APRIL 45 
A WOMAN’S QUESTION. 
Do you know that you have asked for the costliest 
thhtg 
Ever made by the Hand above— 
A woman's heart and a woman's life 
And a woman’s wonderful love ? 
Do you know that you have asked for the priceless 
thing 
As a child might ask for a toy ? 
Demanding what others have died to win, 
With the reckless dash of a boy. 
You have written my lesson of duty out, 
Man-like you have questioned me— 
Now stand at the bar of my woman’s soul 
Until I shall question thee. 
You require that your mutton shall always be hot, 
Your socks and your shirts shall be whole ; 
I require you heart to be true as God's stars, 
And pure as heaven your soul. 
You require a cook for your mutton and beef j 
I require a far better thing ; 
A seamstress you're wanting for stockings and shirts 
I look fora man and a king. 
A king for a beautiful realm called home, 
And a man that t he maker, God, 
Shall look upon as he did the first, 
And say " It is very good." 
I am fair and young, but the rose will fade 
From my soft, young cheek one day : 
Will you love me then, 'mid the falling leaves, 
As you did ‘udd the bloom of May ? 
Is your heart an ocean so strong and deep 
I may launch my all on its tide ? 
A loving woman finds heaven or hell 
On the day she is mado a bride. 
I require all things that are good and true, 
All things that a man should be ; 
If you give this all, X would stake my life 
To be all you demand of me. 
If you cannot do this—a laundress and cook 
You can hire, with llttlo to pay ; 
But a woman’s heart and a woman's life 
Are not to be won that way. 
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 
-♦»» — 
SPRING GREETING. 
To our lady readers we send greeting, and 
apologize for our long absence, in this way. 
You know that Spring farming is of the 
utmost importance, not only to farmers and 
their families but to us who reside in cities, 
and who enjoy good vegetables, good bread, 
and good food generally. So our columns 
have of necessity been given up to this matter 
of great interest. But, fertunately for us 
“ women folk, ” Spring fashions do not claim 
our attention as early in the year as Spring 
farming, so we are just in the higbt of the 
season, and this week give a cut of one of the 
plainest and prettiest of dresses, for almost 
any material. Goods this season are softer in 
texture than those of last year, and hence 
require fuller drapiugs. All the fashion jour¬ 
nals, both English and French, show plainly 
that in the stylo of making dresses this season 
the “touruuro" or bustle, is a necessity, and 
how quickly such needs are supplied, for even 
though one may dislike to add to the weight 
of clothing worn, yet no one desires to attract 
attention by looking “odd.” So we are to 
wear fuller overskirts ! 
Fig. 126. 
There are some new shades of color, such 
as bronzes, greys, drabs, etc, many of them 
Very light ; also borders for trimmings, and 
combination suiting (we speak now of goods 
for home wear) but, as is usual, silks, velvets, 
satins and moires, are to be purchased, by 
those having full parses, In all colors and 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
qualities, beautiful and rich in effect. To 
our taste no color, can take the place of black, 
which always allows of being fully trimmed, 
and can be worn without special attention, 
longer than colors can. It is quite common 
for a gentleman to say in reply to, “What did 
she have on?” “Oh I I don’t know, only that it 
was black.” 
The cut needs but little description, as it 
explains itself; the “ battlements ” around the 
basque have a better effect than either points 
or scallops, and are quite as easily made; they 
look well bound with plain silk or satin, but 
do not use figured, or brocaded goods. 
Fig. 127. 
The stores are bright with gay - colored 
flowers, and feathers, and there are colored 
straws, such as green, blue and drab, with 
feathers of the same shade, to trim with. It 
is early in the season to decide upon shapes, 
but, probably the round hats will have a wide 
brim, while the bonnets will be somewhat 
smaller. 
Feathers are the leading style of trimming 
and what is more beautiful.or graceful ! and 
though quite costly, a good feather will last 
for several years: if a white one is purchased, 
it can be dyed several times, and always 
comes out “good as new.” 
WASHINGTON LETTER. 
Washington, March, 18S2. 
In the station where I alighted here, there is 
a spot in the floor in the ladies’ waiting room, 
which travelers look sadly at and carefully 
avoid stepping upon. There is a metal star, 
possibly silver, a few inches in diametjr, set 
in the floor, and the worn carpeting for some 
little distance about the star, has been cut 
out. It is the spot where President Garfield 
fell, after he was shot. Near by, in the wall 
of the room, is set a white marble tablet bear¬ 
ing the President's name, the office he held, 
and the date of his assassination. How in the 
rush and hurry of travel, thousands of travel¬ 
ers, year by year, will pause with saddened 
heart, at this memorial of a beautiful life cut 
off by so foul a deed, aud how the memory of 
it will be perpetuated and revived by this 
simple devioe, that is more eloquent than any 
words could be; to tread on the star in the 
floor, is like stepping on Garfield's grave, and 
it is a study to watch the faces of the people, 
who unwittingly pass over it, and then turn 
reverently back to look upon it as if to do pen¬ 
ance for their oversight. Dear old Washing¬ 
ton again; I never come back to it without 
feeling anew that it is the most charming and 
delightful city that I have ever been in, and 
since I was last here, the city has been greatly 
beautified. Nowhere in the world are such 
magnificent streets, aud a gentleman who has 
been around the world and visited its principal 
cities, has often said to me that the Capitol is 
the most beautiful edifice under the sun; the 
location, and the proportions of the Capitol 
are very fine, but it is a great pity that the 
old and central part of the structure was not 
built of murble like the two wings. It is cf 
sandstone, painted white, as is very well 
known, aud the color of the paint is in marked 
contrast to the marble. But within, every¬ 
thing is so vast aud so superb that the throng 
of visitors to it daily, muse feel how great is 
Uncle Sam. The marble room, the great 
stairways, the size and decorations of the 
dome, and the half mile walk from Chamber 
to Chamber, are each and all, things to be re¬ 
membered. Up in one of the stairways, where 
people rarely go, Morse, the telegraph man, 
worked at his invention for many a year, and 
so little faith had the public in his ideas, and 
such contem pt for the man tugging away at 
his “chimerical notion” that he was com¬ 
monly spoken of as “ that old fool.” I chanced 
to be in the Representative’s Chamber, several 
years ago, when it was draped in black, and 
the Capital had gathered there to do honor 
to the name and memory of Morse, who had 
just died. Telegraphic messages came click¬ 
ing in from all directions, and the scene and 
event were in marked contrast to the strug¬ 
gling and ridiculed man in one of the secluded 
stairways of the building. He had succeeded, 
and success is fame. I never spend an hour 
or two iu the House of Representatives, with¬ 
out feeling that of all offices in the gift of the 
people, that of Representative is the least to 
be desired. If any glamour attaches to an M. 
C., a visit to this chamber scon dispels it. 
The members are not a distinguished looking 
body of men by any means, and their behavior 
is commonplace to the last degree. They loaf, 
and smoke and munch apples on the floor of 
the House, and the atmosphere that ascends to 
the galleries is almost intolerable. 
In the Senate Chamber, affairs are consider¬ 
ably better. I see no smoking, although I 
have seen it in past years. There’s a greater 
spirit of decorum, and a few fine looking men, 
nearly all of whom have a gentlemanly ap¬ 
pearance in dress and manner. Senator Sher¬ 
man, tall, thin and grizzly, has a small head, 
and begins to look like his brother the Gen¬ 
eral. Senator Edmuuds looks patriarchal and 
weighty. Wade Hampton looks fierce from 
behind his huge, whitening moustache. Ma- 
hone of Virginia is scarcely more than a skin 
covered skeleton, furnished with a full iron 
gray beard and hair. Morrill, Vermont, 
looks very like what Charles Sumner was ten 
years ago. The Senate must be a dull place to 
such Senators as were in it during the recon¬ 
struction period, and Washington residents 
who frequently visited it during those fiery 
days, seldom are seen in it now. 
I have spent one morning at the Agricul¬ 
tural Department, which with its array of 
greenhouses, is one of the most attractive and 
interesting features of the Capital. Of course 
there is an aspect of utilitarianism about the 
grounds, the greenhouses are largely devoted 
to propagating purposes to supply needy local¬ 
ities with what is most requisite. The orangery 
is an appetizing aud instructive sight to visit¬ 
ors who have never seen groves of orange and 
citron laden with fruit. The economic depart¬ 
ment, with its growing plants, of tropical 
fruits, of sweet smelling spices, of tea, coffee, 
pepper, of the palm from which so much sugar 
is made, and scores of other useful plants, 
which either in fruit, leaf or grain do so much 
service in our households, is probably the most 
interesting of tbo conservatories. I looked 
upon a small eucalyptus tree with i special in¬ 
terest; that wonderful, leathery, spicy-leaved 
tree, that where it grows, there is no malaria, 
and the tea of its steeped leaves cures people 
suffering from malaria, and which according 
to London papers, is beginning to be regarded 
as a specific in pulmonic diseases. Along a 
sunny wall I saw figs growing, and the Jap¬ 
anese persimmon, which in some of our 
Southern States has grown to quite enormous 
proportions. But the larger the worse I should 
say, for a very small persimmon is quite too 
large, unless one has the abnormal taste to like 
the puckerful things. 
In one of the conservatories I met Mr. 
Saunders, the accomplished Superintendent of 
the gardens, and of things horticultural, as 
well as the founder of the Grange movement 
in this country; and he was looking not a half 
hour older than he did in '72—a handsome, fair, 
shrewd, canny Scotchman, brim full of com¬ 
mon sense, and abounding in practical knowl¬ 
edge of what pertains to his department. It 
is to such men as Mr. Saunders and Mr. Dodge 
the statistician, that the Agricultural Depart^ 
ment has been kept from wreck, (to say 
nothing of disgrace) on the grounds of incom¬ 
petency in its management. If Civil Service 
Reform,should begin in the Agricultural De¬ 
partment, men like these would be made com¬ 
missioners, as they unquestionably know 
more about what the Department can do, 
what it can best do, and how it can best do its 
work, than any other two men in the country. 
If the Agricultural Department should be 
managed, or could he managed for ten years 
with an ability equal to the importance of 
agriculture, there would no longer be sneers 
at the advocacy of raising it to the dignity of 
the ministry. In France, where agriculture 
is not of so great importance as it is here, the 
Ministry or Cabinet, has its Department of 
Agriculture, as it has that of war or foreign 
affairs. While here, with our vast agricul¬ 
tural interests, the backbone of all our pros¬ 
perity, the Department of Agriculture is 
placed far beueath that of war, which is prac¬ 
tically a minor affair iu these days of peace. 
Wbat Dr. Loring will accomplish in the three 
years that possibly are left him, remains to be 
6een. He is a man .of fine presence, aud cou- 
258 
veys the impression of capability and energy. 
He has made one good beginning in boiling 
down Mr. Le Due’s experimental ten farming 
to economical management, although it is not 
probable that tea raising can be profitably 
carried on at so northern a point as South 
Carolina. I found Mr. Saunders much inter¬ 
ested in the work by the Women’s Silk Cul¬ 
ture Association of Philadelphia, he fully in¬ 
dorsing its work and methods, and laying 
emphasis upon the 1 act that in every country 
where silk culture is made a success, the work 
is carried on by women and children in a 
small way, all over the land, which is the only 
way in which it will succeed here. And it is 
on this plan that the Association is prosecuting 
its work. Mr. Dodge the statistician, is a very 
blonde type of a man, one of the sort who 
never grow old and gray, or if they do, their 
grayness seems only an intensified form of 
their fairness, and he is the father cf Charles 
It’chards Dodge the young novelist whose 
pleasant story in the Rural some months ago, 
many readers will remember. General Ca- 
prod the well known ex-Commissioner, and his 
wife, live quietly herein Washington, and the 
General looks young and energetic as afore¬ 
time. Indeed, these agricultural magnates 
somehow have discovered the bloom of eternal 
youth. I remarked the same to.Mr. Saunders, 
who laughingly pointed to the scene about him 
remarking “ the bloom of eternal flowers ”—It 
was in the agricultural grounds that I saw as 
early as the 4th of this month, erocuses and 
snow drops in bloom in the open ground. 
A friend proposed one day that we should 
go to the White House to see the President 
and to look at the portrait of Mrs. Hayes that 
the Women’s Temperance Union had had 
painted. So we went, on a Saturday, for it 
is very well known that the President receives 
callers informally every day in the week, be¬ 
tween twelve aud one o’clock, except on Mon¬ 
day. Upon arriving there we found as we 
settled ourselves in the cretonne covered seats 
in the large East Room, where hang full- 
length portraits of George and Martha Wash¬ 
ington, and very magnificently glittering 
chandeliers, that fully a hundred other people 
had come to see the two sights that we had 
come forth to see. After a time an attendant 
near the door clapped his hands, and every¬ 
body jumped to his feet and a line was formed 
of the visitors, who, after marching up stairs 
and through various rooms in a mystifying 
sort of way, finally came into a small room 
with a desk in it on which was a vase of 
freshly-cut flowers. At first that was all that 
I observed, when at my left I espied a very 
plain, unattractive looking man, rather tall, 
with a large head, what the “boys” would 
call “chuckle headed”—a thick neck and a 
sturdy-looking body encased in a business suit 
of clothes that looked to be much too small 
for the wearer. The man had a sort of sheared 
appearance all over, hair and moustache 
closely cropped, a double chin, dark eyes, a 
face small featured for its size, and without a 
positive, distinguished expression of any sort. 
My friend was passing this individual without 
notice, supposing him to be an attendant, 
when some one said to her, “That is the Pres¬ 
ident." “Oh, is it,” she exclaimed, as the 
President extended his ungloved hand with an 
amused smile, as much as to say, “ This is the 
magnificent creature you came forth to see.” 
Such presentations are always awkward, and 
even silly, unless one can find something 
pleasant to say; but in my disappointment I 
almost forgot to deliver my f elf of even the 
most conventional of salutations, and passed 
on to the vase of flowers in which I buried my 
nose for a moment, when the attendant was 
heard hurrying visitors from the room and 
down the stairs through the series of ground 
floor apartments, passing through the one in 
which the Hayes portrait is deposited. As we 
were hurried from this room I remonstrated 
with the guide, saying that I wished to have 
time to look at the portrait. The fellow was 
very good natured, for he came up to me as 
the people were leaving the room and whis¬ 
pered, “ now you just slip back into that room 
and take a good look at the portrait,” which I 
did. The artist, Mr. Huntington, has not 
sncceeded in making the portrait of Mrs. 
Hayes as characteristic in expression as she 
herself is; he has softened the strong features 
of the face, given to the figure an air and pose 
of * ’ society ” quality, and achieved some bad 
drawing in one of the arms and hands. The 
body is clad in a gown of red velvet, and she 
carries a nosegay. 
The new furniture in the White House is for 
the most part quite handsome, and in fairly good 
taste, if the large figured carpet In the East 
Room be omitted; that is hideous, and I don’t 
like the French finish inside of white and 
gilt. The President must be very lonely there, 
with the sad memories of the past year linger¬ 
ing over it all. I looked down the long hall 
at the end of which was the chamber where 
Garfield suffered so long, and out over the 
Potomac marshes, and felt that if I were the 
President that 1 would take up my bed and 
board iu some other place. Of the President 
