740 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
06T 27 
THE HORTICULTURIST’S DAUGHTER. 
(DEDICATED TO CRRTHE EMtt.Y AONKS CARMAN.) 
Greeting I send you, winsome beauty. 
Sunbrlght child with the gleaming hair 
Tossed In a floss so tree and fair— 
Hair of the hue of corn-silk, gold. 
Rippled and flying In fold on fold; 
Face that Is glad with love and duty, 
Ah! how you float thro' the summer air. 
Butterfly maiden. Pussy Willow. 
Yours Is a home in garden doses 
Near fruitful fields, by emerald lawn. 
And thrifty orchards far outdrawn; 
There sheeny lakes thy footsteps greet 
And realms ol vine, and gold-brown wheat: 
There have I seen thee bid in roses, 
Flashing forth as a Joyful dawn 
In the great mountains. Pussy Willow. 
Quaintly falls from your Ups the Latin, 
Fervid, bright as auroral flames. 
Long and solemn botanic names. 
Names that Gerard and Linnteus knew. 
Ancient and grave, seem fresh as dew. 
Seem, as you say them, smooth as satin, 
Sweet as the songs of titled domes. 
How did you learn them. Pussy Willow ? 
Ah! you have learned to lisp them, surely. 
Rocked In your cradle soft and low, 
This was your “ baby-talk " long ago; 
Wise little maiden, irue and good. 
Daintiest blossom of Held or wood, 
Mother-love taught you to hold securely 
Names of plants, with their stately flow. 
Taught you to love them. Pussy Willow. 
Yes, X admit, you eight-year old Maidie, 
You are unique, you fairy gay; 
Wilder and Downing, Hooker and Gray, 
Never have learned. I venture to say. 
Botany-lore In so charming a way: 
They would be enchanted, little lady. 
And be your attendants day by day, 
If they but knew you. Pussy Willow. 
CHARLES HOWARD SHINN. 
-»-»-♦- 
WHAT OF THE LONG EVENINGS? 
After the spent Summer and the gathered 
harvests, what of Winter and the long even¬ 
ings i How shall they he spent ? The tides of 
vegetable and animal life are ebbing. They 
retire into their mysterious ocean of darkness 
and silence only to gather force for the Spring 
flood-tide. Nature rests during these long 
nights and cold Winters. And man may well 
take lessons from such a teacher. 
But man’s rest will not be wholly found in 
sleep or idleness; change is rest to him. All 
wirk and no play make Jack, not only a dull, 
but a tired, boy. Confinement to any one oc¬ 
cupation, is likely also to make one narrow. 
Man is many-sided and complex; and exer 
cise alone of his rnanj - powers and tastes will 
develop and strengthen them. 
Winter evenings, therefore, are peculiarly 
adapted and welcome to the laborers wearied 
with Summer day toils The body has long 
been overworked; the inind,not perhaps un¬ 
used, has not lieeu led out into wide or distant 
circles of thought nor stimulated and fed by 
good literature. The long evenings will now 
invite and permit reading, study, and discus¬ 
sion. The literary club, the lecture, the con¬ 
cert, music, and other arts can receive atten¬ 
tion. And those pow ers and tastes dormant 
or subordinated to duty all Summer, should 
now assert themselves and develop new' life. 
The fit place for these avocations of busy 
people is home. Every true home has room 
and time for the culture of mind aud heart. 
Wise heads of households will lead in this 
culture. Not 'only will they provide books, 
periodicals, and other means of growth and 
recreation, but they will properly subordinate 
work and other duties to their use. The 
evenings will not be devoted to late meals, 
extra work, or mere social dissipation. Let 
no one suppose that the city has a monopoly 
of social follies and sins. The best remedy 
and check for social excesses is love of read¬ 
ing, love of home and its social and literary 
charms. 
Let us, then, organize home literary work 
aud recreation at once. No room in the house 
is too good for it. In the absence of a study 
or library available, the dining room, with 
its large central table, is usually the best 
room. Have it. well warmed and lighted; 
guard it from intrusion; receive callers in 
another room. If reading aloud is the order, 
knitting, and other mere automatic finger 
work may go on at the same time. If the 
little ones join the circle, as the older children 
will, read something they can enjoy. If les¬ 
sons and school tasks must have study, read¬ 
ing, writing, and work can go on quietly 
around the table, and common interests and 
sympathy will lighten and sweeten each task 
and increase the profit to all. The proof of 
this is just doing it. 
THAT DIME NOVEL AGAIN. 
Not more certain and disastrous iu its ef 
feets is the kerosene oil can at the kitchen fire 
than is the cheap novel in the nursery. Here 
are two girls aged 10 and 12, if the daily 
papers tell the truth, with pistol and knife, 
running away from home to make their for¬ 
tunes. Jennie, of Toledo, asks aud gets per¬ 
mission to sup aud spend the night with a 
friend iu the Lower Town. Not returning 
next day, the telegraph finds her at a cousin’s 
house in St. Louis! The cousins leave the 
house: are gone all night. Next day Jennie’s 
papa arrives, employs a detective who finds 
them just, as they are boarding a train for the 
West. Tableau! 
“When they saw- their parents they burst 
into tears and declared they didn’t want to go 
back home, that they were going out West to 
make their way in the world. In the little 
traveling bags they carried slung over their 
shoulders, uvo second-hand pistols aud a 
rusty knife were found. They said that they 
thought that perhaps they might need them 
if the train was attacked by the Jesse James’s 
gang. They were soon disabused of the idea 
that they could make a fortune quickly rais¬ 
ing sheep iu the West, and were takeu home. 
Jennie said she had read a novel in which two 
girls had started out with nothing and soon 
had a sheep ranch and married wealthy 
miners; and she thought that she aud her 
cousin could do the same thing.” And still 
the destructive novel and oil can will continue 
to furnish items for the papers. 
EDUCATION vs. THE DIME NOVEL. 
Statistics show that in Europe suicides 
are most numerous among those people who 
can read and who are most favored with 
schools. This fact has furnished illogical ob¬ 
jectors with a fiiug at education. What 
should we think of the mau who pi'oposed il¬ 
literacy and a state of Dature as a cure for 
the evils of the dime novel and modern civili¬ 
zation ? Yet not unlikely our readers have 
heard or will hear this rasping, vinegar- 
blooded reformer, with his face on the back 
of his head, uttering his solemn croakings 
against the means of culture, refinement, and 
morality in these bad days. Nobody expects 
to get all the world’s possibilities for good at 
once, nor to get anything good without some 
intermingled evils. But we take the good in 
spite of the evil aud it is not that which en¬ 
ters in, it is only what comes out, that defiles a 
man. 
Of course education Is a ferment und up¬ 
heaval. It unsettles old-world ideas of elm.. 
and caste. Moreover there are necessary 
evils attending even the ability to read. 
Reading multiplies suggestion, motive, temp¬ 
tation. aud the reader’s possibilities for good 
or evil. There is a flood of the literature 
of crime and nastiness and of cheap fiction 
almost as bad. This finds buyers every'where, 
but especially among the poor. Its morbid 
sentimentality deluding fancies and distorted 
ideas of life derange its reader’s imagination. 
He revels in an unreal world awhile, then 
wakes from his dream disgusted aud possibly 
despairing at the real life. 
The source of the evil of a low literary taste 
and its supply Ls sometimes said to lie in the 
public schools. They are doubtless responsi¬ 
ble for many evils. If they originate or en¬ 
courage poor literature, they are responsible 
for its evil effects; but if it be not self-evi¬ 
dent, it were no difficult task to prove, that 
the tendency of these schools is to create and 
strengthen a taste for pure and lofty 
literature. 
Let society and the laws suppress immoral 
literature aud punish its authors aud vendors. 
The stream can best be cut off at the fountain. 
Then by all ineisas and appliances create and 
cultivate correct, healthy taste. In the long 
run, demand will control supply. The only 
way to get darkness out of a room is, just to 
open the shutters and let in the light. But 
right popular sentiment in this is of slow 
growth and is not much helped by laws great¬ 
ly in advance of the average sentiment. 
Therefore we must be watchful and patient. 
for Women 
•JONDOCTED BY MISS RAY CLARK. 
‘‘HOME DECORATIONS AND OUTSIDE 
SURROUNDINGS.” 
“What a beautiful place!” was the invol 
untary exclamation as we neared my friend's 
home for the first time. Now I want to take 
the Rural readers with me aud see if we 
agree. 
They had chosen a pleasant, nearly level 
spot for building. I cunnot agree with those 
who build on steep hillsides, or damp low situ¬ 
ations to be near a spring, desirable as that 
might be, I think there are many far superior 
reasons for selecting a higher point; dryer 
more healthy air, better views aud driveways, 
less mud, less washing away in times of heavy 
rains, etc. The approach adds to or takes from 
the appearance of a place; it ie preferable on 
sonie'accounts to drive directly into the yard 
but here, as upon many other farms the same 
road is used for the carriage as for driv¬ 
ing stock, from the barn to other parts of the 
place, thus rendering a fence necessary to sep¬ 
arate it from the yard. 
The lawn was not large.they preferring a 
small one well kejit rather than a larger one 
which is so apt to be neglected among many 
busy farmers. Yet it was not kept iu exactly 
the style which seems to be growing in favor— 
perfectly clean-shaven, without a tree,shrubor 
flower; neither was it so full of shrubbery as 
to obstruct the view to or from the road. The 
rnaiu part was smooth and velvety, sloping 
gently' to the road. A few choice shrubs and 
a very few evergreens occupied positions in 
the outer portions of the yard, and on one side 
a latticed Hummer house,covered with climb¬ 
ing roses aud grape vines, suggested a cosy 
retreat. 
Near the house, on each side <>f the entrance 
was a triangular border filled with bright bed- 
ding plants—now in all their Autumn glory. 
VYe also catch a glimpse of other floral treas¬ 
ures bordering the path to the back yard. 
There were uo vines climbing over the house, 
for pretty as a “vine-covered cottage” is in 
poetry, it becomes quite prosaieal when they 
have to Le taken down to paint under them; 
trellises near the windows or elsewhere are 
nearly as pretty aud move desirable iu many 
ways. Still a few vines might be allowed on 
porticoes or porches. We must look no longer 
for our hostess is smiling a welcome at the 
door. I shall not describe the furniture of this 
model home, as the purchase of this must de¬ 
pend so much upon one’s means, but I wish I 
could tell you what it is that gives it such an 
inviting, cheery look, and makes one feel so 
thoroughly happy aud at ease. I suspect it 
was the inmates more than the surroundings; 
yet who can say how much the beautiful, 
tasteful thiugs about us had to do with mould¬ 
ing the characters and aiding in t he meutal 
development of the gentle, orderly children 
whom we afterwards saw? For what think¬ 
ing, observant person will deny the refining 
influence of beautiful homes, when ingenious, 
minds, loving heai-ts and willing hands have 
made them so? 
We think Bay ard Taylor says trutkfully- 
“Notlung is useless which gratifies that per¬ 
ception of Beauty which is at once the most 
dalieate and the most intense of our mental 
sensations, binding us by an unconscious link 
nearer to nature aud to Him, whoso every 
thought is bona of Beauty, Truth aud Love.” 
We were takeu at once to the family sitting- 
room, it being as it should always lie, the 
pleasantest room ju the house. A hiut of frost 
is in the chill evening air and the careful 
mother has had her little boy build a fire 
wlucli gives a cheerful appearance and throws 
a genial glow over pictures aud ornaments. 
I am pleased with the latter, for instead of 
cardboard and other frail articles (which were 
reserved for chambers and other rooms not in 
daily use) my friend had chosen more substan¬ 
tial materials. A pajier holder was of carved 
wood to match a corner bracket on widen 
stood a vase freshly filled for Winter, with 
delicate sprays of dried grasses and a fern or 
two. Ihe eases for letters, lamp lighters, and 
comb and brusli, were of heavy pasteboard, 
cut aud sewed in proper shape, then painted 
black, bright embossed pictures or pressed 
ferns posted on, and lastly, several coats of 
Dcnmr or chromo varnish; these are hand¬ 
some, durable, easily made, and eau be wiped 
off with a damp cloth when soiled. 
A few' delicate mosses which had been care¬ 
fully pressed were glued in pretty designs on 
white cardboard aud framed; und just here I 
think of a simple and easily made frame for 
small pictures and mottoes. Make it the de¬ 
sired size, of smooth strips of light or dark 
wood give it a coat or two of varnish, and 
when partially dry place small fronds of 
pressed ferns tastefully upou it; when dry 
enough varnish again. 
Of course those who eau afford costly' pic¬ 
tures, frames aud other ornaments would not 
so much appreciate those home-made articles, 
but that class do not need any assistance save 
a little good taste iu the selection; so 1 write, 
only hoping to throw out a few hints to those 
less fortunate in that way, as no doubt a large 
class of Rural readers are, for a very' little 
mouey with taste and occasional suggestions 
from other thi» kere on the subject can work 
wonders. Even books are so cheap now that 
a small sum will secure a library that would 
be an ornament to any home. Going soon to 
my friend’s kitchen, we found her young 
daughter pressing Autumn leaves with a 
warm iron first passed over rosin; they were 
very pretty, but 1 suggested leaving a portion 
on the branches, laying them away between 
beds for two or three weeks without any prep¬ 
aration, then place them above pictures aud 
mirrors, they have a pleasing effect and seem 
nearer to nature. Dak leaves are specially 
nice this way, as a warm iron facies their 
bright wine color. I admit that, none of these 
are as pretty as growing plants, but so few 
have the room, time and knowledge to keep 
these healthy and bright, and many have not 
suitable windows that they ought to spare for 
them for the children need them worse. A 
walk through the back yard showed that it 
had not been neglected; no rubbish, no un¬ 
covered drains or cess-pools, but neatly swept 
stone walks, a few old-fashioned shrubs and 
the children’s flower beds. 
At the north end of the house was a nook 
where little else but ferns would thrive, these 
grew there in luxuriance; I wonder we do not 
sec more of these easily' cultivated beauties 
about our homes. They will grow up strong 
and healthy every' season without auy care 
whatever after the first setting. I would like 
to speak of the kitchen conveniences, the 
boys room (which had its full share of pleas¬ 
ant things) as well as the guest chamber, were 
it not that my article is already too long. 
But let us not forget dear sisters all, that to 
husband, son or brother a pleasant, cheerful, 
loving woman is the brightest ornament a 
home can have. 
-»♦ ♦- 
WORK BASKETS. 
The method of ornamenting baskets as 
shown in our illustrations, is novel and effec¬ 
tive. A piece of plush, velvet or jute em¬ 
broidered, and draped on the sides iu easv 
folds, and caught at the cornel's with tassels 
or balls of silk chenille or worsted, according 
to the choice of material used. For common 
use, jute is the best, and handsome fringe of 
worsted chenille can be purchased at a low 
price. 
Nothiug prettier or more useful could bo 
made for a gift to a friend, thau a basket of 
this kind; aud one’s taste can be used in choos¬ 
ing materials. Plush and velvet, are of course 
the richest aud most elegant, aud the combi¬ 
nations of pink and wine color, crimson, drab, 
or lemon color have a flue effect. 
MY MORTHER’S SONGS. 
Of all the songs from sweetest voices 
In young days or of old, 
That's made my Inmost soul rejoice, 
However oft they're told, 
Are those sweet snugs my mother sung 
While at the home flreslrle; 
When all the world seemed blithe and young 
And Joy was at our side, 
O, I have wandered far away 
In sunny lands of song. 
And X have heard the minstrels play 
Thar thrill'd the listening throng 
Tho’ sweet the charm when beauty sings, 
And sweet the mlnstrelsie, 
There Is no charm, t hat memory brings 
Like those old songs to mo. 
Oft In the oleur. calm starry night, 
Among the leafy trees, 
Or on the weird lone mountain hlght, 
And in the gentle breeze, 
Or on the rough, wild stormy sea 
When all ls dark and drear, 
The dear old songs will come to me— 
My mother's songs I hear. 
Sweet is th* strange enchanting spell 
That lures all thought away. 
To warm fireside or woody doll, 
Where we were wont to play. 
About my boyhood’s happy home 
Glad memories fondly cling; 
And oft the sweet old songs will come, 
My mother used to slug. 
Through many years of Joyous life 
I reach the sere of old 
Now all the battle and the strife. 
The Ueruesuuaud the cold. 
Are o’er for me, and calm I wall 
To hear tho ‘Joy bells” ring; 
For 1 shall hear at heaven's gate 
My angel mother slog. 
