4387 THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
0itfgr apical 
T. H. HOSKINS, M.D. 
Thomas Henry Hoskins, M.D., whose j>or- 
trait is shown at Fig. 288, was born in the 
(now) City of Gardiner, Kennebec Co., Maine, 
May 14,1828. His father, Henry B. Hoskins, 
was a leading manufacturer of paper, and 
twice Mayor of Gardiner. The son, an only 
one, was educated in the village schools, and 
in the Gardiner Lyceum—the first High School 
established for the instruction of young men 
for the mechanic arts and agriculture in Am¬ 
erica. Its curriculum was almost identical 
with that of the present State industrial col¬ 
leges. Rather an indifferent mathematician, 
and not strongly attracted toward classical 
learning, the subject of this sketch was deeply 
interested from the first in the study of na¬ 
ture, and easily led his classes in chemistry, 
botany, astronomy, natural history and natu¬ 
ral philosophy. He also made good progress 
in the Latin and French languages, urged 
thereto by the use of the first, in scientific no¬ 
menclature, and to the last by the existence, 
in the school library, of a large and valuable 
collection of scientific works in that tongue. 
At the age of 16 he was sent to Dorchester, 
Mass., where for one year he attended aschool 
of which the late Joseph Win. Jeuks, LL.D., 
was principal. Dr. Jenks, besides being a fine 
classicist, had also followed, in Paris, a thor¬ 
ough course of study in the natural sciences; 
and recognizing the bent of this pupil’s mind, 
he wisely made these the chief subjects of his 
instruction. At IT, however, the youth was 
taken from school into his father’s counting 
room, whence he soon graduated into the em¬ 
ploy of a wholesale drug establishment in Bos¬ 
ton. 
In 1849 he emigrated to Louisville, Ky., 
where he was engaged, first as clerk, and sub¬ 
sequently as partner, in a jobbing drug house. 
His fondness for the natural sciences led to his 
makiug the acquaintance of several of the pro¬ 
fessors in the medical department of the Louis¬ 
ville University, and iiually to his entering 
there ns a student, he having, several years 
previously, abandoned trade for farming, or 
rather market-gardening, in the neighborhood 
of the city. He became a student in the office 
of Prof. David W. Ynudell, M.D.—yet living, 
at the head of his profession in Louisville—a 
gentleman who, as a physician and surgeon, 
is widely known and much beloved by a great 
circle of patients and pupils throughout the 
Southwest. Dr. Hoskins graduated in medi- 
ciue in the spring of 1860. The Louisville 
Medical News, of October. 1860, says; “At the 
beginning of the last session of the medical de¬ 
partment of the university, the Professor of 
Clinical Medicine offered two prizes of $25 
ouch for the best notes, taken by a memlier of 
the class, of the lectures on Clinical Medicine 
and Clinical Surgery. Both prizes were 
awarded to Mr. Thomas H. Hoskins, of Louis¬ 
ville.’’ In the same issue Prof. Yandell, writ¬ 
ing to the editor, says: “The memoir of Dr. 
Ribes, the translation of which you have asked 
for publication, has never before, I believe, 
been rendered into English. . . . Finding 
the memoir in the library of the University. I 
requested my pupil, Mr. Hoskins, to translate 
it for me. During the progress of the labor, 
which was by no means inconsiderable, 1 sel¬ 
dom bad occasion to assist my indefatigable 
pupil, and whatever of merit attaches to the 
work belongs to the pupil and not to the mas¬ 
ter. ... If high moral worth and extra¬ 
ordinary industry, united to rare scientific and 
scholastic acquirements, deserve success, Dr. 
Hoskins deserves and will achieve it.” 
Not long after his graduation, personal and 
family reasons led to the return of Dr. Hos- 
kius to New Eugland, and his establishment 
in the practice of his profession in the City of 
Boston He made n specialty of the diseases 
of children, and soon reached so good a posi¬ 
tion iu his profession that the late Professor 
Clarke, of the Harvard Medical School, said 
of him that no young practitioner in the city 
had a more promising future before him. He 
was a member of the Massachusetts Medical 
Society, and of the Boston Society of Medical 
Observation, and represented the latter at the 
session of the American Medical Association 
iu New York, iu 1863, For some years he was 
one of the physicians of the Boston Dispensary, 
und in 1864 was appointed a Health Warden 
of the city. 
I)r. Hoskins was an active investigator iu 
medical science, particularly as to bis own 
specialty, and his studies of nutrition, espe¬ 
cially the nutrition of infants, led to the pub¬ 
lication of a series of articles iu the Boston 
Daily Courier, subsequently reprinted and 
published in book form, under the title of 
“What We Eat.” This work had a consider¬ 
able sale and was liberally reviewed und com¬ 
mended by the leadiug press throughout/the 
country. It was in the pursuitjof. these studies 
on dietetics that the Doctor was led to the 
study of the butter globule, and the conclu¬ 
sion that the “envelop” theory was an errone¬ 
ous one. 
Iu the spring of 1865 Dr. Hoskins had the 
misfortune, in returning from a night'visit to 
a patient, to fall with great force backward 
upon an icy pavement, causing concussion of 
the spine, followed by great and long-cou- 
tinued debility, approaching paralysis of the 
lower limbs. This, not yielding to treatment, 
necessitated the abandonment of bis profes¬ 
sion, anil iu 1866 he removed to Northern Ver¬ 
mont, where he soon became interested in ag¬ 
riculture and horticulture, aud established a 
seed and fruit farm, upon which be still re¬ 
sides, adjoining the thriving village of New¬ 
port, the county-seat of Orleans County, near 
the head of Lake Mempbremagog. Iu Decem¬ 
ber, 1870, ho established, as editor, the Ver¬ 
mont Farmer, which he conducted for more 
than three years, serving for two years of that 
time as a member of the State Board of Agri¬ 
culture. In January, 1874, having sold his in¬ 
terest in the Farmer, he accepted the position 
of agricultural editor of the Vermout Watch¬ 
man, the lending Republican weekly of the 
State, published at Montpelier, the capital, 
which position he held until March, 1887, 
when he took a similar one on the staff of the 
Rural Vermonter, also printed in Montpelier, 
aud the only agricultural paper of the State. 
Dr. Hoskins has been a regular contributor 
to this journal, even while it was Moore’s Ru¬ 
ral New-Yorker. His articles have beeu 
chiefly upon topics connected with dairying, 
orcharding, market-gardening, aud agricultu¬ 
ral chemistry. Both as a farmer aud an ear¬ 
nest student of nature, he has been much in¬ 
terested in the study of the latter science, es¬ 
pecially in connection with soil-fertilization. 
He has devoted much time to the improve¬ 
ment of cultivated plants, with considerable 
success. But his great work has been in the 
direction of enlarging the field of successful 
orcharding northwardly. Mainly through 
his efforts the iron-clad tree fruits have been 
tested aud introduced throughout Northern 
New England, in Vermont, Now Hampshire, 
and Maine. Until he led the way to success, 
much the greater part of New England was 
supposed to he beyond the zone of successful 
apple, pear, cherry, and plum culture. But 
iu twenty years this has all been changed, and 
now, eveu to the northern limits of Mail e, 
nearly a degree north of the city of Quebec, 
orchards ore being planted by settlers who 
have been encouraged and instructed by the 
example and teachings of our friend. Twice 
the Doctor has been called by the Maine State 
Board of Agriculture to lecture in the north¬ 
ern counties of the State on fruit-growing, 
and this, together with his writings in the 
Maine Farmer and the Home Farm, as well as 
his papers in the reports of the State Board of 
Agriculture and the State Pomological .So¬ 
ciety, has developed a wide interest in the cul¬ 
ture of tree fruits in the “cold North-east ” 
His work a-s u pomologist has led to his ap¬ 
pointment as Vice-President of the American 
Pomological Society and the American Horti¬ 
cultural Society for the State of Vermont, 
and his contributions to “iron-clad” pomology 
are a-s highly appreciated in the Northwest 
and in Canada as iu the Northeast. His own 
orchard is a museum of iron-dad tree-fruits. 
Fifteeu hundred trees, covering nearly 800 
varieties, are there to be seen in bearing, and 
offering to the student an object-lesson of 
great value. Visitors from all sections of the 
country visit his grounds every season. 
Cam. 
"Every Man is presumed to know the Law. 
Nine-tenths of all Litigation arises from Ig¬ 
norance of Law.” _ 
Alien Ownership of Land in the Terri¬ 
tories. —As to the scope of the Act of Con- 
, gross of March 3, 1887, restricting the owner¬ 
ship of real estate iu the Territories. Attor¬ 
ney-General Garland, writing to the President 
last Wednesday, gives the following interpre¬ 
tation; The law forbids the owning of real 
estate hereafter in the Territories by any cor¬ 
poration or association in which more than 
20 per cent, of the stock is owned by aliens. 
It also forbids corporations other than rail¬ 
way, canal or turnpike companies, from here¬ 
after acquiring more than 5,000 acres of land, 
and limits railway, canal and turnpike com¬ 
panies to such lands as may be properly neces¬ 
sary to the working thereof. In ease of viola¬ 
tion of the act the property is to be forfeited. 
The act applies to mines. It does not apply 
to leases, and aliens can therefore practically 
evade its provisions by leasing land for 99 
years. It does not forbid aliens to lend money 
on the security of any sort of real estate, but 
in case the property has to bo sold to satisfy 
the indebtedness, aliens are not allowed to 
secure possession of tt. This act applies only 
to the Territories and the District of Colum¬ 
bia, which are directly under the control of 
Congress. Tho several States legislate with 
regard to real estate within their several bor¬ 
ders, provided the laws they may pass do not 
conflict with the Constitution of the United 
States, and where any doubt on this point 
may exist, the United States Supreme Court 
must decide the question. No individual for¬ 
eigner can own land on any of the Territories 
unless he has declared his intention to become 
a citizen of the United States. The law does 
not apply to the past, however; its provisions 
are strictly limited to future transactions. 
L. H., Elizabeth, N. J —In transferring a 
deed for New Jersey property by parties liv¬ 
ing in New York State, is it necessary for 
both husband and wife, when the property is 
in the wife’s name, to acknowledge the deed 
before a Commissioner of Deeds for New Jer¬ 
sey, and for the husband to acknowledge the 
same before a Commissioner of Deeds for 
New York? 
Ans —The object of the husband’s signature 
to the deed is to convey bis right as “tenart 
by the courtesy,” equivalent in principle to 
tho wife’s right of dower. In this State it is 
not required, but in New Jersey the title is 
not generally accepted on the sole signature 
of a married woman, although the property 
stands in her name. The signature of the 
husband being considered necessary, it must 
be attested in the same way as the wife’s con¬ 
veyance before a New Jersey Commissioner. 
II. S .j Amboy , N. J .—A contracts with me 
at my home in New Jersey to build an addi¬ 
tion to my house. His specifications call for 
the carpenter, mason, painting and plumbing 
work, he being the carpenter himself, and I 
have filed the same with our county clerk. 
Can the mason, plumber or painter have any 
claim on me if they do not get their money 
from the carpenter who engaged them? What 
if any of them notify me before they finish 
their work? 
Ans. —All that the mason and plumber can 
do in the circumstances cited, by filing a lien, 
is to preserve a hold on any balance that may 
be due the contractor from the owner. After 
due notice from them of their claims onr cor¬ 
respondent will make further payments to the 
carpenter at his own periL 
During the past week, as the Eye-Opener 
has footed it from the “office” to his home up¬ 
town. he has several Limes noticed an enter¬ 
prising fakir working the street corners and 
wheedling the quarters out of the young 
men who think they can make a living 
without working for it, with a game which he 
uublushiugly calls “Honest John. ’ Like all 
other games of chance, it is very simple in op¬ 
eration, and, while apparently square enough, 
the odds are greatly in the dealer's favor. The 
fakir, who is a dapper little man, and as lively 
as a cricket, carries a stick which opens out 
and forms a three legged stool. He then pro¬ 
duces a pack of cards which he deftly shuffles 
and cuts into four equal parts; the bottom cut 
he keeps near himself, the other three being 
placed ou the side of the board nearest the 
crowd. The cards are all faced down, and the 
fakir offers to bet you even money that he can 
beat you on the turn-up. As soon as bets are 
made on each of the throe stacks the four 
piles are turned up. Asa general thing, the 
dealer wins two bets out of the three, but 
when the crowd is getting cleaned out 
he sweeps in the whole three suspicious¬ 
ly often. The game continues until a 
shrill whistle is simultaneous with the 
appearance of a policeman, when the fakir 
closes up shop in a giffv and seeks new fields. 
It is a poor crowd that hasn't $5 to throw 
away on such a square-looking little game as 
“Honest John,"and the fakir must reap a har¬ 
vest iu the course of the day. One of his con¬ 
federates was quite communicative aud went 
into raptures over the merits of the game. 
“Why,” said he, “it looks so simple and above 
board that the lambs can't be quick enough to 
get their money on. If the dealer bet against 
one man, the chauces would he equal, but 
when he bets against three he has a dead 
open-and-shut thing of it. That's the pbiloso- 
phy of the game, but if a man wants the 
racket to pan out slick he must shuffle them 
cards so as to always have a big one on the 
bottom of the deck. Oh, yes,” he continued, 
“we play the game generally iu the country, 
and when the fair season begins the game will 
be played on the grounds of every fair where a 
‘privilege’ can be bought, and if the managers 
are too ‘goody-goody,’ to sell privileges for 
the game, why we scoop iu the nasties’ spare 
cash as near as we can get to the entrance. 
We always make big hauls at fails, aud, in¬ 
deed, wherever there’s a crowd of country 
bumpkins who think they’re smarties.” Next 
time you see the rascals, kick them for the low 
opinion they have of rural intelligence and 
acuteness. You can't make a mistake iu the 
person; all the rascals .think] like thisj fellow 
on.that point. 
