75 
1891 
THE TOBACCO QUESTION FOR 
GIRLS. 
I HAVE read in The R. N.-Y. recently, 
some excellent words to young men on 
the question of the use and non-use of to¬ 
bacco. Earnestly do I hope that the seed 
may take root, and bring forth good fruit, 
blessing the lives of those who have thrown 
off the shackles of a cruel habit, and also 
the lives of those with whom they come in 
contact. I have been longing for some 
time to say a few words to the young 
ladies on the same subject—not that I fear 
that sensible American girls will ever fall 
so low as to puff the vile cigars or cigarettes; 
but I know that it is a vital question to 
them whether their brothers, husbands and 
fathers are tobacco users or not. 
I believe that every thoughtful young 
woman would use her influence against the 
poison, if once she were made to see and 
feel its evil. Every good and true woman 
has, or should have a strong influence ovej^ 
the youDg men with whom she associates. 
Many a woman by her persistent opposition 
to tobacco, and her helpful, encouraging 
words, has saved some one from its use 
and from its ills. I would that every woman 
and every girl in the land might feel the 
importance of the subject, and fight against 
tobacco, if only in the silent way of never 
giving its use encouragement. 
Will an earnest, thoughtful girl present 
her gentlemen friends with smoking caps 
and gowns, cigar holders and tobacco 
pouches? A liberal supply of cuspidores 
might be an actual necessity, and at the 
same time be a powerful reminder of the 
unpardonable filthiness of tobacco users. 
“But,” says a thoughtless young miss : 
“ What if the boys do smoke ? They enjoy 
it!” Would you have your brother take a 
slow poison simply because he enjoys the 
act of imbibing it? Tobacco using causes 
one of the most fatal of heart diseases. 
Physicians know that patients suffering 
from tobacco heart disease cannot be in¬ 
duced to give up the weed; they will use it, 
in spite of pain and death staring them in 
the face. This shows how cruel is the hold 
of tobacco on its victims, how hard it is for 
one who becomes its slave to free himself. 
Many a family never will know what it 
is to own a comfortable home, because the 
head of the family must have his tobacco. 
That tobacco money saved at interest, 
would have given them a home. A young 
laboring man chewed tobacco that cost him 
at least 50 cents every week—$26 per year; 
a merchant’s bill for cigars was $400 per 
year. He smoked daily 10 cigars that cost 
him 10 cents each, by the thousand. One 
dollar per day—$365 per year—and cigars 
given away to help trade, etc., made the 
sum up to $400 per year. Every one can 
tell of similar cases that are true. A 
young man who was learning to depend 
upon his cigar, said : 
“ I like to smoke; it rests me to go to my 
office and smoke. You women say too 
much about it.” 
“ But why shouldn’t we talk about it ?” 
I said. “We want our fathers, and broth¬ 
ers, and husbands and sons, to be as nearly 
perfect as they can be in health, in morals, 
and in business attainments; and when we 
see that they are dwarfing themselves and 
all of their opportunities, why should we 
not speak ?” Said another young man : 
“Young ladies do not make the most of 
their opportunities. In riding with gentle¬ 
men, it asked if tobacco is offensive, they 
will oftener allow their escorts to smoke 
than they will take their stand for the 
right against tobacco.” 
A matron was telling a young lady that 
previous to her marriage, she gave her 
lover, who became her husband, no en¬ 
couragement until he gave up the tobacco 
habit. 
“ You could not have cared anything 
about him,” was the young lady’s verdict. 
Is that the way young ladies appreciate the 
importance of this subject ? Will they 
tolerate the cigar for fear of losing the 
young man who smokes it ? If that is all 
the depth there is to them, then the case is 
Please mention The R. N.-Y. to our adver¬ 
tisers. 
When Baby was sick, we gave her Castorla, 
When she was a Child, she cried for Castorla, 
When she became Miss, she clung to Castorla, 
When she had Children, she gave them Castorla. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
well-nigh hopeless, and womanly influence 
never will save the smoker from himself.’ 
I have been filled with indignation at see¬ 
ing a laboring man who needed every cent 
of his money for his little family, take the 
money he should have spent for them, to 
“ set up ” cigars because a little white- 
souled child had come into his home. My 
indignation was none the less for the rich 
man, who led the way and set the example. 
There are women who do not choose to 
divide their husband’s affections with a 
cigar; who do not choose to have their 
children’s health impaired by a tobacco¬ 
using parent; who do not choose to have 
their children inherit the curse of a love for 
tobacco, any more than they would have 
them inherit the deadly taste for alcoholic 
drinks; such women would choose never to 
marry rather than to entail this kind of 
misery on their offspring. The more of 
them the world finds the better for the race. 
It is hard for women to undeistand why 
tobacco chewing and smoking can tempt 
boys when they must often suffer much to 
acquire the taste and the habit. But let 
us save the boys, the young men if we can, 
so that in time there will be no old men 
lamenting that they learned to smoke in 
their youth. SARAH E. HOWARD. 
I append a poem cut from a stray sheet 
months ago. I do not know the name of 
the author, but the poem touches a vital 
point: 
A bride’s letter. 
Dear Helen, you will be surprised 
To get a note so soon—the tlrst 
Bridal edition, unrevised— 
And scribbled at my very worst. 
I’ve but a pencil as you see, 
A leaf from Hurry s diary torn, 
And then I'm writing on my knee, 
And feel a little bit forlorn. 
We’re on the train still. I’m alone ; 
Harry is In the smoking car 
These last two hours. My time’s my own ; 
But, Helen, dear, how strange men are : 
Three days ago—time quickly flies— 
And yet It somehow seems like years 
Since ail the kisses and good byes, 
And all the trembling hopes and fears. 
Of course he likes to smoke; but then 
You always used to say, you know, 
Women were different from men, 
Ah, yes, Indeed! I find It so. 
Most of my dreams seem disarranged ; 
Of course I’m happy: only life 
Looks altered now-the world is changed— 
I can’t oelleve I’m Harry’s wife. 
And yet I know £ am, for here 
(Wnat tiny thorns one’s wreath may mar ! 
I’m sitting quite alone, my dear, 
And he-Is In the smoking car. 
domestic duties, they will find time and 
strength to grapple with the many issues 
which await their thoughtful labor. Home 
is the first consideration and we must each 
learn from the other how best to rule it. 
S A. LITTLE. 
NOTES FROM CANADA: HOME UP¬ 
HOLSTERY. 
P ERHAPS some housewife is the owner 
of an old-fashioned “settee.” I had 
one that had belonged to my husband’s 
grandmother, and had been accounted 
quite aristocratic in its day, but ever since 
I have known it, it has been shifted about 
where it was least in the way ; it had spent 
a summer or two out-of-doors under the 
trees, and was altogether more of a nui¬ 
sance than anything else, though it was 
still so good and strong that I hated to 
throw it out to be cut up. 
When we came to clean the sitting-room 
last fall, John demanded that there should 
be some kind of lounge “ where a fellow 
could rest these long evenings.” I thought 
of the old settee at once, and decided to try 
my hand at it. Accordingly, the next day 
I visited our nearest village and brought 
home several yards of brocaded canton flan¬ 
nel, a paper of tacks, etc. 
We made the cushions for the back first 
(after removing the rockers), stuffing them 
—there were two, each half length—with 
corn husks, and covering each smoothly 
with an old woolen comforter that had out¬ 
lived its usefulness as a bed covering, but 
which made the cushions much softer; 
they were again covered separately with 
the flannel. The ends were then covered 
in the same way, with the addition of a 
roll carefully formed of the old puff on the 
outside of the arm ; the seat was then cov¬ 
ered, extra pains being taken to make it 
soft, and the cover was fastened carefully 
at the back so that it could not slip off. A 
curtain of the same material added below 
the seat completed a really pretty lounge ; 
and for comfort—well, just come and listen 
to the “old man’s” sigh of satisfaction as 
he settles himself for the evening, with my 
little chair and table at hand, and the last 
new book or paper awaiting attention, 
when the dishes are put away. 
FLORENCE H. 
Advertisers treat all correspondents 
well if they mention The Rural New- 
Yorker. 
The Shah of Persia 
Though advanced in years, lias hair of raven 
hue. Gray hairs are strictly prohibited in 
his dominions, and hence the large ship¬ 
ments to that country of Ayer’s Hair Vigor, 
by the use of which the Shah’s subjects save 
not only their hair but their heads. Ayer’s 
Hair Vigor restores the natural color of the 
hair. It should be on every toilet-table. 
“ Some time ago my hair began to fade and 
to fall out so badly that I thought I should 
be bald; but the use of Ayer’s Hair Vigor 
has restored tne original color and made my 
hair strong, abundant, and healthy. It does 
not fall out any more.” — Addie Shaffer, 540 
Race st., Cincinnati, Ohio. 
“ My hair (which had partly turned gray) 
was restored to its youthful color and 
*beauty by the use of a few bott es of Ayer’s 
•Hair Vigor. I shall continue to use it, as 
.there is no better dressing for the hair.” — 
'Caido Gapp, Georgeana, Ala, 
Ayer’s Hair Vigor, 
PREPARED BY 
DR. J. C. AYER & CO., Lowell, Mass. 
Sold by all Druggists an<* Perfumers. 
lo euro costiveness the medicine must l>o 
more than a purgative; it must contain 
tonic, alterative and cathartic properties. 
tuft’s Pills 
possess these qualities, and speedily re¬ 
store to the bowels their natural peristaltic 
motion, so essential to regularity. 
THE WOMEN’S LITTLE CORNER IN 
THE PAPER. 
T HE question has been asked in The R. 
N.-Y. : “ What class of articles in 
our agricultural papers is of the greatest 
benefit to women on a farm ? ” One man 
says: “My wife reads the household 
columns of half a dozen papers and then 
proceeds to do her work precisely as she 
did before.” I think be more than half 
believed what he said, for I fear that he 
reads his agricultural papers just in that 
way ; at least, I think he will admit that 
had he followed Mr. Terry’s advice and put 
cut straw on his strawberry beds, followed 
by whole straw on top he would not have 
lost the crop from half an acre of straw¬ 
berries from freezing and thawing during 
one trying winter. This is but one item. 
Madame remembered some of the helpful 
hints which she read, for I remember how 
she saved an ugly discoloration on her din¬ 
ing room carpet by quick remembrance that 
a handful of salt thrown upon soot before 
it was touched by the broom would prevent 
its leaving a stain. 
The Women’s Departments in most of 
our papers are as useful to women as the 
other portions of the paper are to men. It 
is said that women are not inventive ; but 
there are few women who have a great deal 
of work to do who do not invent or at 
least devise some way of making it as easy 
as possible, and why should they not de¬ 
scribe their triumphs for the benefit of other 
women ? 
If but one paper is taken in a house it 
should be one in which women have a 
corner. Look to it, too, that it is a publi¬ 
cation in which the women’s corner shows 
that it is conducted by an earnest, helpful 
woman, like our Rural’s “ Chief Cook,” 
who will spare no pains in making her 
department do “ the greatest good to the 
greatest number.” 
The Rural New-Yorker readers would 
be glad could they give us a little more 
room. They have reduced our space within 
the past few years. I do not expect The 
Rural New-Yorker people will follow out 
my suggestion, but I do hope that rural 
people throughout the land may come to 
understand the good which comes to women 
through the Household Departments of our 
papers. When women Have learned the 
easiest and best way to perform their 
USE BOILING WATER OR MILK. 
EPPS’S 
GRATEFUL-COMFORTING. 
COCOA 
SOLD iN LABELLED % LB. TINS. 
Trying Out Lard —In the directions for 
trying out lard, by S. A. Little, In a late 
RURAL, she says : “ Put into an iron kettle 
with a teacupful of water.” I would say 
to our housekeepers: “Don't use any 
water.” It is unnecessary, and if used it 
will take longer to try out the moisture. 
Stirring from the start, as she directs, is 
all that is needed to keep it from sticking 
to the bottom of the kettle. The work is 
done when smoke rises instead of steam. 
E. V. FOX 
Another Hint.— A writer in the Amer¬ 
ican Cultivator recommends the following 
easy and simple way of trying out leaf-lard. 
The oven doors are opened wide, and the 
grates removed. The broad sheets or 
“ leaves ” are then placed in a large vessel 
on the bottom of the oven, there to slowly 
yield up their lard. No watching is neces¬ 
sary ; but the lard must be removed with a 
ladle as the vessel becomes full. There is 
no squeezing or straining, no lifting, no 
sputtering on the stove, and there are few 
greasy dishes; while, if the oven is not too 
hot, the lard will be as white as snow. We 
hope some of our young housekeepers will 
try this easy way, and report their success. 
* * * 
They say that the latest magic prepara¬ 
tions for keeping frizzes in are composed, 
the one of equal parts of glycerine and rose¬ 
water, the other of perfumed olive oil, in 
which a little bees wax has been dissolved. 
Let us try it, girls, being careful not to put 
in so much bees wax that our locks will 
become matted, instead of beautifully 
curled. 
Home-made Seidlitz Powders. —We 
often use a simple foam for “ wind ” 
on the stomach. It has the same effect as 
the powders and is always at hand. Take 
half a tumbler of cold water, sweeten to 
taste, and add enough vinegar to make it 
quite tart, about three or four teaspoonfuls, 
and none but cider vinegar or that made 
from syrups should be used. Take another 
tumbler, put in three tablespoonfuls of 
water, dissolve in it a third of an even tea- 
spoonful of soda, or sufficient to neutralize 
the vinegar; pour the two mixtures to¬ 
gether, stir until it begins to foam, then 
drink quickly. You will find it a pleasant 
beverage. C. R. d. 
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^The Home Maker, 1 Salaries Paid 
Union Square, > 
New York Oity. ) To Agents. 
^ ffev-Vor ft) 
General Advertising Rates of 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
TIMES BUILDING, NEW YORK. 
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