Servants in Buenos Ayres.

Golden Bay Argus, Volume 4, Issue 35, 25 January 1895, Page 2

Servants in Buenos Ayres.

Girls willing to do what is called general housework are unknown. For the smallest family one needs a cook, a housemaid, and instead of a maid-of-ali-work, a boy of any age from ten years, and I have seen even younger on duty in native households. Beside these no washing oan be done at home. There was, I am told, at one time even a law against the drying of clothes in one’s own patio or on the roof. At any rate a laundress is an alrnoßt impossible person to get, and clothes are given out to the lavandaras, who support themselves by the pursuit of that profession alone. They wash in the ritrer, whioh iB very wide, and very shallow on its southern shore, and rising only when galea are blowing from the sea, leaves on its retiring great pools of water in the hollows of the beach. These pools are the wash tuba for the whole oity, and flat stones are used as boards, the clothes being rubbed between two auoh ; bo it is not to be wondered at that all kinds of wash goods want frequent replacing. The same women who wash do not iron. Thoy aro themselves employsd by another who usually is tho ironer and who receives the pay for the whole. I found this arrangement very unsatisfactory, for there was no one person who seemed to be responsible for the return of the thingß and for the manner in which they were done.

A contented opirit is the sweetness oi axistonee.

Chinese Floating Gardena. The following description of the manned in which floating fields and gardens k,u formed in China was condensed for pnbiiaa- ■ tion in the Garden from an article by Dr 1 Maegowan, which originally appeared ir the China Review. “In tho month oi April, a oamboo raft, tan to twelve feet long, and about' half as broad, is prepared. The poles are lashed together with interstices oi an inch between each. Over this a layer ol straw an inoh tbiok is spread, and then a ooating two inches thick of adhesive muo taken from the bottom of a canal or pond whioh reoeives the seed. Tho raft is raoorec to the bank in still water, and requires nr further attention. The straw coon giver way and the soil also, the roots drawing support from the water alone. In aboutwenty days the raft becomes covered witt the creeper ( Ipomcea replans), and its stemn and roots ate gathered tor oooking. Ir. autumn its small wkita petals and yellow stamens, nestling among the round leaves preeent a very pretty appearance. In aom plaoss marshy land is profitably cultivate in this manner. Biaideo these floatio, vegetable gardens there are also floating ric field's. Upon rafts constructed as a’oov weeds and adherent mud were placed as » flooring, and when tbs rieeahoots were read; for transplanting they were placed in th floating soil, which being adhesive and heh in place by weed roots, the plants wer maintained in position throughout tie season. The rice thus planted ripened b from sixty to seventy, in place of one hun dred days. Tire rafts are cabled to tht shore, floating on lakes, pools or sluggis: streams. Theso floating fields served t avert famines, whether by drought or flood When other fields were submerged and their crops rotten, these floated and flourished. and when a drought prevailed they subsider with the failing water, and while the soil around was arid, advanced to maturity Agricultural treatises contain phtes representing rows of extensive rise fluids moore< to sturdy tress on the banks of rivers cn lakes which existed formerly in the Iscu ptrine regions of the Lower Yangtsze am Yellow Eiver3.” A Word Bor The Little Ones. Many a child goes astray simply because homo lacks sunshine. A child needs smile' as much as flowers need sunshine. It houn is the place where faces are sour and word" harsh, and fault-finding is ever going on thoy will spend as many hours as posub! elsewhere. Let every father and mother then, try to be happy. Let them look hupp; Let them talk to their children, espeoiuil. the little ones, in suoh a way as to maY them happy. Keep the children’s sympathies, for by doing, half tire danger of their going astra« is averted. No one i 3 so sensitive over t slight as a child; and if her sorrows an made light of at home, she will be more that likely to turn to others to find sympathy, aur will often find it in aooiety she would other wise shun. No sympathy is so dear as i mother’s ; and a girl who has always been encouraged to tell her troubles to her mothei knows that she will find a patient and loviuf hearer and counsellor, and will not bo apt i; her youth—the time whin she moat need counsel and advice—to do anything she otui not tell her mother all about. Thogrown u; woman, with a family of her own, counts stone of her sweetest blessings, the tender af fection of her own mother. Mothers are apt, as the family inorearea to unintentionally omit many of tho litLh sympathies and tokens of love which bar. hitherto been lavished on the older children, but are now’transferrcd to the now arrival. Or, perhaps, as tho oares of the family grow heavier, the mother has so many calls upon her time,that she cannot stop for the fondling that ones was her But surely there is time every day for some word o' lov; or sympathy; and this one little word spoken in the mornkg,ofttiines cheers and helps th:recipient all through the day. The idea, too, that the children, as they grow older ant are more away from home, do not care for these attentions, is wholly at fault, for no true child ever grows too old for love and sympathy. In the World's Eye. Henry M, Stanley, the great explorer, about whom everybody is now talking, wui born fifty years ago in Denbigh, Wales, Hi; parents were named Rowlands, and, beirqexcoedingly ;o >or, they gave him to the cart of the parish when he was three years old and he was reared in the almshouse of St. Asaph. After obtaining a fair education here, he taught sob ml for a year or two, when he went as a cabin boy on a ship bound for New Orleans. Here he met a wealthy American merchant named Stanley, who adopted them, and he took the name of Henry Morton Stanley. He spent considerable time wandering afoot in the Indian County of the Southwest. On hi* father’s dying intestate, he found himHelf 6 poor man again. After the war, in which hi served, he obtained employment as a news paper reporter. His love of adventure was, however, overmastering, and he started soot, to fight ths Cretan army, and to record itr fate in the New York Herald. That over, he travelled through the eastern countries and in Abyssinia and Spain as a roving correspondent until October, IS6D, when Mr. Bennett sent him to find Livingstone, the story of which achievement is well known. After that, four years more were spent in travels and battles “ through the Dark Continent." Then his great Congo undertaking occupied him from 1878 until 1881, tho result of which was the establishment of an independent nation from tho western coast of Africa at the mouth of ths Congo to the thirtieth degree in tho interior. When this was accomplished, loaded with honors, he returned to America to rest; but ha had hardly readied America before he was besieged by the King of the Belgians to rescue Emin Pasha, a martyr to duty. How well he accomplished this work, and his rescue of large numbers of women eud children, all the world now knows, and does him honor for his almost superhuman bravery and intrepidity. Mending Broken Articles. Shellao cement is made of two parts Bhellaoand onepart of Venetian turpentine, fused together and formed into sticks. In mending glass or china, warm the latter enough to melt the stick on the edges of the piece to be mended. Diamond esment is also used for mending glass, china and earthenware, and is made by adding a little gum ammoniac to isinglass dissolved in weak spirits. Put it in a bottls and keep it well corked. The handles of knives and forks oan be mended with resin. The hollow in tue handle is filled with powdered rosin, the iron stalk is made red hot and thrust into the handle, wriere it will remain firmly fixed after it has cooled. Plaster of Paris should be kept in every household, as it is excellent for mending lamp stands, spar, bronze, etc. In mending a lamp which has become loosened from its metal socket, thoroughly wash and dry the sooket and reservoir. Remove the old cement, and see that the plaster is finely powdered. Mix it with water until it becomes the consistency of thiok cream; then line the sooket with it and press the reservoir into its place. Remove with a knife and irag any plaster that has overflowed, and let the plaster set thoroughly before using the lamp. Thebe is an oblique way of reproof whioh takes off the sharpness of it, and an address in flattery which makes it agreeable, though never so gross; but oi all flatterers the most skilful is he who oan do what yon like with out saying anything whisk asgues he does ii for yonr sak-a. *^ K - It was R butcher who remarked that lore quarters were less than the whole. All the Tudor sovereigns of England were noted for having what is called a “ will of their own,” and had a strong inclination to be despotio.