To those readers who are moms......."Happy Mother's Day" ~ ~ from, The Progressive Batavian, May 9-1872 "A Word to Mothers." Why will not mothers know that to invite and posses the confidence of their daughters is to secure them from evil? Never make them afraid to tell you anything, to never make them ashamed of the natural desire to have attention from the other sex. Admit the liking for it as belonging to youth--to your past youth--but at the same time enforce the judicious timing of it; and above all encourage a frank avowal of, and sympathy with their youthful preferences. Many a young girl now lost to herself and society might have been saved by such a course. Harsh rebuke of these natural feelings is like pruning all the leaves and buds and blossoms from a young plant, lest stray insects should light upon it. ************************************************************************* "Woman's Love." A man who had struggled with the malignant disease approached that crisis in its stage on which his life seemed to depend. Sleep, uninterrupted sleep, might insure his recovery. His anxious wife, scarcely daring to breathe, was sitting by his bedside, her servants, exhausted by constant watching, had all left her. It was past midnight, a door was open for air, she heard, in the stillness of the night, a window open below stairs, and soon after approaching footsteps. A moment more and a man with his face disguised entered the room. She instantly saw her husband's danger; and anticipating, the design of the unwelcome intruder, she pointed to her husband, and pressing her finger upon her lip to implore silence, held out to the robber her purse and keys. To her great surprise, he took neither. Whether he was terrified or charmed by the courage of her affection, cannot be known. He left the room, and the house, unrobbed. ********************************************************** "Home Conversation" Children hunger perpetually for new ideas. They will learn with pleasure from the lips of parents what they deem it drudgery to study in books; and even if they have the misfortune to be deprived of many educational advantages, they will grow up intelligent people. We sometimes see parents who are the life of every company which they enter, dull, silent, and uninteresting at home among their children. If they have not mental activity and mental stores sufficient for both let them first use what they have for their own households. A silent house is a dull place for young people, a place from which they will escape if they can. How much useful information, on the other hand, is often given in pleasant family conversation, and what unconscious, but excellent mental training, in lively social argument. Cultivate to the utmost all the graces of home conversation. ************************************ submitted by Linda "The Poor House and the People," ~The Lives of Those Who Lived at the Genesee County Almshouse in Bethany During the Nineteenth Century~ ~For further information, contact: Linda ny_hummingbird@yahoo.com or ~leave a message at the Bethany website: Web-Page Editor: BETHANY ~ Its Past and Present ~ http://www.arkwebshost.com/family/bluebird/TownOfBethany.shtml Contributor for the BUFFALO and Western NYS Website: www.buffalonian.com ~ History Through Newspapers Contributor/transcriber for Build-a-Books-Online, Celebration of Women Writers: http://www.digital.library.upenn.edu/women/