The Home.

Lake County Press, Issue 905, 5 April 1900, Page 2

The Home.

The Fascinations of a Woman of 30. Until a woman is out of the twenties she is, as it were, still in the preparatory school of life, and she has not had the opportunity to learn those lessons that lit her for the best work of which she may he capable. In conversation with in l ! - one easily finds this out. She has generally an over-exalted opinion of her knowledge and of her powers, and yet the difference between what she imagines she knows and what she really docs know is sometimes pitiful and sometimes comic. A woman of 3b or upwards is different. Her knowledge is definite and practical, and her valuation of herself and her powers is a tolerably just one. When she talks she does not merely echo the thoughts and opinions of others, for she has had time and experience to obs >r\o ami reason keenly for herself, and therefore what she says is worth listen ing to —that is supposing of course she is a person of any mental power. Het beamy, too, though it may have lost in freshness, has gained in dignity. In intercourse with others she is a powet she never was before, for she ha i learned the virtues and the foibles of mankind, and has acquired the power of appreciating the one and the tael of humouring the other. In fact, as a plea sant companion tin* woman <>f 30 is gene rally far superior to her younger sisters. Re Careful Kow You Punish. How often do we punish our little ones in the belief that by so doing we shall break them of some habit that appears to us :l whim, and which is really a weakness in the child. Well does the writer remember the case of a parent who whipped his little daughter, attempting to overcome in this way her whimsical terror of the dark when left alone at night. The poor little maid sobbed herself to sleep that night. But the next evening, five minutes after she had been left alone with the, to her, fearful dark, her terror overcame her dread of punishment, and a pitiful little voice was hj ard at the head of the stairs : •‘Oh, mpa, please come up hero and whip mo ! I’m so afraid of the dark!” This convinced the father that the child’s terror was more than a whim, and he deeply regretted his hasty pun ishment. which was never repeated. The following incident, related by a father, is of the same nature I shall never forge I. though 1 have w'shed a thousand limes that I could, how I punished little Mamie for continually pronouncing a word wrongly as I thought wilfully after 1 had tried io make her say ii e irreelly. She was quiet for a few moments after 1 pun islied'her. ami then she looked up with a quivering lip and said : " ‘ Papa, you will have to whip me again. 1 can't say it.’ " You can imagine how I felt, and how 1 kept on remembering the look on her face and the tone of the sad little voice.” Some Pretty Easter Presents. A charming nightgown ease is made of primrose- yellow linen, with a design of small single violets dotted over it worked in natural shades with Max thread, edged with a mixture lace of violet and yellow. Another pretty nightgown ease is in pink linen, with a design of clover upon it. to be worked out jin bullion stitch. And yet another has I a design of blackberries on white linen. ** Something i*> work for a man” is a bag to put shirts in for packing, like a huge nightgown bag. made with extra spring at the sides, of white linen, embroidered in wild roses, and large . 1,.n0 ~]• live shins, and keep them from being soiled by anything else in the portmanteau. A very Stuart one was in white satin, with a powdering over it of yellow buttercups, and a large monogram in the corner worked in gold thread, and lined witii pa!e-.re!!ow silk. A pretty gift for an chiefly lady is a work table on a die tinetly novel plan, made of it cheap Japanese palm-table with fan-shape 1 lea ves si liking out from a bamboo stick. Tim top leaf is covered in Roman satin, witii se.tite design or (lower worked on to it, and the underneath hj aves are firs, covered with the satin, and then mad, the base for large work-bags, which aralso embroidered. Tin se bags there are three of them - tied with bows of ribbon, and well lined with a contrasting shade, will keep till the work clear, and tidy, whilst the (op shelf will be most convenient for the ever straying spectacles, or even for a cup of tea. A drapery can be arranged with el'i’eet down the stick. A blotter is invariably a successful pre sent, besides being such a conveniently sized piece of work that no gloomy tore 1 Hidings of never finishing need disturb the excitement of its commencement, whilst it is Jlist the article which is always wanted. A sofa rug is a nset.nl present, and wonderful results can he obtained with very little labour, es pecially if the thickest of silk be used on to the coarsest of serge. Apple-green serge sprinkled with bunches of variegated sweet peas - red. pink, and mauve —using the first as ttic predominant colour, and tying the bunches with blue ribbon, is pretty. An effective sofa rug may also be made of scarlet serge, with a large, flat monogram in the centre, wqrked in yellow tapestry silk.'couched down with filoselle of the same, and the rest of the rug spotted over with smallsized sunflowers. A perambulator rug would look well arranged like this, though, to make it less showy for the winter, the monogram could be worked In black, and the sun (lowers done with huge black centres, and hut very little yellow petal showing. A large stork, standing pensively on one leg. looks well embroidered on to a cloth perambulator cover, or an owl. sublimely winking on all beholders, is a capital design for tiie purpose : and the labour is but slight, considering the effect