Holidays For Middle-age

Now that the fires are beginning to burn on library and parlor hearths in the evenings, and the curtains to be drawn : close, and the moat devout lover of Nature gives up the stroll in shady lañes, j or the row on the moonlit rivor, and comea in-doors for the winter, it is worth while to consider what is to be done in-doors. The work is ready for everybody who choosea to do it ; but the relaxation, the rest, the stimulant, which ia to fit us for the work - what is that to be ? Tor fashionable classes, this matter of amusement is ruled in almost as inflexible grooves as drudgery for the poor ; for men or young people, too, it adjusts itaelf naturally. The father of a family has his clubs, hia share in the politioal or church meeting, or, at least, his quiet newspaper, cigar and slippers, at home - precisely the droway reaction he needs after the friction of the busy day. The boys and girls have their concerts, their lecturea, the thousand devicos of " sociables," " accidentáis," etc., by which they contrive to flock together, to chirp like young birds in May, and, perhaps, to mate like them. But the wivea and mothers, the great aggregate of women, no longer young - what is to be their tonic V They certainly need a tonic. The American mother of a family is the real maid of all work in it, and the more faithful and intelligent she is, the more she usually tries to deserve the name. fcShe may work with her hands or not (in the laige majority of cases, she does work with her hands), but it is she who, in any case oversees and gives life to a dozen different interests. Her husband's business, the boys education, the girls' standing in society, the baby's teething, the sewing and housework for them all, are all processes which she urges on and which rasp and fret daily and hourly on her brain- a very dull, unskilled brain, too often, but almost always quite willing to wear itself out for those she loves. Whether it would be nobler or more politie in her to shirk this work, - husband, babies and house, - and develop her latent talents as physician, artist or saleswoman, is not the question with us just now. A few women have done this. In the cities, too, money can remove much of the responsibility from the mistress of a household ; but the great aggregate of wives and mothers in this oountry are domestio women who ask nothing better of fate than that whatevr strength they have of body and mind hall be drained for their husbands and hildren. Now this spirit of martyrdom s a very good thing - when it is necessay. For our part, we can see no necessi;y for it here. We are told that the women's wards in the insane asylums, in íew England, are filled with middleaged wives, mothers driven there by overwork and anxiety ; through the rest of he country the popular type of the woman of forty is neither fat nor fair, but a allow, anxious-eyed creature, with teeth and hair furnished by the shops, and a iver and nerves which long ago took her work, temper, and, we had almost said, religión out of her control. This rapid Lecay of our women may be owing party to climatic influence, but it is inuch more due to the wear and tear of their motherhood, and anxiety to push their children forward, added to the incessant etty rasping of inefficiënt domestic service. A man's work may be heavier, but is single, it wears on him on one side only ; ie has his hours sacred to business, to ;ive to his brief, his sermón, his shop ; here is no drain on the rest of his faculies or time. His wife has no hour sacred o this or tbat ; he brings his trouble to ter and it is her duty to comprehend and aid him, while her brain is devising how to keep her boy Torn away from the comanions who brought him home drunk ast night; how to give Jenny another rear of musio lessons ; how to contrive a cloak for the baby out of her oíd merino ; the buming meat in the kitchen all the while " setting her nerves in a quiver." 3he has not a power of mind, a skill of body which her daily life doeB not draw upon. Her husband comes and goes to lis ofliae ; the out-door air, the stir, the change of ideas, the passing word for thi8 man or, that, unoonsciusly refresh and lift him from the cankering care of the work. She has the par lor, the dinin g-room, the kitchen, to shut her into it, day after day, year after year. Women, without a single actual grief in the world, grow morbid and ill-tempered, simply from living iudoors, and resort to prayer to conquer their crossne88, when they only need a walk of a couple of miles, or some wholesome amusement. It is a natural craving for this neoes8ity - amusement - -whioh drives them to the tea-parties and sewingcircles which men ridicule as absurd and tedious. There is no reason why our women, who are notably rational and shrewd in the conduct of the working part of life, should cut themselves off thus irrationally from the necessary relaxation, or make it either costly or tedious. Let every mother of a faniily who reads SCEIBNEB. resolve not to put off her holidays until oíd age, but to take them all along the way, and to bring a good share of them into this winter. Let her give no ball, no musical evenings, no hot, perspiring tea-parties, but manage to have ber table always prettily served and comfortably provided, and her welcome ready for any friend who may come to it ; let her set apart an evening, if possible, when her rooms shall be open to any pleasant friend who will visit her ; the refreshment to be of the simplest kind ; and, above all, il the table chance not to be well served, or the friends are not agreeable, let her take the mishap as a jest, and meet alldifficulties with an eaBy good humor. It is not necessary to take every buil of trouble by the horns ; if we welcome and nod to them as to cheerful acquaintances they will usually trot by on the other side ot the road. .Let her take our prescription for the winter, and our word for it the spring will fresher roses in her cheeks and fewer wrinkles in her husband's forehead. - " Home and Society," in ScrUmer s for November.