Remember also that smoke rises. Therefore, it is least thick near the floor. If the smoke be very thick, crawl with your face close against the floor.
The commonest cause of fire is the upsetting of an oil lamp. Water will only spread the flames of burning oil, but a hearth-rug will extinguish them promptly, says “Home Chat.”
Milk will also extinguish burning oil.
Sand or earth or common salt are useful aids to fire-fighting. The contents of an ordinary flower-pot will stop the spread of the flames of oil.
WOMAN
It takes a hundred men to make an encampment, but one woman can make a home. I not only admire woman as the most beautiful creature that was ever created, but I reverence her as the redeeming glory of humanity, the sanctuary of all the virtues, the pledge of all perfect qualities of heart and head. It is not just nor right to lay the sins of men at the feet of woman. It is because women are so much better than men, that their faults are considered greater. A man’s desire is the foundation of his love, but a woman’s desire is born of her love. The one thing in this world that is constant, the one peak that arises above all clouds, the one window in which the light forever burns, the one star that darkness cannot quench, is woman’s love. It rises to the greatest height, it sinks to the lowest depths, it forgives the most injuries. It is perennial of life and grows in every climate. Neither coldness nor neglect, harshness nor cruelty, can extinguish it. A woman’s love is the perfume of the heart. This is the real love that subdues the earth; the love that has wrought all miracles of art; that gives us music all the way from the cradle song to the grand closing symphony that bears the soul away on wings of fire. A love that is greater than power, sweeter than life, and stronger than death.—Robert G. Ingersoll.
A WOMAN’S HOUSEWORK AS A PHYSICAL-CULTURE SCHOOL
America possesses thousands of girls who find a large part of their physical culture to perfection in “helping mother,” and they are not blushing because they do so. For them the vista of possibilities is long and alluring.
For the arms, fingers, and wrists, they find washing and wiping dishes admirable; perhaps water helps to make supple the joints, which is an advantage that dish-washing has over the drying. However, there is a fine elbow movement in the wiping, too.
Bed-making is still taught in the homely physical economics and cannot be too highly recommended. With the folding of the counterpane and sheets, the arms are stretched to their utmost, and while standing erect, with chest thrown out, breathing is bound to be correct.