Indianapolis Journal, Indianapolis, Marion County, 16 June 1883 — Page 12

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THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN A Lecture Delivered at Aebury University by Frot Alma Holman. fbe Woman in France, in Germany anti in America—A Comparative Examination of the Status. Delivered Sunday Afternoon, May 31. It is in the very dawn of her new existence that I am provoked into a study of woman’s education. I will not occupy your time in discussing the ability of woman to be educated. A half century ago the question of her ability received respectful attention and labored arguments for and against. You often wonder that for centuries men saw the pulse beat in their veins and yet lived in ignorance of the circulation of the blood. You are astonished that the new continent of America lay a wilderness so near to Europe during whole epochs of the world's civilization. It is not so etrange, then, after all, that woman’s mental influence should have coursed through the veins of society and yet remained unnoticed; that her resources lay undiscovered in the very bosom of society; it is not So strange, after all, that the learned doctors Bhould have Bpent much thought in determining whether she could think. The manuscripts in the royal library of Madrid for and against the theory that anew continent lay across the sea are not so curious now to the antiquarian as will be in the future archives the learned papers of our quarterlies endeavoring to prove that woman can think! ■ls you have such quarterlies now in your possession, preserve them. Some day they ■will be above par. Woman will, doubtless, look upon these defenders of her wit as the Columbuses and Walter Raleighs of her history, When an idea cryslalizes itself into a fact, men do not argue its ability to exist, Men do not argue any more that the Atlantic cable can transmit a message. The ability of woman to become eduoated is even such a fact! Believing this, I only occupy your time in tracing rapidly the history of woman’s development, and in comparing, briefly, the education of American women with that of the women of Europe. I The first record we have of woman’s effort to be educated is the time when Adam 'blamed her before the Creator for partaking of the tree of knowledge. We are assured that throughout the Jewish dispensation woman was not allowed her individuality. Among the Greek women it was a crime to be learned. True there were Aspasiu, Lais and Glvcera, women whose names are linked With those of the greatest and wisest men of antiquity. But these women were the outcasts of society; infant captives taken in war, these victims of civil combinations had one privilege—they were not under the intellectual proscription which was reserved for the virtuous and chaste. These slaves became the agents of a refined civilization and the instruments of its rapid moral corruption. Plutarch, that John Stewart Mill of the ancient days, labored to put In a plea for woman. His interference only goes to show that women in his time were ciphers. Through all the darkness of the middle ages woman was a degraded being. Then at last came King Arthur and the Round Table. To make up for forty centuries of neglect, those knights piled Ossa on Pelion. They heaped flatteries aud courtesies on womankind until the latter thought themselves demi-goddesses. Statesmanship took a back seat. Frivolity and Fashion became prime minister. Cervantes undertook to undermine this reign of foolish women by satire. To take her down from her pedestal he resorted to the demonstration known as reductio ad absurdum. The demonstration|was eminently successful, and the chivalry of knighthood was soon followed by Saxon grossness. Woman sank back to a subordinate role. Then came that glorious epoch in the history of civilization known as the renaissance. Yoli know how the hot tides of intellectual fever swept over all Europe from the burning of Constantinople. It is then that the marbles of Greece Btepped forth from their jjbiding places, then that the nectar — richer for its long battling up—of Horuer Virgil and Sophoces thrilled the brain of a sleeping world. Men, even women bathed in the new light. Vittoria, Colonna, Margaret of Valois and Lady Jane Grey are exponents of what woman might have becomes had the new learning offered itself for her general education. 6ut it did not. The way was rugged, almost impracticable She had the elastics about her. She watched the light of the new learning as the landsman scans the svatebtower by the sea whose light is not for hiiri. The renaissance left woman in the background. for the eighteenth century, Miss Austin, in her Pride and Prejudices, gives a sketch of an accomplished woman: *‘lt is amazing to me,” said Bingley, “how many ladies can have the patience to be so very accomplished as they are. They all paint tables, cover screens and knit purses.” In the atmosphere of these sorts of accomplishments there was a law against such as did attempt to enltivate the gifts God had given them. They were called "blue stackings,” and to be a "blue” was to be a social •ovage. This brief retrospect of women serves to epitomize her history. She was treated with scorn as an inferior or elevated suddenly, as in chivalrous times, before she had ballast enough to sustain herself. She was syspicioned as a wit, or patronized as an Irresponsible according to the whims aud caprices of the century in which she lived. She has been treated as an irresponsible child for so many ages. You have seen the father with his daughter. How, in his superior wisdom, he pete her and punishes her; kisses and scolds her as a child. You have seen him suddenly pause before her one day, when it dawned upon him, by the perfection of her form, the elasticity of her Step, the ring of her voice, the clearness and good sense oi heropinions, that the child has grown to be a woman. All that day he looks at the child-woman with respect, almost with reverence. He asks heropinions, and waits eagerly to hear the words of maturity which set so gracefully on the child of yesterday. I can but liken the nineteenth c entury to this father. The nineteenth century begins to realize that woman is no longer to be petted and scolded and kept in aprons. It has token woman forty centuries to find out the real value of the pronoun “I,” forty oenturies to find that the first person singular of the personal pronoun may stand perpendicular, and not necessarily in a leaning posture. The century faces the woman question with an interrogation point. What are the replies that the women of totiny are making? What are the women of the world doing? Ido not go to Asia for an answer. Those nations which arroqate to themselves a policy anterior to written records offer the most graphic picture of woman and her degradation. It is the women of Europe and America who must answer Ihd question. Prance, England and America

give the best answer. France represents the conservative side of the education question, England the liberal side, America the radical side, WOMAN IN FRANCE. France is eminently the conservative element. The traditions of the middle ages still cling to France. The Roman Catholic Church has possesion of her house. The con - vent imprisons behind its walls the womanhood of the nation. It is said that a French woman only enjoys life at its ends. From infancy to eight years she is the angel of the household. Then the light of her life goos out until her marriage day. From the ages of eight to eighteen French girls of the better classes are put Into black aprons and shut up Dehind high masonry to prepare for life. What a preparation it is! Occasional visits from friends or a surreptitiously read novel give them an idea of the outer world and imagination fills up the gaps. These girls in the schools become dreamers. They dream of life and its duties and privileges, and their dreams are morbid and unreal as those from fever. A French girl knows that she is going to live some time, but how and why is as great a matter of speculation as the gold-paved streets of Jerusalem. She builds up a system. When her System is completed she feels it her duty to promulgate its doctrines. The nuns are everywhere. The dormitories are under strict supervision of the sisters, talking groups on the play grounds are always separated; but what’ persecutions do not add heat to the fervor of an enthusiast? There are secret councils among these black-aproned girls in which the ideal Adolphs and Augusts are compared; in which the profoundest mysteries of life and its duties are disposed of within the realm of the imagination alone. It is in this morbid atmosphere that the French giri’s preparation for life begins. She must study painting, music, danciug, bowing and needlework. These are the essentials in the French girl’s aducation. A bit of history and literature, a modicum of mathematics—geography outside the map of Paris and France is unnecessary; natural philosophy, physiology, geology, Latin and Greek are not known in these schools. There is no line of study for the discipline of the mind. There is everything for superficial social accomplishment. Co-education is looked upon with horror by parents, and a mingling of curiosity and astonishment by the school girls. The announcement that I had gone to school with boys all my life created immense excitement behind the high walls of my Freuch board-ing-school. At first I think I was looked upon with something of the same feeling as that aroused by Dr. Mary Walker in her masculine attire in the streets of New York. I was the theme of the hour, and was shunned as a social outcast for a whole day. Curiosity finally got the best of my schoolmates. They crowded about me and plied me with questions. If I chanced to say I thought education with boys was the best and most sensible way, there was the greatest merriment. My favorite teacher, a woman of twenty-five years, asked me with a book over her face and crimson to the temples, if I did not find it very difficult to study under such circumstances, adding, with a nervous laugh, that Bhe just knew she could not study for she would be looking at the boys all the time. It is with such morbed and unhealthy views of human life and its relations that the French girl is still educated. The convent system which thwarted the lofty nature of George Sand and turned it into false channels, stands to-day the recognized educational system for the girls in France. It is a system which, like the dry pod in springtime, still clings to the fre3h young,republic, stunting its growth, shutting out the sunshine of her republican freedom. Since the closing out of the Jesuitical schools for boys, French scholars have been projecting anew system of education for girls. Success to the enterprise! We look with pain at a republic whose women are little more advanced than those of the monarchies of Spain and Russia. What nation has been under the influence oPwomen for weal or woe, and mostly for woe, as the French nation? Behind almost every monarch’s throne woman has dictated. In commune and State crises it is the women of France who have stood firm and dared all. There is a native force of character in the French woman which is wanting in the French man. History tells ns so. The huckster-wpman of Paris in a tangle shows it. If France is to remain republican and to become, as sucb, great, it must be with the help of her women, and these women must read life and its duties in a larger and more open book than that of the Roman Catholic convent. WOMAN IN ENGLAND. Across the narrow channel from France we find the liberal phase of this educational question, Old England, conservative in her general policy, has been forced into a compromise with prejudice and the century. Prejudice said that woman should know how to make tea. The century declared boldly that woman had made tea so often that it could no longer keep her busy, and she must have something to think about. Prejudice said woman should gossip with her neighbors; the century maintained stoutly that gossip could no longer keep woman occupied and she must have new material to talk about. The strife grew hot. I never knew the century to lose in a question of progress. Prejudice may imprison a Galileo, but before the century gives up her theory the world moves. England was forced to give way before the demands of woman for a higher education. You may be sure her educational reforms are slowly and conditionally made, but her efforts are progressive. While English grandmothers fifty years ago were content to sit at home all day doing prodigies of needle-work and laying up stores of preserved fruits, their descendants are knocking at the uoors of the universities. Oxford and Cambridge were the first to hear the call. Edinburgh and Aberdeen soon followed. But the gowned doctors of these honored universities only peeped out at a half-open door, with wry faces, and promised the eager young applicants a lunen on the door-step. The University of London has thrown open all examinations and degrees equally to woman, but does not furnish her with a means of education. All preparation for these examinations must be made in the young ladies’ schools and colleges. The disadvantages of this half-way system will be readily seen. Oxford and the universities have their faculties of ripe scholars, whose lectures are greatly superior to instruction furnished by Oirton College, Newham Hall, or any of the other girl’s schools of England. These English universities hold out high honors before the tantalized sex, saying, "These are yours, if you can get them.” Everything is left for the accidental results of a scramble for certificates at examination, and the risk is thus run of giving a permanently low tone to female education. As for the English girl herself, she is insular to a painful degree. She inherits the views of her forefathers. She is automatic in her movements. Her reserve seems wisdom, where it often means a folly greater than the French girl’s impulses. English girls are circumscribed in their lives, and crow more or less after the same pattern. They are grouped together in a girls’ j|ullege, taken to and fro from church by their teachers, limited to certain grounds in their walks. They rise in the morning aud retire At night to the sound of the bell. There is a tendency to curb originality as unladylike; to surround them by that uncomfortable spirit of criticism which irritates and discourages. Whatever learning she may acquire, lam

THE INDIANAPOLIS JOURNAL, SATURDAY, JUNE IG, 1883.

inclined to think that the English girl will always be English and prejudiced. Whatever vivacity the bucolics of her classics may offer, the fogs of London will cool her ardor into strict propriety of thought and action Education for girls in England will become yet more liberal, but it will never become a mania. Precedent is strong for England. Oscar Wilde must come to America to plant extreme measures. And it is in America that radical measures in almost every innovation may be awaited. WOMEN IN AMERICA. The great nation with its noble heart wants to give every man a chance. Like Victor Hugo, America generally places herself on the radical side, not because she wants strikes, but because she loves freedom. The United States have placed themselves on the radical side of the woman question. It is here that the question of education is put absolutely on its own merits. No creed, as in France, overshadows with superstition and links woman to the middle ages. No social prejudice, as in England, confines and restrains her. There is no public sentiment in this nineteenth century which debars an American womam from developing as her nature is designed to develop. The French girl is superficial and romantic; the American girl is thorough and practical. The English girl is stiff and prosaic, the American girl is as free as a bird and originality clothes all her ideas. The girls across the sea live in mental and moral jackets; the American girl drinks in the pure air at full droughts aud fears not to call her soul her own. The unrestrained life of American girls is a grave problem which Europeans canuot solve. I do not agree when they call our system too radical. Woman must first have the experience of entire freedon. In her new life, when boys and girls are educated together, when every social barrier is down, when a heterogeneous mnss of students stand in the same relatiohs with each other as the brother and sister of the home, our system is surely put at its severest test. You may, all of you, have examples before you that discourage the continuance of this system. A lady student may be rude and boisterous—-she may be indolent and superficial; but examine the home training before you condemn the body of lady students of which she is a member. Where one by her superficiality casts reproach on her sex, a dozen others cover their sisters with honor by ladyhood, earnestness and intelligence. Granted that there are even general abuses of the higher co-edu-cational system, we know the theory is right. The natural instincts of woman will finally rectify mistakes. I sometimes wonder, myself, whether we are ready for this radical change that has come over our lives. Tbe traditions of tbe past still cling to us, somewhat. I have remarked students, gentlemen who among themselves argue on the merits of Clay, on the influence of Hamilton; who discuss chemical transformation and geological strata, and an hour later, perhaps, I have seen these same gentlemen with young ladies, their classmates, who really knew just as much as they, and the talk immediately turned to fashion, or dancing, or pretty compliments. This shows the tendency to cling to the old idea that there is mental inequality between the sexes. In those walks to the springs, the hills, the dip of the valley, the wayside with its crop of blossoms, the ferns, the fringe of the woodland pool—all gain fresh interest when science has taught us how to interpret them. The two whom you saw walking to the springs under the same umbrelftt have recited, perhaps, that very morning in botany or geology. Both knew equally well the secrets of the beauties about them, but nine cases out of ten, if the wind bears the conversation to you, they are talking about the awful hot weather or the jolly ice cream of the night before. Now were it he and he, or she and she, instead of he and she under that umbrella, there would doubtless be a review of the morning’s lesson, a classification of stones and analysis of blossoms. This state of things is nothing but the old-time tradition of woman’s helplessness and man’s courtesy toward the same. It is out of place with the century. I believe that the American gentleman will finally leave at home the young lady whose talk is frivolous, and choose that one who really makes his university education of value to him by giving an opportunity to use what he has learned. I believe the American young lady will finally refuse the escort who, while talking sense to his chums, pours out nonsense to her. American womanhood means something different to-day from what it did yesterday. Did you not see a promise of what she may become, by the woman who addressed us in chapel exercises the other Friday morning? Mrs. Wells, noble in bearing and language; Mrs. Willard, quiet and elegant, whose words were the purest English whose manners were of a real lady; Mrs. Wallace, the grandmother, whose arms, she said, had carried three generations. Did you remark the enthusiasm of Mrs. Wallace as she spoke of the future of American girls? That Friday morning gave a small example of what the true American women are doing all over the United States. They left their homes and families to fight for temperance. I have no reason to believe other than that,when they have won in the struggle against the vile monster, they will return to their fireshies as Cincinnatns to his plow. I have no reason to believe other than that these women took the public field because duty called them there. We saw earnest women at our Horticultural Association recently. Their voices trembled perhaps, and their papers shook in their hands as they read an account of their studies in horticulture. But these same women are preparing the the way for a yet braver aud broader generation of women, who will read unabashed the open book of nature. I fancy the Apostle Paul would be ashamed of his old prejudices could he hear some ot the American women of to day in their expositions of the Scriptures. It was her charity that called forth Paul’s praises of the good Priscilla. lam inclined to think bis admiration would be boundless for the women of our churches today, whose charity—equal to that of old-time Priscilla—is governed by a clear brain, fit to hold council jvith the eloquent Apostle himself. Ido not overrate the woman of to-day. I do not draw on my imagination for the woman of to-morrow. Plain history shows that almost any one of those girl-graduates, who really deserve the name of graduate—and these are many—would have been celebrated by poets and eulogized by scholars had she lived in the sixteenth century. It is because we live daily in the midst of this activity in the moral and intellectual growth of of one half of our nation that we do not realize its value. You could but be impressed with its importance, as I, after a 6tudy of European systems. It is then with this freedom round about them that the girls of America should cultivate the noblest elements of their nature. Tbe use made of present advantages will largely outline the horizon of the woman of the future. The idle enjoyment ot social pleasures cannot be placed in the balance witli the acquirement of those graces of mind and soul which fill life with so much beauty and happiness. The century in which we live offers an education as wide and varied as are the interests and duties of life, an education which diciplines and invigorates the soul, mind and body—that divine trinity which makes up the human nature in woman as man. Young men or middle aged ones, suffering from nervous debility and kindred weaknesses should send three stamps for Part VII of World's Dispensary Dime Buries of books. Address World’s Dispensary Medical Association, Buffalo, N. Y.

READING FOR THE SABBATH Do to-day thy nearest duty.—Grcthe. Who best can suffer best can do.—Milton. Be ashamed of nothing but ein.—John Wesley. The heaven-sent man is always successful. —Moody. Florida is having twenty-six new Protestant Episcopal churches built The more a man denies himself the more shall he obtain from God.—Thomas a Kempis. One of the greatest blessings you can enjoy is a tender, honest, and enlightened conscience.—Pascal. Fuller says: "He that falls into sin is a man; that grieves at it may be a saint; that boasteth of it is a devil.” The most successful composer of this generation is a long and dull preacher when the mercury is in the nineties. The Washington statue of Martin Luther lias been ordered from the German foundrj' and will be a counterpart of the Worms statue. A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in tbe wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser to-day than he was yesterday.—Pope. It is understood that Mr. D. L. Moody will conduct evangelical services in Boston under the auspices of the Young Men’s Christian Association during the summer months. A Gardiner, Me., man wills $2,000 to the Methodist Church there on the condition that it give up sociables. If the church people do not want the money, it is to go to the sick at the poor-house. The old slave market of Zanzibar, where formerly 30,000 slaves .were sold annually, has been transformed into mission premises, under the charge of the Universities’ mission, started in 1859 at the suggestion of Dr. Livingstone. The water of the holy well at Mecca has been fouud, on analysis, to contain 679 grains ot solid matter to the gallon, and is seven times worse than the sewage of London. This explains the prevalence of cholera among pilgrims. A church in Bavaria, accommodating a thousand people has been almost entirely built of papier-mache, which.can be supplied at a cost little above that of plaster. It can be made to imitate the finest marble, os it takes a polish superior to slate. The society of American ladies interested in the welfare of the young women employed in the stores of Paris, is working in conjunction with the McAll mission to open a women’s restaurant for them, in order to keep them from the immoral influences of Parisian cases. Ex-Congressman the Rev. J. Hyatt Smith very properly warns Sunday-school children against the “boneless fellow who pretends to be a Sunday-school teacher for the sole purpose of placing himself in social contact with the pretty girls.” The Reverend Smith has probably been there himself. Canon Farrar has been promoted from the canonry to be-* archdeacon of Westminster. For the sake of those who are not familiar with the gradations of rank in the Anglican system, it mav be stated that an archdeacon is next in rank to a bishop; and is, in virtue of his office, judge overall ecclesiastical court which takes cognizance of minor ecclesiastical offenses. A traveler throueb Merv oasis, a garden spot in the great desert of Sahara, discovered seven Jewish families, who have been established there for an unknown period of time, and who have preserved intact the costume, religion and language of their ancestors, who were probably Chaldean. There are many stories of isolated Jewish communities in Central Asia. The Churchman has a neat way of stating a condition of affairs which is not peculiar to the Protestant Episcopal Church: “The Bishop of Illinois, in an admirable charge made to the recent diocesan convention, administered a severe and just rebuke to that iittle fraction of his clergy which has shown that it looks upon ordination as only a preliminary to insubordination.” A prominent minister in Buffalo recently said: “At least seven-eighths of the work done, aside from the preparation and delivery of sermons, is for tnose who are in no way identified with the congregation except as rare attendants.” A young minister, settled in a New England city, has during a short pastorate officiated at 115 funerals, G 9 of which have been of people entirely outside of his parish. The Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, a very able German missionary magazine, estimates the total number of adherents to Protestant missions at 2,283.700, namely: In America, including Greenland and the West Indies, with all Indian and Spanish missions. 608,100; Africa, 577,600; Asia, 754,000; south 5ea5,|264,000. By adherents are meant not actual communicants, but those who have become indentified with Protestant missions. Sir Richard Temple said lately: “I have, during my life in India, been the local governor of 105.000,000 of people in different provinces. Thousands of Europeans have served under me, and I ought to know something of the value and character of men. I have also been acquainted with the missionary stations throughout the length and breadth of the country. I believe that a more talented, zealous, and able body of men than the missionaries does not exist in India.” Western Christian Advocate: “For some months past Dr. J. S. Wood, pastor of Wesley Chapel, New Albany, has been greatly afflicted in his eyes, and has been under treatment. Not recovering as he hoped, and feeling he could not do the work of the church satisfactorily to himself, on Sunday, June 3, he asked to be releated from the charge, and someone put in his place. His people utterly refused to consent to such a change, but appreciating fcis need of rest, they granted him the privilege of freedom from preaching and pastoral work until such time as he may be restored to health.” The employment of lay preachers has for some time past been very forcibly advocated in some of the leading nonconformist journals in England. The question came up for discussion at the recent meeting of the Congregational Union in London. The result was the adoption of a set of resoiutionsin the main favorable to the employment of such agency in certain circumstances and under certain conditions. The resolutions have been sent down for the approval of the county associations. If the employment of the best available talent in the church for evangelistic purposes is to be commended, the union has taken a step in the right direction. A correspondent writes: “In a paragraph in the Leisure Hour for February there is a statement that William Wilberforce, when weighed at Stoke Newington, was found to be only seventy-six pounds, or less than five stone and a half. The account closes with the inquiry: ‘What was John Wesley’s weight?* 'flie answer to that question can be given in Mr. Wesley’s own words. The extract is from .Stevenson’s ‘Memorials of the Wesley Family,* page 350. On visiting his friends the Rev. Vincent Perronet, of Shoreham, he made this entry in his journal: ‘ln the year 1769 I weighed 122 pounds. In the year 1783 I weighed not a pound more nor a pound less. I doubt if another such instance ' is to be found in Great Britain.* It may be mentioned that John Wesley is said by the family of his brother Charles to have been five feet five and a half inches high, and his father was also the same height”.—Leisure Hour, Broad and Narrow-Gauge Christian Life, Oliver Wendell Holmes. The Christian life may be compared to n system of railroads. Some are broad gauge

i some are narrow gauge. Some run parj ailel and near to each other; some diverge and follow what seem to others needless, roundabout ways. But all lead to the Celestial City. The churches are so many stations. These have walls which inclose a certain number who want their protection, and wide, projecting eaves which shelter a great many more who wish to be near the track, but must have plenty of air at any rate. Two churches have the broadest eaves of all. I will not name them, b’’t this I will say, that j they spread their eaves so far out toward each I other that a poor 6inner can slip from one station to that of the neighboring track with- ! out getting very wet in the worst theological weather. ANECDOTES OF JKPER3ON. His Rustic Relative Outdone—Hiding a Bible with the Democrats* Harper’* Drawer for July. My recollection of Mr. Jefferson, says an old gentleman of Virginia, is vivid, as I knew him well, and often visited at Monticello. lie was the handsomest man I ever saw, as straight as an arrow, very dignified and courteous in his manners to all. A superb rider, he exercised himself on horseback till the last year of his life. The University of Virginia was his pet scheme, and he was very proud of it a being his own achievement. At its first session I entered as a student, and Mr. Jefferson waa always pleased to have us students at his table. Upon these oc- j casio ns we were generally seated around the table, when Mr. Jes- j ferson would enter and walk straight j to an adjoining side table specially prepared for him, and upon which were placed two lighted candles and a small by his plate. He would then say: “My daughter, I perceive there are several young gentlemen at the table, but I do not see well enough to distinguish who thev are, so you must tell me their names.’* Whereupon his daughter would lead him up to each young fentleman, who would in turn rise, when Ir. Jefferson would shake hands and pass a pleasant word with him. At the close of the repast, as his own hand was too trembling. his daughter would pour from the little vial into a tumbler a few drops of medicine to produce slumber in case he should be wakeful, and then he would take up the tumbler and a candle, make a stately bow to the assemblage, and retire to his bed-room. He always had company at his house, and observed the French hours for meals. A relative of Mr. Jefferson’s, though very desirous of visiting him, was yet disinclined to thrust his rusticity and illiterateness on his great kinsman. Upon one occasion, however, he was prevailed upon to attend a social gathering at Monticello, when, upon being, ushered into the salon, he was duly presented by Mr. Jefferson to the company. During this ceremony the awkward countryman slipped up several times on the wellwaxed floor, ana then, seating himself, thoroughly ill at ease, was perfectly silent. After chatting with some of his guests, Mr. Jefferson took a seat beside his relative and made an unusual effort to be agreeable, talking on all manner of topics, but without even receiving answers to his queries or making the slightest impression upon the visitor, who remained as dumb as an oyster. In despair of drawing him out, Mr. Jefferson happened to ask him if he liked “blackjack’’ fishing. The countryman’s eyes snapd, and his mouth poured forth a garrulous [get in regard to his favorite sport, to all which Mr. Jefferson, amused, as were the others present, listened attentively. When at last the countryman made an end, Mr. Jefferson opened up eloquently on the same subject, displaying an intimate knowledge of “black-jack,” so far surpassing that of his relative that the latter was held spell-bound. When the great Signer stopped talking the countryman rushed for his hat and bolted from the mansion, nor could vociferous calls persuade him to return. There was a greater fear of, but less faith in, Jefferson than his relative exhibited among the Northern Federalists, who firmly believed that he was little better than Antichrist. A story illustrative of the state of feeling with regard to the French party is related of a pious old Federalist lady who lived in a town in Connecticut. It was believed in her neighborhood that if tbe Federalists were overthrown, and the Jefferson Democrats came into power, the Christian religion would be put down and athersm proclaimed, and among the first persecutions would be the destruction of all the Bibles. The lady referred to was terribly wrought up at this prospect, and cast about in her mind how she would preserve the Scriptures in the general destruction. At length it occurred to her to go to ’Squire S , the only Democrat of her acquaintance, and throw herself upon his mercy. She accordingly took her family Bible to him, and telling him tnat she had heard of the intention of the Jeffersonians, asked him to keep it for her. The ’Squire attempted to persuade her that her fears were groundless, but she was too panic-stricken to be convinced. At last he said: “My good woman, if all the Bibles are to be destroyed, what is the use of your bringing yours to me? That will not save it when it is found.” “Oh yes,” she pleaded, with a charming burst of trust. “You take it; it will be perfectly safe. They’ll never think of looking in the house of a Democrat for a Bible.” Free Passes in New Hampshire. Concord Monitor. There is one member of the Legislature who places no faith in the agitation over free passes. His home is way up in the northern part of the State, and the car-fare to Concord represents the combined income from his potato patch and piggery for a whole season. For this reason his visits to the capital have been few and far between hitherto, but when his fellow townsmen honored him with an election as representative, visions of tri-week-ly journeys to and from the Mecca of all upcountry politicians were constantly before his eyes. By day lie talked about it, and at nieht he dreamed of it. The hired man was given to understand that lie “should be up in the middle of the week gen’rally,” and the “old lady” was told “not to worry about the marketing ’cause lie could do it Saturdays.” To-day he is a sadder, but wiser man. He struck the first snag when the conductor insisted on his paying his fare before he had been in the cars three minutes. Then he went to the superintendent of the road and informed him that he had called to get his pass. Here disappointment again awaited hjm, for said officer had not received his instructions at that time. And so he had to pay his fare all the way just as common folks do. Thursday he sat down and wrote his wife a long letter in which he enclosed instructions to the hired man about shearing the sheep and cutting the hay, and getting up the wood next winter in case he should not get home by that time. Instead of doing the marketing Saturdays he will sit around on the Statehouse steps and wonder how long it will be before he ‘can vote agin them railroads that are goin’ to ruin the country.” Tlie Man Who Smiles. Detroit Free Free*. The hour for closing having arrived, the triangle was struck, the glee?club sang an original chant by Judge Cadaver, and Brother Gardner arose and said: “Bewar’ of de man who w’ars a habitual smile. A face which am alius on de grin am as much to be feared as <le one which alius carries a frown. An’, too, us you pass ober de crooked road ob life, gwine up hill one day an’ down de nex’, doan disremember de sack data boy kin make mo’ noise poundin’ on an empty hogshead dan a man kin produce by clubbiu’ a bar’l o’ sugar. We will now pour some cold water on Elder Toe ts an* wake him up, close de stove, upsot ie water-pail, an* disassemble to our respectable homes.”

CURRENT FASHION NOTES. Dotted and tambour muslins, worn over color, with yards of lace and ribbons for trimming, are among the prettiest of toilets for the sea-side. Gold basket-straw bonnets, trimmed with ' flame-colored lace and fancy silver straws and i velvet intermingled, are the newest fancies in French millinery. When there are two or three sets of narrow ribbon strings to bonnets, each set should be tied separately in order to make looselooking loops, and keep them from matting together. silk gloves that are worn out at tbe tips ot the fingers may be made into stylish mitts by cutting off the fingers entirely, and ' also half of the thumb. The top is then hemmed neatly, or else button-hole stitched ! around. Gauze Balbriggan stockings of very light t quality are worn inside colored silk stockings I to protect the skin when the color rubs off, to-j prevent the unpleasant “creepy” feeling, and l also to keep the fine stockings from being-* stained by perspiration. There is no prettier of less expensive finish j to kilt-pleatings than a group of tucks near the foot, and these are now U9ed alike on i silk and wool dresses such as foulards, alba- j tross cloth, etc,, and even on the better changeable silks and ottomans. Some of tbe new apron overskirts on French dresses are made entirely without gores, the five breadths of which they are, 1 composed being straight—not sloped—and they are thus as full at the top as at the bottom, in order to give the appearance of large hips and voluminous draperies. For simple black or colored grenadine the best choice are those with canvas square meshes, the arinure patterns, or the sewingsilk grenadines. These are most effective when made up with lustrous satin, which appears only as linings and frills at the foot. The inexpensive satin surahs are liked so this purpose, as they wear well and are of light weight. The favorite basque for wash dresses imitates the jersey ana has but three seams, the j French back and wide front, fitted by two] darts, one of which comes well under the arm. New York modistes are making morn- 1 ing dresses of gray linen, with such basques, long and perfectly plain, with tight sleeves, over which the long jersey gloves are drawn almost to the elbow. The apron overskirt is simply draped, and the underskirt has a single deep flounce for trimming. Bodices are of all sorts, aesthetic, waists much shirred, plain Jersey basques, long! polonaises fully draped, pointed corsages, j jockey basques, round Josephine waists, Sarah Bernhardt blouses, and so on—you may take your own choice, and suit your own style among the variety, or the mistake rests on your own head. As to the drapery, no two dresses are exactly alike, excepting those turned out at the factories by the dozen. It is impossible to describe them, since each skirt is different, fashionable dress-makers draping each costume on tbe wearer, if possible, or, failing that, on a model the same size. Evening Costumes. New York Evening Post. A glance at a throng of ladies at any fashionable evening party will show how very largely rich colored jackets are still worn over skirts of lace tulle, veiling, and ocher light fabrics. The skirts are invariably short when worn with these jackets, and are also very bouflant. The most approved shape for the spepcer is that known as the’ Newmarket, but unlike the Newmarket proper, it is cut with elbow sleeves, and usually fashioned heart-shape in the neck, j Embossed velvet, plain Lyons velvet, heavy l satin brocade, or rich Oriental embossed! materials are all appropriate. A handsome imported toilet of this kind has a short skirt; made of white lace over primrose faille.. Four flounces of the lace completely cover the skirt, and above this are draped “Cleo-j patra” paniers of brocaded net, edged with a, deep lace ruffle, headed by a wide band of! white marabout. To be worn over this skirt is a Newmarket of magnificent brocade with ground of primrose satin, on which are raised velvet roses of a pale pink hue, and of natural size. The elbow-sleeves and square opening in the neck are adorned with ruffles of lace matching those upon the skirt, and at the left side of the opening of the corsage is set a large bouquet of blush roses and daffodils. Bustles and Shoulder-Straps, Harper’* Bazar. The most fashionable modistes depend principally on the drapery of the dress itself for giving the very large tournures which are now in vogue. There are, however, many who do not understand arranging these intricate draperies, and there are flat figures that need a small bustle in addition to any dress, no matter how full. For these slight figures the newest bustles are made of eight narrow frills of barred muslin or hair-cloth very fully pleated on a V-shaped foundation piece of the same muslin,3that is curved into shape by strings tied across it—not by the objectionable bones or steel hoops. If anything more is needed, one or two steels are put in casings across the back breadths of the dress skirt. There is also what is (ailed a bustle 3kirt, combining a tournure and petticoat in one, and this when trimmed across the foot with flounces is worn by stout ladies, and made to serve as the only skirt. This has some hoop* across the back that stop on the sides, and there are one or two muslin flounces around the feet; tapes attached to the sides are tied underneath the hoops to give them the desired curve. Another skirt that gives good size, dispenses with hoops, and may be easily made at home and laundried there at smalL cost, is a bustle skirt made of corded muslin. The muslin with the cords in stripes will do very well. These skirts are about two yards wide and an eighth in width at the foot, with the front and side gores: slightly sloped to the top, and the back! breadth sloped up the middle, thus cutting it in two pieces to make a shapely foundation for flounces that are placed across it. There are five of these flounces that cover it from a few inches below the belt to the foot, and the lowest flounce goes around tho skirt. These gathered flounces are very full, and, after being stiffly starched, they are worn “rough dried” —that is, without ironing. Instead of a straight belt have a French waistband shaped to a point in front, and made quite large, with a drawing-string in tbe top. Shoulder-straps similar to gentlemen’s suspenders are furnished to hold up heavilytrimmed dress-skirts and keep them in their proper place just below the waist line. These may be merely elastic ribbons sewed permanently to the skirt back, to be passed over the shoulders and hooked or buttoned to the belt in front. There are also separate suspenders that may be attached to any dress by the hooks that finish each end. These straps transfer the weight of the dress from the hips to the shoulders, and the wearer must decide for herself where she can best endure this weight. Little, Hut Plucky, National Republican. Dr. Mary Walker has started opposition to Billy McGlory in the life-saving business, and she isn’t advertising it either. In walking down F street, neay Seventh, she saw a little child crossing the street in the path of a flying team of horses, and at great personal risk she ran out and bore tho reckless youngster to a place of safety, narrowly escaping being run down herself In doing it. JEsTrtETics is the science of tbe beautiful. The meed of merit for promoting personal teatuetlca is due to J. C. Ayer <fc Cos., whoso Incomparable Hair Vigor is a universal beautltler of tho hair. Harmless, effective, agreeable, it has taken rank union* the indispensable articles of the toilet. To scanty locks it gives luxuriance, and wllhvied hairs It clothes with tho hue of youth.