JUNE 1 
HOOKE’S RURAL NEW-YORIKEK. 
367 
LOVE LIGHTENS LABOR. 
[If men only appreciated the helpfulness of loving 
■words, they would certainly coin more for daily use. 
They are the host tonie In the world for tired hands 
as well ns tired hearts, although we have full faith 
in the efficacy of helping hands The following vorses 
from “ Poems ot Home Life,” tell a profitable story:] 
A ooon wife ruse from her hod one morn, 
And thought with a nervous dread 
Of the piles of clothes to he washed, and moro 
Than a doitcu mouths to be fed : 
Of the meals to get for the men in the field, 
And the children to send away 
To school, and the milk to be skimmed and churned; 
And all to bo done that day. 
It had rained in the night, and all the wood 
Was wet us it could bo; 
There were puddings and pies to bake, besides 
A loaf of eako for ten. 
And the day was hot, and her aching head 
Throbbed wearily as she said, 
*' If maidens bnnw what good wives know. 
They would bo in no haste to wed 1” 
“ Jennie, what do yon think I told Ron Brown?” 
Called the farmer from the well; 
And a flush crept up to his bronzed brow, 
And his eyes half bashfully fell; 
" It was this,” he said, and coming no ar, 
He smiled, and, stooping down. 
Kissed her cheek—“’twas this, that you wore tho 
best. 
And tho dearest wife In town !” 
The farmer went back to the field, and the wife. 
In a smiling and absent way. 
Sang snatches of tender little songs 
She’d not sung for many a day. 
And the pain in her head was gone, and the clothes 
Were as white as the foam of the sea; 
Her bread was light, and her butter was sweet. 
And golden as It could bo. 
" Just think,” the children all called In a breath, 
" Tom Wood has run off to sea; 
He wouldn't, 1 know, If he only had 
As happy a houio as we.” 
The night came down, and the good wife smiled 
To herself, as sho softly said : 
11 ’Tls so sweet to labor for those we love, 
It’s not strange that maids will wed ! ” 
-♦»» - - - 
ON WIVES OBEYING THEIR HUSBANDS. 
Dear Rural:—T hat littlo sketch of mine 
in your issue of April 20, entitled “Fashion 
aiul Folly,” hut alluding to wives obeying 
their husbands, was not written for criti¬ 
cism. I merely d(tailed it off for a purpose 
of my own, having in mind some married 
women of my acquaintance who were in the 
habit of domineering over their husbands — 
men who were far their superiors iu mental 
acquirements, a hen-peeked man is, to my 
mind, a pitiful shjht , and a groat many 
women do hen-peck their husbands, as 
everybody knows. Some men bear it pa¬ 
tiently, for raisons of their raim, and others 
are too noble-minded to retaliate. When 
1 hear a woman ridicule the idea of obeying 
her husband, I always suspect her of being 
the kind that makes him “stand around," 
XANTTPPK-like. An amiable woman, who 
loves her husband, delights iu obeying him 
in all things just and reasonable, if he be a 
sensible and not an exacting man. 1 do not 
think T would, myself, be willing to obey a 
too-exacting or a tyrannioal man. I should 
certainly rebel if he went too far. It de¬ 
pends a good deal on the kind of man you 
get, my fair friends—remember that!—that 
is, provided you get oue at all. 
In tho olden time a good wife was consid¬ 
ered one who reverenced and obeyed her 
husband. Sr. Paul exhorts women “to 
submit themselves to their husbands for,” 
ho says, "the husband is the head of the 
wife.” And also, “ as tho church is subject 
uuto Christ, so let. tin; wives be to their 
own husbands, iu everything.” Husbands 
are exhorted to love and cherish their wives 
—but women to reverence their husbands. 
It is to be regretted that many women now- 
a-days neither believe iu the Good Old Book 
nor regard its teaobiugs. There are getting 
to be so many “ woman’s rightB women ” in 
this progressive age that, ir they are allow¬ 
ed to go on as they have been going on, aud 
as they will go on, if not stopped in setting 
a bad example, I am afraid there will be 
but few modest and amiable women left 
whom men may love and cherish, c. H. c. 
Sycamore Villa, May 18, 1872. 
-■» + » 
EARLY DUTCH DAYS IN NEW YORK. 
“Dinner parties” in these primitive 
days were unknown; but this seeming lack 
of social intercourse was more than made 
up by tho well-known and numerous tea 
parties. To “take tea” out, was a Dutch 
institution, and one of great importance. 
The matrons arrayed in their best petticoats 
aud linsoj'-jaokots, “homespun” by their 
own wheels, would proceed on the intended 
afternoon visit. They wore capacious pock¬ 
ets, with scissors, pincushion and keys hang¬ 
ing from their girdle, outside of their dress; 
and, reaching the noighbor’s house, tho vis¬ 
itors industriously used knitting needles 
at the same time. Tho village gossip was 
talked over, neighbors' affairs settled aud 
the stockings finished by tea t ime, when the 
important meal appeared on the table pre¬ 
cisely at six o'clock. This was always the 
occasion for the display of t he family plate, 
with the Lilliputian cups, of rare old family 
china, out of which the guests sipped the 
fragrant herb. A large lump of loaf sugar 
invariably accompanied each cup on a little 
plate, and t he delightful beverage was sweet¬ 
ened by an occasional nibble, amid the more 
solid articles of waffles and Dutch dough¬ 
nuts. 
A model housekeeper rose at cockcrowing, 
breakfasted with tho dawn,and proceeded to 
the duties of the day; and when the sun 
reached the meridian or “noon mark,” din¬ 
ner, which was strictly a family meal, was 
on tho table. This domestic timepiece an¬ 
swered every purpose, so regular were the 
hours and lives of tho people. At one time 
there were not more than half a dozen clocks 
in New Amsterdam, with about the same 
number of watches. But they were strik¬ 
ingly peculiar in one respect; they were 
scarcely ever known to go, and hence were 
of very little practical utility. No watch¬ 
maker laid found it profitable to visit the 
settlement; and this was a period of two 
centuries before the invention of Yankee 
clocks. For a long while, t ime was marked 
by hour-glaHses and sun-dials. 
The Dutch ladies wore no bonnets, as is 
still the fashion with some of the German 
emigrants who now arrive at Castle Garden. 
At New Amsterdam the fashionable dress 
was a colored petticoat (rather short, for 
ease in walking.) waist jacket, colored hose, 
of homespun wool, and high heeled shoes, 
suitable to a eity destitute of pavements or 
sidewalks of any kind. The Dutoh burgh¬ 
ers wore long-waisted coats, with skirts 
reaching almost to their ankles, and adorn¬ 
ed with large silver buttons. The wardrobe 
of a prominent burgomaster at tho transfer 
of New Amsterdam to the British was us 
followsA cloth coat, with silver buttons, 
worth fifteen dollars; a stuff coat, ten dol¬ 
lars; cloth breeches, ten shillings; a cloth 
coat, gimp buttons, seven dollars and fifty 
cents; a black cloth coat, seven dollars; a 
black velvet coat, fifteen dollars; a silk coat, 
breeches and doublet, six dollars; silver 
cloth breeches aiul doublet, five dollars; a 
buff coat and silk sleeves, live dollars; three 
grass green cloaks, six dollars each; besides 
several old suits. To those also must be ad¬ 
ded, linen, hose, shoes with silver buckles, 
a cane with an ivory head and a hat. It 
may bo doubted if our present mayors, witli 
all their cloths and cassimeros, possess even 
one tithe of such an assortment, of coats, 
pantaloons and vests as this official Dutch¬ 
man, their predecessor, “ye olden time.” 
-♦♦♦-- 
BEAUTY OF OLD PEOPLE. 
Men and woman make their own beauty 
or their own ugliness. Lord Lytton speaks 
in one of his novels, of a man “ who was 
uglier than he had any business to beand 
if he could but read it., every human being 
carries his life in his face, and is good-look¬ 
ing or the reverse as that life has been good 
or evil. On our features the fine chisel of 
thought and emotion are eternally at work. 
Beauty is not the monopoly of blooming 
young men ami of white aud pink maidens. 
Theirs is a slow-growing beauty which only 
comes to perfection in old age. Grace be¬ 
longs to no X'eriod of life, and goodness im¬ 
proves tho longer it exists. 1 have Been 
sweeter smiles from a lip of seventy than 
upon a lip of seventeen. 
There is tho beauty of youth and the beau¬ 
ty of holiness—a beauty much more seldom 
met, aud moro frequently found in the 
arm-chair by the fire with grandchildren 
around its knoe, than in the ball-room or 
promenade. Husband and wife, who have 
fought, the world side by side, who have 
made common stock of joy or sorrow, and 
aged together, are not unfrequently found 
curiously alike iu personal appearance, and 
in pitch and tone of voice—just as twin 
pebbles onthe beach, exposed to the same 
tidal influences, are each other’s second self. 
Flo has gained u feminine something, which 
brings his manhood into full relief. She 
has gained a masculine something, which 
acts as a foil to her womanhood. 
-- 
A Goou Wive.—T ho following sentences 
from Archbishop Seeker’s “ Wedding Ring” 
are worth reading twice: 
Hast thou a soft heart?—it Is of God’s breaking. 
Hast thou a sweet wife?—she Is of God’s making. 
-- 
Speak kindly at night, for it may be that 
before the dawn some loved one may finish 
his or her space of life for this world, and it 
will be too late to ask forgiveness, 
leading fen; the ffotutg. 
GRAMMAR IN RHYME. 
WE advise every little grammarian Just entering on 
the study, to commit, to memory the following lines. 
The author, whoever he is, deserves much credit. 
With one exception—" Thirty days hath September” 
—it is the most poetical effusion in its line wo over 
mot with: 
1. Three little words you often see, 
Arc Articles—a, an and the. 
2. A Noun’s the name of any thing, 
As school. or /jarilnt, /mop or ambit/. 
3. Adjectives tell the kind of Noun, 
As great, small, pretty, white or brown. 
4. Instead of Nouns the Pronouns stand— 
Hit head, his face, your arm, mu hnnd. 
5. Vorbs toll of something to he done— 
To read, count, stag, laugh. Jump, run. 
e. How things are done tho Adverbs toll. 
As slowlp, (jwicklv, IU or writ. 
7. Conjunctions Join the words together, 
As men anti women, wind or weather. 
8. The Prepositions stand before 
A Noun, us of or through a door. 
S. The Interjection shows surprise. 
As, Ah! how pretty—Oh.’ how wise. 
Tho whole are called Nino Parts of Speech, 
Which reading, writing, speaking, teach. 
■- 
HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 
BY MRS. SARAH A. GIBBS. 
E-was sick. Not confined to her bed, 
or even to her room, but on that debatable 
ground between sick and well that is some¬ 
times ruled over by Giant Fret fulness and 
his brother Impatience. Dolls had lost 
their charm, and were thrust iguomluoualy, 
face downward, under the lounge in her 
own room. The children’s magazines and 
stories had all been read so many times 
there was no amusement in them. Slate 
and arithmetic were produced, but com¬ 
pound numbers and fractions proved un¬ 
manageable, and disappeared as suddenly 
as they camo. 
As day after day went by, and tho new 
sled stood idle while the sliding was just 
“ splendid,” the question “ What can I do?” 
became a serious one to us. “ Littlo Women” 
and the “Old-Fashioned Girl ” were just as 
charming as ever, but when one knew just 
what Jo, and Laurie, and Polly, and 
every one would do, what was tho use of 
reading them again; and the Sabbath School 
books, where all good children die young, 
were not very encouraging, to say the least. 
Natural History had not been tried, and 
when Wood’s "Homes without Hands” 
wn-r orought home, the problem of amuse¬ 
ment and instruction combined was solved. 
These wondrous “Homes” were far moro 
interesting than fairy stories, and tho 
Strange actions and wise thoughts of their 
builders a source of infinite pleasure. There 
is a funny picture of the Trapdoor Spider 
of Jamaica, which burrows in t he ground, 
and lines the interior of its home with a 
soft white felt of its own manufacture, and 
closes the entrance of its house with a trap¬ 
door which is lined with the same felt-like 
substance as its house; hut outwardly it so 
closely resembles the soil around as to bo 
scarcely distinguishable. When Mrs. Spider 
is “not at home” to her friends, she has 
only to close her front door, and lier pri¬ 
vacy Is undisturbed. 
Then there is the Tailor Bird, doing its 
own family sewing without the aid of sew¬ 
ing machino or fashion plates, in a way that 
docs credit to its bringing up. Choosing a 
convenient leaf, it pierces a row of holes 
along each edge with its beak, and procures 
a thread—a long fiber of some plant- and 
passes it along through the holes, drawing 
the Bides of tho leaf toward each other so 
as to form a cone, point downwards, This 
it lines with down, making a warm, light 
and elegant nest. Tho industrious little 
Tailor Bird may have suggested to Eve the 
possibility of sewing, when fig leaves be¬ 
came desirable. That a bird should sew, if 
it has been brought up to it, seems reason¬ 
able, but with a bower in every tree, is it 
not passing strange that any bird should 
build one for amusement? 
Yot the Bower Bird of Australia, at a vast 
outlay of time and trouble, weaves a plat¬ 
form something after the fashion of a door 
mat. Tt then looks for some long and rath¬ 
er slender twigs and pushes their bases into 
tho platform, working them tightly into its 
substance, and giving them such an inward 
inclination, that when they are fixed at op¬ 
posite sides of the platform their tips cross 
each other and form an arch. When this 
arched alley Is long enough to meet, their 
views of what their ball-room or town hall 
should be, they proceed to ornament it. after 
tho fashion of the first families of Bower 
Birds. Scraps of colored ribbon, shells, 
bits of glass and china, feathers, anything 
gay suits them, and such articles are used 
in the greatest profusion. 
The picture of tho Water Hen is simply 
charming. Five little chicks, like puffs of 
black down, are floating among the lily 
pads, keeping close to the mother bird, 
while on t he bauk just, above them is a nest 
containing seven white eggs which a sit ting 
hen lias just left. 
One of tho prettiest engravings is tho 
home of tho Coot. In the foreground is a 
grassy tussock, of which a pair of Coots, 
with four downy ducklings, have taken pos¬ 
session, while just beyond a mother Coot 
issues from a similar tussock, followed by 
her whole brood. In tho background a pair 
of Swans float majestically along, ono of 
which is carrying her brood on her back, 
after the fushion of her family. 
The funny town of l’rairie Dogs, and tho 
wonderful nest of tho Harvest Mouse nro 
stories told by the illustrations moro vivid¬ 
ly than they can be narrated by words. 
I have told you just these few things 
about the book, thinking some of (lie Rural 
girls and boys might not know of such an 
excellent, help to a knowledge of these curi¬ 
ous homes around them. If you could all 
read it 1 am sure you would bo quicker to 
notice, and more cureful about disturbing 
the homes of birds and insects that are con¬ 
structed with such skill and patient labor. 
And I am sure you would fuel that while 
your own homoR are tho pleasantest in tho 
world, that equally well adapted to the 
wants of tho builders are these “Homes 
Without Hands.” 
-»»» ■ 
SANDS OF GOLD. 
One never loses by doing a good turn. 
To raise esteem we must benefit others; 
to procure love we must please them. 
Wealth gained by the loss of character, 
self respect and virtue, is dearly purchased. 
K ini> woi’ds are balm to the soul. They 
oil up the entire machinery of life, and keep 
it iu good running order .—Elm Orlou, 
A man has no moro right to say an un¬ 
civil thing than to act one; no moro right 
to say a rude thing to another than to knock 
him down. 
ILLUSTRATED REBUS.-No. 22. 
IfT' Answer in two weeks, when wo will pub¬ 
lish the names of those sending us correct an¬ 
swers. 
BIBLICAL SQUARE-WORD.—No. 4, 
A wicked king of Judah. 
A deep mud. 
A prince of Midian. 
A mountain which overlooked the promised 
land. Isola. 
%3T~ Answer In two weeks. 
- •+* - 
PUZZLE.-No. 6. 
Three parts of a cross and a circle complete; 
Two semicircles a perpendicular meet; 
A triangle that stands upon two feet; 
Two semicircles aud a circle complete ? 
When properly joined it gives tho name of a 
plant. Joseph Schultz. 
jar Answer in two weeks, with the names of 
those sending correct answers. 
- - *»» 
CURIOUS QUERIES,—No. 2. 
1. Why cannot a man and his wife quarrel? 
2. What vegetable makes a difference between 
a bird aiul a lover? 
3. 1 have four letters; If you take away one 
you leave me but one. What am I ? 
%3T Answer in two weeks. 
-- 
PUZZLER ANSWERS.-May 18. 
Problem No. 7. 67. CM + rods. No correct 
answers have been received to this problem. 
Illustrated Kebus No.20,—1. “Ben Holt,;” 
” Last Link is Broken;” 3. “ Light of Other 
Days;" i. "Paddle Your Own Canoe;” " Va¬ 
cant Chair.” No correct answers have been re¬ 
ceived to this rebus. 
