Indiana State Sentinel, Volume 28, Number 36, Indianapolis, Marion County, 3 September 1879 — Page 9

INDIANA STATE SENTINEL SUPPLEMENT.?

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HOLD TJP YOUR HEAD USE A HAN.

E. BIEDIB TEALL. Well, what if you re la trouble, my friend, Or have debts which yoa can not repay. Aa soon as yon wish? All streams hare an end. And each night is succeeded by day. Dont yon know that repining will not help yonr easel To be eheerful's the far better plan. To be steadfast and firm, wearing a smiling face , And hold np yonr head like a man. Midst the turmoil of life we are prone to bewail Oar lot, should we make a mistake. But jog along easy and never say fail. And you'll conquer what yon undertake. There's mnch to encourage a resolute heart. For yonr friends all your actions will scan. And will help and assist you in doing your part Xf you hold np your head like a man. So, whistle and sing, drive dnll care away, And you surely will never regret That you've tried to be thankful, contented And fortune may smile on you yet. Tonr burdens are snrely never so great Bnt our Father will lighten the band Under which you labor io sorrowful strait, If you hold up your bead like a man. and gay, ADVENTURES WITH AN OLD MAID. BY C. W, XMBKEK. George Harvey was an enterprising young man in the boot and shoe business, and kept a charming little store on a street corner where all the pretty girls went past and smiled upon him. Sometimes they would go in to purchase new boots, and then Mr. Harvey would insist that two were just the fit for number four feet, and they would graciously permit him to button them up, unmindful of the excruciating pain . he caused. But then how could they be expected to buyjanything larger than three of such a charming young man as sut. uarvey. Mr. Harvey loved a female, but this did not interfere with his business, or prevent him from buttoning other young ladies' boots, He also hated a female, which was a great waste of leather for Mr. Harvey, as the hated female bought all her goods at Mr. Worth's, and "so did her sisters and her cousins and her aunts." But George said he was delighted with this state of affairs, and often assured Mr. Foster, who kept a bookstore next door, that he would not fit a shoe on her foot for double price. He described her to Mr. Foster as an old maid of the worst type a miracle of length and slimness all bones and saffroncolored skin. But you should have heard him describe his lady-love his Lydia. Such hair, such teeth, such a silvery laugh and such an exquisite form I If you could but hear him, you would readily excuse me for not attempting a description of this passing fair damsel. His enthusiasm when speaking of her could only be equalled by his deep sarcasm when speaking of the old maid his neighbor over the way. George was prejudiced against old maids in the beginning, and this one was his bete noir. She had written him an indignant letter, beginning with "My Stumpy, Self-Conceited .Little .Neighbor," in which she laid an. injunction on the trespassing of his canine on her premises, and ended by a demand for pay for the poultrv the dog had killed. George answered her thus: "ill UNGAINLY AND ILL-CONDITIONED neighbor: Keep your feline on your side of the inclosure, and I'll keep my canine on mine "Tours affectionately, G. H." On the same evening he penned a letter to Lydia his loved one. He told her of his undying love tor her, and that it was impossible to live withont her. He assured her that he never fitted a shoe on any lady without thinking of her shapely foot, longing to , call it his own. Then he besought her, in words that were glowing and ornate, to reciprocate his unbounded love and consent to be his bride. "And now, my first and only love, if you will be mine mine forever and ever come to me this evening with a kiss, and my happiness is made." Now Mr. "Harvey did not put the wrong letter in the wrong envelope, as some heroes would have done, thus turning this story in another channel; no, he was very careful. Evensng came on apace, and the enamored George sat by the open window in a pleasant state of expectancy. He lit a fragrant Havanna and looked forth into the waning twilight. "I am sure of her answer," he soliloquized. "She will accept, the dear girl!" The twilight faded, and his cigar grew shorter and shorter as he meditated. "Wonder where Jumbo is?" he said, suddenly. Jumbo was the dog which had so offended his neighbor, and as his thoughts reverted to her he began to smile. He was thinking of his many skirmishes with the cats; how oft in the stilly hours of the night had he risen from his couch with low, deep imprecations, and hurled boots, slippers, boot-jacks and flower pots at the undying felines. How oft had Jumbo been raised from his peaceful slumbers to attack these same musicians and bring back his master's property. B$.t last night he had succeeded in bringing down their leader, and bis heart was filled with joy. True, he had broken all his landlady's vases, and thrown a pair of his best boots into the enemy's emcampment; but what signified boots? He had plenty more, and his soul was glad when he thought of the assassinated Tom. He knew the owner would be furious, and would wreak her vengeance on him in some way, and now it occurred to him that she might injure his dog. - But he would not trouble himself about Jumbo at present; he had pleasanter thoughts to dwell on now; so he leaned back luxuriously in his soft chair, and, closing his eyes, meditated dreamily on the future happiness he would enjoy with sweet Lydia. How long he sat there he did not know, but he was suddenly aroused by Jumbo's jumping through the open window and falldead at his feet. "Poisoned I" he ejaculated, raising his favorite's head. His hand came in contact with a piece of Vapsr attached to his collar, and he opened It hastily; expecting to find a very vindictive letter from the irate Miss Smith. But what was his surprise to read these words: Mr. Harvkt Forgive every thing and come to my aid. Three robbers have attacked the bouse, and 1 am alone. I am armed .with a butcher knife, and will keep them at bay . till you come to the rescue. ' I had captured your dog for the purpose of killing him, but will spare him for a better purpose, unless the robber's shoot him. Tours ." Miss Smith. . "V. S. Come in at Uw window." . -" All past wrongs were forgotten; - and the - noble nature within him was stirred at this - woman's danger.. Hastily snatching up his , revolver ne leaped from the window and - scaled the partition fence. Seeing a window ' at the rear of the house was open, he got in,

then he stopped to listen. He was in a bedchamber, and distant sounds of the strife reached him. What man is there who, when he comes to face a danger, does not feel fear? None but heroes in novels. Our hero was not that kind. He trembled, and when he heard the report of a pistol, he quaked. Then there was a step outside the door. He tried to cock his revolver, but was to nervous. A hand was on the door-knob, and Mr. Harvey slid under the bed, regardless of his elegant, new pantaloons. The door opened, and Miss Smith herself entered. Her face was swollen with rage, and her nose very red. She was talking vehemently and gesticulating excitedly. "It's a good thing for them boys that I didn't get hold of 'em!" she cried. "I wouldn't a'left a whole bone in their bodies the good-for-nothing whelps!" A light broke in on the perspiring Harvey as he lay his whole length under the bed. He was the victim of a practical joke played by those same boys. How heartily he wished Miss Smith had got hold of them! "They're as mean," she continued, "as that stuck up George Harvey, and that is saying a good deal." (His ague fit "increased in violence.) "It was them that stole the cur away from me before I could kill him. ; But I'll pay that villain yet, for killing Tom!" "Oh, for some avenue of escape!" sighed the incarcerated enemy. Miss Smith continued to rave for some time, but finally she grew calm, and proceeded to close the window and draw the curtains. Harvey groaned inwardly. Then she locked the door, and Harvey despaired. "I'm lost! Oh, Lydia, Lydia!

- Miss Smith went to the glass and took off her hair. - He peeped out. "Cranium smooth as an egg," he mentally noted. . She opened her mouth and took out her teeth. ' Harvey shuddered. -How hideous !" he muttered. "Mon Dieu ! Mon Dieu!" He knew this much French, but did not know the meaning. It relieved his feelings, however. Presently Miss Smith began to unbutton her shoes. "Foot like a flat-iron," muttered Georire. thinking of his beloved's pretty, plump foot and ancle. "But how shall I get out?" tie groaned aloud in biterness of spirit. Miss Smith started as though a bombshell had burst at her feet. George buried his head in his arms and groaned again, regardless of consequences. "1 hieves! robbers! help murder! scream ed Miss Smith; and gasping her victim by the hair, she drew him into the middle of the room. When she recognized him she gave another shrill scream. "Oh! you wretch you vile creature! I'll show you how to hide under the couch of an unprotected female! Oh, you thief you miscreant! She clutched a formidable butcher-knife and stood over him menacingly. Harvey went down on his knees and clasped his hands. "Let me explain," he cried. "No you don't, villain ! There's only one way you can make atonement, and that is by marrying me." Marry her! Jlerciful Heaven! Marry that paragon of ugliness! Oh, Lydia! Lydia! "bpeak out! she shrieked. "Quick! and the knife was descending when he gasped "Tes yes," and sank on the floor. She threw her arms about his neck and began to drag him up. Then he awoke. A pair of arms were round his neck; rosy lips were tenderly touching his, and a silvery laugh rippled through the room. The moon was shining through the window, and revealed his own sitting-room and this fair form. "It was a dream, it was a dream !" he cried. and clasped the slender form of his dear .Lydia to his heart, while J umbo barked with delight. The Family Hammer. Toung Scientist. There is one thing no family pretends to be without. This is a hammer. And yet there is nothing that goes to make up the equipment of a domestic establishment that causes one-half as much agony and profanity as a hammer. It is always an old hammer with a handle that is inclined to sliver, and always bound to slip. The face is round as a full moon and as smooth as glass. When it striks a nail full and square, which it has been known to do, the act will be found to result from a combination of pure accidents. The family hammer is one of those rare articles we never profit by. When it glides off a nail head, and mashes down a couple of fingers, we unhesitatingly deposit it in the yard, and observe that we will never use it again. But the blood has hardly dried on the rag before we are out of doors in search of that hammer, and ready to make another trial. The result rarely varies, we never profit by it. The awful weapon goes on knocking off our nails and mashing off joints and slipping off the handle, to the confusion of the mantel ornaments and breaking the commandments, and cutting up an assort ment of astounding and unfortunate antics, without let or hindrance. And yet we put np with it, and put the handle on again, and lay it where it won't get lost, and do up our mutilated and smarting fingers, and if the outrageous thing should happen to get lost we kick up a regular hullabaloo until it is found again. Talk about the tyrannyzing influence of a bad habit! It is not to be compared to the family hammer. Strength of Character. Strength of character consists of two things power of will and power of selfrestraint. It requires two things, therefore, to its existence strong feeling and strong command over them. Now it is here that we make a great mistake we mistake strong feelings for strong character. A man who bears all before him, before whose frown domestics tremble, and whose bursts of fury make the children of the household quake because he has his will obeyed and his own way in all things, we call him a strong man. The truth is, that is the weak man. It is his passions that are strong; he, mastered by them, is weak. What to Hold on To. , . Hold on to your tongue when you are just ready to swear, lie, speak harshly, or do any important act. Hold on to your hand when you are about to strike, pinch, scratch, steal, or do any disobedient or improper act. Hold on to your foot when on the point of kick ing, running away from duty, or pursuing the path of error, shame or crime. Hold on to your temper when you are angry, excited or imposed on or others are angry at you, Hold on to your good name at all times, for it is of more value to yon than gold, high places, or fashionable attire.

WHAT AND HOW TO BEAD.

Dr. Holmes' Remarks Before a Boston Society. At a meeting of the society to encourage studies at Jiome, held recently in Boston, Dr. Holmes made some remarks "On Keading." speaking as follows: , Die tor a man is a serious sentence or capital punishment, with a . respite of a few scores of years. For a woman it is the same, with imprisonment during a large part of the period of respite. As daughter, sister, wile, mother, aunt, granamotner, ner work is in most cases, to a great extent, indoor work. There are no bars or bolts to her prison, but she can not escape from it, as the inmates of our Concord State prison do when tired of the place. Ail prisoners nnd something to do or they will feed upon their own souls and bodies. Tou may remember the story of the black pin which the lady wore as a brooch but it will bear repeating. Her husband had been confined in prison for some political offense. He was left alone with his thoughts to torture him. No voice, no book no implement silence, darkness, misery, sleepless selftorment; and soon it must be madness. Alii at once he thought of something to occupy these terrible, unsleeping faculties. He took a pin from his neckcloth and threw it upon the floor. Then he groped for it. It was a little object, and the search was a long and laborious one. The eye of the Almighty, says the Eastern story-teller, can see the smallest emmet in the darkest night, on the blackest stone. But the prisoner had not the eye of the Omniscient, and it took him a great while to find the little object he was in search of. At last he found it, and felt a certain sense of satisfaction in difficulty over come, -but he nad lound a great deal more than the pin he had found an occupation, and every day he would fling it from him and lose it, and hunt for it and at last find it, and so he saved himself from going mad; and you will not wonder that when he was set free and gave the little object to which he owed his reason, and, perhaps his life, to his wife, she had it set round with pearls, and wore it next her heart. I was never in iail as a prisoner mvself. but I have been quite as badly off as if 1 had been shut up on a short sentence confined in quarantine at Marseilles. What can be worse than that shut up as an infected person, supposed to carry about with him, not the comparatively harmless implements of a robber or a burglar, not the jimmy and re volver, but the seeds ot a pestilence which will decimate cities and devastate whole countries, which makes one the enemy of his race, who may be shot but must not be touched, whom one must get the windward of before speaking to him, and from whom a beggar would not take a dollar unless it bad been fumigated. Well. 1 found myself imprisoned with four bare walls. I had one book with me; you know what that book ought to have been, but it was not that. It was an old Latin book villainous Latin it was written in a history of some two or three hundred rare medical cases, by Nicholas Tulpius, whose portrait some of you have seen in a famous picture of Rembrandt, or a well-known engraving from it. How did I read that one book ! I was in my twenties then, but I remember many of those cases as I do not any others that I read at that period of my life. I doubt if any living man knows them as well as I do. tSo much for being shut up and having but one book to read. A woman in captivity to her duties is not reduced to such extremities as those of the unfortunates I have mentioned. Her household labors, whether of work or of superintendence, are varied in most cases to avoid unendurable monotony. Every woman has her needle, at any rate, or had, for I have been told, but hope it is not true, that some young women of the present day are entirely unschooled in its use. For the lesser troubles of life, when a man takes to his pipe or cigar, if not to some more potent and dangerous anaesthetic, a woman takes to her sewing or knitting. The needle points are to her nervous irritability what the lightning-rod is to the electricity of the storm cloud. But the work of hemming handkerchiefs and towels, of knitting mittens and even afghans this and those other household labors from which few are wholly exempted, are not enough to take up all the mental energy of the busiest young woman. What did they do before the days of printed books? they carried the songs of their tribe, of their nation the songs which were the best part of their literature in their memory. Now the rivulet which the press poured out four centuries ago has widened with every suc ceeding generation, till it is no longer a stream within its banks, but an inundation. Books, reviews, magazines, newspapers, come in upon us like a flood, and the land marks of our old literature are lost sight of if they are not swept away. Ihere never was a time when young readers were in such need of guidauce. Let me touch very slightly three questions suggested by this state of things. 1. Shall we read that is, shall we make a serious business of reading? This seems a strange question to ask, but let me give some meaning to it. It was at the hospitable board of this very house that I heard the late Mr. Edward - Everett tell a story of Lord Palmers ton, which I have never lorgotten and often repeated. Some one asked him, "Have you read a certain book?" naming it. "1 never read printed books," was Lord Palmerston's answer. Mr. Everett did not explain or account for this answer, so far as I remember, but I suppose he meant that he had enough to do with reading written documents. newsDariers. the faces and characters of men, and. listening to .their conversation to find out what they meant perhaps quite as often what they did not mean. Some persons need . reading much moro than others. One of the best preachers l have known read comparatively little. ' But he talked and listened, and kept his mind sufficiently nourished, without overburden ing it. On the other band, one of the roost brilliant men I have known was always reading. He read more than his mind eould fairly digest, and brilliant as he was, his con' venation ' had too much the character of those 'patchwork quilts one sees at country cattle shows, so variegated was it with all sorts or quotations. The first time I ever visited Theodore Parker he was not quite 80 years old, and I vwu mat iiis reputation as a scholar nnu retched me. In looking round his library i saw upon his shelves the rreat series of quar toswhich I knew by their title only, if at all Brucker's Historii Critica Philosobhss. "You have hardly read that I suppose, l aid, not thinking that any student, in these

degenerate days, grappled with these megatherial monsters of primitive erudition.

"Oh yes, 1 have" be answered -very quietly; and then I, who thought I was dealing with a modest young divine of the regulation pattern, took another look at the massive head of the young man, whom Mr. Wendell Phil lips bas lately spoken or as the "Jupiter oi the pulpit." ' Somewhere between these two extremes most of us find ourselves. But we must remember the French saying, "l'appetit vent en mangvent," or, as Hamlet would phrase it. increase of appetite grows by what it leeds on; and if we do not love books enough naturally, we must acquire the habit of loving them, if possible, as peopleacquire bad habits, that of intoxication or opium-eating, beginning with a little and trusting that by and by we shall thirst for more. What shall we read? I am very thankful that it does not fall to my lot to answer this question. I do honestly assure you I had rather ask this question of the ladies and gentlemen who have undertaken to direct the home studies of those who are fortunate enough to be under their guidance. than to answier it. What infinite wa3te of labor might not such guidance have saved me, could I have had it, and have had wisdom and eood sense to profit by it, at a certain period of my life! I congratulate you most sincerely and deeply that the thoroughly cultivated intelligence of the scholars who surround me has been made tributary to your advancement in sound knowledge and wholesome training. It is a task of great difficulty to point out the proper course for so many minds of different natural aptitudes and different stages of education. In this inundation of literature I have spoken of most young minds will be overpowered by some flood or other. . The daughters of Danaus are not all dead yet; on the contrary, their number is legion. All those young women who pass their days and nights in reading endless story-books novels, so called, doubtless from their w;tnt of novelty what are they doing but pouring water into buckets whose bottoms are as full of holes as a cullender, and which would have nothing to show if Niagara had been emptied into them? 3. How shall we read? I must answer this question very briefly. I believo in reading, in a large proportion, by subjects rather than by authors. . Some books must be read tasting, as it were, every word. Tennyson will bear that, as Milton would, as Gray would for they tasted every word themselves, as TJde or Careme would taste a pottage meant for a king or a queen. But once become familiar with a subject and you can read a page as a flash of lightning reads. Learn a lesson from iioudin and nis son's practice of looking in at a shop window and remembering all they saw. Learn to read a page in the shortest possible time, and to stand a thorough examination on its contents. The Czar Nicholas. A young student, a relative of the writer, had, with a few friends, formed a literary society in which the works of contemporary political economists, publicists and philosophers were read and debated. The secret police denounced this society as a revolutionary organization, and the young student was imprisoned and condemned to Siberia. AH possible influence was brought to bear on the czar, but in vain, and at last the young man s mother, meeting the czar one day in the summer garden, knelt and implored her son's pardon, asserting his innocence. The czar seemed touched, and promised to give the youth a personal interview. The latter was brought to his majesty the next day, and the czar, forcing him to his knees before an image of the Saviour, and exclaimed: "Can you swear before Almighty God that neither you nor your associates had any crim inal design against my life? Can you swear that you believe in the holiness and eternity or the .Russian autocracy? The surprised prisoner answered: "I can swear to your majesty that neither 1 nor any of my friends had the remotest idea against your safety. As to the autocratic form of government, I can not conscientiously swear that I believe in its eternity. The history of other countries teaches us that the time must come, even in Russia, when the people themselves will take part in its government 7 The czar tenderly embraced the student, and giving him a ring drawn Irom the imperial finger, said: "This is a token of respect from your Czar. Tou have been sincere and truthful to me, and there is nothing I hate so much as a lie." He then approached the writing-table where lay the student s sentence of exile, and with one stroke of his pen, signed the paper! "I pity you from the bottom of my heart," he said; "you are an honest man, and an honest man, true to his convictions, is more danger ous' to autocracy than an unprincipled rascal. Therefore, I must punish you, though never was this duty more painiui to me than now, God bless you, my son, and judge me merci fully if I should appear to be in the wrong. Then once more embracing the student, he dismissed him to Siberia. Though the Earth be Removed. The traveler Humboldt gives an interest ing account of the first earthquake he wit nessed, it was at tumana, in soutn America. ' The first shock came after a strange stillness. It caused an earthquake in his mind, for it overthrew in a moment all his life-long notions - about the safety of the earth. The crocodiles ran from the river Orinoco, howling into the woods, the dogs and pigs were powerless with fear. The whole city seemed "the hearth of destruction." The houses could not shelter, for they were falling in ruins. He turned to the trees, but they were overthrown. His next thought was to run to the mountains, but they reeled like drunken men. He then looked toward the sea. Lol it had fled, and the ships, which a few minutes before were in deep water, rocked on the bare sand. He tells us that being then at his wit's end, he looked up and observed that Heaven alone was calm and unshaken. Many strange things are yet to come upon the world earthquakes, overT , : t.. : A . u n turnings, upueavings. jluw ammM .ucu mi, the Book tells us, the Christian shall look up to the Heavenly one, "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever," and to Ilia heavenly borne, which cannot be moved. The Charm of Virtue, v ' : There is but one pursuit in life which it is in the power of all to follow, and of all to attain. It is subject to no disappointments, since he that perseveres makes every difficulty an advancement and every contest a victory; and this is the pursuit of virtue. Sin cerely to aspire aiier virtue is yi KB1" ucri and zealously to labor after her wages is to receive them. Those who seek her early will find her before it is too late; her reward also is with her, and she will come quickly.

MODERN MARRIAGE.

And That of the Olden Time The Condition Which Operate Against Early Marriage The Social (Tease In France A Change for the Worse. . New Tork Times. In old times, among our American people, it was taken for granted that all men and women should in due time be married, and old bachelors and old maids were regarded as more or less liable to be called to an account for their celebate condition. Such characters were found, indeed, in, every considerable community, and they were often marked by intellect, refinement and energy, but even these shining examples of celibacy were gen erally quoted in lavor ot marriage, and their loneliness was thought to be sufficiently exElained by the report and belief that they ad been crossed in love, and that therefore they remained single because they could not help it. Marriages generall came very early in lite, and not only sentiment but convenience favored early wedding, since it was not easy for a young man of good taste and social sympathy to find a home at all to his mind without a wife to be the heart of it. Hotels and boarding houses, as thev are now understood, hardly existed, and if young people wished to leave the old homestead and set up for themselves, the only way was by marriage and a new home, where work was no harder and the room and the prospects were better than under the former dependence and toiL i The dominant religion coincided with the social usage, and the Puritan preachers never for a moment suggested that there is any peculiar sanctity, in celibacy, and they found the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelations full of assurances and symbols of the worth of marriage as the legacy of Eden and the type of the mystical union of Christ with the church. Literature worked upon public opinion in the same direction, and Milton and Cowper, Bunyan and Hannah More, backed up the teaching of the pit. and saved our voung Deode from the corruption which went forth from thedrama and poetry and romance of the courts of Uliarles 11. and .Louis AV. in the Old World, which made contempt for marriage to be the soul of wit and the life of fashion. The habits of society also favored early marriages, and a young man who was able to take good care of himself could, without rashness, ask a young woman of discretion to share his lot and to take care of his frugal home. The wife, either by her own indus try or by her parents thrift, generally under took to furnish the house with its simple and sufficient outfit, and God's providence not in vain, was invoked to do the rest. In this way a stout and powerful race was born and bred, and the new generation went forth rich in health and heart, and hot poor in the intelligence and pluck which are the best means of living. The main thing in the marriage was the character of the persons married, and the public opinion and conscience that did so much to keep them strong and true. It is not wise to cloak over present con ditions, yet who will deny that in certain respects our modern life has changed for the worse in its ideas and usages, and. that the change bears with especial severity upon our American people? In our time habits of expense have far outgrown the means of providing tor them, and while women have been constantly led to give up the oldfashioned household industry and fru gality, they have too often, with the new gentility, formed tastes and associations which require an outlay beyond the means of most of their own families, and not encouraging to young men who are looking for wives to help them forward in a reasonable home and an . honorable business or profession. ' . Our men, indeed, have a great deal to .do - with forming the expensive habits of women, for we have great pride in their beauty and ap pearance, aim we wisu to uu everyming in our power to make them happy, and to bring out their charms and graces. Tet the result often works against them, by making homage easier than love, and setting them up as queens of fashion, while they would be happier and better as. wives of good husbands and homes. Our American society has been rapidly Europeanized in both directions of married life, and our men and women are seriously anected by the change. Our men seem at first to be the greatest suttercrs, since the in creased expense of married life makes it so much harder to marry as early and congenially as they wish. But our men do not suf fer without having fair partners in their d:sappointment, and the large number of worthy and attractive young women wno remain umarried until their bloom begins to fade might have had a lot far more to their mind, if the men who appreciate them had not been frightened by the axactions of the fashion that prevails. To make the case stronger, we may com pare the old-fashioned American marriage code with that of French society. The American young man of old asked the girl whom he loved to marry mm and snare his lot, alike in its sacrifices and opportunities. With due thought and prudent preparation. she consented and accepted the serious conditions of the new home, not expecting any new round of gayety or emancipation Both husband and wife expected to work, and even . if well-to-do in fortune the wife never looked down upon the cares of housekeeping or put upon servants the sole charge of its economy, either in sickness or in health. The dominant idea was that the man married the woman be cause he loved her and she loved him, and they meant to stand by each other through ... M. f " ' 1 " lite. .The marriage oi convenience, wuicn is coming to us from European travel as well as from French literature, is quite otherwise. It looks upon marriage in some respects with iust caution, with a keen eye to its cares and liabilities, yet with more prudence than wis dom. It is more in the interest oi men man of women, since, while it offers to women new liberties as wives, and frees them from the bondage of their girlhood, it undertakes to insure men against the financial risks of marriage, by requiring a sufficient "dot from the wife to meet her personal expenses, and sometimes to maintain the husband him self in the style or gentility which looks urxm all work for a living as degradation. It is not difficult to see the causes and, to a certain extent, the reasons, of such a marriage code where life is made so easy for unmarried men, and the economy of their expenses and the range of their indulgences tempt them to celibacy that is not chastity. But with all its gush and frequent indiscretion, our American code is better, and we are not to give up the good old conviction that marriage is a love affair, not a money matter, and that love should wait upon wisdom to secure welfare, and not submit its life to the mercy of calculation. ' . There is one aspect of European influence

upon our Ameriean ideas of marriage which deserves serious consideration. Our American women are in the main well-principled and true-hearted, and if they incline to marry, as women generally do, they believe and are ready to declare that the main thing is to make an honest and hearty match with a man whom they can respect as well as love.

cut may we not, without offense, ask wheth er the tastes and habits of our favored and refined American women are not much perverted from the true standard and too often made over to the European code? While men keep a certain republican simplicity in their personal habits, and in some respects, as in dress, are more frugal even than their fathers, are not women becoming more aristocratic and exacting? We do not say that they claim more than they deserve, but do not they expect and ask more than the men who ought to be their husbands cn give. and is there not on this account just now a great pinch in the marriage market? Sterner censors might say that American women are asicing for the emancipation and the dash of their French couisins, without helping out, as those cousins do, the means to pay the bills. There is a way out of this difficulty, we trust, without giving op our American birthright of honest love. Why A ant Sallie Never Married. The following "yarn" is an old one, but will bear reading several times, and each time provoke a laugh: "Now, Aunt Sallie, do please tell us why you never got married. Tou remember you said once that when you were a girl you were engaged to a minister, and promised us you would tell us about it sometime. Now, aunt, please tell us." -Well, you see, when I was about 17 years old I was living in Utica, in the State of New Tork. Though I say it myself I wal quite a good looking girl then, and had several beaux. The one that took my fancy was a young minister, a very pious young nian, and remarkably steady. He thought a good deal of me, and I kind of took a fancy to him, and things went on until we were engaged. One evening he came to me, and put his arms around me, and kind of hugged me, when I got excited, and some flust rated. It was a long time ago, and I don't know but what I might have bagged back a little. I was like any other girl, and pretty soon I pretended to be mad about it, and pushed him away, though I wasn't mad a bit. Tou must know the house where I lived was on one of the back streets of the town. . There were glass doors in the parlor, which opei:ed over the street. These doors were drawn to. I stepped back a little from him, and when he came up close I pushed" him back again. I pushed him harder than I intended to; and don't you think, girls, the poor fellow lost his balance and fell through one of the doors into the street." "Oh, aunt was he killed?" "No; he fell head first, and as he was going I caught him by the legs of his trousers. I held on for a minute and tried to pull him back, but his suspenders gave way, and the poor young man fell clear out of his pantaloons into a parcel of ladies and gentlemen along the street." , "Oh, aunty! aunty! Lordy!" "There that's right; squall and giggle as much as you want to. Girls that can't hear a little thing like that without tearing around the room and he-he-ing in such away, don't know enough to come in when it rains. Catch me telling you anything again." . "But, Aunt Sallie, what became of him? Did you ever see him again? "No; the moment he touched the ground he got up and left that place in a terrible hurry. I tell you it was a sight to be remembered. How that man did run! We went out West, and I believe he is preaching in Illinois. But he never married. He was very modest, and I suppose he was so badly frightened that time that he never dared to' trust himself near a woman again. That, girls, is the reason why I never married. I felt very bad about it for he was a real good man, and I've often thought to myself that we should have been very happy if his suspenders hadn't given way." Pocket-Picking, A London lady, walking up a muddy street, found that her dress holder had given way, and that her skirts were sweeping the pavement. She was at once accosted by a "nerann" whn seemed resnectable. and who. apologizing for having trodden on the dress by accident, offered to loop it up anew, and even kind, obliging creature tendered the loan of a spare dress holder which she happened to have about her. The lady consented, but, either mistrusting such effusive good nature, or disliking closeness of contact wi.h an absolute stranger, she was on her guard, with the result that she found the hand of her chance acquaintance had made its way from the dress holder and the waist to the pocket and its varied contents. The attempt was decidedly clever, but it failed. The novelty of this impudent attempt was in the locality chosen a crowded street, where most ladies would fancy themselves safe. Pockets are picked by the dozen, but not generally when the victim's attention has Been specially drawn by the thief to his or 1. .... ....... .anM.,nAji T li . o ntirfimlar nilr pocket may have baited a good many traps with spare dressholders in muddy weather and caught a good many victims. Devoted Mothers. Many a poor mother, in an humble cot, with no money or position, has struggled hard to feed and clothe her little ones, to train them to be an honor to their country, and a blessing to the world. Most of our useful, prominent men came from such homes. Our churchyards are full of such sleeping mothers, whose hands are folded over their breasts. No worldly eye ever saw the records of their lives; only God and the angels. No tall monuments and highsounding epitaphs mark their resting-places. What a responsibility rests upon the mothers of this country! Life is too short to be spent in accumulating the things of this world that must perish. The children do not stay with us long enough to permit' us to waste our hours in the pursuit of fashion and gayiety. .What we sow now we shall neap hereaftur. ' About Girls' Correspondence. A Virginia lady writes: "And now a few words to the girls who may read this. Be careful to whom you write and what you write. Many a loving, trusting letter is sent by a true-hearted girl, and is read by the receiver to a laughing crowd of men, and rious remarks are passed aboutHhe silly girl. I can conscientiously say, on the other hand, that I have never seen nor heard of a girl showing letters promiscuously, even from a man she did not care for, though they are often shown to the one dear frond' in strict eon fidence.