Ladies' Column.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XX, Issue 2038, 4 March 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

Ladies' Column.

Supplying a Want.

Now, girls, don’t chafe at the monotony of country life, but stay at home on the farm. Don’t rush to the city, which is overcrowded, for the tempting prizes are only for the few. We can think of nothing more wretched than the condition of some poor girl in a largo city without home or friends, seeking for something to do. Find it at home among those who know yon, and know what you can and cannot do. Learn to do something, it matters not what, better than any one else. There are abundant opportunities on the farm —ten chances there for one in the city. Look into the average farmhouse and see what a woman’s kingdom is and what work awaits her. Turn your thoughts to things near you, not far o!f. You have no taste for household work I If you can make of it nothing lint the most tiresome drudgery, hire some drudge to do if, and devote yourself to the bees, or to the garden, or to the dairy, and learn all you can about it. There is a mine of undeveloped wealth in the dairy. It ought, on the small farms, to be the pride of the women of the household. Instead of trying to design carpet patterns to sell at t'.’i, try to make just such butler as sells at two shillings and sixpence. You can do it. Do it. Then every woman might have a small piece of ground in early berries orfruits which your neighbors do not raise, but will in time buy of you, especially if you live near a small city, or even a village. Next, there are the chickens. The world is clamoring for more chickens and fresh eggs. Supply this want, in this way joti can cant money enough, and more than enough, to pay for the house-girl, and employ a man to do the heavy work for you. Iso your brains as well as your hands, for naturally 3 r ou are better managers than men. But, whatever you do, do not come to a town in search of employment, it is bad for the boys to come, but it is worse, far worse for the girls. Again, we say to them, stay at home.

Pleasant kitchens. The kitchens of to-day. at their beat, delight the hearts of housekeepers. 't’hcse pivots of household comfort arc furnished with every convenience. There are the commodious range, the reservoir of hot water, the stationary tubs with hot and cold water faucets in each tub, the sink with water pipes in and out of it, the wide brick or atone hearth alfording ample facility for necessary uses thereof. The wood-work is linishod in its own colours, and is easy to keep and easy to to clean ; there is ample closet room closets for ironware and tinware, and a place for everything needed. Often the panels of the doors are, ornamented with appropriate designs, if the owner's purse is heavy, and as the cook must spend the most, of her time in the kitchen, it is made as agreeable an apartment as possible. Linoleum and oilcloth arc loss preferred for floors than narrow' strips of black walnut and Norway pine laid alternately and finished in oil. This kind of Hoor never wears out, is easily cleaned, and does not show' grease spots. The kitchen in hrst-elass country houses is even pleasanter than in city houses, for here it need not he on the ground or partly under it to economize in the price of building lots. .V reservoir on the top of the house, tilled from the drainage of the roof or by a forcing-pump, gives hot and cold water in the kitchen and all over the house. The windows of the kitchen look out on pleasant landscapes, and are so protected by netting that the Hies cannot pass through them when they are raised. There is nothing to prevent the kitchen from being made a pretty room. Its moist air is very good for plants, and where the window-room can be spared for them, they add greatly to the attractiveness of the room and cheerfulness of the inmates. Appropriate pictures are by no means out of place in the kitchen, and a hanging shelf of books is a graceful addition to its furnishings when one is waiting for the bread to bake or the foh:s to come to dinner.

A Woman's Opinion.

For my part, I admire the man who wears a carefully cultivated mustache. ()f course, there are noodle-heads who are prouder of their mustaches than a peacock is of its now feathers, but they are not the ones I endorse, and they really do bring the mustache into disrepute. There are few faces which are not improved by a carefully-cultivated mustache, and 1 think when a mustache signifies anything at all it is something creditable. (>f course, there are mustaches which are as void of expression as the moss on a dead log, and 1 don't mean that every mustache is an advocate for its wearer, but most are. Some men's faces remind me of a royal Bengal tiger, and all such are very wise to wear a mustache, which they usually can do. The .stilt', brusque, military mustache always adds dignity to its possessor, and the man who can wear an iron-gray mustache should be, I think, an object of envy to his sex. The mustache brushed back and up, I don't like. It, makes amau look toollippant. The mustache clipped even with (he lips gives a man a sinister air. The extravagantly long mustache is a sure indication of inordinate vauityg and the pointed mustache is an exhibition of pitiful snobbery. The most interesting mustache is the young man's first, and the most delightful in the silky muslaehcof the young man of about twenty-live. It is possible, however, that the young lady of the day may have a different opinion in regard to the matL. r.

AiHlock Auctionl!y introducing a mock auction, a hostess can provide an evening’s pleasant, entertaimmmt for lier quests. It must lie nn derstood that no money is called for, the hostess providing each guest with from fifty to one hundred white heans, which aresupposed to represent a shilling, and ail the bidding is done with them. It will ho necessary to provide beforehand the articles to be sold, which should each he wrapped in paper, or so disguised that no one may know what he is bidding for. The auction is much more interesting and the bidding more spirited if each package is found to contain one little thing of trifling value, although some should be of an amusing character. 1 attended one a short time ago, where the daughter of our hostess was <(uito an artist; a number of the parcels were found to contain trilling sketches made by her. So the bidding became quite oxciting, each one Imping to get some specimen of her handiwork. A sign might be displayed in some prominent place, saying : “ Xo mutilated beans received." As everybody generally gets some lillie souvenir, all are satisfied and IlSlldlv W ell pi e>d Wilh 1 Ill'll' i -‘ . 11 ji■ *"s amusement.