POT-POURRI

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19668, 9 December 1933, Page 11

POT-POURRI

FOR CHRISTMAS GIFTS You can have the fragrant perfume of the flower-garden in your rooms, or make delightful sachets for Christmas gifts, by saving all your flower petals and making them into pot-pourri. It is a fascinating occupation, collecting all the rose-leaves which are its foundation. They should be used when the roses are just in full bloom, before they have begun to fade, and all petals used must be quite dry. Some roses, though exquisite in appearance, have much less perfume than others, but only fully scented ones must be chosen. In a large basin place a sprinkling of common salt. Cover this with a layer of rose-petals. Each day, as they are collected, add to them, sprinkling the salt between each layer. When sufficient have been obtained, cover with a flat plate. Press down with a weight. For five days they must be stirred once a day, and then put into the pot-pourri jars. Any other sweet-smelling petals from the garden may be mixed in, such as lavender, verbena, rosemary pinks or balm. Cut up very thinly some lemon rind and add. Also a sprinkling of thyme and sage. Sprinkle amongst it some broken cloves, cinnamon, whole aromatic spice, and a small quantity of oil of lavender. Cover closely and when it is used to perfume the room shake up the contents and leave off the cover. Its fragrance wdll last many years, and a little fresh oil of lavender should be added if it gets dry. WHY MEN ARE FAILURES. | While every normal man and woman j strives to learn the secrets of success in life, how many pause to consider | the causes of failure?

Dr. Bernard Hollander, the psychologist, recently analysed the reasons for failure while speaking at a London meeting of the South Place Ethical Society. They ranged from sheer laziness and overwhelming ambition to the handicap of a bad marriage—the wife who is a millstone round her husband's neck (says a London paper). “A man fails,” said Dr. Hollander, “if his ideas are larger than his purse; if he trusts unworthy people; if he puts pleasure before duty and has too many or too expensive amusements; if he does not do to-day what he can possibly put off until to-morrow; and if he risks all his eggs in one basket, when he is not in a position to watch or control it. “Some men fail decause they are given to dawdling, indecision, worrying, or fretting, or have over-sanguine expectations. “A man is bound to fail if he has no sense of humour, lacks cordiality, does not know how to approach men, cannot take a rebuff good-naturedly, does not carry confidence or conviction, and when he is too long-winded in his conversation so that people tire before he gets to the point.” A good many failures in life, said Dr. Hollander, were due to over-active impulse, but the man whose animal nature was weak had no right to pass as virtuous, because temptation did not exist for him. Success or failure in life depended also to a great extent upon the kind | of partner in marriage. “There is the nagging wife, the clinging wife, the domineering wife, and the dull-witted wife who is something of a millstone round her husband’s neck,” he said. “There is bound to be failure when an aggressive, masculine woman marries an effeminate youth; when an independent and courageous man marries a helpless, stupid woman; and an athletic, vigorous woman marries a dried-up bookworm. “I have known girls to marry a man for such trivial reasons as that ‘he dances divinely.’ “The present generation seeks new solutions to matrimony by indulging in sex-freedom, unconscious of the disasters it leads to. “Neither society, the State, nor humanity can continue to exist without the old-fashioned wedded couple bound together by a bond of love and affection. “We need not go back to Victorian manners and restrictions; but some of our most distinguished writers go to the other extreme, as if chastity were identical with imbecility, and a regular matrimonial life identical with lunacy.”