MISCELLANEOUS.
J. W. must accept our best thanks for her kind letter and the assurance that the “girls’ own mothers” take as much delight in our paper as the girls themselves.
Kartoffel.—“What is the best thing to do if anything is seen in a haunted house?” Shut your eyes, and don’t see it.
Swetsche.—To invent “a cure for sleeplessness” would be to become a millionaire. If we were so fortunate we could not promise to take you into partnership, but would advertise our decoction widely.
Cousin.—You have fallen into a careless and injurious mode of walking. You should plant your feet straight on the ground, and might also have a little brass or iron heel put on those of your shoes. If your blue serge dress be so soiled with dust, you had better get it re-dipped by a dyer. They can do so without your unpicking the dress.
Firefly.—You seem to have overtaxed your brain-power during these examinations, and you need rest; change of air, good diet, early retirement to bed at night, and late rising (say at 8 a.m.) might in time restore the powers of memory. At the same time, you should obtain the advice of an experienced physician.
Millicent Thornton.—The quotation commencing—
“Absence of occupation is not rest,”
is taken from Cowper’s poem “Retirement,” line 623. You will probably find the other poem in some popular reciter. You write well for your age.
E. M. Searle.—The Latin words, Nocturna versate manu, versate diurno, mean, “Turn (them) over with nightly hand, turn (them) over by day.” The words are from Horace. The word “them,” which is understood, refers to examples of Grecian style.
TEMPTATION.
Potts.—Your brother’s “eating dinner enough for two” does not thereby give evidence of a fine constitution. Some lean folks eat enormously, but, as the Scotch express it, “put their food into an ill skin;” they do not assimilate it, and it does them but little good, and so they are always craving for more. There are other reasons for voracious eating, for which a doctor’s advice would be most desirable. It is a disgusting sight, in any case, to see anyone eating double what others do, and it should be checked, not gratified, in youth, if not attributable to disease, in which case recourse should be had to medicine.
Moses.—The Psalms, as given in the Book of Common Prayer, were not altered, but only a different version from the translation used in our Bibles was employed, called the Vulgate or Latin version, attributed to St. Jerome, about 384. There was an older version of the Holy Scriptures called the Italic, said to have been made in the beginning of the second century, little more than one hundred years after Christ. Gutenberg and Fust were the first who printed the Vulgate translation, probably about 1455, and that by Fust and Schœffer in 1462.
Mary Elizabeth T.—The evil thoughts that seem forced into your mind against your will, of which you are ashamed, over which you grieve, and against the recurrence of which you pray, are temptations of the devil and his wicked ministers. They are clearly not your own; they are, as it were, whispered in your ears. So long as you pray to be delivered from them, and heartily strive to drive them away, their guilt does not lie at your door. Ask for deliverance, and humbly claim it in the name of the Lord Jesus, and “He is faithful that promised.” See St. John xiv. 12, 13, 14, and xvi. 23, 24.
A Gardener.—Sow the hardy annual’s seeds in February, and in March all the perennials and biennials, and the half hardy annuals in a hot-bed. There are several varieties of honeysuckle, and all of them may be propagated by cuttings.
Blank had better write for the directory to the matron, London National Training School for Cookery, Exhibition-road, South Kensington, S.W. The fee for the training for the post of cookery instructor is twenty-one guineas for the full course of twenty weeks; plain cookery, eight guineas for fourteen weeks. The Edinburgh School of Cookery, 6, Sandwick-place; hon. secretary, Miss Guthrie Wright; also trains teachers in cookery for a fee of fifteen guineas the course, from November to April.
An Anxious One.—You do not give sufficient information for us to judge what you are fit for, and you had better read the series of articles in vol. v., entitled “Work for All.”
Tarentelle.—Twopenny-piece, 1797 (weighing 2 oz. av.), worth 1s. to 5s.; penny, same date (1 oz. av.), 1s. to 2s. 6d. The other coins are worth from 6d. to 2s.
Pompey.—The “Heaven-sent Minister” was William Pitt, 1759-1806.
Catherine A. M.—We think the tale about the tramcar tickets, and the getting of a deaf and dumb child into an asylum or home by means of a collection of 10,000 of them, must be placed by the side of many other such figments of the imagination. The pity is that sensible people like yourself should be misled by them. Tramcar tickets can be made over, and there is a special machine for performing the nefarious work.
Dunedin.—Many thanks for your kind letter. There does not seem to be anything to answer in it, however, so we merely acknowledge its kindly expressions.
C. S. L.—The idea is a good one, but we fear we could not impose such a weight on our own over-burdened shoulders. As a rule, you may depend on the catalogues of the Religious Tract Society, the Christian Knowledge Society, and others of the kind. Would they not help you if you wrote for them?
Ray.—If she have asked to have you taken to see her, waive all ceremony and go. Mutual family interchanges of visiting will follow. It would be in better taste on your part to call yourself Mrs. John B——, rather than cause a jealous feeling or one of injury on the part of a mother-in-law. Do all things “that make for peace,” “in honour preferring one another.” You write fairly well.
Guilda.—The second “h” is mute in the word “height,” but not in the word “width.” We congratulate you on gaining a certificate.
Ruby.—Sometimes old copies of bound magazines may be had at secondhand or reduced prices at booksellers’ stalls. You should study the rules of metrical composition before you attempt to write verses.
A Troubled Mother.—It is a difficult matter upon which to advise you, and you do not say where you live. The first thing to do is to give the girl a good education, and also to include music and singing. As she grows older she may forget her youthful ideas. You might write for advice to Mr. C. E. Todd, Macready Mission House, Henrietta-street, Covent Garden; or, if in London, you might go and see him, perhaps.
A Sufferer might try mustard oil to rub on for her rheumatism. It sometimes does wonders for it, and is to be got at any chemist’s, and is sold by the ounce. Rub on with the palm of the hand, round and round.
Daisy.—Dandriff may be cured by using a wash of one pint of water and half an ounce of glycerine. Rub well into the skin of the head twice a day (this can be done with a sponge), without wetting the head too much. Another wash is composed of one pint of water and one ounce of borax, used in the same manner. Dandriff is considered to be caused by digestive troubles, especially when accompanied by watering of the eyes, nose, or mouth.
Swygs.—We thank you for the kind feeling that prompted the giving of your advice for the benefit of sufferers. But for certain reasons, into which we cannot enter, we must decline to make our paper a means of advocating mesmerism. You write a good hand.
⁂ The Editor regrets to say that the poem entitled “The Beggar’s Christmas,” which appeared in Feathery Flakes, was copied from Little Folks for January, 1886, and sent to him by J. H. A. Hicks, as his own original composition. The copyright belongs to Messrs. Cassell and Co., and to them apologies for this unwarrantable reproduction are due.
[Transcriber’s Note—the following changes have been made to this text.
Page 276: miror to mirror—“mirror to mirror”.
Page 279: aud to and—“and this improvement”.
Page 288: Gutenburg to Gutenberg—“Gutenberg and Fust”.
Schœfer to Schœffer—“Fust and Schœffer”.]