§13 THE RURAL HEW-YOMER. APRIL 10 
of good diet, and to that end furnishes much 
more tiian a mere collection of details and in¬ 
gredients for making articles in common use. 
Wendell Phillips. His Speeches, lectures 
and letters, with a biographical sketch. Price, 
50 cents. Lee & Shepard, Boston. A new edi¬ 
tion, of a collection made and published by 
the author, at the urgent request of many per¬ 
sonal friends. 
Barnes’ New National Readers, Nos. 1, 
2, and 3. A. S Barnes & Co., Publishers. The 
clear type, fine paper, and unexcelled engrav- 
iugs, make these hooks a help to children, that 
cannot fail to produce a love for the best of 
reading. The poetry, stories, outline draw¬ 
ings, and slate examples, show great care, 
taste and judgment. 
A Bachelor Talks About Married Life 
and TniNGS Adjacent. William Aikman, 
D. D. Fowler & Wells, Publishers. Price, 
§1 50. The openiug chapter of this work de¬ 
scribes a cheerful, happy home parlor, aud 
every phase of married life is herein discussed 
in an easy conversational style. It is a work 
of the highest moral tone, and one that should 
be read by all who are interested in having a 
happy home. 
Barnes’ Brief History of Ancient, 
Medi.eval, and Modern Peoples. A. S. 
Barnes & Co,, N. Y. City, This is an invalu¬ 
able work for all who desire to know some¬ 
thing about the progress of civilization aud 
political history. Here one can learn bow the 
ancients wrote their books, fought their bat¬ 
tles, and built their monuments, vvhut were 
their manners and customs. It also contains 
240 illustrations, aud 34 maps. A book for 
schools, or private reading. 
The Boys of Thirty-Five. A Story of a 
Seaport Town By Edward H. Elwell, editor 
of the Portland Transcript. Price, $1.25. Lee 
& Shepard, Publishers, Boston The scene of 
this story is in Portland, Me,, and the inci¬ 
dents are of 50 years ago. Not a few of the 
characters occupy, at present, high positions 
in life. The author is a native of that city, 
and has shown great love for it and the asso¬ 
ciations which cluster around his boyhood's 
home, in this book, which will prove a genu¬ 
ine delight to every reader. 
For Mothers and Daughters. A Manual 
of Hygieue for Women and the Household. 
Illustrated. By Mrs. E. G. Cook, M. D. $1 50. 
Fowler & Wells, 753 Broadway. This is a 
sensible, motherly, sisterly book, written in a 
clear, plain, yet delicate style: a book which 
ought to be in the bauds of all women, and 
girls old enough to need its couusel. It treats 
of topics on which hinge more of the world's 
woe than it has an idea of. It is a handsome 
volume of over 800 pages, beautifully bound, 
and would be a most acceptable present to 
either wife or daughter. 
The New Land of Promise. Life at Pu¬ 
get Sound: with Sketches Of Travel in Wash¬ 
ington Territory, British Columbia, Oregon 
and California. 1805—1881. By Caroline C. 
Leighton. Price, $1 50. Lee & Shepard. 
The author of this entertaining volume, dur¬ 
ing the years from 1805 to 1881. traveled with 
her husband, an official of the U. S. Treasury 
Department, whose duties required him to 
visit every point occupied by the government 
in the Northwest, however remote from civil¬ 
ization. Many of these journeys were made in 
the emigrant wagon, in hollow trees for ca¬ 
noes, or afoot through magnificent forests of 
timber. A more interesting record of travel 
has not been published for a long time, nor 
one so captivating for the general reader. 
£or IWomcn. 
conducted by mis: ray clark. 
LEFT-HANDED. 
“It is useless, M ary, to try and interest me 
any further in that Allen family. I have been 
there, as you desired, and I am not at all 
pleased with them.'’ 
“lam both surprised and sorry, Mrs. Rice. 
I have been there often, aud every time I feel 
a deeper interest in the poor woman and more 
sympathy for her. What did you see that dis¬ 
pleased you?” 
“Untidiness, Mary,” she said, with empha¬ 
sis. “If people are poor, they can be clean.’’ 
“Not when water must be brought up four 
flights of stall’s from a street pump a block 
away, in a leaky pail or an old pitcher—the 
pail serving for a coal-scuttle aud the pitcher 
for milk: that, too. by a feeble woman who 
works 12 hours a day to earn a loaf for hex- 
children before she can come home to them 
and bnug it. At least, Mrs. Rice, neither you 
nor 1 would keep our own room very uice 
under such circumstances.’’ 
Mrs. Rice leaned back among her crimson 
cushions, a little disconcerted by this plain 
statement; but she rallied once more and said; 
“At least she cau and wend the slothes 
we give her. There was her little girl in Jen¬ 
ny’s blue dress, just as Jenny tore it, and there 
had not been a stitch set in it. Three buttons 
were off the back. too. A sewing woman can, 
at least, catch a few minutes to put such things 
iu order. That is what I call sbiftlessness, aud 
I do not think it right to encourage it.” 
“What if you had no thread with which to 
mend the dress, nor any needle more suitable 
than a darning-needle for the work? What 
if, with all your saving and calculating, you 
could uot. save enough from your children’s 
food to buy these common necessaries? What 
if every moment of the precious lamplight 
had to be utilized iu sewing, to make out the 
dreadful reut which must be paid, or her little 
ones be turned into the street.’ 1 am afraid 
our little ones would go very tattered aud des¬ 
titute if we were iu such a case.” 
“I fear you are over-drawing for the sake 
of effect, Mary.” 
“Rather believe me, that the half is not told 
nor even guessed at by us in our comfortable 
home*. I am thankful these people are some¬ 
times willing to open their hearts to uie. It 
is not curiosity that prompts me to draw them 
out. but a real wish to do them good, and a 
feeling that "knowledge will be power’ wheu 1 
come to plead their cause with just such doubt¬ 
ers as you, Mrs. Rice. Let me give you a 
picture from life, and show you how people 
contrive to live on nothing, or what is the 
very next remove from nothine.” 
“Here is a woman quite alone in the world, 
with impaired eyesight and no sewmg-ma 
chine Twelve eeuts a day is the very utmost 
she is able to earu by band-sewing, and that 
has to supply all her wants. She tried hard 
all one Summer to save, ceut by cent, enough 
to buy the cheapest calico dress, which she 
greatly needed, but she was not able to do it." 
Mrs. Rice twitched a little nervously at the 
costly fabric of some trifle iu fancy work 
which lay on her lap. while Mary went on. 
“But her lot is happiness itself and prosper¬ 
ity beside that of another woman I kuow, who 
toils as hard with her ueedle, besides earing 
for her little children aud feeding a drunken 
husband, who demands and sometimes carries 
off hei wages aud spends it on drink and to¬ 
bacco for himself and his comrades. 1 can 
assure you, Mrs. Rice, that such wives aud 
mothers have little heart left to ’fix up' in 
their garrets and cellars. If they are despair¬ 
ing and even bitter, can we blame them If How 
would it be with us? The very least we. in 
our happy homes, can do for them, is to give 
them our true sympathy. Food aud clothing 
are a blessing, nut they do not touch the heart 
like real, loviug words of kindness. M e want, 
m reality, to come near to them, as our Master 
did, I took it as a great compliment when a 
poor old Scotch woman, years older than I 
am, said I seemed more like her mother to her 
than anybody she had seen in this country. 
My children laughed at the idea of my being 
like Mrs. Duucan's mother; but I dare say, 
when she last saw her mother, she was no older 
than I am now. Wheu I give away a gar¬ 
ment, I know it is a double gift to the poor to 
have it put in the best possible order. Usually 
they have little skill at. 'fixing over,’ and less 
time or means. You cannot patch without 
patches, and thread aud needles, and a thim¬ 
ble and scissors, aud good light and skill and 
strength for your work, Where even one of 
those is wanting, you would be sadly ham¬ 
pered if not wholly prevented. Where every 
one of them is ‘ out,’ you cannot expect much 
iu the way of repairing. I remember once 
reading this direction to those who found 
fault with children for working so awkward¬ 
ly: ‘Sit down, and try to write a whole page 
with your left hand. Then remember that a 
child, in his first attempts at work, is all left- 
handed.’ When we arc tempted to find fault 
with the poor, I think we might appropriately 
try the same experiment. Surely, they are 
all ‘left-handed’ in their attempts to improve 
their condition. The spirit may be ever so 
willing, but where there are no facilities it 
cannot be done. God does uot require impos¬ 
sibilities. and we should not.” 
‘ ’There is no refuting such arguments as you 
will always hunt up, Mary,” said the other, 
smiling; “so please look about, down stairs, 
and find a good pail aud pitcher at least, for 
Mrs. Allen.” 
“Thank you, very much; but just uow I 
want something to put in the pail and pitcher.” 
OLIVE. 
A GLIMPSE INTO EGYPT. 
We have just received the Rural New- 
Yorker and read the distressing accounts of 
the terrible floods iu the Ohio Valley. One 
cannot help asking: Why all this suffering, 
this cruel destruction of human labor and 
human hopes? Is there no way to protect the 
fruits of honest toiling along the shores of our 
mighty rivers, and turn the superabundance 
of their waters into blessings? Why is it that 
engineers, who make the study of “river cor 
rectioo” (so tailed in German) a specialty, do 
not turn their eyes to Egypt, where for thou¬ 
sands of years the rising water of the Nile has 
been used to fertilize its beautiful valleys? For 
wbat reasons cannot the same plan be followed 
here, through the more level parts of the coun¬ 
try? Would not an extensive network of ca¬ 
nals be the safest outlet Tor those devastating 
waters, which might be gathered in reservoirs 
and made useful during the droughty season? 
No doubt it would be a very costly undertak¬ 
ing; but how enormous the losses caused by 
the floods occurring most every year, and de¬ 
stroying uot ouly valuable property and lovely 
homes, but precious human lives I Levees, 
while robbing the river shores of their natural 
beauty and picturesqueness, are but poor pro¬ 
tections against those powerful agents let loose 
from the clouds. 
Years ago, while living in Alexandria, 
Egypt, 1 had occasion, uow and then, to take 
a boat ride on the great canal which brings 
water from the muddy Nile to that city. 
Along the borders of the caual there are beau¬ 
tiful gardens rich with the luxuriant growth 
of the semi-tropical regions. Calling back 
the bygone days and closing my eyes, 1 enter 
again those orange and lemon groves, inhal¬ 
ing their sweet perfume, also that of the roses, 
which are so abundaut that their leaves are 
used for preserves, and look once more at the 
graceful erowus of lofty palm trees aud the 
dark, glossy head of the laurel. Further on, 
by a quiet pond, is the slender bamhoo and Mu: 
Culla lily. Statues of Grecian gods aud god¬ 
desses seem to play hide-and-seek about the 
tall oleanders and amid the glowing gera¬ 
nium hedges. Groups of children amnse them¬ 
selves ou the broad and shady gravel walks, 
where promenade, with equal solemnity, the 
sileut Turk and the stiff Englisi governess. 
In the centre pavilion of the Khedive's gar¬ 
den Arab soldiers play fantastic music. Far 
off, beyond the green fields, can be seen cross¬ 
ing the Mediterranean, which is as blue as the 
cloudless sky above it, steamers and sailing 
vessels. 
Blessed be the powers of memory! While 
my mind wanders to suuny Egypt, I am sit¬ 
ting in my little sod cottage, surrounded by 
the snow and ice of Dakota: my re-opened 
eyes are dazzled by the light reflected from the 
white prairie. The contrast is great; but de¬ 
spite the blizzards. I rather be here than there. 
Egypt may be the land of wonders, but Amer¬ 
ica is the land of all possibilities May its 
fertile soil soon be as free to all as air aud sun¬ 
shine! MRS. M. M. EGLI. 
CONDUCTED BY EMILY MAPLE. 
MEN AND HOUSEWORK. 
MARY WAGER FISHER. 
Apropos of my paper on “Boys aud House¬ 
work” in the Rural of November, a gentle¬ 
man writes me as follows: “ I suppose you 
have rot visited the “ Oil Regions,” or at least 
you have not. lived out in the “new fields” 
and the woods, where it is u very common 
thing for men to do their own housework. 
Many r of the men are single, of course, but 
many married men leave their families in 
towns, while they are temporarily at work at 
the wells. Home men quite excel as house¬ 
keepers, and do not neglect their outside work 
either. 1 have oue man iu mind who has lived 
in the woods here for ten or twelve years—his 
wife and children stay with him through the 
Hummer—aud he lias become very expert m 
cooking not only plain dishes, but fancy dishes, 
lie makes very line butter, jellies. Jams, ices, 
“ creams”—cooks all kinds of meats to perfec¬ 
tion, does his washing with a Jamestown 
washer, which is simply perfect ns a washing 
machine, does his work on the wells or on his 
farm, aud stands as high in the community aa 
any one. This is ouly oue case. I have uo 
sympathy for a man who is so absolutely stu¬ 
pid about a house that he cannot even get 
himself something to eat if required.” 
How the feeling, or opinion among certain 
classes that there is something unmanly in a 
man knowing how to do the work usually per¬ 
formed by women, is not at all understand¬ 
able, and it may be a comfort to men who do 
know how to cook and to sew a button on a 
shirt well, that it is fashionable among noble- 
meu in Europe to know how to prepare cer¬ 
tain fine dishes very skillfully. During my 
residence iu Paris several years ago, I was 
invited regularly’ once a week to dine with a 
Greek lady of distinction, and the occasion 
was rare when some one of her gentlemen 
guests did not go into her kitcheu and prepare 
a dish for the dinner. In this country there 
are a number of “Clubs,” or societies, formed 
only of men of aristocratic position and con¬ 
nections. that give one or two dinners a year, 
when the entire bill of fare is prepared by the 
members. 
But it is not as a matter of fashion that I 
urge the domestic education of boys, but as a 
matter of utility. A mother who allows her 
boys to grow up ignorant, of wholesome cook¬ 
ery and the fine art of sewing, fails in her 
duty. Henry Ward Beecher's mother taught 
him, at an early age, to sew; and for lads full 
of activity’, who cannot be kept quiet, sewing 
is an excellent pastime or discipline. If boys 
sewed more and romped less, and girls sewed 
less aud romped more, the gain would be mu¬ 
tual. Then, too, it every member of the fami¬ 
ly knows how to prepare a meal, the relief to 
the mother or wife is almost immeasurable. 
Onl.v think of a woman cooking every meal 
she eats iu her own house, her whole life long! 
However much husbands aud sons may relish 
“ mother’s” cookery, the mother herself does 
uot, aud that much of the time she has no ap¬ 
petite for breakfast and little for dinner, is 
the natural outcome of her incessant cooking. 
She requires the change in food that another 
cook would give toil, aud unless she goes often 
from homo and so insures this change, the men 
of her family’ should volunteer to relieve her 
at home Idleness is not rest necessarily’, but 
the l>est rest comes, as a rule, from a change 
of occupation. Would the world cease to roll 
around, I wonder, if the men who loaf aud 
“nap” on Sundays, should get ready the Sun¬ 
day dinner? Would the day of rest be less a 
day of rest or of interest, if the boys of the 
family regularly’ prepared the dinner and 
washed the dishes? Would it not give a zest 
to the day. and flavor the whole week with a 
new interest? At all events, it would undoubt¬ 
edly, at the outset at least, furnish much inno¬ 
cent merriment, and it ought to lead to a very 
wholesome result. 
I am not advocating housework for boys 
on the ground that meu have less to do than 
women, for it sometimes happens that they 
have more to do; but solely Oil the ground of 
utility as I have already said. I am sure that 
i aiu not the only’ woman who would rather 
harness a horse, clean a carnage, or milk the 
cows occasionally than not to be relieved at 
tunes of the everlasting getting some¬ 
thing to eat! Neither is it a respectable state 
of affairs when a woman is ill, that she 
should be obliged to go about for the sole 
purpose of doing what the man, or men, of the 
house ought to be able to do without difficulty’ 
The time has gone by, whether happily or 
unhappily, when sex determined occupation. 
Meu are milliners and cooks, and women are 
doctors, lawyers, preachers, and telegraphers, 
and even farmers. Emerson says our highest 
duty is that which lies nearest to us, aud the 
man or woman who withholds his or her 
hands from a needed task, because of scruples 
in regard to the performance of It from a 
propriety standpoint, is simply a coward. We 
are womanly’, or manly, from nature or train¬ 
ing and uot from what we do. Although 
cookery is oue of the most Important, if not 
the most important of vocations, it is a slav¬ 
ish, intolerable existence, if It has uo relief; 
“world without end,” as Mrs. Carlyle used to 
say. 
♦ - 
ONE YEAR IN THE DAIRY. 
OATTIE LEACH. 
At the beginning of the present year, I had 
been making butter for six months. I have 
learned the business by actual experience, 
lu spite of the wonderful books so eagerly 
devoured during the first stages of the butter 
fever, 1 made many mistakes. Easy to re¬ 
member are those first churning days. Alum, 
borax aud saltpeter each and all—were tried 
until a newspaper article told me the necessity 
of a thermometer. 
As there was u cold spring on the farm, it 
was decided to erect over it a stone building 
and make creamery butter. This building is 
eight by eleven feet inside of walls, and the 
spring, standing always at 4 W deg., fills a pool 
three feet widr across the end Exclusive of 
