678 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
Oct.  15 
A  MATTER  OF  PREJUDICE. 
I  heard  you  ask  for  bread  to-day— I  think  you  called 
it  “  bed;” 
I  heard  you  speak  of  rata  also,  but  “  watis  ’’  was  what 
you  Bald; 
You  wished  a  cracker  too,  and  asked  your  nurse  a 
“  quacker  ’’  for; 
You  also  thought  you’d  like  to  have  a  “  wide  ”  along 
the  floor. 
Now  will  you  tell  me,  baby  dear,  in  confidence,  of 
course— 
And  In  the  reason  that  you’ll  give  I’m  sure  there'll 
be  much  force— 
.lust  why  It  is  you  have  conceived,  unknown  to  your 
papa, 
Such  prejudice  against  it  that  you  drop  the  letter  R? 
—Harper's  Young  People. 
Odds  and  Ends. 
Divorce  Among  Pigeons. — A  writer  in 
Feathered  World  gives  this  example  of 
the  family  troubles  of  our  feathered 
friends : 
I  remember  a  few  years  ago  I  had  a 
pair  which,  so  far  as  I  could  see,  were 
on  the  best  of  terms  with  one  another. 
They  reared  one  pair  of  youngsters  very 
satisfactorily,  and  the  hen  being  a  young, 
vigorous  one,  I  took  the  next  two  pairs 
from  her  when  hard  feeding  came  on 
and  transferred  them  to  feeders.  After 
the  second  pair  were  removed,  she  took  a 
dislike  to  the  cock,  beat  him  off  when  he 
came  near  her,  and,  although  I  put  them 
into  a  loft  by  themselves,  she  would 
never  match  up  to  him  again.  Did  she 
attach  blame  to  him,  I  wonder,  for  the 
disappearance  of  her  squabs  ? 
Happy  on  the  Farm. — In  sending  the 
prices  for  staple  articles  at  his  market, 
a  well-known  Wisconsin  farmer  adds 
this  note.  It  is  certainly  worth  farming 
well  to  be  able  to  write  thus  in  the 
evening  of  life.” 
We  live  near  town  and  supply  our 
wants  very  much  as  we  would  were  we 
living  in  town — berries  by  the  box  or 
crate,  peaches  by  the  basket,  oysters  by 
the  can  ;  we  do  not  try  to  practice  econ¬ 
omy.  The  house  is  at  times  full  of  com¬ 
pany  for  weeks,  and  then  wife  and  self 
are  often  alone  with  the  help.  We  de¬ 
pend  upon  our  dairy  for  income  and 
continue  to  spend  most  of  it.  The  chil¬ 
dren  are  all  in  business  for  themselves, 
and  we  stay  on  the  farm  because  we  do 
not  know  what  better  to  do,  or  how  to 
be  happier.  We  know  nothing  by  ex¬ 
perience  of  the  wrongs  inflicted  upon  the 
farmers  as  a  class.  We  are  not  trying  to 
get  rich  and  do  not  envy  those  who  are. 
The  English  Camel.  —  Here  is  the 
way  some  of  our  English  farmer  cousins 
talk  : 
We  see  eggs  coming  over  by  the  mil¬ 
lion,  fowls  by  the  cwt. ;  we  have  good 
grain  at  ridiculously  cheap  rates;  we 
have  light  grain  which  is  serviceable 
only  as  poultry  food,  and  yet  both  grain 
and  meat  come  over  in  enormous  quan¬ 
tities.  “  We  must  have  American  flour,” 
says  the  miller,  “  because  the  English- 
grown  is  not  good  enough  or  dry  enough,” 
but  I  fancy  as  regards  this  year’s  harvest 
his  excuse  will  be  scarcely  just — and  if 
we  have  the  foreigner’s  corn  there  is  no 
reason  on  earth  why  we  should  have  his 
poultry  ;  we  can  challenge  him  as  to 
quality,  and  if  he  can  send  over  a  fresh 
egg,  we  ought  to  be  able  to  produce  one 
that  is  fresher.  The  Englishman  of  to¬ 
day  is  like  a  camel  that  grumbles  and 
grunts  but  takes  his  load — only  there  is 
this  difference,  that  the  quadruped  must 
and  the  biped  need  not.  i 
Razorback  Hams. — Poets  have  sung  of 
the  flavor  of  the  genuine  Southern  ham. 
This  toothsome  meat  comes  from  the 
despised  “  razorback,”  an  animal  that 
has  no  time  to  put  on  fat  so  he  puts  on 
extra  slices  of  lean  until  the  acorns  fall 
and  then  he  fattens  just  right  to  fit  an 
epicure’s  mouth.  Bill  Nye  thus  says  of 
him  : 
I  shall  never  speak  lightly  of  the  ridge- 
rooter  again.  He  is  subject  to  none  of 
the  diseases  peculiar  to  corpulence.  He 
breathes  good  air,  eats  the  pokeberry  in 
mid-summer  till  his  ceilings  and  wains- 
coitings  are  as  red  as  a  Chinese  demon¬ 
stration  ;  then  he  eats  the  wild  cucumber 
which  falls  from  the  cucumber  tree  after 
the  squirrel  has  had  all  he  wants,  and 
the  result  is  that  by  November  he  is 
ready  to  take  a  course  of  corn  in  the  ear 
or  elsewhere,  and  winds  up  at  the  glor¬ 
ious  Yuletide  when  the  hollyberries  are 
red  and  the  mistletoe  and  persimmons 
are  both  ripe,  still  slender  and  girlish  in 
figure,  but  as  tender  and  juicy  as  a  Brazil 
nut. 
A  Robin  Tax. — The  Ohio  Experiment 
Station  has  been  investigating  the  robin. 
Is  this  bird  a  helper  or  a  robber  ?  It 
appears  that  robins  will  eat  almost  any¬ 
thing.  They  kill  many  insects,  but 
when  fruits  are  ripe  they  favor  an  exclu¬ 
sive  fruit  diet.  This  is  the  way  the  sta¬ 
tion  people  decide : 
The  law  protects  the  robin  and  the 
fruit  grower  is  liable  if  he  seeks  to  de¬ 
fend  himself  with  a  shotgun,  and  yet  he 
has  the  bill  to  pay  for  the  good  that  the 
robin  does  for  the  general  public.  The 
berry  grower  has  much  to  complain  of 
against  the  robin,  and  but  very  little  to 
thank  him  for  ;  while  those  who  do  not 
grow  fruit  have  reason  to  regard  the 
robin  quite  as  much  a  friend  as  an  enemy. 
It  is  simply  a  matter  of  unequal  taxation 
and  is  perhaps  quite  as  difficult  to  ad¬ 
just  as  taxation  of  any  other  kind.  It  is 
easy  enough  in  this  case  to  determine 
that  the  tariff  is  a  tax,  also  who  pays  it; 
but  who  shall  say  what  is  to  be  done 
about  it  ?  An  effort  was  made  a  year  or 
two  ago  to  repeal  the  law  which  protects 
the  robin,  but  facts  were  scarce,  and 
sympathy  overruled. 
vapor.  Thus  shut  in  air-tight  for  some 
five  minutes,  they  whipped  their  bodies 
with  bunches  of  horsehair  or  herbs.  At 
the  end  of  this  time  the  well  Indian  came 
out,  the  sick  one  remaining  and  being 
joined  at  once  by  another  well  Indian, 
who  remained  with  him  five  minutes 
longer,  when  both  came  out  and  were 
succeeded  by  the  other  Indians  of  the 
party,  including  a  six-year-old  boy. 
When  the  well  Indians  came  out  they 
were  wet  with  vapor  and  perspiration, 
and  the  skin  red  as  a  lobster  and  smok¬ 
ing  like  a  furnace.  They  went  at  once 
out  of  the  lodge  into  the  snow,  and, 
taking  handfuls  of  it,  rubbed  themselves 
vigorously  for  five  minutes.  They  then 
returned  to  the  lodge,  their  bodies  still 
red  and  smoking,  and  clothed  themselves. 
Some  Foreign  Notes. — Chas.  W.  Gar¬ 
field  of  Michigan,  is  now  in  Europe. 
From  a  gossipy  letter  from  him  in  the 
Allegan  Gazette,  we  take  these  bits  : 
The  German  will  treat  you  with  great 
civility  otherwise,  and  puff  his  vile  to¬ 
bacco  smoke  in  your  face  as  if  he  were 
doing  you  a  great  favor  thereby.  If  I 
lived  in  Germany  I  would  learn  to  smoke, 
if  it  killed  me,  in  self-defense. 
England  is  lovely,  and  while  coursing 
over  her  countryside  I  felt  as  if  I  could 
remain  there  always;  and  I  verily  believe 
this  feeling  would  have  stayed  with  me 
had  I  not  met  an  Englishman  or  woman. 
I  never  could  live  with  them.  After  close 
contact  for  weeks  with  them,  it  was 
heavenly  to  get  among  the  Dutch  people 
— people  who  have  warm  blood  in  their 
veins,  people  who  hug  and  kiss  their 
babies,  and  who  treat  a  stranger  guest 
as  if  he  were  a  long-lost  brother. 
The  display  of  vegetables  on  every 
market  is  a  marvel  to  me,  not  only  in  the 
quality  of  the  products  but  in  the  very 
wide  range  of  varieties.  A  dozen  sorts 
of  lettuce  and  as  many  of  cabbages,  kept 
distinct  from  each  other,  and  sold  at  dif¬ 
ferent  prices,  is  a  very  common  sight, 
and  the  soup-bunches,  containing  half  a 
dozen  vegetables  and  herbs,  are  novel¬ 
ties  that  I  wish  could  come  into  our  own 
markets.  It  is  a  great  satisfaction  to  see 
everything  sold  by  weight,  the  only  ex¬ 
ception,  of  any  moment,  being  eggs, 
which  are  assorted  in  sizes  and  vary  in 
price  according  to  size. 
The  only  really  fine  fruit  in  London 
was  imported  from  California ;  and  it 
was  amusing  to  note  the  sudden  decline 
in  prices  when  a  large  consignment  of 
California  peaches,  pears,  plums,  apri¬ 
cots,  and  grapes  arrived.  Poor  French 
specimens  that  the  day  before  were 
bringing  good  prices,  were  unsalable, 
and  it  was  astonishing  to  note  the  per¬ 
fect  condition  in  which  the  American 
fruit  arrived. 
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for  one  full  year  to  any  old  subscriber, 
in  return  for  10  three-month  trial  sub¬ 
scriptions  at  25  cents  each. 
Big  Trees  and  Vinks. — A  writer  in 
Farming  World  describes,  among  other 
tree  monsters,  the  following  : 
There  is  a  vine,  at  Hampton  Court, 
which  was  planted  150  years  ago,  and 
which  is  supposed  to  be  the  oldest  vine 
in  the  world.  It  is  upwards  of  150  feet 
long,  its  stem  being  32  inches  in  circum¬ 
ference,  and,  in  a  good  season,  it  yields 
more  than  3,000  bunches  of  grapes, 
weighing  in  the  whole  nearly  one  ton. 
They  are  of  the  finest  Black  Hamburg 
kind,  and  are  reserved  chiefly  for  the 
Queen's  table. 
In  Malta  and  Naples  15,000  oranges 
have  frequently  been  picked  from  a  single 
tree,  and  one  case  is  recorded  of  a  tree  in 
the  tiandwich  Islands  which  bore  20,000 
oranges,  whilst  in  two  instances  in  South¬ 
ern  Europe  38,000  were  picked  from  one 
tree. 
There  is  an  apple  tree  near  the  home¬ 
stead  of  Bungamero  Estate,  in  Australia, 
the  property  of  the  late  Mr.  Hugh  Glass, 
which,  when  45  years  old,  measured  six 
feet  six  inches  round  the  trunk  at  four 
feet  from  the  ground,  and  yielded  three 
tons  of  apples.  This  tree  is  growing  in 
a  grass  paddock,  has  never  been  pruned, 
and  is  yet  perfectly  healthy. 
A  monster  Mar6chal  Niel  rose  at  War¬ 
minster,  was  planted  on  April  16,  1888, 
made,  the  first  year  after  planting,  sboots 
25  feet  long,  and  produced  200  roses  be¬ 
fore  it  had  been  planted  12  months.  Next 
year  its  shoots  reached  to  the  length  of 
30  feet,  and  the  number  of  blooms 
amounted  in  1890  to  2,000.  The  plant 
covers  at  the  present  time  an  area  of  450 
square  feet,  and  is  carrying  flower-buds 
and  blooms  of  more  than  3,000  in  numb;  r. 
An  Indian’s  “  Turkish  Bath.” — Dr.  A. 
B.  Holder  tells  in  the  Medical  Record 
about  the  “  sweat  ”  treatment  which  our 
American  Indians  consider  very  bene¬ 
ficial. 
Stout,  supple  poles  are  stuck  in  the 
ground,  bent  over,  and  the  other  ends 
stuck  in,  forming  a  rude  half  sphere, 
some  three  or  four  feet  high,  and  about 
as  much  in  diameter  at  the  base.  This 
frame  is  covered  with  several  thicknesses 
of  blankets,  a  shallow  hole  is  dug  in  the 
ground,  a  fire  is  built  outside,  and  half  a 
dozen  or  more  rocks,  weighing  four  or 
five  pounds  each,  heated.  These  are  put 
into  the  hole  in  the  sweat-house.  Four 
or  five  Indians  had  gathered  while  the 
preparations  were  being  made.  These 
stripped  and  entered  the  sweat-house 
two  at  a  time,  of  the  first  two  the  sick 
man  being  one.  None  of  the  other  In¬ 
dians  were  at  all  sick  ;  they  were  going 
through  the  process  as  a  preventive.  The 
two  who  went  in  first  took  with  them  a 
bucket  of  warm  water.  They  poured 
the  water  over  the  heated  rocks,  and  the 
structure  was  at  once  filled  with  hot 
Blackwell’s  Bull  Durham 
Smoking  Tobacco 
For  over  twenty -five  years  the  standard  smoking  tobacco  of  the  world. 
To-day  More  Popular  than  Ever. 
To  have  a  good  smoke  anytime  and  every  time  it  is  only  necessary  to 
get  Bull  Durham.  It  is  all  good  and  always  good. 
BLACKWELL’S  DURHAM  TOBACCO  CO., 
DURHAM,  N.  C. 
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