THE BUBAL NEW-Y0BKEB. 
The Honorable Marshall Pinckney Wilder, 
whose death on December 16, although it was 
deferred considerably beyond the psalmist’s 
three score years and ten, yet saddened the 
pomological world, was born at ltinflgo, N. H., 
September 22, 1708, being the eldest son of 
Samuel Lock© Wilder, Esq.,who lie longed to an 
old Massachusetts family which has been con¬ 
spicuous since the Revolutionary War. Young 
Marshall went to school at the age of four, 
and at 1:2 entered New Ipswich Aeadamy, 
where he remained only a year, and for the 
next three years he studied under a private, tu¬ 
tor. When 16, h is father gave him the choice 
of qualifying himself for the life of a farmer, 
merchant or professional man. He chose the 
first,and for the next five years among the lakes 
and forests of his native place he laid the 
foundation of the enduring health to which he 
was greatly indebted for the mental and phy¬ 
sical energy that distinguished his subsequent 
career. At the age of 21 his father took him 
into partnership, which continued until 1825, 
when, in search of a larger field, he moved to 
Boston, where t he firm of Wilder A Pnysou 
was at once formed, and under various modi¬ 
fications of firm names he continued a pros¬ 
perous merchant of Boston till the time of 
his death, As a business man, he attained 
and held a high position, and was honored 
with a number of important trusts. At 
the age of 2l! he was made a colonel of the 
New Hampshire militia, and on going to 
Bostou, he soon connected himself with the 
Ancicut nud Houorable Artillery Company, 
of which he always remained a prominent 
and devoted member, buviug become com¬ 
mander of it in 1857. 
In 1 8.70 Colonel Wilder was a member of 
the House of Representatives from Dorches¬ 
ter. Ten years later he served one term in the 
Executive Council, and in 1850 was a member 
of the State Senate, of which body he was 
elected president. 
It was for his successful label's in agricul¬ 
ture, horticulture, floriculture and especially 
pomology, however, that Col. Wilder was most 
widely and favorably known. In 1848, as 
President of the Mass. Hort. Soe., he headed a 
circular calling a convention of fruit-growers 
throughout the country, which resulted in the 
organization of the American Pomological 
Society. To him the State Agricultural Col¬ 
lege at Amherst owes its existence, and the 
State Board of Agriculture is the lineal des¬ 
cendant of the old Norfolk Ag’l Soe., which 
lie founded He was for veurs President of 
the American Pomological Society, senior 
member of the State Board of Agriculture, 
senior Trustee of the Massachusetts Agricul¬ 
tural College. Honorary President of the Nor¬ 
folk Agricultural Society, a member of th© 
Executive Committee of the Massachusetts 
Horticultural Society, President of the New 
England ITisrorie-Gonoalogicnl Society, mem¬ 
ber of the Government of the Institute of 
Technology, a Director of the New England 
Life Insurance Company, of the National 
Insurance Company and of the Hamilton 
National Bank, and senior partner in the dry 
goods firm of Parker. Wilder A: Co. 
For many veal's Col. Wilder has takeu a 
deep interest in the Rural New-Yorker as 
the best, representative in the country of the 
industries in which for over an average life¬ 
time he had been so earnestly interested. He 
constantly sent, plants and seeds to the Rural 
Experiment Grounds fur trial—the latest being 
the Minnehaha Grape. Within a week of his 
death he had promised a series of articles for 
our columns. Notes and comments from his 
pen had for years appeared more frequent ly 
in the Rural than in any other paper. His 
last letter to us—probably thrifts* he wrote— 
was dated December Id—less than three days 
before his lamented death. Numerous and 
important, ns are the reasons why others should 
grieve at his end, the. Rural has, therefore, 
special additional causes for sorrow. 
Woman’s Work. 
CONDUCTED RY EMILY LOUISE TAPLIN. 
SERVICE. 
OUVK K. DANA. 
Her hands were strained anil callous, 
Her forehead lined with care; 
she knew that she was busy, 
Eorgol she once was fair. 
The very Hues she moved In 
Were those of toll, alone, 
No Kraoe of look or gosture 
In word or way was show n. 
And somethhiK seemed to whisper, 
“Bow quickly from your face 
Has gone your maiden beauty, 
And from your form Us grace! 
What guerdon Is availing 
To compensate forull 
The grace, the mirth, the beauty, 
Tlilil’fore your tasks must fall?’’ 
Hut, “Be It'so!” she answered; 
Better the roughened polios 
Than,hands forever folded 
in soft and ttlllsh utiui 
Better the eare-llned forehead 
Than the smooth, seamless brow 
O’er listless brain-or furrows 
Sorrow or fashion plow. 
“Better the task bowed shoulders 
Than eotneller ones that shirk 
All dear and dally service— 
God’s hallowing burden—work. 
Better the wearing duty, 
The toll of ministering, 
Than years that pass, and never 
Toll for their passing bring. 
“I would not have denied me 
Life's richest, noblest good. 
The privilege and guerdon 
And crown—of womanhood— 
The joy that Is In serving 
The blessing none may miss 
Whose willing feet are going 
On homely ministries. 
“And when depressed and weary. 
My life seems hard and drear. 
And many a low reminder 
Of all 1 miss I hear. 
I answer, low and trustful, 
The path of service Is 
The way Christ trod; His presence 
Is In such ways as this.” 
HAPPY NEW YEAR. 
This is the tritest of all good wishes, but 
the most comprehensive. We wish it at the 
time when everyone is turning over a new 
leaf, more or less enduring. This is the sea¬ 
son, too, when we begin to keep a bran-new 
diary and make a lot of good resolutions. 
But the diary drifts into au obscure corner 
aud the good resolutions—wbere are they ? 
At any rate, we are all the better for “making 
an effort,” as Mrs. Chick said, aud since con¬ 
stant dropping will wear away a stone, an 
effort to do better every first of January ought 
to have some final effect on character and dis¬ 
position. 
After all, our happy new year depends much 
on ourselves. Our lives are pretty mueh what 
we make them, and if we are determined that 
this new year we now enter shall be a happy 
one, we are more than half-way towards that 
desirable end; aud if things look dark in the 
immediate present, there is surely no reason 
for expecting them to continue so: “Sufficient 
unto the day is the evil thereof.” So we wish 
all good wishes to our many friends, remote 
or scattered though they be, and mean health 
aud prosperity and all the good things cf life 
in that one benediction: a iiapdy new year. 
HOLIDAY SHOPPING. 
Miss Flora McFlimsey ventilated her 
touching woes a good many years ago ; she 
could not, with any justice, complain of 
uothiug to wear nowaday—that is, supposing 
pator-familias to be in a solvent condition. 
All the shops are brimming over with pretty 
things, both for use and adornment. 
1 f Miss Flora wants an evening gown, she 
has more than a dozen distinct makes of crape 
to choose from, running into innumerable vn 
rieties of rainbow hue. There are printed 
crapes, looking like an idealized Dolly Yar- 
den stuff, embroided crape, and beaded crape; 
cr&pe de Chine and erfepe frisN, and strange 
oriental Brumma crape, that might have 
draped Princess Seheherezade. These stuffs 
ai*e draped over moire or faille Francaise; the 
latter is a heavy corded silk of very soft tex¬ 
ture. 
There are some very charming embroidered 
cashmere robes, embroidery the being as close 
as that on China crape shawls. In light shades 
these are especially charming, with the vari¬ 
colored flowers of the embroidery is enriched 
by applique designs of plush or velvet. 
These lovely fabrics aru of American manu¬ 
facture. Some elegant gowns are of embroider¬ 
ed eamels-bair. One striking example was 
rich brown; the trimming for panels, cuffs 
and vest was a Persian design iu silk and 
iridescent metallic threads, with pendant 
drops. A dull blue was embroidered in heavy 
cords of the same color, mingled with irides¬ 
cent beads. Another unmade dross-length of 
camels-hair had collar, sleeves, vest and pan¬ 
els all blocked out on the stuff, and elaborate¬ 
ly embroidered. But the most sensible of all 
these robes is what, is called the tourist dross, 
it is of thick, soft wool, iu some neutral tint, 
and the panels aud drapery are bordered with 
stripes and fringe, just like a shawl. Similar 
stripes are on the vest and cuffs. It makes a 
very stylish gown, and a most serviceable one 
to boot, suggestive of a good Scotch shawl. 
Wraps aud jackets tire very pretty this 
winter, and they have the additional merit of 
being very comfortable too. The prevailing 
shape is short in the back, with half-fitting 
sleeves, and long narrow tabs coming almost 
to the knees in front, A very handsome 
wrap of this shape was of black striped plush, 
trimmed heavily with Alaska sable. 
The newer shapes in ulsters and the like are 
very comfortable and thoroughly suitable for 
traveling wear. A jaunty, English raglau is 
of fine, gray check, fitting like an ulster. It 
has three tight-flttiug, graduated capes, and 
beneath them the Juew sling .sleeves. All the 
ulsters and jackets this winter have capes or 
hoods, or sometimes both. In the latter case 
the garment must be made by a first-class 
tailor, or the effect is not good. Astrakan is 
used for both jackets and wraps, though in the 
former garment it is not becoming to all fig¬ 
ures. A short w’rap of this material is very 
handsome when trimmed with long fur. 
A novelty in wrappers is the Yokohama 
gown. This is not make-belie ve Japanese, but 
is really of native manufacture, though they 
do not resemble the ample kimonas worn by 
the three little maids from school. It is a 
plain, gored wrapper, of heavy gros-grain 
silk, most elaborately embroidered in the 
painstaking manner peculiar to Japan. They 
come in all colors; one very gorgeous example 
was of pale blue lavishly embi’oidered iu car¬ 
dinal red; another was of pale pink with 
white embroidery. For house wear outside of 
one’s chamber, nothing could be prettier than 
a French niatiitee of strijied flannel. The 
skirt is pleated aud has a loose, cutaway 
jacket with a surah vest. 
France favors us with all the prettiest wrap¬ 
pers. One verv dainty style is of white flan¬ 
nel striped with a Persian pattern in crimson 
aud gold. It has a fitting French back; the 
front hangs loose. All the way down the 
front is a panel of whith surah, shirred at the 
top and growing wider towards the bottom. 
This garment is completed by crimson velvet 
cuffs and crimson waist-ribbon. Wrappers of 
similar shape are made in dark colored cash- 
mere, with plush trimmings. 
Evening gowns are quite bewildering in 
tbeir beauty. One bold combination was 
strikingly suggestive of a pansy. The bodice 
and part of the drapery was of dull purple 
velvet, while the skirt had front and side 
panel of yellow satin, embroidered in the same 
color. A few folds of cobwebby lace toned 
down the brilliance of the coloring. 
Frocks and jackets for half-grown girls are 
very pretty; they show off the girlish grace 
while disguising youthful angularity. A very 
pretty cloak was of lamhswool cloth, a thick, 
blanket-like fabric, warm brown in hue. The 
skirt part was kilted; where it was joined at 
the waist were revere of green velvet. It was 
double breasted, with large velvet buttons. It 
had a hood lined with crimson and green 
surah, and a largo tie at the neck like the lin¬ 
ing. A belt around the waist was fastened 
by a pearl clasp. 
Girl’s frocks are usually made with kilted 
skirt, and, as a rule, the jacket is loose, 
with a contrasting vest or sash. Serge, with 
vest- of surah is very haudsome: Graceful sim¬ 
plicity distinguishes garments for the little 
folks, and the same may be said, in a measure, 
of the fashions for their older sisters. 
For information contained in this article, 
thanks are due to James McCreery, & Co., 
New York. 
REPLY TO “A PROTEST.” 
ALICE BROWN. 
In writing of using surplus fruit and sec¬ 
ond hand articles ns wages for a washwoman 
I meant uo disrespect to the industrious wo¬ 
men who reign at the tubs, but I had in mind 
a neighborhood where there are a number of 
colored families and the women often take 
great pride in their little houses and are very 
glad to give work in exchange for—not useless 
things of coarse—hut for carpets, with enough 
of good, bright breadths to fit their small 
rooms or for second hand furniture that is 
whole aud good but for some reason replaced 
by new in the houses of their employ ere. 
In early times exchanges of one commod¬ 
ity for another, or for labor, were almost uni¬ 
versal and the old spirit of barter still appears 
in all classes of society. I have known of the 
merchant accepting vegetables from the far¬ 
mer iu payment of his store bill, the dentist 
making a set of teeth agreeing to accept a 
water color painting for his recompense and 
the principal of the seminary where the mil¬ 
ler’s daughter was educated accepting flour, 
because the miller happened to have more 
flour than money aud both parties in each case 
wore satisfied with the exchange. 
To give, or to offer, a woman who washes 
for her living Something that will be useless 
to her would be manifestly unjust. To pay 
her in anything that, she is not willing to take 
or is not satisfied with would be a meanness. 
But is it any disrespect if she is anxious to buy 
Bartlett pears or a bushel of fine peaches be¬ 
cause they are unusually cheap and therefore 
within reach of her means, to pay her in the 
fruit, instead of wearily wasting strength 
needed for other things iu doing the washing, 
she would gladly do for the pay you can offer 
her? 
Having presided at the tubs myself from the 
“first suds” to the “last rinse” aud the starch¬ 
ing, 1 would not like to deny generous wages 
to anyone who does the work, for it needs 
skill, strength and care to convert a liasket of 
soiled clothes into a dean, sweet smelling, 
well starched line full of snowy muslin and 
unfaded prints. All honor and good wages to 
the woman who accomplishes this, not to be 
despised, result. 
- A- 
THE HIRED MAN QUESTION. 
“a RHINE-STONE.” 
CARRIE D. HIGH. 
I know nothing about boarding hired men, 
but I do know that one hired man about the 
house is a treasure—in other words, a real 
rhine-stone to the women folks. For if it is 
permissible to call a good hired girl a “jewel.” 
there can be nothing out of the way iu calling 
a good German man a “rhine-stone. If the 
master will let the mistress have her way she 
can get manv little chores out of a hired man 
who boards in the bouse:chores that will give 
her a great lift, and which he will do cheer¬ 
fully aud willingly when be is around the 
kitchen at meal time. It only takes him two or 
three minutes to bring in a nice'bucket of coal 
for the kitchen stove, but if the housewife 
must stop stirring the hash and run for the 
coal herself, it is very trving indeed and it is 
almost as trying to run into the sitting-room 
and rouse the master from a nap, a book or a 
letter, to “ Please bring in a little coal. I can’t 
leave dinner very well”—even though she is 
certain he will come promptly. If she has 
little boys or big boys of her own who will 
come quicklv (boys generally think anv time 
win dot and cheerfully do her bidding, then is 
she fortunate, indeed. Again, the man will 
bring in heaping baskets of lovelv kindling 
—for a nice lot, of kindling does look lovely to 
anyone about to make a fire—and the mistress 
may use every stick if she wants to and have 
the satisfaction of knowing that the basket 
will be replenished silently. Whereas—whereas 
all ye mothers aud sisters know that, if there 
is anything in the wide world that men folks 
are downright stingy about it is kindling. 
Our Rlune-stone will also carry water, 
bring iu tubs on wash day. pump the rinse 
water and fill up the boilers and reservoir. 
This mav sound like a great deal, hut it reallv 
doesn't take a smart man ten minutes to do 
it all before breakfast, after he has fed the 
horses and chickens at the barn. 
As for a bired man to be lying in bed while 
the master and mistress are up at work, that 
is the height of absurdity. A man, of course' 
is expected and expects to got up and make 
the fires and emptv the*ashes; that' is one of 
his duties and the sooner heistauerht it the bet¬ 
ter. It seems quite too sillv for helief for any 
woman to have ever kept breakfast waiting 
Sunday morning for a hired "man's pleasure, 
thus depriving herself of going to church. 
Surely duty would have taken her by the 
hand and led'her to church. 
At my home (guests are obliged to be down¬ 
stairs in time for a six o’clock breakfast. 
That is. they are given the rules of the house 
and know that they are expected to live up to 
them. If they lag into the dining-room the 
first morning after their arrival, when the 
family are nearly through breakfast they are 
teased and ridiculed iu a good natured wav 
for being sleepy-heads and the next morning 
they are sure to be up bright and early, and" 
declare that they feel all the better for it. Tf 
breakfast is allowed to be kept waiting until 
eight or nine o’clock T should just like to know 
how under the sun the farmers wife is going 
to get a big dinner ready at twelve. 
But to return to our Rliine-stone—we now 
come to the washing. It seems to me (and I 
speak from exwrieneel that to wash a pair of 
sheets and pillow-cases for a man’s bed is not 
such dreadful drudgery as shoveling coal, 
toting water and doing those little chores 
which a hired man can do so easily. His per¬ 
sonal clothes I hoj*» be can always get, washed 
cheaply by some w oman in the neighborhood, 
for to do that would, T confess, bo a bother¬ 
ation. If anyone thinks a man would not 
heir the women folks ns willingly as I have 
■said he might do. I will add that we had a 
man with us two years who did all these 
things and more, and I never saw a frown on 
bis hrow. We have one now who does likewise, 
and what “men have done men may do 
again.” 
SOME WAYS AND THINGS AT THE 
RURAL GROUNDS. 
ALICE BROWN. 
A perpetual quarrel is kept up here with 
the days; thev are never long enough for all 
that waits to be done, and now when the light 
lies here in the vallev so few hours out of 2-1, 
any vantage gained in the quarrel, when 
the days were longer, seems lost again. 
Tt is now but a little afrer four o’clock and 
the suu has already settled behind the trees 
m the South-west, and the snow and ice that 
softened through the dav are stiffening again 
for the uight. During the three weeks past, 
Mrs. Carman has prepara^! the Rural’s index 
for "the printers, and the^usual order of things 
