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* * * BY THE SAME LAW By Adelaide Love I saw one day a straight young pear tree bound With thongs of leather to a garden wall And, both amazed and troubled to have found Such slim, green loveliness in helpless thrall, I sought the gardener, asking why he tied The pliant tree to obdurare brick and stone. "To make it bear its fruits, ma’am," he replied, "When left to spread it ran to leaves alone." With this for answer and rebuke, I saw ‘ How well the Husbandman supreme contrives By virtue of a strange, impartial law ‘ To gather ampler fruit from human lives, How often have I seen a spirit know Restraint of bonds before its fruits would grow. it * fir Duncombe became involved in the William Lyon McKenzie rebellion of 1837, and Dr. Rolph later founded the medical school of Toronto University. This connection provides the background for our “medical room,” one of the features of our museum. Now came fund-raising in earnest. The objective of our campaign was $16,000. enough to pay for the property and necessary renovations. The Institutes of the county raised $3,300 in two winters of tea parties and special projects. Rural Elgin was can- ‘ vassed by our members, bringing in another $4,500. Letters to former Elgin citizens living elsewhere resulted in donations of several thousands. The I.O.D.E. groups of St. Thomas assisted us by can- vassing the city, and that added another $4,000. The renovations were carried out during the winter of 19564957 and the museum was opened in the spring. We made our money go as far as we could by doing a great deal of the work ourselvesâ€" scraping, painting, papering, etcetera. Here is an example of how we saved: to have a plasterer plaster the Walls of a room we had decided would be the pioneer kitchen, would cost us $170. One of our women learned how to do this work and the cost was just $7.60 for material. The floors are outstandâ€" ingâ€"original wide pine boards of a lovely honey colour. It cost $100 a room to bring them back, but it is worth it; they stand up well under very hard wear. Ours is a museum home. Our curators live in. We have an apartment there for them. It is always warm and comfortable and very clean. Their pres- ence there gives full protection to our display of articles at all times. We have set up a bedroom, a kitchen and a sitting-room as pioneer type rooms. Our Women‘s Institute members rolled wool rags into balls for two winters for a colourful rag carpet for the sitting room floor. We also have a document room. an Indian display, a large miscellaneous room that takes care of the overflow, and a “C01. Talbot Room“ where we are collecting data honouring the founder of our county in the year 1803. Tea is served in our pioneer dining room where we display old glass and silver. From an Institute cook book we raised $500. In- terior views of the rooms on coloured cards sell readily at 10 cents or three for 25 cents. This spring we ordered 12,000 of them, 4,000 of each view. Our total cost was $360, so we make well on them. We also sell hasty notes with a drawing of the building, 26 done by one of our members. We have never paid out one cent to acquire any articleâ€"all have bet“ donated. Plans for the maintenance of the museum have been soundly laid. The County Council tit-ups“; ownership of the preperty, making it engme fur a Provincial Grant. I must admit this tool. \omc doing. We had to appear before them three timag before they accepted ownership. They are H mm, canny bunch of men; they seemed to thini there was something wrong when it was offered it: lhcm debt-free, all furnished, ready to go. The tum“, Council gives us a $500 yearly grant and inc 5{ Thomas City Council maintains the ground tinch their Parks Department. Women’s Instituttx ram with yearly donations until we got on our To add to our funds we have yearly $1 memlm«.liips. We sell homemade jams and jellies. The :- cum furnishes the jars, so as to have them unifu w and our Women’s Institute members fill them ft‘u'" mm surplus fruit. The admittance charge is 25 U 31, m adults. Children are admitted free, so Eli 211001 classes and other groups when accompmt .| by teachers and leaders. Our future plans include the building of mall barn in the garden of the museum in which will display larger household equipment and 131-- m. chinery. We receive excellent support from m. meal newspaper; we‘ve had it all the way thin ‘11, 1 personally write a weekly column headed " cum News"â€"not too long, informing our cit. .. of museum visitorsâ€"and thEy come from all i the World, of articles that have been donated mules we need to complete a special display. and ' ‘ilt‘ltl events of the past and present. We haw, ulcss committees looking after the various rom pro- gramme committee, publicity committee, mult- tees for special projects. This is the story of our Elgin County “ sum. If you are thinking about establishing w , go ahead. We did it. You can, too. Take flrp at a time and be sure you have a sufficiew - other of dedicated souls who will see the project with. If you have an established museum perhap- iI tun make use of some of the ideas we have for: 'o be good. We are proud of our museum! It is op iul}. Please come and visit us! MILLINERY NOTES Millinery classes never seem to lack in M;- inal ideas. Mrs. Mildred Mulligan, Millin In- structor, in Home Economics Extension HM reports a most attractive hat lining mail. "l H class member from a very old crochettr ‘luill which had been stretched and blocked or i but block. Other linings were made from lace m hillb- Mrs. Mulligan also reports some unum . tw- periences with feather trimmings. A lady r "Ui'l' 13' liked a feather ornament that the ins MW had made from peacock and pheasant lmthcrx. The next day the lady came to the class WI"! 0‘” tail pheasant feathers and some small ones 1W“ a neighbor who raised pheasan‘s had Plum“ "3"“ a live bird. The feathers made a beautitm innr ming for her hat. HOME AND LOUNIRY