LETTERS TO FARMERS' DAUGHTERS.

Southland Times, Issue 1285, 29 July 1870, Page 3

LETTERS TO FARMERS' DAUGHTERS.

(From the American Cultivator.) 111. — CUJLTUBE OF sfffE BEAUTIFUL. My Deab G-isls, — Did you ever think how the Creator must love beauty ? What lavish expenditure of taste meets the eye on every hand! Every mountain, rod, and tree, is a statue of beauty. Every outspread landscape is a picture of beauty. The carpet of green at our feet — every leaf, vine and flower, is a form of beauty — " God's smiles to man !" Every floating mist-wreath is a shadowy reflection; of beauty. Every stream and ocean bed is a glassy mirror of "beauty. Every star above us is a blazing face of beauty. What beauty in motion ! Winds, waves, clouds, and trees, as well as the^ myriads of insects and all animate creation, seem to dance their eternal cotillon pf glory. None of us love beauty too well ; they who court it most devoutly, are nearest kin to angels. One who has no love of

— — — — — — — — — — — ■ — — MM— — j it beauty — if indeed such a one could b< t found — is very neat the brute creation i- To cultivate, then, most assiduously— ii c our persons, characters, and homes — everj s form of beauty, becomes a duty of pria vilege. A healthy body, joined to i peaceful mind, a cultivated intellect, anc a lovely, unselfish disposition, will impart - a charm to the face, in spite of irregulai 7 features ; neatness in the simplest dresi I joined ..to graceful, winning manners i, beautifies any figure. That home, unadorn- , ed with costly etagere, elegant mirror* t and Brussels carpets, jet possesses 5 undescribable charms, contrived from a ) mother and sister's delicate and fertile t taste. My dear girls, are any of you inclined • to envy your more wealthy neighbor, 01 • the costly city home of some elegant schoolmate ? Do some of you foel your ■ I sense of the beautiful stifled and starved in barren home? Let me remind you that every woman's nature possesses some innate power to beautify and adorn, if she will but cultivate it. Let me tell you what I saw last month in a pleasant rur.il home, where the daughters have narrow means, and many difficulties to compass, Bot the least of which is a father, whom it im tmfc jdw«ya- Aaay — ta~hnng.. tn tJuurways of thinking. As it is early in the forenoon, we may suppose our friends to be engaged in the dairy, or kitchen, or preparing for dinner, so if you have a mind to follow, we will enter by this pleasant south door, into the near sitting-room. A glimpse into the cool, wide kitchen, looks as if all work had been accomplished there some day last week — so still, and clean does it seem. Did you observe that woodbine over the doors as we entered, with that climbing clematis, and that stand of plants under th 9 east window? That elegant foliage plant, and those varieties of geraniums, were procured for a mere nothing, as they were slips which were cast underfoot by a gardener in the next town ; and those sweet monthly roses can easily be obtained from some friend who has thrifty ones. A few minutes each day, to turn them round to the light, sprinkle and dust them, with an occasional addition to the earth, will cause them to flourish, ensure theirgrowth,fillyour house with fragrance, and your heart with pleasure amid the pauses of toil. See those hanging shelves ; are they not beautiful ? Miss Emma watched her chance, after her father built that nice carriage-house across the garden, to gather some bits of board, and sent them by Dick to get planed and stained,, and afterwards the leather work to put on the edges, sides, and top, with a chain of the same fanciful festooning, and the result is that beauty. In that corner is a catch-all, for father's papers. It is three-cornered in shape, manufactured from pasteboard,' and is covered with shells. Miss Emma has taken time to gather, clean, and color them crimson and purple, which, mixed with white, cause a brilliant effect. These she has glued to the pasteboard, and with cords tor hanging, this article ot taiCtTiuid convenience is completed. We might take a peep into every room, and find scattered everywhere articles combining convenience and beauty— the charming results of fertile tastes and ingenious fingers. : :: No home need be barren of attractions if a well-directed energy and improved opportunities are made instruments to this end. Ah! girls, for the sake of joys you may impart and receive— -for the sake of. homes waiting you as mistresses —that you may be like all that is fairest in earth and sky, cultivate beauty. If there be any lack in your home, and in yourselves, strive the more earnestly to make up, these defects, by removing that which is offensive, covering that which is imperfect, and adorning that which is plain. If your tea-table lacks in quality and quantity, place flowers upon it. Carry put this principle in every department, and your homes will be beautiful and your lives yield a fragrance sweeter than the rose.— Yours heartily, T.S.H. ...-•• ■ j , , .. . -