6F4 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
©€! -II 
a success. The officers are fully[aliveJ|to |the 
interests they liave engaged in, and already 
$30,000 have been subscribedjto buy grounds 
and erect suitable buildings. When this shall 
have boon tteconiplisliod, the society will be in 
a position to give exhibitors extra induce¬ 
ments to attend its fairs, and will undoubt¬ 
edly have as large aud well arranged exhibit* 
as any fair in the State. o. B. B. 
MAINE STATE FAIR. 
Tub 32d annual fair of the Maine State Ag¬ 
ricultural Society, in conjunction with the 
State Pomological Society and the Androscog¬ 
gin County Agricultural Society, opened at 
Lewiston l'ark, Lewiston. Maine. September 
23, and continued until the 20th. The exhibi¬ 
tion was the grandest ever given in t his State. 
The show of cattle was far ahead of any seen 
in former years, there being nearly 2,000 
head on exhibition. The display of oxen was 
the largest and best I ever saw in New- Eng¬ 
land; and the oxen exhibitions of New- Eng¬ 
land are the finest in the country. The horse 
and swine departments were well filled, and the 
pomological display was excellent. The 
weather was inclement- the first three days, 
which greatly lessened the attendance. On 
Wednesday about 3,000 people came on the 
grounds, aud on Thursday the crowd was 
estimated at 12,000, Many farmers with their 
families lived in touts in a grove close to the 
grounds while the fair lasted. 
The agricultural implement department was 
a success. The first floor of the main building 
was devoted to this display; this proved to be 
totally inadequate, for many manufacturers 
had to locate outside on a temporary platform. 
My attention was attracted to Email’s new 
calf feeder, manufactured by a firm in the 
East. It can easily be fastened to the side 
of a stall, and can be taken off when clean¬ 
ing is necessary. It is a novelty that will 
surely come into general use. it is so designed 
that the calf sucks its food instead of drinking 
it, and it is generally conceded that, calves 
which suck do better and look sleeker than 
those that drink The food is taken in a na¬ 
tural way, ami the danger of swullowing too 
rapidly is in t ins way avoided, a danger that 
is always present when calves drink. Anew 
evaporator, called the Domestic, was also 
shown by this firm. It Is designed for farm¬ 
ers’ use, and seems to be an excellent device. 
The Syracuse Plow Company made a fine 
display of their plows. The Richardson 
Man factoring Company showed their new 
model Buckeye mower and Bullard hay- 
teddor. T. B. Everett & Co., Boston, gave a 
splendid exhibition of mauy labor saving 
machines. The Bt. Albans Foundry showed 
its horse powers and thrashers in oporutiou. 
The Springfield Manufacturing Company and 
J. H. Thomas Sons, showed their rakes and 
tedders. Many other implements were ex 
hi hi ted. 
The show of cattle was grand. In numbers 
the Jerseys took the lead. Orestes Pierce 
showed his extensive herd of this breed. 
Herefords were out iu goodly numbers. Bur¬ 
leigh & Bod well, large importers and breeders 
of this strain, showed many fine auimals. 
They also exhibited some Sussex cattle which 
greatly rosomnle the Devons. Why is it that 
Muine farmers forget the beautiful Holland¬ 
ers? Their merits for beef, milk and butter are 
unquestioned. Only a few head of this noted 
straiu were shown. The headway made by 
them in the opinion of Maine farmers the last 
four years is comparatively small compared 
with their growing popularity in other States. 
Short-horns were out in force. Not many 
Guernseys or Ayrshire* were shown. 
The show of poultry was bottter thau lust 
year. The hardy Plymouth Rocks took the 
lead; but all the other noted breeds were 
showu. Turkeys uud ducks were iu consider¬ 
able numbers. 
The display of sheep was excellent. The 
largest exhibitor in lhis department was It, 
B. Sheppard, who showed 42 head of Merinos; 
N. R. Bautclle, came next with thirty head of 
Sout h Downs; Columbus Hilton, exhibited 25 
head of Merinos sheep and lambs; H. S. Hast¬ 
ings, showed 27 head of Hampshire Downs; 
the Stuto College had on exhibition 13 head of 
Shropshire^; an enormous Oxford Down buck, 
weighing about ills pounds, was showu by C. 
A. Brackett. In the swine department the 
Chester and Berkshire breeds took the lead. 
The display of vegetable* wasexeelieut. L. 
H. Blossom, of Turner, Maine, un enthusiastic 
farmer and great admirer ot the Rural, 
made a splendid showing in this department. 
A new variety of pumpkin eulled Tours, was 
among his collection. This originated iu 
France, aud looks iikea variety that willkeep- 
The pomological display was the best ever 
given at this fair. Nearly 1,000 plates were 
filled with luscious fruit. Apples and grapes 
were abundant. The apple crop tliis year, is far 
more abuudaut thau that of last year. Tables 
were devoted to the fruit display of different < 
counties, and it was hard to determine 
which was foremost. The exhibition of cut 
flowers and of flowers in pots, was remarka¬ 
bly good. 
A few side shows were on the grounds, but 
all but one were located in a grove near the 
grounds. Very few fakirs were to be seen, 
and gambling was not in progress. The at¬ 
tendance fell off nearly two-thirds compared 
with last year, owing, of course, to the in¬ 
clemency of the weather, and but for this, 
the fair would surely huve been a success 
financially. j. k. s. 
Almost every paper one takes up contains 
long, conspicuously displayed advertisement* 
of watches, bracelets, necklaces, chains, 
broaches, and other articles of adornment 
said to be made of gold or of rolled gold, yet 
offered at such murvclously low prices that 
one wonders how anybody could have the 
“ check” to muke such obviously false repre¬ 
sentations; how any paper with any pretention 
to honesty in its publication department, 
could admit such frauds; and how any reader 
could bo gullible enough to believe the clap¬ 
trap of the advertiser*. Those who represent 
the goods as made of gold, belong to the same 
class os Ananias and Sapphira; but those 
who say they are made of rolled gold, do not 
tell an actual falsehood^ although, as a rule, a 
falsi.' idea is conveyed by the description, 
through the reader’s ignorance of the nature of 
“rolled gold.” This is made by casting an 
ingot of brass, and, while it is still hot, jftmr- 
ing upnu it a thin layer of gold alloy. When 
cold, the ingot is forced between steel rollers 
until a long,thin ribbon is produced,in which 
the proportion of gold to brass is the same as 
in the ingot. As the gold originully poured 
on the brass is not pure, but alloyed more or 
less with a baser metal, and as it is extended 
enormously on the surface of the pressed out 
brass, the proportion of gold is never more 
than three per cent.,and often considerably less 
than two per cent. It is this “ rolled gold,” 
which C0»ts but little more than brass, that 
is made into watch covers, cheap bracelets, 
watch chains, etc. The gold layer,though often 
nearly as thin as gilding, lasts considerably' 
longer, and the watches covered with it will 
wear from six mouths to ten years,according to 
the usage they receive and the thickness of the 
veneering of gold alloy on them. When you 
see those advertisements of cheap jewelry 
made of “gold” or “rolled gold,” bear the 
above facts in mind, and then order if you 
choose; but don’t expect to get $10 worth of 
goods for 50 ceuts. 
In the Eye Opener of the Rural of August 
23, we denounced the misrepresentations of 
agents for a beehive patented by a Mr. 
Pickerel, of Tennessee, and kuown as the 
Golden Hive. Prof. A. J. Cook, probably 
the highest authority in the country on api¬ 
culture, bus emphatically contradicted several 
statements made by the agents tor this hive. 
Ho asserts that what is covered by the patent 
isabsoluely of no value, and that whatever 
meritorious features the thing possesses are not 
patented, aud can be adopted by anybody, as 
they are taken from the Langstrot.h aud other 
hives. Indeed, no good bee-keeper would use 
this Goldeu Hive, as a gilt, iu view of the in¬ 
conveniences it would occasion in haudliug 
comb and honey. “Every hive of this kind 
sold in auy part of the country, ’ says the 
Professor, “ is a damage to the buyer aud to 
the fraternity.” He indignantly denounces 
the false claims made that the hive will win¬ 
ter bees safely, or that bees in it will secure 
more honey than those in other hives. The 
fellows who are selling these hives and patent 
rights under the Pickerel patent (we have seen 
the name spelt Pickville also) are still delud¬ 
ing those interested in bee-keeping, in differ¬ 
ent parts of the country, though their efforts 
seem to be livelier in Michigan than elsewhere. 
A friend, in sending us the name of a new 
subscriber from Plymouth, Michigan, writes 
us:—“I secured this subscriber through the 
‘Eye-opener.’ I saw r u bee-hive called the 
•Golden’ exhibited in the park m front of the 
stores, and thinking it might be the same re¬ 
ferred to iu the Rural, 1 got that issue, and 
started off to warn my nearest bee keeping 
friends, letting them read the article. Those 
to whom l showed the article were saved, but 
bow it was with those who lived farther away, 
I don't know. The ‘Golden’ is still here, aud 
so is its traveling attendant.” Our exposures 
of frauds and humbugs are, of course, prima¬ 
rily for the advantage of our subscribers; but 
we regard every honorable farmer in the coun¬ 
try as a friend, and we wish every one of them 
could have the benefit not only of the ‘Eye- 
opener,’ but also of every other Department 
in the Rural; and we will be thankful to our 
subscribers if they will kindly extend this 
benefit to them so far as they conveniently can. 
Lately we have received so many inquiries 
about Dr. J. A. Sherman and his manner of 
treating rupture, that it is evident the “Dr.” 
has been sending out circulars with unusual 
briskness within the last, few weeks. He Ls 
what is known as an “advertising specialist,” 
and such people do not stand high in the opin¬ 
ion of the regular medical profession. Indeed, 
medical men in “good standing.” will have 
nothing to do with them professionally in this 
city; and the same rale is followed generally 
tliroughout the country. A very large pro¬ 
portion of people of this kind are charlatans 
and frauds, and it has always lieen a wonder 
to us why people w ho are by no means fools, 
should have recourse to them rather than to 
honest, capable medical men living in their 
own neighborhood, and whoso character must 
lie well known to them. Sherman's appliances 
for the cure of rupture have a large sale, and 
we have never beard any complaints of his 
dealings with his patrons. In all cases of dis¬ 
ease, however, we would earnestly urge our 
friends to consult some skillful and honorable 
doctor known to them personally or by local 
reputation, rather than trust for relief to these 
advertising or traveling fellows who, in a 
great number of cases, are humbugs and 
mountebanks. 
for jWomar. 
CONDUCTED BY MISC RAY CLARK. 
JAN’S SISTER. 
HV 1,11.1. IK E. BARR. 
Ear In the lonely silver gulch. 
There were twenty men In camp. 
The toll of the day was over, 
They were gathered round tire and lamp, 
And “Oh.*’ one said with a weary sigh, 
‘•But this ls a lonesome place! 
Wbat would 1 give to see to night 
A mother’* or ulster's face. 
Jan Wilson rose In his quiet way 
And went to his Uttle kit; 
Lifted u small red leather ease 
And said. “You may look at It." 
Together they pushed aside the spring. 
And framed In a golden curl 
They saw the pleasant, kindly face 
Of a smiling, homci like girl. 
Few would have called her beautiful; 
All would have called her fair, 
For she had th« charm of a guileless youth. 
And n gentle, modest air: 
A rosy face and u tender mouth, 
And her eyes like those of a dove. 
Just such a good and loyal girl 
As a mau could trust and love. 
“Your sweetheart, Jan?” “My sister, Jim, 
And a better, man ne’er had: 
Little Mary has been my angel, 
Since ever I was a lad. 
When J left home a year ago. 
She said as I went away— 
“Jan, I’ll give you my picture, dear, 
Aud think of the words I say: 
If ever you’re going to drink, Jan. 
If ever you’re going to fight. 
Or will lug to do u single thing 
You know Isn’t square aud right, 
Just look In my face, dear brother, 
And ask, wliafU Mury say? 
And give me a kiss and a promise, 
As you have dime many a day.” 
"So that 1* the reason, boys, 
(For they’d gathered round to look) 
I let the cards and the drink uloue. 
And stick to my pipe and my book.” 
“Right, Jan! Right!” und they fell Into talk 
Of their homes and their early years, 
Till hearts were trader, and words were low, 
And eyes were uilsty with tears. 
* • » * 
'Tis thus good women, sitting at home, 
Stretch over the world their sway; 
And touch into sweeter and purer life 
Meu thousands of miles away. 
- ■»»» ■ ... - 
SKETCHES OF GERMAN LIFE. 
BERTHA A. ZEDI WINKLER. 
HIRED HELP AND SERVANTS. 
Under this synonymous caption we intend 
to show the difference of an apparent same 
ness in the social condition of a class, and call 
attention to those natural capacities which 
work their way into higher social spheres than 
where birth and circumstances have originally 
placed it, even iu a country of the most pa¬ 
trician conservatism where gradations of so¬ 
ciety are so numerous, distinctly defined, and 
exclusive as to make two castes even of the 
serving class of the people. 
There is a general tendency in human na¬ 
ture to self-aggrandizement, and that this 
latter class should think themselves above 
some of their kind, therefore, is not so sur¬ 
prising as that the difference is really mark¬ 
ed and insuperable in the established order of 
things. 
By “hired help” are designated the sons and 
daughters of peasants, well-to-do or otherwise, 
who, learning neither trades nor—by a natur¬ 
al dullness which may be said to be inherited 
from a long hue of soil grovelling antecedents— 
acquiring the refinement and deftness of world¬ 
ly intercourse, remain in their native vicinity 
content to serve their apprentice years, and 
eke out their marriage dower in the ancient, 
patient fashion of Scriptural Jacob, 
minus his adventure and shrewdness. They 
are “helps’’ in every sense of the word, as 
distinguished from servants, sharing in the 
family’s work rather than ministering to their 
ease and comfort by bearing the toilsome part 
of their establishment, bd<1 arc always treated 
as members of the family. Being in nowise 
subject to humiliating experiences, and escap¬ 
ing the usual disparagements of servantism, 
one would naturally place their social status a 
little higher; yetsueh is not, the case. Any or¬ 
dinary city domestic is radically above him, 
and finds his way easier into superior circles. 
The cause of this lies less in the uaturo of their 
positions than in the capacity and character 
which those positions require. A dull, good- 
for-nothing person may inherit, or be born in¬ 
to, as it were, a superior social position, but it 
is then only the misfortune of accident, for su¬ 
periority is only kept up by superior material, 
and will assimila te that wherever it Is found. 
The servants of Germany are an example of 
that superiority which makes its own opportu¬ 
nities for growth, and grows with them. The 
hired help of Germany possess its content¬ 
ment of incapacity. No fumily of social dis¬ 
tinction could make use of their services, be¬ 
cause it is crude, clumsy, and not sufficiently 
independent of constant supervision and di¬ 
rection. They work like a machine whose 
activity has to he led and fed by a superior 
mind. Servants, on the contrary, possess in a 
high degree those principles of development 
which, though started iu the lowest groove 
of fife, seldom fail to arrive at a point of 
of equality with the l>est. 
It may elucidate the subject to trace the re¬ 
spective careers of hired help and servants. 
The former, as we have already said, hire 
themselves out by the year to some neighbor 
or, at least, to accustomed work, for a mere 
pittance of ready cash, receiving the bulk of 
their wages in so many pairs of shoes, stock¬ 
ings, linen, uud underwear—all a tacit expres¬ 
sion of their temporary membership of the 
family as well as the limited ambition which 
contents itself with accumulations for the set¬ 
tlement of life rather than the means of rov¬ 
ing and striving. Ambition is the active prin¬ 
ciple of anergy aud capacity combined. An 
abseiioe of these is their contentment and their 
consequent social inferiority, as compared to 
a class noininully beneath them in the capaci¬ 
ty of servants,. They work day in and out 
with no thought beyond their village aud no 
hope beyond a home; respected and treated 
much more as equal 00 laborers by their em¬ 
ployers thau are the servants, but sadly at sea 
beyond their native place, the subjects of sport 
aud patronizing condescension of any cham¬ 
bermaid or hotel porter, whom they regard 
with that deferouce which is an instinctive 
recognition of superiority in a familiar friend, 
just as a superior meohauic receives the most 
deference from the inferiors of his trade. But 
there the analogy ends, for the social course of 
hired help aud servants is as distinctly defined 
and separated as the clergy of an hierarchy is 
from the laity. The one, as servants of a 
higher social order, are the oracles of the 
lower. There is a strange aualogy in every¬ 
thing. Any one who readsthe history of Euro¬ 
pean mediffival hierarchy, and observes how 
laymen with special gifts aud capacities forced 
their way into the ecclesiastical order and rose 
by degrees into its highest l>eiiefices and digni¬ 
ties, while the more ordinary companions of 
his youth continue in obscurity, will perceive 
the same principle at work iu all causes of 
social difference, even down to that of hired 
help and servants. Society everywhere has 
a certain standard of merit upon which the 
admission of born inferiors depends, and 
though money may, in some instances, split 
the difference, it does so only in appearance; 
and such is the old established order of things 
in conservative Europe, that a general con¬ 
sciousness of futile presumption pervades the 
lower classes, and prevents even the desire, 
much less the attempt, to force themselves 
beyond the sphere of their original capacity. 
Servants, or those who possess sufficient 
energy and sagacity to be servants aud thus 
enter the first field of worldly intercourse aud 
advancement, are those who, though village 
born and bred, and hampered by its narrow 
limits aud associations, possess the original 
superiority of a capacity that sees and makes 
for itself a larger sphere of the smallest open¬ 
ing. Their first venture is already indicative 
of the new departure and the sagacity which 
warrants it. Instead of hiring themselves out 
to accustomed work and familial- surround¬ 
ings, which neither teach nor f urther them in 
a new path, they secure positions as domestics 
in the family of the pastor, physician, the 
chief magistrate, or any place not immediate¬ 
ly connected with their own life. Here, they 
chiefly unlearn the awkward timidity of an 
unvaried home life, aud acquire that self- 
