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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 9, 1903)
,-M..'.i''"yw.'i.tnmwjuywi""iM mmi wwwf","w-.M-' Vr'T ar- " ' ""ljfl -,. : jr?,: '.-ir The Commoner. Jan." o, i9o3. 9 very recent date, pure food bills have been "hung up," because no one really nas been absolutely suro as to the ex act nature of the evils which needed to bo remedied." A Homc-Grown Christmas Tree. Shall I tell the little readers of The Commoner how Christmas came to two littlo orphan children down in the heart of the Ozark country? A year ago, these little children had no home, but an old gentleman and his wife had room in their home for the children, and they came away from tht: great city, and, -in tho loving care lavished uron them, they grew strong and well and happy. They lived on a big farm, nested away in the woods, and there were few neighbors near. A few miles away, in the village, the Sunday school they attended was to have a Christmas tree, but tho roads were rough, the weather bad, and the nights were dark, so they knew they could not go. They felt that they must have a Christmas tree of their own, but there were no evergreen -roes near their homo. In the fence cor ' ners, however, there were some nice, bushy little sassafras trees growing, and their limbs were straight am! plentiful, so they cut one of the nicest shaped ones and brought it indoors. The lady, whom they had learned to love, and whom they called mother, had saved up all the pretty colored papers that came around good3 from tho village grocery store, and among them was quite a largo lot of green ones, some red, some pink, some blue, some bright yellow. She gave them the green paper, some sharp scissors, and showed them how to cut it into long strips about three inches wide, fold these strips lengthwise and clip tho edges into long fringes. These strips of green fringe they wound about each limb tying the ends to keep it in place, and when tho whole tree, was covered it looked very SRIAIL MONEY "What a Quarter Did "" The person who uses the brain and nerves actively needs food to rebuild them and replace tho waste, and should not rest on stimulants.. Coffee excites these organs so they cannot get the necessary rest and nourish ment and steadily tears them down, then other disorders follow.. "I amunder a constant nervous strain as I have 52 girls under my care," writes a school teacher trom Knoxville, Tcnn. "t suffered terribly with indigestion and nervousness in its worst form, and paid out hundreds of dollars in doctors' bills. Many of my friends ad vised mo to quit coffee and use your Postum Food Coffee, and I tasted it once and it was something horrible Some time later I met a friend who wished me to try a cup of Postum and her manner was so convincing that I finally tasted tho Postum to please her. Great was my astonishment fco And it so different from what I had drunk before and I immediately asked how the difference in taste was brought about and discovered it waM simply that the first I had was only boiled a minute or two, whereas lo minutes boiling brings out the delic ious flavor and food value, so I deter mined to use Postum in the future, fol lowing tho directions carefully, and have done so ever since. "My indigestion has entirely loft me, my nervousness gone, and I now feel bright and well after .the most tiresome day in the school-room. A little 25-cent package of Postum did me more good than tho hundreds of dollars I paid for doctors and medi cines." Name given by Postum Co., Battle Creek, Mich. "Christmassy" indeed as tho littlo girl declared, "quite piney." The bright yellow papers were made into little fringed rolls and tied on the very tip ends of each limb, to look liko candles; the other colors were arranged as flowers, or used to tie up candy, nuts, oranges, etc., and these hung about all over the branches. There were some tinsels and other glittering things scattered over the tree, the toys, handkerchiefs, books, etc., that were to be given the children hung on it, and big striped sticks of candy tied in places. The day be fore Christmas the children had gone to the village and spent some money for their own fancies, and these, too, lodged in tho branches. There was a big open fireplace in the room, and the bright wood flames lighted up the little tree better than candles could have done. The little folks hung up their stockings and tho supply of candies and "goodies" depos ited therein kept them from coveting tho display of sweets on tho tree, so it stood 'to be admired for several days. When the fruits it bore were finally distributed, tho little tree was given a place upon the porch, and still serves for a "beauty spot" when all other trees are brown and bare. It was a source of considerable pride to the little ones to inform callers who dropped in before it wa3 stripped of its brightness, that they had grown their own tree, and their plans for the next coming of Christmas are simply stupendous. For the JVlcndlnfr Basket. Every season brings to the busy housewife certain -kinds of work which demand attention .at that particular time a. postponement of which is apt to occasion serious derangement of the routine which claims every day as its own. But between these special works there are always to be found bits of time which the thrifty house mother may piece into hours and days and in which can bo accomplished much of the work so necessary to the ease and comfort of the family. Now that the flurry of tho holiday season is over, and we are settling down to long afternoons and pleas ant evenings beside the cosy fires, the busy hands refuse to be idle, and we are casting about for the work that is most timely, and which may be dono at add moments as they occur be tween spells of spring shopping and planning out the spring sewing. We have been doing "fancy work" with our needles and brushes until our eyes are worn out with tho fine stitches and gay colors, but we find another class of needlework awaiting us in which the good house-mother takes as much pride in doing well as sho did in using her bits of silk and skeins of shaded worsteds. It is a source of real satisfaction to know that all house linens, as well as wear ing apparel is in good repair, either to be laid away for further use, or pass along to some needy neighbor. In all work where, there is no pleas ure, there certainly Is no pride; and unless ono has satisfactory tools with which to do the work, it is generally postponed until the last momont, and then done negligently, or the garment Is thrown aside, when it could have been made to last niucn longer by suitable mending. One does not work enthusiastically with ill-assorted need les and threads, or dull, "chawing" scissors. When one stops to con?lder the fact that these tools do not have to be replaced often, or even every year, but with care, many of them will last for the use of a generation, it will readily appear that the best is the cheapest. Do not use scissors of in ferior metal. Cheap needles are abom inable. Get the best, and then take care of them. Do not allow them to be "thrown around loose," but insist, persistently, oven though you, your self, arc tho offender against orderli ness, on their being returned to their place after every using. It does not rcquiro near tho time to put things where they belong, that it does to hunt up the lost.- A suitable basket or box should be provided, and into this should he put two pairs of scissors, one large, and ono small, of tho best quality of steel; soveral papers of tho best steel needles (Mllward's is always good) of assorted sizes; darners, coarse and fine; hod kins; a small bag of emery for clean ing needles; a paper of good pins, a bit of beeswax, a tape-line, an egg shaped piece of wood to dnrn over; a glove darner; button hole scissors; lead pencil; pieco of white crayon; a tracing wheel; several thimbles; a knife for ripping, and a small file for sharpening needles when the point Is blunted in sewing on buttons. A good supply of thread, black and white, all sizes; all color? of darning cotton to match tho garments worn; several spools of stout linen thread, of different sizes, different widths of tapes and braids, and a box of as sorted buttons. With these tools, always In place, and a "patch box" into which has been placed in convenient parcels, patches, made from the "good places" of worn out garments, or scraps of new or un worn goods, the family mending be comes a pride aa well as a pleasure, and, with the aid of a good sewing ma chine, the work can be kept so well In hand that the busiest housewife, or the mother of the merriest brood of "destructionists" can, without neglect ing other things, afford to view the ap proach of the spring sewing with per fect complacency. AN OBJECT LESSOR A "Children's Room." We find a great deal written, now-a-days, on the subject of "Plow to keep the young folks on the farm," "How to make the farm attractive to the young," etc., and a groat many the ories are advanced and good sugges tions offered; Yet the boys go, just the same, and the girls do not long remain behind. We read, also, a great deal about the dangerous allurements of tho city streets, the attractiveness of Its evil; tho bright lights and .cheerful warmth of the dens of Iniquity Into which our young of both sexes are so often unsuspectingly drawn, and from which many of them never again emerge, to a life of usefulness and innocence. Did you never hear of "fighting the devil with his own fire?" Did it never occur to you that, if our boys and girls could have warm, cosy quarters in their own homes, where they could entertain, not only their companions, but themselves, where their oftlmes noisy chatter and laughter would dis turb no one, and where they could feel free to have their "traps" about them, there would be less likelihood of their slipping across the danger line? In city homes, where furnace heat is used, and the house lighted by gas or electricity, tho problem of mere light and warmth In every room in the house is not hard .to solve; but ex tra room and extra fuel and lighting bills cost money more, perhaps, than the average wage-earner feels able to spare. The open grate is not always in use, and if it is, only the old peo ple seem to love its light, and only too often, in the longing for rest and quiet which advancing years and heavy cares demand, they are glad to have tho young folks go, that they may enjoy the silence, and the young people are glad to go because of their restless longing for excitement and change. In the country, the contrast be- In a Restaurant. V A physician puts the query: "Iinvejnu never noticed iti nny Inrge restaurant nt lunch or din ner t-mc the large number of henrty, vigorous old men at the table; men whose age run from 6otoFoycnr;inrny of thrm bald mid nil per haps gray, but none of them feeble or rcnlle?" Perhaps the spectacle Is fo common as to have evenped your observation or comment, but never theless it is nn object lesson which mcntiB some, thing. If you will notice what these hearty old fel lows nrc eating you will observe that they arc not munching bran cracker nor gingerly pick ing their way through a menu card ofnewfnu gled health foods; on the contrary they s cm to prefer n juic roast of beef, a ptopcrly turned loin pi mutton, and even the deadly broiled lobster Is not altogether ignored. The point of nil this Is that n vigorous old age depends upon good digestion and plenty of wholesome fucdnml not upon dieting and an endeavor to live upon bran crackers. There Is n ccitnin class rf food cranks who seem t believe that meat, coffee and mauvo.hcr good thiugsarc rank po'sons, but these endnver ou., silky looking individualsarcn walking con demnation of their own theories The matter in n nutshell is that If the stomach secrets the natural digestive juices in sufficient quantity any wholesome food will be promptly digested: if the stomach does not do so, and ccr ta n foods cause distress one or two ofStuait's Dyspepsia Tablets alter each meal will remove all difficulty because they upply just what each weak stomach lacks, pepsin, hydrochloric acid, diastase and mix. Stuart's Dyspepsia Tablets do not act upon the bowels and, in fact, are not stiictly a med cine as they act almost entirely uj on the food eaten, digesting it thoroughly and thus gives a much meded rest and giving nn appetite for the next nical. Of people who travel nine out of ten use Stuart's Dyspepsia Tablets, knowing them to be enemy snic 10 ue in any nine, aim aisouaving. ounu out uy cxpcncnce mat tiny are n Faic runtd against indigestion in nuv form, and cat- ' na as thev have to. at nil hours and a 1 kinds of loon, tiie traveling public for years have pinned their faith to Stuart's Dyspepsia Tablet. All diuggistsscll them at 50 cents for fulbsizld packages and nny druggist from Maine to Cali fornia, if his opinion were asked, will say that Stuart's Dyspepsia Tablets Is the most popular and successful remedy for any stomach trouble tween the cheerful light and warmth within and tho silence and darkness without, disposes the girl's and boys to stay indoors, but they, too, long for the freedom from restraint which; however concealed by loving kind ness, is yet keenly felt, and it Is bet ter that a room be set apart for their use well lighted and comfortably warmed, in which their evening and spare afternoons can be passed. If there is not an open fireplace, there are many stoves whose front can be more or less opened, and the cheery fire exposed; there should also be good lighting, with shades and reflectors, If necessary. If the young folks are musically In clined, some kind of instrument should bo provided; with books and papers aa cheap, as good and as plentiful as they are now, the table should be well sup plied with such as their years and tastes call for. Let them have games,, and let them play them, too, even If they are noisy. Let them have ap ples, nuts and popcorn and home made candies. Let tho boys and girl3 care for the rooms, and do not worry overmuch If the floor gets a share of the "good things" at times. Let this room belong to them, and it need not, necessarily, be the kitchen. In fact, it should not. These comforts do not cost a great deal ,and there are many ways in which the boys and girls can, them selves, meet the expenses of them. A fatted shoat, when sold as pork, would bring a prico that would pay for all, unless it be a musical instrument, and even an organ or piano could bo planned for; a calf or a colt spared, or a crop of some root or grain raised for that purpose, would get a good second-hand instrument, if not one from first hands. If the boys and girls wish to try their hand at can vassing, it will not be a hard matter to take advantage of the premium offers of The Commoner, for Instance, and thus, at the cost of only a-few pleas ant hours' work, supply themselves with plenty of tho best literature of the times. M. urn a - . kt fc-4aK'tftwto4fci' '. I A,.-