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Show t 62 WOMAN g EXPONENT ; . : No earthly good was e'er designed, Man should enjoy without her kind. " Man may desire, may Jtnowt and theri Woman must bear the souls of men; And man the woman still must know, To fill his mission here belowr All earth is witness she has filled Her mission, as by Heaven willed, rFrom first to last, from Eden's bower, Her grace and love have been her power; By which her reign may be complete, O'er man's humanity and vain deceit; , Andhe whose soul can love her well. May find a home where angels dwell She led the way fdr man to go, That good and evil he .might know, , By whichi like God he might become, And live again with Him at home. S. W. Richards. - , elevating character. Family parties were stockings, is all very well, but when the the most enjoyable, the married daughters custom, with a large circle of grown people and sons, coming home with their little becomes r lperative, it is a tax on one's ones to join the.iainily circle, where, the friendship, and an unmitigated nuisance. I spent a few weeks at a sanitarium one reminiscences of the past, were recalled, and the old .songs familiar to childhood year and noticed all the nervous women sung again, often one remembering only a for whom the physicians were doing their verse, or a line but all joining in a sort of uttermost to restore to health and comfort medley; the new babies came home at sitting in the parlors, with the thermometer to grandma and grandpa tip in the seventies, working away intentiv thanksgiving time " and sometimes four eenerations would be iiuui unci uuui iu get ouiiic saun pincushpresent at these happy reunions. Visiting ions and velvet slippers embroidered. I said New England only a ;few years ago I throw them to the winds and go up on found that this custom , of primitive top of the house and lie down on their cots times was still observed and with far more in the sunshine. They exclaimed "What Puritanical families would you do about Christmas presents?" favor among the "Give none," I replied, "there is no necesthan' Christmas for though they are becoming more and more English in manner, sity in the case. If you wish to remind if you go into the villages especially,' the your friends of your existence, or to show plain country people will tell you without that you remember them, send your card least reservation, the that keeping with 'Merry Christmas,' or 'best wishes of Christmas with all sorts of jolly festivities the season." If you were my friends I is Roman Catholic, and they hate their should rather get your cards than embroidery ways and all their forms and ceremonies. that had taxed your vital forces and your u ut we ao not nave too many noiiaays or optic nerves for weeks in your present too much pleasure with Christmas, ThanksIf you are always troubled with spasms giving, 4th of July, New .'Year's and all the other national days Washington's of emotional benevolence at Christmas time to the poor birthday and all our own birthdays, and send some meat -and vegetables - . ' the 24th, of July our Pioneer Day. apples, nuts and candy to their children, . Aunt Em. the money you spend in sarin, silks and bright worsteds would cheer many a1' fire', side and make the children inexpressibly THE ABUSES OF CHRISTMAS happy. IN 1893. Christmas and wedding presents and flowers at funerals have come to be such a While a chorus of voices is chanting the tax and nuisance in their extravagance and holiday joys and the pleasant memories of excess that sensible people, not wishing children, I feel impelled to disturb the gentheir friends to feel compelled to observe eral harmony with one discordant , note of the custom, now say on their cards of invi' protest and complaint. " or ' 'no flowers. " If tation 'No I fain would rouse my countrywomen to rich friends presents, wish to send us a check for a the thought of the serious, abuses that have hundred dollars or more, we might receive grown out of the once simple customs that it with pleasure, as it requires no labor to made Chiistmas one of the most charming draw a check, nor privation to give of their days of the year. Amusing letters, little abundance. tokens of affection, have all given place to But a of an elaborate piece of most extravagant presents from those who worsted present work, say of "Rebecca at the have plenty of money, and elaborate pieces Well" over which a dear friend had strained of embroidery and worsted work from her optic nerves for weeks, and inhaled those who have neither time nor strength to from the waste. The pleasures our mothers had in impalpable particles of arsenic worsteds, would give me no the give and take of a few trifles has now bright green it would be a pleasure. On the developed into a stern necessity, making source of sorrow contrary every time I looked at it. wholesale Christmas presents as imperative as the laws of the Medes and Persians. I would not work a cat on the toe of a slipThe season is a dread to paterfamilias, be- per for the one I love best on earth. I cause of the terrible strain on his purse would rather give or take a live 'cat. Standing in a book store a few days before strings, and to the women of the house hold because of the labor involved. How Christmas one year. I heard a wife say to anxious they look, as they press their way her young husband, "I must get a present for Lucy." "No," said he, "I have althrough the crowds in the stores from day to much more than we can afford. day, and though they go home with all the ready spent bundles they can carry, there, is always Come, let us go." But she insisted, and some one forgottenwhich compels another lingered in spite of his appeals. I felt so visit to the busy marts, of trade, and another sorry for , the man, probably a clerk on a small salary, that I hurried away. appeal to the well drained purse of some ladies, you try the experiment son of Adam. for one year and give no presents, and see And although women seem wild with dewhat a relief it is, and what a saving to light in spending every cent they can wring as well as of out of anyone, you will hear them say, your husband's pocket-boo"Oh dear me!; here comes Christmas day your own time and .temper. At all events in these hard times curtail somewhat your again!" 4'! am hardly rested from last year!" and "Now I must get presents expenses and labors in this direction. . 1 NEW ENGLAND THANKSGIVING. The early settlers of New England were devotedly religious and acknowledged the hand of Providence in everything that transpired and were especially grateful in being saved from starvation in the wilderness and thankful for the harvest of grain that crowned their labors during the .first years of their sojourn in the new country. It was as early as 1633 that they issued an official appointment for a day of Thanks giving, after the harvest which was always in November falling upon different dates but always on Thursday, the idea suggest-tin- g itself from the Hebrew 'feast of tabernacles, feast of ingathering at the end of the year. . The Dutch governors too sometimes appointed Thansgiving at any rate it grew to be a national day during the Revolution and was annually recommended by Congress, but when peace was proclaimed it became only a matter of taste, except in New England where it has always been rigidly observed. During the civil war Abraham Lincoln issued a national proclamation of the annual thanksgiving and since that time the custom has prevailed always falling on the last Thursday in " f . . con-ditio- n. ' 1 . " November. In my childhood thanksgiving was the great day of the closing year and we were not allowed to celebrate Christmas, lest we should be thought Tiscopals or Church of England people or. worst of all Roma?i Catholics. One thing s,in which it differed from Christmas was the giving of presents, it was also more strictly religious. Everything possible was. done beforehand, and we always went to meeting on that day as much as though it were Sunday, andthe singers were" prepared by careful practice wTith anthems of praise and the sermons were admonitions to the people to be thankful to Gcd. But usually the people went from the meeting house to the places of public amusement or the loaded dinner tables where feasting and visiting intermingling "of relatives and friends, songs, speeches, dancing and mirth occupied the remainder of the day, games of all kinds by the children in which often the older ones joined were also customary, and the evenings were spent socially, nuts, apples, molasses candy (or in my day maple sugar candy was more common) helped away the time, pop corn too was one of the somehow for at least two dozen different luxuries and the Thanksgiving dinner friends!" "I can't affbrdtogo to Tiffany's was never . complete without roast turkey and buy beautiful presents, and so I must and pig, baked beans, mince and pumpkin pie, work early and late to make them." Who and plum pudding, made with rice or would value a present given as a necessity? Boston crackers and other almost innumeraIt, should be. an offering of love, a real ble varieties of nuts, fruits vegetables etc. pleasure both to giver and receiver. inOutdoor games by the boys were also - The delight of children in an ideal St some of them not of a who in, a few Nicholas, very little toys in their dulged puts -- . long-sufferi- to-w- hile 1 ! -- Sup-pose,de- ar ng k, Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The South Carolina Senate has been debating a bill to enable married women to make contracts. One of the Senators pointed out that the existing law places women on the same footing with lunatics. But the bill was rejected. . !( " |
