AS SEEN THROUGH WOMAN'S EYES.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XIX, Issue XXVI, 18 December 1897, Page 830

AS SEEN THROUGH WOMAN'S EYES.

OUTSIDE—INSIDE. In passing along one of our principal suborns the other day. and glancing, as one is apt to do. at the houses. I was surprised to *ee. in the windows of a stone front, instead of Howers, statuary : ami the face* were toward the street. They were very lovely. >»ut they impressed me painfully. I thought of those inside (he house who had not the lenefit of the beauty, as strangers on the outside had. As I walked on, 1 fell to thinking. Was not the statuary facing the street a picture of real facts that exist in many homes, where the outside gels the l»enetit of the beauty and plea.-ant things, rather than the inside ? Have you not noticed that there are home?* where the sweetest things are not said to those in the home, to those nearest. l»ut to the outside, to those not connected with the family ? Many a woman is charming in appearance, in conversation to the outside, but is far less charming inside the home : and, of course, it is equally true of men. Some men are loveliest at home as husbands. as fathers : some men are most charming in their club ami with those outside the homes. We seem to take it for granted that the things most vital to our happiness w ill grow inside the family without cultivation, and all the cultivation to insure admiration is expended outside the home. The husliand is apt to drop the lovei in the huslsvnd : and the wife, who before marriage did everything to please, acts as if ihat was all over, and the statuary face* the outside, ami from the outside rather. i«erha|«s. than from the inside. we hear the words, * How lovely .' We take too much for granted as wives and mother* : l«ecause he Is our hu*l«an«l. and they are our children, we think that all we want ought to come to us. FA MILY R EL A TH »NSH IP. The fact is. we must cultivate the friendship of our ow n—the fact that they are our* in the sense of family relationship does not necessarily make them ours in the sen*e that we most need them. Friendship must lie grafted on the *tock of family relationship. Many a bu>l«and is not a gentleman at home thouga a gentleman outside of home, and equally so with the wife : but the wife needs the gentleman and the hudaml needs the lady Then if you add to this the educated woman and the educated man. and education must al wav* le going on. *o that the interesting article in the magazine and the daily new* hoiihi l»e shared, then you get rompanion*hip. and that i* nece**ary to loth ; ami whether in hus>«and or wife, what they do not get inside the home we must not lie surprised if they get outside the home, X\ e are now and again startle*! by revelation* we do not rare to speak of, but w hat led to the fa al *tep we do not hear. Then in reganl to our children : we mu*t make friends of them, and friendship i* a thing that need* cultivation. I know families where the son* and daughters almost worship the mother : l»ut in such <-a*e* they are unlike w hat gave me the tbought 1 am giving t<» you- the was not given to the outside. CULTIVATE THE HOME. Now. do n*K misunderstand me. I do not mean that the outside must not have anything, that the mother must a!way* stay at home. If she doe*. she can never give her l«ot to the home. She need* to be freshened by outside contact. Site mu*t minister to the highest in her husband and her children, and to do this she must not stay in the hou*e all tl»e time. There are women who. a* they say. only care for their huaband and their children. Well.

they are in danger of not lieing much cared for by them in some future: for a woman must grow to keep up with her liusliand and children, and to grow she must not *lay in the house all the lime if she can get out. She must g*» out ami gel. in order to take in and give. There is. or should l«e, such interest in emptying the I aid get of news at night w hen all get home. Cultivate your conversational powers at home. There must l«e a change in a good many families; |«erha}*s each memler of the home interest.* people outside, and when home is reache*! each one is selfishly silent. I wondered how that statuary looked that I sawon the avenue to tho«e inside the jiarlour. Take the lesson. Daughters and Sons (for I find the Sons read this page*. Do not neglect those you really love the l»esu ami on whom you will have to depend some time for your greatest comfort.