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The Commoner.
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kwKwI)epartrn0nt f
VOLUME 6, NUMBER
The New and the Old
(By JoBOphino E. Ton, In Designer.)
Sis docs tlio baking now for us
Sho's boon to cooking Bchool
And Icarnoil tlio latest fads and fuss,
So tilings aro made by rule.
With cook-book, scales and measuring
cm) She makes a groat parado,
And all tlio Hour is measured up
While all the sugar's weighed.
Now, somotimes when she's started in
Sho hasn't quite enough
Of raisins, spico or gelatin
Or souio now patent stuff;
Then I must chase off to tho store
As fast as I can go,
And fetch it very quickly or
Tho cako will all bo dough.
Sho bus a mixer for tho bread,
A cookor run by steam,
A chafing dish, a tiling to shred,
A boater that's a "dream."
Wo havo for dinner consommes
And fricassees and bisques;
For supper, chips and mayonnaise;
For breakfast, putts and whisks.
But now and then Sis goes away,
Or takes a llttlo rest,
Then mother has her baking-day
That's when I cat tlio best.
Ma doopn't cook by recipe,
Sho stirs In this and that;
No matter what it's meant to bo,
It always turns out pat.
When mother hasn't eggs or spico,
Why, something olse will do
To mako the pudding Just as nice
And just as wholesome, too.
They're on the labor saving plan,
They do tho work up soon
Ma's one old battered mixing-pan
And ono old wooden spoon.
Social Chat
Sitting before my desk, this morn
ing, I see my "pigeon-holes" full of
unanswered letters, and in every ono
of them thore aro kind words that call
ror at least a "thank you." Above
them yawns an empty "copy box" and
beside that a "query box" calling for
much information. Friends, will you
please accept my Intense apprecia
tion of your good will, and lot me hear
from you as often as possible, sure
that your visits are always welcome,
though I may not be anie to return
them.
, "A Discouraged Sister" writes
You insist that we have flowering
plants and shrubbery and vines about
tlio farm house yot, you have lived
on a farm. Did you have them? If
so, how did you do it? Most of the
farmers in this region pasture their
calves, colts, pigs, sick animals and
poultry in the house-yard, from late
fall until 'grass time In the spring.
Instead of a flower border, wo have a
wagon yard, and the wnoie space sup
posably allotted to tho wife and ohll
ilren is covered with broken and neg
lected machinery, wood piles and
places for sharpening posts and split
ting logs into palings and shingles,
l hero is not oven a stepping stone
from the door-aill in , ;. .
nothing is more plentiful here than
timber and rocks. Tell us how you
would manage it."
And as I read, my heart goes out
in sorrowful sympathy, born of ox
perionco, to Uieso discouraged sisters
(for there are many of them). Hours
Sevo?c?i " r,e!ous strength IwS I
deoted to digging, raking, seed-sow-
&'entr-flteontia bottl remeUy tot diarrhoea.
ing, setting roots and shrubbery, in
order to satisfy my love of beauty
about tho home, only to see my dreams
all trampled down, my work destroyed
by a like invasion. And it is all so
usoless! So senseless! Do you won
der, looking at this picture which is
not so rare as some would have us
believe that women go crazy, or
break down, becoming old and dis
heartened while still young in years?
That tho young folks, as soon as they
aro old enough to think for them
selves, hurry to leave the farm, eager
to brave the unknown rather than to
starvo for tho beauty their young souls
crave? Do you wonder that the men,
themselves, grow into the wretched
caricatures which some of them are,
and fly .to tho corner grocery store to
spend their idle time?
These men, many of them, appre
ciate beauty, and will spend time and
strength and money in seeding down
their fields to grass, refusing to allow
a hoof or a wagon track on the
grounds except at certain seasons;
they work faithfully to have "good
pastures" for their stock and fine
stands of clover for the pigs and
calves; yet, at certain seasons of the
year, when the trampling of the stock
would ruin the field pastures, they
ruthlessly turn tho animals onto the
grass-plat about the house which the
wife and children have so laboriously
nursed for a play-ground, or for a
"clothes yard" on which to spread
the bedding, clothing and hody-linen
for its needed sunbath. The result
Is lamentable. The sod is cut into
by tho sharf hoofs, or torn up by the
pigs; tho shrubbery is cropped, the
herbaceous plants eaten off, cut to
pieces or rooted out of the ground,
wagon tracks make trenches, ana the
dumping of logs, the piling of debris
oh, you know it do you wonder?
I want tho brothers to read this.
J. Know many Of them tin rnnrt Vin
Home pages, for I get many "queries"
from them, and some of them write
me delightful indorsements of some
thing I have said. So, I want them
to look at the picture here presented,
and resolve to "wipe it off the map"
of the farm. Don't begrudge the-gude
wife and children their grass-plat
they are vour mnaf rvnfHnKi
sions. You can not buy back the chil
dren when the little feet have crossed
to other pastures; money will not re
store the brightness to the worn-out,
discouraged wife when she has "given
up. The word "home" means more
than a shelter and a feeding place,
it should be an all-round educational,
developing institution, and it depends
largely upoil y0u what thQ e(lucatIon
and development shall be. Stay at
home, instead of going to town for
your recreations. Give Saturdays to
SS iyf F( ' and t0 the famy- An er
rand to town need not take the whole
whtt Iimeml)er ifc is such a little
while, and make the home beautiful
i8?keof those wnose Happiness
is dependent on you.
to live together so that "out of martyr
dom and bitterness and suffering in
each other's society should be bred
up a race of sweet and lovely chil
dren." The discussion, however, is
beginning to awaken the other side.
Women have felt a delicacy about ex
pressing themselves, as they have al
ways been told that it was their place
to "suffer and ho still" at whatever
cost, rather than to expose their ma
trimonial grievances. The "new ele
ment," while deploring the causes
which create a demand for the un
tying of the matrimonial knot, arraign
tho ministers, themselves, who broad
en the field by "joining together" any
couple who comes before them, prop
erly licensed by tho law, no matter
how unfitted they may be for sustain
ing the sacred relationship, or to bring
into the world children who, because
of the unfitness of the parents, should
better never be born. It is a rare
thing that any question is raised, when
the candidates for matrimony present
themselves either for license or for
the ceremony of marriage, as to the
health, mental, moral or physical, of
the applicants, or as to their ability
to keep a home and care for children.
In this way, many pure, innocent wom
en become the victims of moral lepers,
and their children, as well as them
selves and society, must pay the pen
alty. Neither men nor women are all
angels; there must be something be
sides the socalled love In order to
hold them to their vows, and to make
their marriage a blessing to the com
munity. There' should be a "clean bill
of health," mental, moral and physical,
to accompany the license, and there
should, also be some evidence that
the uniting couple had an understand
ing as to the meaning of the bonds
they wore assuming. From the high
est to the lowest, In the mental or
social scale, there is a Jamentable ig
norance in regard to what "the mar
riage relation obligates, in the major
ity of cases, and the law of selfishness
rules to ruination without regard to
sex. Only a .broader knowledge and
a deeper understanding of many things
will mako a marriage what it really
should be, and until some discrimina
tion aS tO fltnGSS Of tTl Irirli-irfliinlc.
for the parts they each would assume,
and a greater regard for the welfare
and happiness of each other as indi
viduals, be demanded,., law or no law
the divorce courts will still be found
doing business. Boys, as well as
girls, have much to learn more prob
ably than they will be taught for a
SS?5r?l,on ?r two yet t0 come' and
wni am?80 nSOnB are leaed, there
will still continue to be. unhappy mar
riages and wretched separations.
Meantime, the ministers may as well
be brushing the dust from their own
garments.
The Divorce Question
lament the effects Th ,ii .
clergymen and other sunnoi ' ?
Oon nr n1'"61' aP'M it. the mS
Jn.tom.tohM ,. i, Zy"Z
Relief for Deafness
Since the article on "Deafness" an
peared in our department, I have had
L girieat lany letters of quiry re-
SS DBQ hie remedy tested for
tiial. Such as enclosed stamped, ad
dressed envelopes I have turned over
to the physician mentioned; the oth
ers I have answered myself hut fiiQo
are still others who did not even ill
address, and asked that the namls
and addresses be given in the Q?ery
Box. This we can not do, as it would
he giying away very valuable aZ
Using space. In such matters! you
must Send stamped, addressed enve
ope for reply. The article did not
promise a "cure" for deafness; it was
hut a recommcYidnUnn n i?lLlL wa8
ey . the physicto "X" S.
tried with good effect. The letter was
not intended for publication, nor as
an advertisement of any proprietary
medicine. It was simply a kindly an
swer to my call for information about
certain preparations on the market
which promised a cure.
I most sincerely sympathize with
all whose hearing is defective. Being
myself severely afflicted in this man
ner, and having tried many things, I
have become somewhat skeptical as
to cure, or even very great relief.
What will help one will harm anoth
er. I do not know of any country
or climate where people are free from
catarrhal troubles, though some aro
probably freer than others. The ad
vice, or prescribed remedies of a
physician can not cure any disease
unless the patient co-operates with the
adviser. Even the persistent taking
of the remedies "according to direc
tions" is of little avail unless the
cause is removed and the laws of
hygienic living and sanitation are ob
served. Many neonle are so situated
that this can not be done, fully; but
we can all use common sense in tho
matter of eating, dressing, exercising,
cleanliness, keeping out of bad com
pany and correcting unhealthy bab
bits of body and mind In fighting
diseases and ailments of any kind, it
is well to remember that many of
our weaknesses and predispositions
come to us "down the line" from an
unwise ancestry, "the fathers having
eaten sour grapes, the children's teeth
are set on edge." Broken health laws
ot any kind are- "sour grapes."
Spring Cleaning
If you have not time to do it your
self, interest "the children in the clean
ing up of the back yard. Nothing
works more for the "good of-the
home" than creating an Interest in
flowers and flower gardening,, and
beautifying the waste places in and
about the farm or village Houses.
Many front and back yards may be
redeemed from barrenness and neglect
and from being a dumping ground for
the refuse of the family and farm. If
no better can be done with these un
sightly places, the gude mon might
sow them down to rve or oats,-or plant
corn in them. Anything Is better than
briars, bushes, old lumber, broken ve
hicles, tin cans, and the thousand
things it is found most convenient to
throw down in such places. Don't
allow the calves, or the hens, or the
colts, or the pigB to use the yards as
a pasture, and then "Wonder why the
girls and boys want to leave home
as soon as thev are big enough to feel
ashamed of "the looks of things." The
flower garden, or, rather, the work, in
one, is one of the best nerve-restorers
in the world; better than any pills or
powders or "teaspoonfuls." Did' you
ever see a womap scowling over her
flower-bed? Did you ever see a mor
bid flower-garden? One who has a
nice looking yard, with plenty of
shrubbery and blooming .plants s dot
ting the green sward, is rarely a
gloomy person, and never a pessimist.
It is seldom the owner of a really
"cosy corner" who wants to leave
home, and now-a-days, if the girls and
boys can be proud of their homes,
they find thorn infinitely more attrac
tive than the life in the dirty town.
It is seldom the woman's fault that
the yards are full of litter or over
grown with bushes, briars, burdock,
cockleburs, jimson weed, nightshade,
etc., but she gets discouraged when,
year after year, her plant beds and
shrub borders are used for a brows
ing place for stook, and a dumping
place for worn out and broken down
vehicles, and small wonder If she gets
cross aujd nagging, slip-shod and "run
down at the heels," Why shquld she
BETTER THAN. SPANKING
Ppnnlclpjr doo not euro ohlldrpn of bo1 wottlne
If it did trro would bo fow children riint would &
it, Thoro i a conntltutloral cause .for thK i MiE
M. Snnnx.ore.llox 118. Notro Dnmo. Infl.. wlil Si
nTonoyr Write nor todayff Twidron "Z
yo lr tt.lt. way. Don't bffi tho Sd! h
hances aro H can't liolplt, L Q' im9
cnvaa
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