nov
men and women, as testimony iu
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