stranger to the most of us. It should be cultivated till, in an honest
way, it supplants, at least, the universal snicker. There is both
comfort and health in rousing peals of laughter.

_Things to be avoided in eating_, are hot, fresh baked breads of all
kinds; also avoid all manner of pies as you would a pestilence, likewise
cakes, of every description; they are the crowning curse. Women will
make it and children will cry for it, probably, for all the generations
to come, as they have in the past. But more truthful epitaphs should be
inscribed over them than is now done. It is strange how fashion rules in
diet as in dress. Why, the Koohinoor diamond of Victoria is not more
valued than is a steady supply of poundcake by most of women and
children. We know of a family who make it a boast that _they_, when
young, had _all they wanted_; which either implies their mother to have
been unwisely indulgent, or else the children to have been
over-clamorous. It certainly does not imply wealth, and, least of all,
culture, for the poorest families have usually the largest display of
these things, while those with enlarged means and sense dispense with
them out of good judgment.

Travelling on the cars, a short time since, we had for a companion a
shrewd Yankee who had the honor to be postmaster of his city, and at the
same time was engaged in the boot and shoe trade; one of those stirring
men who, if he did not possess genius, had its nearest kin--activity,
and illustrated the fact that a man _might_ do two things well at one
and the same time. He gave us samples of human nature which is quite
apropos to the general subject. In discussing the eccentricities of
merchandising, he said that usually wealthy customers entering his store
would ask to see his cheaper class of boots, such as would do service,
"honest material, but not the most expensive," and from that class would