Rensselaer Union and Jasper Republican, Volume 8, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 June 1876 — The Uses of Change. [ARTICLE]

The Uses of Change.

Thkre are one or two mistakes t» the management o( house and children which are oftenest made in notably “wen-or-dered Christian families/’ especially in those living in the country, or in quiet inland towns, where they are exposed to* little friction with the outside world. The first is a hatred of change. The ’Squire and his wife married late, perhaps; but, in any case, have hardened ana settled down into certain admirable habits before the young people arrive at their teens. They cannob understand why these old wayrshouid not be always admirable; nor why, when the old ways- are suited to their own middle-age, like any well-woven, comfortable they aiw heavy iron yokes and bonds to uproarious Tom. and even to- gentle Susy. For example, the same dishes appear on thetable the year round; mother cannot guess why father and the boys relish evenan ill-cooked meal away from home, and have no appetite for the everlasting beef and apple pie, or mutton hash, which shelves them from January until December. She is her own seamstress, tod,

most probably, and cuts and trims the girls’ dresses and boys’ coats after some occult designs of her own. The more devout she is, or separated by high thoughts or past sorrows- from worldly affairs, the more trivial do such matters appear to her,, and the less likely is she to sympathize with Jenny’s pangs as the girls giggle' at her queer polonaise, or Ted’s rage of mortification as the boys pursue him with* yells of “ Shoot the bat!” We should live above our clothes or food, she wisely says, not seeing that sheis willfully making clothes ana food the objects of importance and perpetual un»easy anxiety to herchildren. She is slow, too, to perceive any necessity for ehangein her habits of visiting or receiving visits. Jenny and Ted yawn through the the monthly sewing circle, or the teedrinkings, where the doctrine of election, or the iniquities of ancisnt Popes, are freely.discussed; but it is a long time before their mother yields to their demands for tea-drinkings or circles of their own. It seldom occurs, too, to this class of parents that the minds of their childrenrequire absolute change of place, range of thought and companions. Travel is the very last way in which the average farmer will spend money for his family. If somebody has to go to the county town: to invest his savings, or sell his wheat, and his oldest soncan be trusted, well ana ?ood; that is enough “outing!.’ for the joy, and the old man prefers to tit in his own chimney corner, and wants no wider view than his own fields. If he were told, that the fireside, from sheer monotony, had become hateful to his children, and the home-hills an intolerable wall which barred them from.the unknown world, he would declare them either insane or under the dominion of the devil. The boya usually manage to find their way out tothe world; but unless the girls marry, they are stranded on the barren beach of home. Nobody who does not know what> life is in this class of farm or village houses can imagine how barren a home may be.

There are at this day thousands of single, middle-aged women in the West w South to whom the sea or mountains, or the sea-board cities, are as varue and desirable objects oi longing as heaven itself. They live with their mothers, perhaps, who are affectionate and tender, but who never guessed at the restless discontent which might have been satisfied by a few short, inexpensive journeys. It would be worth while for every mother who reads tieribwr to consider whether much of the irritability, the crossness, the languor.of body and soul, which she complains of in herself and her children, is not due simply to the monotony of home, and. whether it would not be wise to cm down the outlay on dress and food, and. spend the money in car-fare. . There is no such educator as travel, no such medicine for nervous diseases, and no speedier way to quiet that restless, vagabond blood which every observant mother has discovered in both her boys and girls.— Scribner's Monthly.