MODERN SOCIETY CHILDREN

New Zealand Mail, 29 January 1902, Page 20

MODERN SOCIETY CHILDREN

( Lady Violet Greville, Avriting in tie" “Graphic,” notes that a contemporary descants on modern children and.their mothers, and praises the latter’s attention to the physical beauty of their progeny. They Avear frocks made by firstclass dressmakers; they employ manicurists, hairdressers, and dentists; the hair is Avaved and their nails trimmed. They are given gymnastic exercises, Avhile cunningly contrived belts and bandages impel their figures to assume the proportions demanded by- the ideal of beauty. It seems to me that we are raising a race of little hothouse manikins, introducing vanity into tiny heads, and making artificiality a quality to be cultivated. The last generation erred, perhaps, on the side of too much hardening, a Spartan system of cold Avater, early rising, and ns fires in the bedrooms, yet even that was better than the finicking care and elahorate dressing up of the children of society. A poor little mite toddling unda the disadvantages of long skirts, or buried in a big poke bonnet, forms a spectadt neither pleasing to the child nor to the onlooker.

Wo may all remember hoiv the natura instincts of childhood led us to romp ana run and play, and lioav fine clothes irere ® nuisance, and the Sunday- best a thing » be dreaded, for fear Ave should mess o spoil, or stain it. This is right. dom of movement is Avhat a child destf” and should have. Gymnastics and lea ing are splendid things lor growingF in moderation; but the crinipmff . Avaving and curling of childrens a > fine clothes, jeAvels, quaint manicures, and stays are objects , AA'hich no young thing should be ncun "II faut soAiffrir pour etre belle > . axiom as true as it is old, but for u > sake do not let us begin as babies to for our appearance. It is hot Io» vanity that makes mothers treat children like animated dolls.

To Remove Fruit Stems.--?' ® vegetable stains may usually mf „ \ from the hands by use of an aei ■• lemon, vinegar, sour milk, alco ’ ( are all good. Keep a piece otlemon the soap dish, and use it "-hen. hands become stained from P a “.Zed or vegetables. It must he T* r ore th l that soap sets all such stains, the a f * acid must be used before the jjj. put in soapy AA-ater. It is agr ‘ tion to the hands to wash veg th* fore paring them, and also to , a n hands in water Avhile the veg being pared. ... O >.„ s po0(; A cup of strong coffee, with 8 « fill ful of lemon-juice instead ot , cure a sick headache. _„ti,auoe (!{ ? Have sufficient, but not **• sary clothes in use, all . d 'Z_ a^ e day when thev are done AVlth ror 1