278 
that the rights ot none shall be Infringed, and 
each citizen’s senee ot Justice shall he fully satis¬ 
fied. 
To be continued. 
-♦ » ♦- 
BRIC-A-BRAC. 
some of the Chinese similes are said to he as 
pointed as they are sarcastic. They call a blus¬ 
tering, harmless reilow “ a paper tiger.” A man 
who places too high a valuation upon himself 
they compare to •• a rat. falling Into a scale and 
weighing Itself.’' a hunchback making a how Is 
whal they oallnyotdoing the thing, A spendthrift 
they compare to “ a rocket,” which goes off all at 
once, and a man who expends his charity on re¬ 
mote objects, npglecilng his own family, Is said to 
hangup a lantern on a pole, which is seen afar, 
hut gives no light below.”—Cold Hill News. 
The Heston’s sweetheart's name was Nell 
And sho was ciil’pd the village belle: 
When hope lied made the sexton bold, 
One nitrht bis love for Nell he toll’d, 
W hile to lm neck she fondly clung. 
And lovirirly her hand he wrmitr: 
tier sentiment with bis lust chimed, 
And bis ap peal nlie thought well-timed, 
And having toll'd hi« love so well. 
She whispered he might ring the belle. 
—Somerville Journal. 
Mask Twain furnishes the following unique 
recipe ror making a New England pie. To make 
this excellent breakfast dish, proceed a9 follows: 
Take a eufttclcncy of water and a sufficiency of 
flour, and construct, a bullet-proof dough. W/)rk 
this Into the form of a disk with the edges turned 
up some three-fourths of an inch. Toughen and 
kiln dry it a couple ot days lu a mild hut unvary¬ 
ing temperature, construct a cover for this re¬ 
doubt Id the Bame way and ot the Harne material. 
Fill with stewed dried apples; aggravate with 
cloves, lemon pe©I and slab;; ot citron ; add two 
poitlons ot New Orleans angar; then solder on the 
lid and set in a safe place till It petrlfles. Serve 
cold at breakfast and Invite your enemy. 
CAPTAIN eOBN. 
Captain Corn in the garden, 
Straight and strong and tall, 
No m itter how hi-rh hia ueiirbbors grow, 
fie overtops them all. 
With “ilken plume and briwrht vrecn cloak, 
He really cuts a dash ; 
But when lv marries Lima Bean, 
He’ll loose his rank—1 think it’s mean— 
And be plain Succo rash. 
CURIOUS EPITAPHS. 
Sometimes a pun or play on the name Is Intro¬ 
duced ; such as in the epitaph ou John White : 
“ Hera lies John, a shiniug light. 
Whose name, life, actions, all were White." 
The following was rather epigrammatic than 
epltaphlc In regard to the Rev, John Chest: 
** Beneath this spot lies buried, 
One Chest within another, 
The outer chest was all that’s good; 
Who Bays so of the other?" 
William Wilton, burled lu Lambeth, certainly 
did not write the epitaph, which bears relation to 
him : 
“ Herelyeth W. W , 
Who never more will trouble you, trouble you.” 
Nor, we miy safely assert, did Owen Moore 
himself pen the following : 
" Owen .Moor© 1 r yon© away, 
" Owin’ more than he could pay.” 
More likely to be genuine are those epitaphs 
whtc'i involve a bit or bid logic, syntax, or gram¬ 
mar In their composition, in a graveyard at Mon¬ 
trose Is sail to be the following : 
“ Here lie- th© body of George 
Youmr and nil their posterity 
For fifty years backwards. 
And in Wrexham church-yard as follows : 
“ Here lies five babies and children dear, 
Three at osweetry, and two hero,” 
Akin to this logical blundering Is : 
” Her© lies th© remains of 
Thomas Mtleolm, who died in 
Philadelphia, March, 1752; 
Hud be lived he would have 
Been buried here. 
And another at Nectlehen, in Oxfordshire : 
“ Here lies fattier aud mother and sister and I; 
tV© all died within the space of one short year. 
We all be buried in Wimble, except I; 
And I be buried here.” 
■-♦♦♦- 
RUSKIN ON THE CLA3SI03.—BOOkS being "Up” 
just n j w, I hear that t he g rent Mr. liuskln has been 
weeding out his library, bud some of his works 
have brought absurdly high prices at a recent 
auction, not for the rarity aud excellence of the 
hooks, but because they belonged to Buskin. 
Such is toe folly of the age. But, as usual, the 
money went Into me pocket of the hook dealer, 
and by a very cunning lit* le device.. Mr. Huskln 
was asked 11 he wouldn't Just write a line on the 
fly-leaf of the rejected volu mes with his Initials. 
So, in his innocent and trank way, he wrote on his 
“ Heinost henee’s orations;” "Old school trash; 
never read a line ol it J. it.” Aud on hla “ Pliny;” 
“ Poor stuff, not worth the paper It's piloted on,” 
and bo on. These books, with their quaint com¬ 
ments, sold lor twenty times their real value.— 
LondonTruth. 
The New England seuators, a Washington cor¬ 
respondent says, would not average up over $ 160 ,- 
ooo apiece. Hale represents the most money, and 
Blaine perhaps next, nor can Roliins be a poor 
man. New England and the South send to the 
upper chamber men poorer in worldly wealth than 
eltner the Middle states, the West or the Far West 
of the Pacific coast. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. APRIL 23 
for ISoraeit. 
CONDUCTED BY MISS RAY CLARK. 
See Special Notice to the Subscribers of the 
Rural New-Yorker on the editorial page. 
-- 
CONCERNING THE BEHAVIOR OF GIRLS 
TOWARD YOUNG MEN. 
MARY WAGEH-FI3HEK. 
Many girls, during a season of gayety, as has 
been the past winter with ltB abundant sleighing 
which always develops social festivities, make 
the acquaintance—or fancy that they do— or 
"new” young men, with whom possibly they 
have fallen In love,” and expect ro marry. To 
"fall In love” need not necessarily he an extreme¬ 
ly serious matter, but to marry, is. As Mr. Tal- 
madge very pithily put It, •* marriage Is to a young 
man the most tremendous thing between the 
cradle and the grave.” If It be. “ tremendous” to 
a man, It Is super-t remendous to a woman More¬ 
over, it is one of those arrangements, tne force and 
Importance of which, no one. before marriage can 
fully realize. It requires at. least three or lour 
years of married life, for either a man or a woman 
to understand Its full significance and for some 
persons, even a longer time. The wedding-frock, 
the wedding, the honeymoon are very small ac¬ 
count In comparison with whal lies In the future. 
I believe that it is generally conceded that when a 
girl is bent on marrying a certain person th at it 
is a waste of words to attempt to dissuade her 
otherwise. There may be some use, liewever, in 
attempting to persuade her to find out who It is, 
whom she Is golug to marry. 
I have two cases in my mind; young women 
who married men with whom they w T ere ro very 
much In love that they would "die” If they had to 
live without them and who learned after a little 
while that the men had already been married, 
and their wives were still alive and well, one of 
these cases was a peculiarly sad one. The young 
lady lived with her parents In a university town 
In central New York, and the man she married, 
first saw her In the street, from the piazza of the 
hotel where he was stopping, inquired who she 
was, where she lived and learned various particu¬ 
lars about her family. Among other things, he 
learned that she had relatives living In an adjoin¬ 
ing state. Hla first step was to forge a letter of 
Introduction from one of these distant relatives, 
and then he called upon the young lady with his 
credentials. Of course, sho and her parents 
tliougUt It must bo all right, and at the time gave 
the matter little thought. However, as the young 
man’s attentlots became very marked and the 
young people announced that they were " en 
gaged,” the parents thought It worth while to 
inquire Into the young man s autecedents, etc, so 
they dispatched a letter to those distant relatives 
who returned answer lhat they had given no such 
person a letter ot Introduction, and the matter 
being pursued, it was found out that the fellow 
was from a certain town In New England where 
his wife was meantime living. 
" oh,’’exclaimed the mother with a deep sigh, 
“how thanklul we should be that we have 
learned this before It was too late.” " Ah, moth¬ 
er, It is too late shrieked the stricken girl; " we 
are already married.”—they had been secretly 
married a tortnight before, at the continued solic¬ 
itation of the young man who was " so madly In 
love and the ghl who. In her foolish fondness, 
thought her lover the most perfect person in the 
world, weakly yielded to hla persuasions, and 
they were married by a cou ntry parson upon one 
of ihelr many rural rides. The yomg man nearly 
escaped the officers, who were placed upon hla 
track by the outraged father of the girl, but final¬ 
ly he was captured, tried for bigamy and sen¬ 
tenced to five years Imprisonment in the Auburn 
State Prison The affair killed the girl, on the 
day before the convict was to he taken to prison, 
she begged ot her fa' her as a dy Ing bf quest to be 
allowed to see the man she had married. Her re¬ 
quest was granted and the sheriff brought him to 
her bedside, where she lay with the touch or death 
upon her. She stretched out her thin arms toward 
him, beseeching bhn In words that melted every 
one about her to tears, to promise her that he 
would reform and lead a better lire. The fellow 
simply sneered at her prayers and when asked by 
the sheriff If he had no phy for Lis victim, he 
lightly laughed and said that girls who " took up 
with any fellow that happened along weren't 
worth much.” On the following day she died. 
As the bigamist was being escorted to Auburn 
there was one other person who should nave gone 
along, manacled with him, for ten years impris¬ 
onment, and that was the country parson who had 
married them. 
The villain uttered a grave truth when he said 
that a glri who takes up with any fellow that hap¬ 
pens along Is not worth much. It Is precisely what 
any girl who marries without knowing to whom 
It is mat she intrusts her happiness may rightly 
label herself with "noi, worth much.” And this 
leads me to what 1 had In mind to say at the out¬ 
set, that very many girls now-a-days do not seem 
Input a very nigh valuation upon Ulema ives. 
only a few years ago young men felt obliged to 
benave themselves with outward decorum, at 
least, when In ihe presence of young women 
They never presumed to make use ot tobacco in 
theli- society. But now I see them smoking cigars, 
sitting or standing with hat on head, or lounglDg 
with crossed legs mounted comfortably hlgn in 
the air in the immediate presence ot young wom¬ 
en whom they are supposed to respect, and all 
this wi th no protest irom the young women them¬ 
selves. 
Women are unquestionably the conservators of 
society, and there Is no moral force so strong to 
restrain vice ol any description as the decided 
and emphatic protest of women against it. The 
man does not live who does uot respect and honor 
a woman the more for such protest, and respects 
that woman most who puts him upon hlB best be¬ 
havior, and develops within him best energies. 
If the young woman, who when asked If tobacco 
smoke is offensive to her, replies, " Oh, no, not at 
all!” thinks that her agreeable reply raises her In 
the esteem ot the Emoker, she is entirely mistaken. 
There are women who do not dl9llke fresh cigar 
smoke, at least thpy say so. But no woman likes 
stale smoke—the smell of tobacco six hours old, 
or the smell of a man's breath that smokes or 
chews. They are all disgusting and abominable, 
and nobody knows It better than do the men ad¬ 
dicted to the vice, and who never fall to deplore 
seelDg their sons form the habit. If a inaD uses 
tobacco before marriage with as much nicety as 
Is possible, he will be very likely to indulge In It 
without the nicety In his own home, and the wife 
will have stale smoke and a disgusting breath to 
catch whiffs of. ad injlnlturn. 
Nome one has said, "Of course, marry for love; 
hut when you are about to fait in love, see that it 
is with somebody who bus money.” Money, hon¬ 
estly earned, is never an objectionable feature In 
a matrimonial alliance, but what Is ot lar more 
consequence, and rar greater Importance (as the 
other may he of no Importance, whatever) Is to 
marry a man of good family. Girls often say, 
•' Oh, hut I’m not marrying bis family.” But they 
do, in a way, nevertheless one can’t get away 
from early habits and early associations, and the 
Influences under which the ordinary young rnan 
has grown up, fashions him for all time. A family 
may be very poor, and sUH be refined and gentle, 
but no amount of money or position can cover 
the vulgarity ot low birth and low breeding, and 
no amount of love or fondness can long abide It 
with happiness, 
Moreover, In manylng, a ghl should bear In 
mind that she should consider the welfare of a 
probable posterity, as well as her own, and before 
accepting a man for her husband she should ask 
herself whether In all probability he will make a 
good father, as well usagood husband, and wheth¬ 
er he Is free or uot from such taint In ihe blood as 
develops into scrofula, insanity or other paluful 
and ruinous maladies. The sort of flimsy "sticks'’ 
thatsome girls accept for husband-, and vice versa. 
Is amazing, and If a girl cannot marry, and satisfy 
her head as well as her heart,, she had lar better 
remain unwedded, which Is both honorable and 
respectable, while to be married to an Inferior or 
unworthy person, Is contluual degradation. 
- ♦-*-* -- 
WINTER. 
BERTHA A. WINKLER. 
Matter-of-fact people, those heavy stoics of 
the Imagination who compose t he world’s solidity 
and maintain her steady equipoise on the other side 
of the soaring visionaries, tell us, in so many plain 
words, a* though language waa not used to adorn, 
(hat Ihou art nothing more than a quarter of 
time’s cycle subject to northern winds and change 
of temperature. But. eyes veiled in fancy’s softer, 
richer hue, see r,hee more grandly aud not less 
real. Art thou Indeed only one-fourth of a year ? 
A chllL empty space of time called Winter, noth¬ 
ing more? No, eternal monarch of the North, 
there is a dreadful grandeur in thy btern majesty ; 
tby Icy sway compels a fearful tribute ot sacrifices 
and human woes when onco a year thy freezing 
elements march beyond the boundaries ot their 
icy home for tributary lands. Thy coming, thy 
presence and thy reign are Imperious subjects of 
the poets feeble praise and destitute humanity’s 
loudest wall. The fortune-favored may ignore 
thy power, secure in comfortable housings j thy 
piercing glance means only woe to those of scanty 
raiment. 
Tender, thoughtful Nature, at the first approaoh 
of tby northern windy heralds, removed earth’s 
green garb and wrapped her all In somber gray 
that thou ralghtst not Had aught attractive or to 
blight. I wonder not that thou waxt fiercer 
drawing nigh; thy scare ai tig eye met barren des¬ 
olation far and wide, aud thou hast acknowledged 
the cheerless welcome with the qutek spreading 
of thy cold white mantle of charity In mock, hit¬ 
ter courtesy. Then were thy warring elements 
marshalled to the bout, shrieking furies freezing 
aud merciless shooilng through the air, palsying 
alt but the warm heart; storms, tempests carrying 
rude devastation In their eyes, playing with flrra- 
rooted defiance ori laud, playing with Iron-clad 
dwellings on sea; playing the game or destruction 
with all but the ocean’s wild main, he, thy mors 
than compeer In the hlghtB of thy power, being 
conquered of none, thy courteous host In thy ex- 
• lies tour, will open hls watery arms to receive thy 
finally scattered and vanishing forces. 
Thy fierce reign is drawing to its close. Nature, 
weary of t.hy Icy breath and resenting the cold 
presumption which dared extend thy blighting 
sceptre over Southern climes, Los welcomed to 
her bosom a queen gentle, reviving, whose coming 
stirs % lire which thou never couid’st call forth; in 
whose benign ©mile flourish beauties strange to 
thee. She will compel thee to yield thy tempo¬ 
rary throne to her, yet nor. sternly. Thy conqueror 
Is beautiful and gentle; she will melt thy tyrant 
heart and thou wilt depart, not like the storm-k lug 
thou hast been in the meridian or thy power, 
fiercely contesting every inch of thy possessions, 
but, like a huge frozen colossus, helpless of thine 
own severity, till her breath move thee to flee in 
the abject weakness of liquid grief towards the 
ocean’s sources. 
There 1 b a strange charm In contemplation of 
thy breaking power, the fadLng of thy brilliant 
grandeur, and the slow dissolving of thy icy le¬ 
gions, who, mingling with the waters adding to 
the oceun's wealth, wilt never more unite. Like 
all things transitory, tbou must hence with little 
else than name; like all great tyrants of thy scat¬ 
tered force, forsaken, we exultantly waft thee a 
long adieu 1 Roll on, ye frozen remnants of hls 
memorable reign; thy tyrant-master Is too weak 
to hold thee ’gainst the gentle force of Spring, and 
Earth’s bosom heaves thee off for precious, fruitful 
weight I Roll on, ye Icy legions, to the sea I Seek 
quarter in Its annihilating waves! The queen of 
beauty, mildness, hope ot plenty, has begun her 
reign. 
CLOTHING. 
[Mart Burroughs gave a description ot cloth¬ 
ing which, it memory falls not, is a counterpart of 
the following—however the Information is good 
enough to bear repeating ] 
The clothing described and recommended by 
Alary Wager-Fisher, Is an Improvement over the 
dress of some women; hut T think It can he im¬ 
proved upon. It Is not necessary to have more 
than one hand at the most, while the described 
dress, contained three. All unnecessary ihlckness 
should be avoided about the hips and waist. I 
hope that the “lady leaders of the Rural,” will 
think twice or more, before making a change for 
the Summer or winter 
Here Is my Ideal dress for Winter, which r think 
will commend Itself to every thinking woman. I 
would have the first garment, a white flannel 
chemllooti, reaching from rhe neck to the ancles, 
with an opening down the front and a necessary 
opening in the back. Over this 1 would have a 
colored chemlloon reaching a Utile below the 
knees. At the waist ot this chemlloon I would 
sew six buttons, two on the back, one under the 
sleeves and two on the front. Next would be a 
skirt with a loose band containing button holes to 
correspond with the buttons on the oheinilooD. 
Now comes the dress with skirt and basque at¬ 
tached In this way. The iront anil sides ot skirt 
should extend about a finger up under the basque, 
and should Just reach around io the tide pieces of 
the back of the basque. These breadths are to be 
sewed firmly tn the lining of basque The back 
breadth of rhe skirt should be of the usual length, 
and extend up under me back part ol the basque, 
and sewed lo the seams ot the basque afier a bard 
has been added. The dress belr g in one piece can 
be easily pur, on, and 13 as comronable as a fitted 
wrapper, while It la a skirt, over-skirt and busque. 
1 make my dresses this way. and I like It better 
than any other of the many ways that 1 have tried. 
The whole dress contains but. one band, except¬ 
ing the little one on the back of dress. 1 hls one 
bandeau be avoided by attaching the underskirt 
to a sleeveless waist: but I do not mink that the 
extra waist would be needed with the two flannel 
under garments. I am just selfish enough to say 
that I cannot see where this plan ot dress can 
he improved upon. Some may prefer canton 
fl annel tor one ot the chemlloons, or NUakera un¬ 
der the colored, or oven canton over flannel; but 
no matter, every one must be their own judge as 
to the quality aud kind Of material used to secure 
the necessary protection. It Is the plan that I 
wish to introduce. Mrs. m—c. 
FASHIONS. 
The reign ot handsome plain silks Is coming 
again this Spring, we are glad to say. Faille it¬ 
self—good, simple rallle-will he otceihoreem- 
ployed tor a great many toilets, but the plain tis¬ 
sues In the groa grains, ribbed cotellne, and Vic¬ 
toria styles will be moat fashionable. 
Block silk Is very fashionable for dinner and 
eventDg-dressea. Black l-generally becoming to 
both old and young, and It seta off j wels to great 
advantage. Gros-gralns (■* combined this Spring 
with black brocaded silks and satins, black headed 
lace, and embroidery. 
Spuing dresses are made of ranoy woolen mate¬ 
rials, bom plain and fig tired, combined much in 
the same way as those or the \\ inter in thicker 
fabrics. .Such costumes require but little trim¬ 
ming. Some have the skirt of figured material, 
and the second skirt cut. princess fashion all In 
one with the bodice; it is self-colored, of the 
ihttde prevailing in ihe figured fabric; shades of 
gTay and prune at e preferred. Pipit gs of satin are 
often added to give a certain degree or quiet ele¬ 
gance lo the costume; these pipings should not 
be too bright, but of such iluta of old gold, steel- 
gray, nut-brown, dahlia, violet, or dark heliotrope, 
and are a very nice UnLlito simple w oaten cos¬ 
tumes. Young ladles add to such dresses a semi- 
long paletot ot the same material, and trimmed to 
correspond; but matrons, who do not care to wear 
their handsome sffk mantles with such dresses- 
put on light shawls, either neutral-tinted plaids 
upon white grounds or self-colored. The light 
shawl Js most useful at this season or the year ter 
morning walks, shopping, and so on. 
A pretty dress ot prune ribbed silk Is trimmed 
round the bottom wltn an extremely flue fluting. 
Above this comes a very deep flounce, put on In 
thick, separate pleats, then a drapery across the 
front, a lunic Is pleated over the hips, lb n forms 
a puffed Wurnure at me back; the fronts of the 
tunic are edged with an embroidery pattern ot 
iridescent beads. High-necked bodice, with long 
basques In front and at the back, sluuted off over 
the nips; this hodlce la trimmed with bead em¬ 
broidery similar to that on the tunic. 
CORRESPONDENT S CORNER. 
Editors are supposed to know everything, 
therefore I presume to ask a few quesllons, Horn 
Mary Wager-Fisher's aiilek*. headed " A Ques¬ 
tion,” which appeared in mo Hukal April 2, page 
281. I. Where does she live, and did she ever visit 
the rural districts ? 2, Was she ever nurse In the 
army hospital, and did she ever feed any of the 
patients soup from a spoon v 3, Did 6he ever eat 
mush and mffkor bean snup? In fact did she 
ever put on a clean calloo apron, roll up her 
sleeves to her elbows and wa h dimes, or get 
down on her knees and soiub the floor? That 
would give her an appetite, sure. a. b. 
[We publish the above, presuming it to ba signi¬ 
ficant to the writer, and perhaps to the person in 
question.— k. c.j 
A subscriber asks, What la Chevlote cloth ? 
