Women Make 
the Homes. 
Woman And The Home 
Homes Make 
the Nation- 
the first spectacles. 
I.ong, long ago. when eyes grew dim 
And old age stole the sight away, 
Men waited for the darkness grim, 
And said, “ No power its march can stay!” 
Lost sight was but God’s Justice; still 
Man had no right to change His will. 
Hut one wise man took bits of glass 
With proper curve and proper swell, 
And let the sunlight through them pass 
Into his eyes—they answered well, 
They rectified his waning sight, 
And saved him from the dread of night. 
They threw the wise man In the fire; 
They smashed his spectacles with speed, 
’Twas sacrilegious to aspire 
To change what Heaven had decreed I 
They burned him ; but they could not kill 
His work ; ’twas good, ’tis living still. 
Long years have passed men since that time, 
. The world has grown In charity, 
And yet. when men with hope sublime, 
Look o’er the heads of you and me, 
To see the truth, we sneer them down, 
With cruel taunt and angry frown : 
We burn them In the fire of hate, 
Yet, constant as a line of light. 
They stand, and, wondrous to relate, 
We follow upward to the right. 
The good, the true is never lost, 
We wait, we sneer—we pay the cost. it. w. c. 
DOES YOUR WIFE HAVE TO BEG FOR MONEY OR 
PICK YOUR POCKETS? 
T. B. TERRY. 
I was asked to speak at a farmers’ institute the other 
evening on the subject of the wife’s share. This is a “talk” 
of which I never tire. In it I took occasion to speak of the 
grumbling way in which some farmers dole out money to 
their wives; how the wife often has to ask and almost beg 
for what is simply her own in justice. The next day I was 
talking with a well known manufacturer and merchant, 
in the town, on the subject. He thought I did not over¬ 
state the matter. He said that a farmer and his wife 
were in his store trading. No, I mean that the man was 
trading, and the wife, or servant, or slave, was stand¬ 
ing by. While doing this, she picked out three or 
four little articles on the flve-cent counter (only costing five 
cents each) and asked her husband to let her have them. 
She pleaded that she would like them so much. He an¬ 
swered, with an oath, “ No, by-, you can’t have any 
money to spend on such tom-foolery.” Webster defines 
slavery as having one’s will under the control of another. 
Isn’t that woman a slave? Are there not a great many 
farmers’ wives, and town men’s wives too, who are slaves 
to a greater or less extent? And still I suspect that even 
the man spoken of above was not really as bad as his 
words might indicate. Let us in charity, while condemn¬ 
ing the deed in strong language, think as well of the man 
as possible. Doubtless money came slowly and hardly to 
him. Perhaps he was brought up by a lord and master 
father; or little by little he had come to lord it over his 
mate, until thoughtlessly, let us hope, not intentionally, 
he had become a veritable tyrant. 
In regard to town wives, I have it directly from a lady 
living in the city that she is, unknown to her husband, 
scrimping their living expenses and laying up small sums 
from time to time in the savings bank to her credit. This 
is saved from money grudgingly given her, oftentimes, for 
household expenses. And she says she knows a neighbor’s 
wife who has quite a little money in the savings bank, 
which she has from time to time taken out of the money 
drawer at her husband’s store when she could do it unseen. 
At another time when her husband was called downstairs 
at night she took some money from his pocket-book. The 
remark was made that she had got through begging for 
what was her own ; she had found out abetter way. These 
cases I can vouch for. 
A lady says on this point, in a recent number of the 
World : “ Husbands seldom pay their wives the compli¬ 
ment of thinking they can manage a bank account. What 
is the result ? The wife grows cunning and underhanded, 
and condones the ways and means she employs to get 
money from her husband as legitimate self-defence. She 
enters into unholy alliances with her dressmaker and mil¬ 
liner to send in bills for larger amounts than she really 
owes, and through their connivance receives the difference. 
She resorts to coaxing and all the pretty juggling a woman 
possesses—nay, she even picks her husband’s pockets at 
night.” 
I think it was Beecher who said that if you wanted a 
man born right you must begin with his grandmother. I 
would like to inquire what sort of men we are likely to 
have in the future from such grandmothers as the above- 
mentioned women ? I hope every man who reads The 
Rural will do what he can to put an end to this terrible 
state of affairs. If he isn’t yet prepared to take his wife 
in as a full and trusted partner, let him at least surprise 
her, beginning the first of next month, by handing over to 
her, a reasonable amount of cash, according to their cir¬ 
cumstances, once a month, to do as she pleases with. Let 
this be not less, if possible, than she could earn by doing 
housework for some one else. If it doesn’t bring tears of 
joy to her eyes and gladness to her heart, in many cases, 
enough to well pay you, I miss my guess. But do it be¬ 
cause it is simple justice; because it is right. Do it for the 
good of future generations, if you haven’t any love left for 
your patient, hard-working, faithful wife. Give her a 
little taste of the freedom you enjoy. But,for Heaven’s sake I 
if you must continue to be lord and master and the head 
at home in private, when you go to the store to trade, and 
other people are around, do not make your wife’s lot 
doubly hard by showing up your true character. 
My good old friend, Rev. W. R. Parsons, who loves his 
Jersey cows, I sometimes think, nearly as well as he does 
his wife (and therein lies the secret of his success as a 
breeder) said in the institute to-day, that no matter what 
confessions a man might make in the class room, his cows 
know his real character better than he will be willing to 
tell it. I suspect that many a country merchant knows 
more nearly the true character of the farmers who trade 
with him than their bretheren would be able to learn from 
them in the prayer-meeting room. It is good to pray for 
the oppressed and the down-trodden; but stop and think 
whether God isn’t waiting for you to answer your own 
prayer. 
I was standing in a store in a large town once, when a 
well-to do farmer and his wife came in to trade. He was 
profuse in his loud talk to her to get everything she 
wanted ; but he kept close to her side, and, as it seemed to 
me, really decided about every purchase made. I watched 
her face closely and thought it told a sad story. After 
they had gone out I quietly asked the merchant about 
them. He boiled over immediately. I would not like to 
repeat all the harsh things he said. The substance was 
that if the poor woman had dared to buy a thing on her 
own account—simply taken him at his word—she would 
have got such a blowing up when they got away as only 
such a man could give. God forgive him! But this is 
certainly better than public insult. Let us have all the 
charity possible. He is our brother man and none of us is 
perfect. Be patient, dear sisters, and do right. One 
wrong is no excuse for another. Justice and righteousness 
will prevail in God’s own time. 
Summit Co., O. 
NOTES ON SUBSCRIBERS’ LETTERS. 
F we may judge from the letters of which we are in 
receipt—and they are generally a fair indication of the 
impression which the paper is making—the brief article 
concerning the “Women’s Little Corner in the Paper” 
has attracted considerable attention among our readers. 
Several friends, in referring to the masculine remark 
quoted therein, to the effect that a certain wife read all the 
articles and then went on doing her work in the old way, 
seem inclined to agree with the critic. We will not turn 
aside from the main point to consider the question whether 
this, if true, would not be found equally true of men and 
their work, but will announce, with all deference, our 
positive conviction that the woman with a fair amount of 
brains, who can read all the household matter, and then 
go on doing her work absolutely in “the same old way ” 
does not exist—certainly not in The R. N.-Y. family. 
Women of The R. N.-Y., if this were true of us, the best 
thing for us all would be to give up our “ corner ” at once, 
and let the space be used for something which might be 
of some value 1 You know it is not true. 
We do not oppose the point so often made, that it is 
difficult to lay down rules that every woman can follow; 
that it is even almost impossible for one woman to adopt 
the plans of another, as a whole, for her own Household 
work : this is almost axiomatic. But we do decline to be¬ 
lieve that any of our readers (nay, we will be generous, and 
include the readers of other household departments) have 
so little wit that they cannot recognize the value of a good 
new idea, and be able also to judge as to its adaptability to 
their work, either as it is offered, or in a modified form. 
The man that made the criticism may think that his 
wife does her work after her own fashion, but unless she 
be that rare specimen, a housekeeper who “ knows it all,” 
she cannot help but gain new ideas that may be put into 
practice. It may be that she so assimilates the ideas which 
she gets from various sources that she thinks them her 
own; it may be that she takes them in by absorption, as 
it were, but they certainly must affect her in some meas¬ 
ure. We may say that we have altogether too good an 
opinion of the women in our homes, to believe that they 
are incapable of learning. 
Hence, we are led to say, further, that if the wife above 
referred to does know all about the best way to do every¬ 
thing, she is just the woman whom we want to come and 
help to enlighten the rest of us; space is waiting, yes, 
longing for her to occupy it I 
One thing in this connection, especially pleases us : The 
fact that masculine comments are so frequent shows 
OUR ECONOMY PRIZES. 
HE result of the “economy” competition will be an¬ 
nounced at the earliest possible date, and the utmost 
fairness given to erring human nature will be observed in 
awarding the prizes. If we state the fact that this present 
writing is done more than a week before the date when the 
competition is to close, our readers will be able to see for 
themselves why the results cannot appear in the number 
following February 15, possibly not even in the next one. 
HAVE YOUR SOCKS MENDED ? 
FRIEND who states that she has been acquainted 
with The R. N.-Y. for years, writes desiring counsel 
as to the advisability of trying to start a Mending Bureau. 
Her resolve to abide by our decision, whatever it may be, 
we do not quite like, partly because we are hardly willing 
to take the responsibility of settling another’s affairs so 
summarily, partly from the fact that, not knowing all the 
circumstances, we cannot possibly be in a position to form 
a just judgment in any particular case. The best that we 
can do Is to state, in a general way,how the matter strikes 
us. This we feel the more bound to do because our corres¬ 
pondent says she first found the idea in our columns, some 
years ago. 
It is an accepted fact that bureaus such as she suggests 
are successful in large cities; the question to consider is: 
“What makes them so ?” We see no reason why they 
should not succeed in any place where there is a large 
proportion of young men away from their own women 
folk, who would naturally do their mending; or in a place 
where there is a large number of families whose time 
was largely taken up in social,or other outside duties, and 
who might be expected to be able to afford to pay for hav¬ 
ing the family mending done. 
In small places, where most of the families would not 
feel able to incur the additional expense, the plan would, 
in our opinion, be likely to prove a failure. Should the 
worker have plenty of friends among well to-do people, no 
doubt the best plan would be to first solicit such work per¬ 
sonally; or in a large place all that might be necessary 
would be a conspicuous sign calling attention to the fact 
that mending would be neatly and promptly done at rea¬ 
sonable rates. 
One especially favorable point in connection with this 
occupation is that unless one resorts to advertising in the 
papers, there is absolutely no expense connected with 
trying it. Hence, it seems to us that any worker whose 
judgment assures her of the probability of succeeding with 
such a patronage as she has a chance of securing, should 
not fear to attempt it. 
Speak Truth Sweetly.— And never is there such 
wrong done to truth as when one confesses it with a brutal 
bluntness. On the other hand, the most unwelcome truth 
may be told without exciting resentment, if told sweetly. 
There is an Eastern fable of a monarch who had a disturb¬ 
ing dream, and called his two chief soothsayers, separately, 
to interpret it. The first soothsayer said : “ The dream 
means that all your relations will die, then you will die 
yourself.” The monarch was furious and had this sooth¬ 
sayer’s head cut off. The second soothsayer was sum¬ 
moned, and, having heard the dream, said: “ It means 
that your majesty will outlive all your relatives.” The 
king loaded this soothsayer with gifts, though he had said 
substantially what the other had said.—New York Sunday 
Herald. 
A girl of 16, thrown on her resources, not long ago, asked 
Rose Terry Cooke, the authoress, if she could advise her 
to take up a literary life. Her reply was significant. “ I 
would not advise a girl, even with the strongest taste 
that way, to attempt literature as a means of living. It is 
the hardest work for the poorest pay a woman can do, and 
full of mortification, anxiety and disappointment. For a 
man it is different—a man gets twice the payment for 
literary work that is given to a woman, though it be of 
poorer quality. From a life-long experience, I advise you 
to let literature alone except as an amusement.”—Boston 
Journal. 
In writing to advertisers, please mention The R. N.-Y. 
CURE 
Dandruff 
pretty plainly that husbands find the “Women’s Corner ” 
interesting enough to lead them to find out what is in it. 
The maiden at her first ball, the countryman at a city 
dinner, believe that there is a ritual according to which 
every act and compliment must be performed, or the fail¬ 
ing party must be cast out of this presence. Later, they 
learn that good sense and character make their own forms 
every moment, and speak or abstain, take wine or refuse 
it, stay or go, sit in a chair or sprawl with children on the 
^Jl reven t 
* 00 ^ Baldness. 
Dermatologists tell us that: The chief requirement of the 
hair is eleauliness—thorough shampooing for women once a 
fortnight, aud for men once a week, and that the best agent for 
1 the purpose is 
Packer’s Tar Soap. 
floor, or stand on their head, or what else soever, in a new 
and aboriginal way ; and that strong will is always in 
fashion, let who will be unfashionable. All that fashion 
demands is composure and self-content.—Emerson. 
One of Nature’s Remedies, 
aud the IDEAL TOILET SOAP. 
25 cents. All druggists. Sample half cake, 10 cents in stamps. 
THE PACKER MFG. CO., 100 Fulton St., N. Y. 
