: Preserving of fruits and vegetables, laying down
meats, the care of eggs and butter, the preservation of woollen clothes,
repairing of household linen, etc. Besides these general branches of
housewifery, they are taught cooking, clear starching, the washing of
dishes, the care of silver and glass, dusting and sweeping, laying of a
table and serving--in brief, all the duties which will fall to their own
lot or to the servants whom they employ. As a result, the _menage_ of a
German matron is perfection, according to German ideas.

* * * * *

A good illustration of the historical spirit, which happily has come to
stay in our midst, is seen in the instructive and entertaining articles
which have recently been published in the newspapers concerning some old
New England homesteads. Among these is one in the Boston _Courier_ of
Oct. 4, 1885, telling of the Pickering house in Salem, built in 1659,
and still in the Pickering name, and also of the Porter place in Wenham,
which, although it had been in the Porter name without alienation since
1702, was of much older date. In the Boston _Transcript_ of Nov. 28,
1885, was also an interesting account of the old Curtis house at Jamaica
Plain, which was finished in 1639. Its builder, William Curtis, was its
first occupant; and from that time to 1883 none but his descendants
occupied the house. A number of ancient dwellings still standing in New
England were referred to in the same article.

Such public notices of time-honored landmarks are to be commended, not
only because they serve as historical links, but because they develop
that historical imagination which enables one to clothe with a tender
reverence places so rich in interest.

* * * * *

The present NEW ENGLAND MAGAZINE is not the first of the name. Another
New England Magazine was established in 1831, by Joseph T. Buckingham
and his son Edwin, who died and was buried at sea in 1832. His cenotaph
may be seen in Mount Auburn, bearing the inscription, "The sea his body,
heaven his spirit holds." This magazine included among its contributors
John Quincy Adams, Oliver Wendell Holmes (who commenced _The Autocrat of
the Breakfast Table_ as a serial in it), Jeremy Belknap, Jared Sparks,
Edward Everett, Charles C. Felton, John G. Palfray, Gardner Spring,
Joseph Story, Francis Wayland, Daniel Webster, and Nathaniel P. Willis.
It contained articles upon the authorship o