Do NOT stint the family's use of fresh 
fruit in order to fill your preserve closet. 
There is more health and enjoyment in 
fruit as Nature prepares it, than can be 
extracted from the jam pot. The sweet 
tooth’s demands need not be ignored; yet 
we may bear in mind that they do not 
indicate a very well-balanced ration. 
* 
Nowadays, tomatoes and green corn 
lend a festive appearance to the city 
restaurant, and refresh the flagging ap¬ 
petites of the year ’round workers. But 
the most ideal summer indulgence is the 
watermelon. Its unadulterated spark¬ 
ling sweetness is well appreciated ; but 
perhaps we do not always remember to 
thank Providence that there are some 
delights which man can’t meddle with 
and “ improve,” thereby making it 
necessary to stamp them “ genuine.” 
IS THE BALLOT A BURDEN? 
A DISCUSSION OF ITS WEIGHT AND ITS 
WORTH. 
N The R. N.-Y. of July 6, Mollie Wig¬ 
gins tells us in an article on “ Wom¬ 
an’-. Rights” how the duties of the aver¬ 
age woman would not allow her the time 
to “ run this republic.” Mary A. Liver¬ 
more says that the argument most often 
brought against equal suffrage is : 
“Suppose a woman should be elected to 
Congress what would become of her 
husband and children ? ” Mrs. Liver¬ 
more says, “ The ordinary man voter is 
in about as much danger of being elected 
to Congress as he is of being struck by 
lightning, and the ordinary woman when 
she becomes a voter, will run about the 
same risk.” This applies with equal 
force to the likelihood of the average 
woman ever being called on to “ run this 
republic.” There is no argument made 
by opponents of woman suffrage so 
noticeable as this, of the time it is going 
to take for women to vote. One might 
imagine that they would begin early on 
January 1, and keep it up till late on 
December 31. The average man seems 
able to vote, often taking a keen interest 
in politics, and not ha ve it interfere w ith 
his business, pleasure or family duties. 
“ The average woman,” this corre¬ 
spondent says, must be able to do a 
multitude of things, among others “ have 
an idea of current events, belong to 
numerous organizations, and be able to 
preside or read or write a paper for the 
same,” etc. If she can do all this is she 
not fit to cast an intelligent vote with¬ 
out much further preparation, and make 
her thoughts, her brain, her culture, 
count in the most direct way on some of 
the problems that are affecting the 
future weal or woe of our country ? 
Unhappily, some of us are so constituted 
that we cannot help but feel a living 
interest in the way this republic is run, 
and feel perfectly willing to bear our 
part of the responsibility of it, or at 
least share it with the ignorant “ hired 
man” who said when we asked him how 
he was going to vote on certain ques¬ 
tions, that he didn’t know ; when he 
lived in the other neighborhood, he 
always voted the Democratic ticket, be¬ 
cause the most of them did. 
Mollie Wiggins quotes Longfellow's 
beautiful lines: 
“ As unto the bow the cord is 
So unto man is woman 
Useless each without the other." 
Where is the point where they cease to 
be “ Useless each without the other ” ? Is 
it just before they reach the ballot box ? 
She also asks us “ What American would 
exchange her lot with that of a German 
woman who has the right of suffrage?” 
quoting the difference in the courtesy 
towards women while traveling alone in 
Germany or here. If this is so, though 
I have known of women traveling some 
months in Germany and experiencing no 
discourtesy from officials, do we owe the 
general kindness and courtesy of Ameri¬ 
can men solely to the fact that we 
cannot vote ? Is the unprotected female 
in danger in Wyoming, in Colorado, in 
Kansas ? 
In this article, also, the writer calls 
our attention to the weakness and in¬ 
capacity as a voter of the woman in New 
York State who asked her husband 
whether she would better vote at a 
school election, and says, “ Imagine a 
man asking his wife whether he should 
vote.” Is it so uncommon for husband 
or wife to say “ Would I better do this 
or that ? ” In the troublous times of the 
school commissioner ballot law of 1893, 
many of us asked the advice of husbands, 
and nobly they stood by us, even to the 
ballot box. 
But there is one phase of the “ rights ” 
question which even our friend wants, 
equal pay for equal work ; but she does 
not “ hope for this soon.” And, indeed, 
she may not; but she will find that 
equal suffrage will be a long step to¬ 
wards it. for it is a truth that history 
confirms, that a ballotless class are 
always at a disadvantage in any attempt 
to obtain equal rights. 
ELLA C. GOODELL. 
POINTS ON LAUNDRY WORK. 
HERE are women in this world 
who seem to think that they are 
never really accomplishing anything un¬ 
less they make hard work of it. They 
scorn all easy ways, characterizing them 
as ‘ slack-twisted ’ and ‘ shirky,’ and take 
to themselves great credit for getting 
through an enormous amount of hard 
work.” 
This remark was recently called forth 
by a wordy encounter between an ex¬ 
perienced housekeeper and a woman to 
whom she had given a great deal of work, 
says the New York Ledger. From the 
first, there had been an effort to make 
the labor as light as possible, but it was 
at last given up as a hopeless under¬ 
taking. 
“ In all of my experience,” said this 
housekeeper, in narrating the circum¬ 
stances, “ I never met a woman so set 
and obstinate as the one 1 have just 
been employing. She has resolutely re¬ 
fused to have the clothes put to soak, 
preferring what she calls ‘ elbow-grease ’ 
to all manner of labor-saving appliances. 
Then she grumbled about the work in 
one breath, and boasted of her ability to 
do it in another, until it became so weari¬ 
some that 1 gave her up in disgust. 
“During my residence abroad, I got 
some points in laundry work that were 
worthy of adoption, and others I have 
worked out for myself. It is the great¬ 
est saving of time and strength to use a 
small table or fiat board and a soft scrub¬ 
bing brush. I can take an ordinary gar¬ 
ment with collar and sleeves badly soiled, 
and cleanse it by this process in one- 
third of the time and with infinitely less 
hard work than the average laundress. 
1 make a mixture of soap and kerosene 
oil and let it stand over night, or prepare 
it and keep it in a stoppered jug or bottle. 
With a soft brush, rub the collar and 
cuffs, and all of the soiled places, then 
roll the garment up for a few minutes 
while others are being done. When all 
are prepared, begin with the first and 
rinse and brush the surface with hot 
soapsuds. In nine cases out of ten, the 
garment will need no further rubbing. 
I do not approve of clothes being merely 
scalded. They need not be boiled for 
any length of time, but should have 
about one to three minutes in actually 
boiling suds. This dissolves any gummy 
substances that may not rub out of the 
fibers, and makes the clothes more clean 
and certainly more healthful. Clothes 
soaked over night in warm suds made 
with the soap and kerosene mixture, will 
wash easier and look better, to say noth¬ 
ing of wearing much longer, than those 
laundered in the ordinary way.” 
SCIENTIFIC FEEDING. 
HE stock raiser believes more or less 
in the scientific feeding of his 
cattle. He knows that some kinds of 
food are more suitable under certain 
conditions and for specific purposes, than 
are others ; that indiscriminate feeding 
often works mischief; and that on proper 
proportioning and careful administra¬ 
tion of feed stuffs depends, in large 
measure, the health of his stock and the 
salableness of the animals or their prod¬ 
ucts. But what about the feeding of 
the human animals on the farm ? Is 
not their proper nourishment quite as 
important as that of the stock ? Con¬ 
sidered merely from a financial stand¬ 
point, the health and energy of the pres¬ 
ent and future worker, is of the greatest 
value. And the physical organizations 
of the human creature and the brute are 
not so unlike that the higher one is 
indifferent to the principles which gov¬ 
ern the growth and nurture of the 
lower. 
“ But,” says the wise farmer, “ that is 
the woman’s business.” True, my friend, 
it is the woman’s business; a business 
for which she needs to fit herself, even 
as do her husband and brother for theirs 
—at agricultural colleges and through 
scientific books, and high-grade periodi¬ 
cals. She needs help from experiment 
stations as much as they ; she needs in¬ 
spiration and strengthening of purpose 
through conferences with others in the 
same business. 
Much time, thought and money have 
been expended of late years on the prob¬ 
lem concerning the feeding and care of 
farm animals. No enterprising farmer 
or stock breeder nowadays thinks him¬ 
self able to carry on his business with¬ 
out some study of the results of scien¬ 
tific research. The time is coming when 
no woman will any more think of under¬ 
taking to keep house, much less bear 
and rear children, without some study 
of domestic science, and some knowledge 
of the chemical and physiological prop¬ 
erties of food and its scientific prepara¬ 
tion. Already agricultural colleges are 
adding a domestic science department, 
and experiment stations are talked of in 
connection with the agricultural experi¬ 
ment stations. Farmers’ institutes are 
introducing lectures on cooking. Peri¬ 
odicals have been established for the pur¬ 
pose of disseminating knowledge of these 
subjects ; and many of the better class 
of agricultural papers and magazines 
are devoting columns regularly to the 
consideration of the best food for health, 
and its scientific preparation. 
Now let the farmer who has been bene- 
fitted by the information so fully and 
freely offered by agricultural college 
bulletins and experiment stations, show 
his appreciation by encouraging in every 
way the spreading of correct knowledge 
of domestic affairs, in which, surely, he 
is also interested. Much as science has 
done and is doing for the farm, who 
shall say that yet more may not be accom¬ 
plished for the home ? Certainly the 
health, probably the happiness, and 
quite possibly the morals, of the people, 
are influenced by what they eat. j. a. j. 
QUIETING RESTLESS CHILDREN. 
L OVE of stimulants is inherent in 
very few children, says the New 
York Press, but is a taste inculcated 
during infancy, not alone by nurses, but 
by mothers, who, through ignorance or 
indifference, run terrible future risks 
for sake of a little present quiet. It is 
in the medicine, that the harm lies. No 
matter what the ailment may be, the 
remedies are near kin—drops, cordials, 
pai'egoric or laudanum, given with the 
intention, not so much to cure, as to 
soothe the child and induce sleep. The 
prime factor of all these compounds is 
opium. Opium itself is a wonderful 
medicine, but a skilled practitioner hesi¬ 
tates to give it to a child, because its re¬ 
sults are impossible to foresee. Where 
10 drops of laudanum scarcely affect one 
child, it might kill, and often has killed, 
another. 
Paregoric is laudanum and camphor 
with two other ingredients, and while 
not so dangerous, possesses great possi¬ 
bilities for evil. Drops and cordials are 
much like paregoric, only stronger, and 
soothing syrups also contain opium in 
some form. I do not imply that those 
medicines should never be used for child¬ 
ren. On the contrary, paregoric espe¬ 
cially is essentially a child's remedy. But 
it takes a mighty sensible mother or 
