SEPT 24 
§ 
0 
« 
Cflttr. 
“Every Man is presumed to knoiv the Laiv; 
Nine-tenths of all Litigation arises from Ig¬ 
norance of Law." 
J. n. G., Newark , Ohio ,—After harvest A 
set Are to his stubble to kill inserts, weeds, 
etc., on a cairn day. While the fire was in 
progress a brisk wind sprang up and the 
sparks set fire to some of B’s property to lee¬ 
ward; is A responsible for damages? 
A ns. —The rule is that every person has a 
right to set fire to stubble, timber - , brush, grass 
or other material on bis own land for the pur¬ 
poses of husbandry—to fit the land for cultiva¬ 
tion—if it is done at a proper time and in a 
suitable manner, and if reasonable care and 
diligence are used to prevent the fire from 
spreading and doing injury to the property of 
others. To render A liable for the iujury done 
to B's property there must have been some 
carelessness, either in the time of setting the 
fire, the manner of doing it, or iu watching it 
afterwards. To render A liable it. is not nec¬ 
essary that there should be a proof of gross 
negligence on his part; proof of want of ordi¬ 
nary care would be sufficient. The laws on 
the subject differ in the various States. In 
Connecticut if the fire spreads to a neighbor’s 
laud, the person who started it is liable for all 
damages. Iu Misssouri and Illinois all per¬ 
sons are absolutely forbidden to fire anything 
on the ground except between March and No¬ 
vember, and then only for the purpose of pro¬ 
tecting themselves from prairie fires. In case 
of damage the burden of proof lies on the per¬ 
son who started the fire to show that he start¬ 
ed it to protect himself from prairie 
fires, and that he used all precautions to pre¬ 
vent injury to others, in North Carolina a 
person must give notice in writing to his 
neighbor that he intends to set the woods on 
fire on his own land. In Iowa if any person 
willfully and without proper precaution 
sets fire to any prairie or timber luud, he is 
liable for full damage for any property de¬ 
stroyed thereby. In California treble dam¬ 
ages are awarded agaiust any one who negli¬ 
gently sets fire to timber or suffers fire to ex¬ 
tend beyond his own land. Iu some States it 
is a criminal oirense negligently to allow fire 
to spread from one’s own laud to those of his 
neighbors. 
D. G., Earn ham, N. Y. —A pair of wagon 
scales have been placed on the high way here. 
I wish them removed as an obstruction and 
have complained in writing to the highway 
commissioner, the names of 14 tax-payers 
having been sigued to the documeut asking to 
have the scales removed, but the commissioner 
has ueither removed them nor has he notified 
the owner to do so. How can we compel 
their removal? 
Ans. —The road commissioners have no 
authority to permit the road to be used for 
anything else than a road for the passage of 
the public. If the owner of the land over 
which the road passes has placed the scales on 
it and does not interfere with the travel of 
the public thereby, he is exercising a lawful 
right and cannot be enjoined from doing it. 
But no other person can use the land iu this 
way unless he consents. Roads are for the 
public passage to and fro and not for business 
purposes, although it may be for such a con 
veuience of the public as weigh scales. The 
commissioners have no right in this matter at 
all either for or against the scales except to 
see that the road is not obstructed; if it is,any 
citizen can proceed by law to have the obstruc¬ 
tion removed and he should by all means em¬ 
ploy a lawyer. Complaint may be made to 
the Gra nd Jury, 
L. H., Williamsport, Pa. —What is a -‘fee 
simple ” in law, frequently mentioned in the 
Rural 
Ank —A “ fee simple ” is the most absolute 
estate a person can have in laud, It is a pure 
inheritance free from any qualification or 
condition. It is where land is given to a man 
and his heirs absolutely. Any restraint upon 
the possession of the land is inconsistent with 
the nature of a fee simple, and if a partial 
restraint be annexed to the inheritance, as,for 
example, a condition not to dispose of it for a 
limited time or to a particular person, it 
ceases to be a fee simple, and becomes a fee 
subject to a condition. 
R. H. S,, Albany, N. Y. —A has planted a 
lot of shade trees on the northern line of some 
of his land. B’s dwelling-house is quite close 
to the boundary line in that place, and he 
complains that the growing trees already 
make his house damp and unhealthy, and that 
they are certain to do more iujury to his 
property when they attain a greater size; has 
he any remedy? 
Ans.—N o. A may cover all his own land 
with trees if he likes. 
Woman’s Work. 
CONDUCTED HY EMILY LOUISE TAPLIN. 
CHAT BY THE WAY. 
“Handsome is that handsome does,” says 
the old saw, and a comforting aphorism it is. 
We all have an innate longing for porsoual 
beauty, and if nature has been unkind to us in 
that particular it requires much force of char¬ 
acter to render us unconscious of the defect. 
Others may forget it, if we possess charms of 
mind or manner, but we are too apt to thiuk 
our personal defects outweigh all other graces. 
* * * 
Really aud truly, it is a woman’s duty to be 
as attractive as circumstances will allow. 
However inexpensive her dress may be. it 
should be chosen with an eye to the becoming, 
and if she cannot go in for many adornments, 
she may at least tie notable for perfect neat¬ 
ness aud harmony of color. Aud though cos¬ 
metics and the like are an abomiuation, turn¬ 
ing a woman into a whited sepulchre, she 
should care for her complexion by the better 
means, of plentiful baths, open-air exorcise 
and wholesome food. She will not need to 
brighten her eyes with belladonna if she has 
sufficient sleep and if—let me whisper this— 
she does not dim those useful orbs with fre¬ 
quent tears. 
* * * 
There are occasions when a flood of tears 
seems imperative, when—as many a girl will 
frankly confess—it does one good. It really 
gives physical relief iu many nervous disor¬ 
ders. But, all the same, it is a dangerous 
habit to get into. If indulged, it grows upon 
one; it. undermines the temper, and certainly 
spoils the looks, producing not only an un¬ 
pleasant expression, but also premature 
wrinkles. So. girls, whatever your disposi¬ 
tion may be, do not be chronically lachry¬ 
mose. 
* * * 
Amoug the many noble charities of London 
is the Girls Guild of Good Life, established 
for the working girls of Hoxton. Waiter 
Besant, iu his novel,the “Children of Gibeon,” 
says of these poor girls: “They caunob go 
into service, because they kuow nothing, not 
even how to lay a table or dust a room; they 
cannot emigrate, because they would be of no 
use in any colony; they can only sew, aud like 
the steam-engines which are kept running till 
they fall to pieces of old age and rust, ou coal 
aud water, the girls are just as simply kept at 
working powers till something goes wrong 
with the wheels, on bread and butter and 
cold tea. That they cauuot lay a table Is 
small matter for wonder, seeing that in too 
many cases there is no table to lay.” 
This Guild of Good Life, as described by 
the Loudon Queen, may be considered a sort 
of club for working girls. Pleasaut meetings 
are held in comfortable rooms, which form a 
brilliant contrast to their squalid homes. 
Weekly parlor meetings are held, where the 
girls engage iu games, needlework, music and 
conversation. A clever dressmaker teaches 
the girls to cut and make their own dresses, 
though tins labor of love compels her to work 
overtime on her own account. Cooking is 
taught gratuitously by a young school 
teacher. Any girl having a taste for music 
is freely taught, ou whatever instrument she 
chooses. The ladies engaged in this work 
give liberally of time aud energy, as well as 
money, doing much to brighten tho lives of 
their poorer sisters. 
CONFESSIONS OF A COUNTRY GIRL. 
second series. 
Who was it wrote a book called “An Old 
Maid’s Paradise?” The author certainly 
must have been reading statistics of matrimo¬ 
ny in New England, Tho percentage of edu¬ 
cated women who never marry seems largely 
on the increase in this section of country 
though to be sure no one but disrespectful 
young men and shallow maidens, ever call 
them old maids. 
No matter how sensible we women are, very 
few amoug us can bear the thought of being 
called “ old maid ” with any degree of equa¬ 
nimity. It is a sort of ingrained prejudice, 
aud this very prejudice is the cause of a good 
many unsuitable aud imprudent marriages. 
But the New Engluud women do not seem to 
have this feeling very strongly; they are 
more apt to look ou spinsterhood ns woman's 
natural fate—marriage a strange exception. 
Some alarmist writers—of the inas uline 
persuasion—iu protesting agaiust fresh fields 
of labor for women, complain that a woman 
who can earu her own living is disinclined to 
marry, and thus carry out her natural desti¬ 
ny as wife and mother. This is rather a mean 
idea, for it suggests that, we only marry for 
our board and clothes—which, by the way, is 
about ull a good many of us do get. iu that 
case, a man who wins a self-supporting wo¬ 
man for his wife need feel sufficiently proud, 
since he may be assured that it was a choice of 
affection, aud not of necessity. 
But the New England spinsters do not re¬ 
main unmarried because they are intellec¬ 
tually superior to such frivolities as Dan 
Cupid and Co., but because—dreadful truth!— 
there are not enough men to go around. A 
majority of the young men go to other locali¬ 
ties, where the business opportunities are 
greater, and contact with girls possessing 
more style aud social culture makes them look 
coldly on the industrious, simple-mannered 
women-folk of their boyhood. It is a painful 
fact that men do uot fall iu love with the 
cardinal virtues unless presented in attractive 
guise, though an enduring affection is always 
built upon something more stable tbau mere 
physical prettiness. 
What a homily this is, and all built upon 
the dearth of busbauds in New England! But 
this is n subject we women think much upon, 
and these truthful confessions must, therefore, 
mention it. 
As for marrying without honest and sincere 
affection, and thereby inviting inevitable un- 
bappiuess, rather than eucouuter certain 
spiusterhood— well, as a much-quoted phil¬ 
osopher says: “It is better to be laughed at 
because you are not married than to be un¬ 
able to laugh yourself because you are.” 
DECORATIVE TRIFLES. 
Nothing is more paiuful to a girl with artis¬ 
tic tastes than to live in square, hare rooms 
without the aesthetic,aud to possess, alas! a shal¬ 
low purse, unable to stand the strain of “art 
furnishing.” But one may do a good deal 
without ealliug upon that consumptive 
pocketbook. If one is doing anything in the 
line of re furnishing, there is not the slightest 
reuson for buying ugly things, merely because 
they must be inexpensive. Furniture, draper¬ 
ies and nick-nacks, in comparatively cheap 
materials, may be purchased, designed after 
the best models; they only require taste on the 
part of the purchaser. When all the wood¬ 
work is light, some decoration on the doors 
adds much to the furnished look of a room. 
An aesthetic fan; and some of the ubiquitous 
cat-tails will come iu for this use. The leaves 
and stems of the cat-tails should be gilded: 
this contrasts beautifully with tho rich brown 
of the seed, and three or four of these reeds 
may be very gracefully grouped on the door 
by the slanted fan. Gilded cat-tails aud pea¬ 
cock feathers are always our standbys for 
wall decorations. One may do a good deal 
with a large mirror even if it is old-fashioned. 
Put it on one side of the room, about three 
feet from the floor. Drape the top and one 
side with some oriental-looking stuff, such ns 
one buys for curtains; arrange a group of 
dried palm leaves aud cat-tails on the other, 
just straying ou to the glass here aud there. 
Below the mirror put a shelf covered with 
brouze green velvet, aud ou this place a palm 
iu a gilded pot, or any trifles of bric-a brae. 
Push your sofa up iu front of the mirror, 
throw some pretty drapery over it, aud the 
effect will be extremely good. 
There is one thing to be said of decorating; 
it sometimes leads an enthusiastic woman into 
lamentable excesses, as when she ornaments 
her walls with a gilded aul baribboned 
gridiron, or the liko. Nothiug is artistic 
without it has some right to be. so we draw 
the liue at gilded kitchen furniture aud pin our 
(esthetic faith on . cab-tails aud peacock 
feathers. 
MISTRESS AND MAID. 
Mrs. Margaret E. Sangster says a good 
mauy wise things, and she is at her best when 
she writes under the above title in Daughters 
of America. After mentioning the mistress’s 
chief causes of complaint, she says: “ Ou the 
other hand, if we eould get at the opinions of 
the maids, we should fiud that they too were 
uot without their causes of dissatisfaction. 
They assert, not without reason, that the bond 
which unites them to their employers is one 
wholly of convenience, that it is broken with¬ 
out warning whenever it happens that the 
mistress desires to make a change, iu her own 
interest, that mauy ladies never allow a ‘girl’ 
any rest from morning till night, but try to 
force from her all the work they can. as if she 
were a machine, and not composed of flesh 
and blood; that in short no love is bestowed 
upon them, and why should they give what 
is not wanted. So much work, in their view, 
for so much wages, uud they are not so con¬ 
scientious, nor so honest, that it occurs to 
them that the contract binds them to give the 
best that they can. So the maid, if she clum¬ 
sily handles fragile articles, the like of which 
she never saw, fancies herself aggrieved, and 
her mistress menu, if u*ked to replace what her 
carelessness has ruined; is always at the heck 
of the most distent cousin, or cousin’s cousin, 
who requires her aid, but will sacrifice noth¬ 
ing of her pleasure for her mistress’s conven¬ 
ience, and remains, so far as the latter is con 
cerned, an’alien.in’her heart,and an Ishmaelin 
her behavior. 
Obligations are reciprocal in nil human re¬ 
lations, and the week point iu our present sit¬ 
uation seems to be'In the forgetfulness of this 
fact. On the basis of’their common woman¬ 
hood, the housekeeper and her servant, living 
beneath the same'roof, working together for 
the comfort and well being of theJ same fam¬ 
ily, should find “enough to bind them in a 
union more permanent’’ than that wliichj j s 
usual. There should be a mutual good feel¬ 
ing. and a desire on both sides to do what is 
right, kind and generous. 
As the mistress is the better educated, the 
more intelligent of the two, and the person in 
authority, hers is tho greater responsibility. 
For the pleasaut adjustment of relations be¬ 
tween parlor aud kitchen, she, rather than her 
subordinate, is to' answer. In engaging a 
domestic she should, therefore, know clearly 
herself, aud make very dear to the other, 
what she expects’ aud will exact. Order, 
punctuality and’'cleanliness she lias a right to 
insist upon, being in (her own house, it is her 
privilege to have her work done in the way 
that she prefers. It is a mistake to suppose 
that the maid will much regard a tolerant 
mistress, who is blind aud deaf to all that is 
wrong, who is Tgently deprecating when she 
should be quietly severe, and who, greatest 
blunder of all, is afraid, and shows that she is 
afraid, that her maid will leave her iu the 
lurch. 
This is not to lie understood as advocacy of 
fault finding or nagging, as the condoning of 
ill-temper oil the part of the mistress, espe¬ 
cially inexcusable as displayed toward the 
inferior by the superior. Tact, firmness and 
a regular daily supervision of one’s household 
go far toward making a good servant. Mis¬ 
takes may be pardoned, but they should not 
be passed over unnoticed. The moment the 
maid is aware that the mistress does not earn 
how her work is done, whether ill or well; that 
she may waste as she pleases, that she may do 
right in her own eyes without fear of rebuke 
or molestation, is a moment of misfortune to 
all concerned. 
Mistresses owe to one another much greater 
care than they commonly take to give true 
statements of character and capability to 
servants whom they dismiss. As things are 
at present., little value attaches to most writ¬ 
ten characters, for an easy amiability ineliues 
many women to gloss over faults and ignore 
defects, so that they unthinkingly give pass¬ 
ports to drunkards and semi-fiends, setting 
them loose ou society. Most women draw the 
line at thieyes and refuse their guarantee to 
the person who is suspected of secreting the 
spoons in her trunk or making away with the 
groceries. But they ought, for mutual pro¬ 
tection, always to make the matter one of 
conscience aud anything less is gross injustice 
to girls iu service. 
For ample remuneration, shelter and safety, 
the position of maid iu an ordinarily comfort¬ 
able American family far exceeds the position 
of the young woman behind the counter or 
iu a factory. There are examples of loug aud 
honorable service, which imply friendship ou 
both sides, and such are bright exceptions to 
the unhappy general rule. 
GOLDEN GRAINS. 
No man has so few or so feeble faculties, 
that he cannot do a great work in the world— 
if only he has the energy and the persistency 
to do it whether he can do it or not. 
He who knows that his standard is eouuted 
a high one, will be unwilling to let it appear 
that his standard is really lower than it has 
seemed at its best. 
Pity It Is to slay the meanest thing 
That, like a mote, shines In the eye of mirth. 
Enough there Is of Joy’s decrease and dearth. 
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim, 
Despite those titles, power and pelf. 
The wretch, concentred all In self, 
Living, shall forfeit fair renown, 
And, doubly dying, shall go down 
To the vile dust from whence he sprung. 
Unwept, iinhonored aud unsung. 
Conviction is in itself a power. The man 
who is sure of what he says, gives assurance 
to those who hear him. 
He who has ceased to gain or grow has 
ceased to live—as he ought to live. 
A wokh one® said, an act once done. 
Are past recall, are past control; 
But they may live, when we are gone, 
To mar or make a soul.... 
When Baby was sick, we gave her Castorla 
When she was a Child, she erted for Castorla, 
When she became Miss, she clung to Castorla, 
When she had Children, sin gave them Castorla. 
