Ladies' Column.

Clutha Leader, Volume III, Issue 138, 2 March 1877, Page 7

Ladies' Column.

A girl may be fond of bright colours, but that is no reason why she should present in her dre««s all the colours of the rainbow* Quiet tints, with a dash here and there of gayer colours, are most becoming- to all. Choose always the best materials—^that is to say, those which wear the longest. If you go into a dwelling and behold order, neatness, and tastein arrangement, you see the disposition of the tenants indicated by these material things. If you see uncleanliness, untidiness, and disorder, you do not simply see filth and want of order — you see a mind that was not pained by disorder and uncleanliness. If you see, on the other hand, beauty and attractiveness, you do not see these alone, but through them you see the mind that arranged them. . If a wife values her own and her husband's ease, she should let her expenses and desires ever be within reach of his circumstances ; for if poverty should follow she must share the evil. Let her be careful never to give him any cause of jealousy. She should not let many days pass without a serious examination into her conduct as a wife, and if, on recollection, she finds herself guilty of any foibles or omissions, the best atonement is to be more careful in future. . As regards marriage, let the woman's first requisite be a man whose home will be to him a rest, and the man's first object be a woman who can make home restful. It is the man with many interests, with engrossing occupations, with plenty of people to fight, with a struggle to maintain against the world, who is the really domestic man in the wife's sense, who enjoys home, who is tempted to make a friend of his wife, who relishes prattle, who feels, in the small circle where nobody is above him, and nobody unsympathetic with him, as if he were in a heaven of ease and reparation. The great secret of married life is to be found in a myriad of little tacts and compliances and surrenders on both sides. Matrimony is an enormous compromise. Perfect courtesy, an incessant guard upon the temper that no irritability shall become a habit, and the constant conviction that where two have equal authori ty a harmonious decision can be always reached only by the utmost leasonableness — these are little amulets that will banish the evil spirits, and keep the home serene ; and the touchthem stone to enable to live thus is a sincere, deep, andfond love for each other. Inalienable Rights. — Every woman has a right to be any age she pleases, for if she were to state her real age no one would believe her. Every woman who makes puddings has a perfect right to believe that she can make a better pudding than any other woman in the world. Every man who carves has a decided right to thick of himself, by putting a few of the best bits aside. l Every woman has a perfect right to think her child the " prettiest baby in the world," and it would be the greatest folly to deny her this right, for she would be sure to take it. Every young lady has a right to faint when she pleases, if her lover is by her side to o itch her. The Rearmg 1 of Children.-«-If any one has reared children, and inducted them safely into manhood in the dangers that multiplied about them, and the troubles that beset them, and the temptations that surrounded them, and the liabilities to evil that contested their i way, he must be strongly insensible, in looking back upon his household, if he be not overwhelmed with a sense of the multitudinousness of God's mercies. A man may do man}' things in this world that afe deserving of praise, but there are few things that he can do that are more deserving 1 of praise than, dying, to leave his name with a family of children who shall more than fill his place, i and who shall maintain virtue and in- I telligence and good habits throughout their lives. A Sister's Influence. — "That man has grown among kind and loving sisters," I once heard a lady of much observation and experience remark. '* And why do you think so ?" said I. — " Because of the rich development of all the tenderer feelings of the heart, which are so apparent in every Word. A sister's influence is felt even in manhood's later years ; and the heart who has grown cold with its chilling contact with the world will Warm and thrill with pure enjoyment^ as some Incident awakes within the soft tones and glad melodies of his sister's voice. And he will turn from purposes which a warped and false philosophy has reasoned into expediency, and weep for the genial influence which moved him in his earlier years/ ■ Mother and Son.— -There is no tie in the world more beautiful than that which binds a mother and son grown old enough to be her protector. A daughter loves her mother, indeed $ but she sees all her defects, as one woman always does see those of another. No doubt,. with the unconscious arrogance of youth, she exaggerates tbern. But the son loves his mother with an ideal love— he sees her as man sees a woman ; that is to say, through a certain halo of mystery. Reverence is in his feeling for her, and at the same time a sense of* her need of his care—^-he is at once her knight and her son. Heis proud of . her and fond of her at the same time. Her image is sacred in his mind. She may not be better than other women j but she seems so to htnii