perfect mistress of the art of foiding them in some mysterious way whenever she wished to sit down or enter a carriage. Her skirts were never made frivolous with frills or ruffles, but the ample breadth spread over the rounded crinoline with a rich sweep of outline. But it was the bodice of this costume which always caught and held my eye..

The dresses were made in one piece in the good old-fashioned English fashion (and was not my gentlewoman a good old English gentlewoman) that is, the skirt was fastened to the waist in gathers full and carefully sewed the same, no change, no altera

And what an individuality it gave the sweet-voiced gentlewoman. To be sure with such a costume the hair was smoothly banded on each side of the face, and no change was suffered to interfere with the peculiar coil at the back of the small head. And

Pictures of the modes of 1830 are used extensively to illustrate the fashions as they will be. Skirts are swelling out, and hasty dressmakers are making up spring costumes with seven widths of cloth and a deep facing of crinoline around the bottom of the skirt.

PHYSICAL CULTURE.

FOR THE WOMAN WHO KEEPS A SERVANTWe spoke last month of the sister who works hard every day, and I endeavored to prove to you all that that sister would be better, healthier, live longer, and do more work if she would spend half an hour each day in some sort of physical development. I explained that such exercise

should not be taken without proper examples, and in a future paper I will give a series of exercises which would be suitable for such a woman. But just now I want to talk with the sister who

The

and so emblematical of a sweet old age that it was and is the dream of my life to some day adopt some of its features. softly folded lace and the smoothly banded hair were especially pleasing, and although just now there seems to be an excellent chance to revive the fashion of hoop wearing, yet I do think it so unhealthful and so unlovely in most cases that I should never want to adopt the crinoline.

THE EASTERN FASHIONS.

The papers are full of the expected advent of crinoline.

escapes from the hardest or rather the healthiest part of the housework. Would I then recommend that every woman should do her own work and washing? Not by any means, if she can afford to have it done for her. More especially would I object to her doing it all if she has a family of children, and perhaps is having more all the time. Why? Because there is too much work in such a house for any one woman, and if she attempts to do it, she will have no time whatever, if she has means, to spend in mental

recreation or in the development of herself intellectually or physically. If she must do it all, then let her do her work in the simplest possible manner, and save all the time and strength she can for self-improvement. About the woman who is fortunate enough to have help in the house. Of course I would advise her to insist upon a half an hour spent every day in mental improvement; but just now I want to speak also of the need she has of physical develop

ment.

She does not wash nor scrub, and loses thereby a very valuable mode of keeping her muscles in reasonable order. Of all the housework, ironing is the hardest and least healthful, for it keeps a woman on her feet in one position, and is a very heavy strain. upon the body. Our sister who keeps a girl contents herself with making her own bed, excellent exercise by the way, and perhaps does all her own sewing on the sewing machine; very bad exercise that is, too. She walks down to market once a day, or if living in the country rarely goes out of the house. She scolds the children, sits most of the day sewing or tending the baby, and therefore is in a fair way to get old, stiff, wrinkled, full of headache, constipation, colds, and is generally a misery to herself and to those around her. Suppose she has no children, and spends her time, or a great share of it, in public enterprises. Of course she walks much, and while the

outdoor exercise is better than indoor exercise, yet walking does not bring into active use the set of muscles which she has especial need of, and that is her trunk and abdominal muscles. Walking is not the best exercise in the world, for it does not call into use the muscles of the chest, trunk, arms, or indeed of any muscles but those of the legs. If it is done in a rapid manner it is far better, for then the lungs are called into action through the increased action of the heart, and so much is gained for the walker. But if women would dig in the garden, or chop wood, or take a set of proper exercises in the outer air, ten minutes of such exercise would develop and maintain their healthful poise better than a mile of walking.

OUR AILMENTS. NERVOUSNESS.

This is rather a vague heading, that of nervousness, and there are SO many special diseases and such a variety of disorders which have their seat in lack of nervous strength that it seems a little strange to speak of them all in one paper. But here I wish only to give a few general explanations and afterwards we may consider special disorders and diseased conditions of the nervous system. To begin with, then, the nerves require food or nourishment; they demand rest, and they become diseased in much the same way that muscles or the blood does.

There are various elements in the foods we eat which supply nourishment to the nerves, and without entering into a scientific discussion of the amounts contained in these foods, we will generalize by naming some of those things which are full of nerve food. important is the wheat; not fine flour, but the whole wheat, bran and all. The very best of the wheat lies next to the silica, or outward crust of the kernal of wheat. So we who would build up and sustain the nerves, must use as our chief article of diet the whole wheat for bread, that is what is called graham or brown flour. Some time I will give the recipe of a friend of mine for the making of brown bread; in short we can give several recipes and you can try them all. Now, next in order are the vegetables for the supply of the nerve feeders, and least nutritious of the vegetables for the nerves are the ubi

The first and most

quitous potatoes. Potatoes are rich in other elements, but little food is there for our especial purpose.

Onions, parsnips, turnips, cabbages, squash, beets, and indeed all the vegetables are good for us to use. Great care should be used in cooking vegetables to preserve the original salts, which by the careless cooks are thrown out in frequent changes of water, or lost in the quantities of water in which the vegetables are soaked or cooked. We will speak in another column and at another time of the mode

of cooking vegetables. Meat contains a little bit of nourishment for the nerves, and other grains, especially oatmeal, are rich in these elements. But oatmeal is not suitable for constant use, and it should not be relied on for brain nourishment. It is otherwise too clogging to the system. Milk also contains some nourishment, but should be partaken of sparingly, for it is too rich a diet for regular use. Now, if there are some foods that give our nerves food, there are others which for various reasons serve to rob us of whatever nourishment we might otherwise get from these foods. Sugar cane or beet sugar is a thing that never ought to appear on our tables in the wellknown sugar bowl. If it must enter into into the compounding of some dishes, keep it away from table use, and save thereby many and heavy doctor bills. The old notion that sugar is nourishing is about as foolish as that burnt crusts will make your hair curl. Honey, or better, maple molasses, should constitute all our sweetening materials, and even these ought not to be partaken of in excess. Sugar is rank poison to weak or diseased nerves, and the person who has suffered for years from nervous disorders often finds a marvelous help from the discontinuance of its use. I speak from experience, dear sisters, and you can depend on it, if you need strength and tone to

your nervous system, as food use bread and vegetables.

be

SINCERITY VERSUS TRUTH. YEARS ago it was very fashionable among some of the zealous preachers of this Church to pronounce all sorts of anethemas against the outside world. The expressions, "Darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the minds of the people," and "He who believeth not shall be damned," were the phrases most frequently heard upon the lips of such people. To pride themselves and who says that is not the old Pharisaical spirit-upon their own righteousness, and to despise the people who could not see the light, seemed to be the only thought and talk of some of our zealous brethren and sisters.

This savored of the old Puritanical cut and slash mode of religion, and was its reflex in so far as it was not in accordance with the spirit of the gospel, of the spirit and genius of those past times.. To-day, another and I might say, the exact counterpart of that spirit seems to have taken possession of a number of our people. I hear constantly, especially if the name of some pleasant spoken Gentile is mentioned, the expression, "Oh well, he is just as honest as we are in his belief, and just as good as I am any day." The whole tendency of modern thought or impulse, is to excuse any and every sort of action and belief, if it is only