4878 
THE RURAL HEW-VORKfR 
Caw. 
“Every Man is presumed to know the Laiv; 
Nine-tenths of all Litigation arises from Ig¬ 
norance of Law." 
In the Rural of October 1, mention was 
made of a number of laws of special interest 
to farmers passed by the Natioual and State 
Legislatures during the past year. Here are 
some more of the same sort. 
Wisconsin forbids any one to receive pay 
for veterinary services, who is not a duly 
licensed veterinarian, and prescribes the quah 
ideations necessary for procuring a license— 
an effective blow to quack cow doctors and 
veterinary mountebanks generally. The 
State also provides for a State Veterinarian 
and assistants, and also guards carefully 
against the introduction and spread of conta¬ 
gious and infectious diseases umo g livestock 
by quarantining and slaughtering affected 
animals, making compensation therefor. 
The law demands the co operation of the 
various Boards of Health and other local 
officers; requires prompt reports to the State 
Veteriuariau by all personshearing or know¬ 
ing of suspected cases, etc.In Minne¬ 
sota the mortgage of crops before the seed 
thereof has been plauted, for more than one 
year in advance. Is prohibited. Suits for the 
foreclosure of mortgages must be com¬ 
menced within IT) years after the cause of 
action occurs. Au act has been passed to 
regulate common carriers which creates a 
railroad and warehouse commission, and de¬ 
fines the duties of such bodies. 
In Missouri aii act provides that every rail¬ 
road company shall bo responsible in dam¬ 
ages to any person whose property may he 
injured or destroyed by fire communicated 
directly or indirectly by locomotive engines 
in use on railroads operated by such company. 
Bucket shops are forbidden, and dealings in 
futures without intention of receiving or pay¬ 
ing for the property bought, or delivering the 
property 6old, is declared to be gambling and 
is punished by a flue of not less than $100 or 
more than $500 for each offense. The grant¬ 
ing of free passes by any railroad or transpor- 
tation company, or any officer thereof, to any 
member of the General Assembly, or to any 
State, county or municipal officer, is made a 
penal offense, the giver aS well as the receiver 
being liable to prosecution. Th.i consolidation 
of competing or parallel lines of railroads is 
prohibited ....Nebraska, besides prohibit¬ 
ing aliens from acquiring real estate, has en¬ 
acted that when a divorce is decreed to the 
wife upon any ground, or the husband is sen¬ 
tenced to the penitentiary, the real estate of 
the wife shall come into her immediate poss¬ 
ession, the same as if the husband were dead; 
and when divorce is granted to the husband 
on account of adultery by the wife, the hus¬ 
band may hold such of her personal property 
as the court may deem just under the circum¬ 
stances. .. A debt contracted for necessaries of 
life is deemed to he due by both husband and 
wife, and all their property is liable to seizure 
therefore, except $500 worth of personal pro¬ 
perty. 
In Nevada the sinkiug of artesian wells is 
encouraged by paying a bounty of $1.25 per 
foot for any well which yields 7,000 gallons of 
water per day, flowing continually for 80 
days. The bouuty is not to be paid to 11101* * •* 6 
than throe wells in each county, and they 
must not be located within 10 miles of each 
other. The importation or sale of any do¬ 
mestic animal affected with contagious or 
infectious disease is rigidly forbiddeu. 
New .Jersey has enacted that to preveut 
trespass and malicious mischief iu rural 
districts the township committee may appoint 
any ouea polieeraau who will perform the du¬ 
ties of the office for nothing....In New 
York conveyances of real estate can now bo 
made directly from one spouse to the other, 
The sule of impure, unwholesome or adultera¬ 
ted milk or cream, as well as any article of 
food made from the same is prohibited. The 
owner of milk cans is authorized to empty 
into the streets the contents of any of his cans 
which he sees iu the unlawful possession of 
another person; but ho must first give notice 
to such persou that he must empty the can. 
If the owner’s name is impressed on the can, 
and he has complied with the law of registry 
and publication, the use of such a can by any 
ot her person is a misdemeanor...In 
North Carolina a railroad is forbidden to col¬ 
lect for transportation of freight of the same 
class a greater amount of toll for u short 
distance than for a longer distance in the 
same direction over its road... 
Ohio gives dower to the husband, giviug 
him an estate for life iu one-third of the real 
property of his diseased wife ; but if either 
consort leaves the other and lives iu adultery, 
the right of dower is ban-ed. A married 
person can dispose of property real or per¬ 
sonal, the same as if unmarried, and neither 
husband uor wife as such, is responsible for the 
acts of the other A tenant, for life of real estate 
who commits waste, forfeits that property on 
which waste is committed to the immediate 
reversioner or remainderman; he is besides 
liable in damages. Corporations may be or¬ 
ganized for the apprehension and conviction 
of horse thieves and other felons ; the members 
of the corporation upon the proper certifi¬ 
cate of the presiding officers, may pursue 
and arrest without warrant any person they 
may believe guilty of felony, and detain him 
until a legal warrant can be obtained. The 
sale of diseased animals is punished, and to 
prevent the dissemination of communicable 
diseases, provision is made for the quarantine 
of the animals affected. The selling of adul¬ 
terated viuegar and dairy products as genu¬ 
ine is puuished, and it is made the duty of 
the Food Commissioner to inspect the articles 
offered for sale and to prosecute persons sell¬ 
ing them iu violation of the law. 
The Eye-opener has been in the habit of 
waruiug his readers at least once or twice a 
year against journalistic frauds. These us¬ 
ually are busiest during the ‘‘subscription sea¬ 
son”—say from December to March—though 
they start “pipe-laying’’ somewhat earlier and 
often keep on fishing for gudgeons a trifle 
later. The bait they use is generally a very 
alluring list of premiums to be distributed 
among those who may be foolish enough to 
subscribe to their catchpenny publications. 
The E.-O. however, has never before seen or 
heard of a fraud like that recently consum¬ 
mated by the publisher of a Chicago monthly 
medical journal. Three years ago this pub¬ 
lisher made a proposition to several thousand 
country papers to insert his advertisement, in 
return for which he would send his paper with¬ 
out charge as a premium to all w ho paid the 
country publishers a year's subscription in ad¬ 
vance or otherwise. Every publisher that ac¬ 
cepted his offer availed himself of the privil¬ 
ege of having the monthly sent free to all his 
subscribers. Three years passed and it was 
then time to spring the trap. At the end of 
the first year the Chicago man did not cease 
to send his paper to all who were not wise 
enough to have it stopped. When he supposed 
ne had them between two and three years in 
his debt, he notified his subscribers by means 
of blue envelopes from the Chicago and Cook 
County Collection Agency, to pay immediately 
from $2 to $:i each, in order to save a suit. 
It is said that Newburg, N. Y., alone was 
struck for $20,000, and how extensively the 
game was played through the United States 
is yet to lie ascertained. 
Iu spite of the frequent exposures of the 
rascally “claim ageuts” who make mouey out 
of ambitious simpletons by promising to se¬ 
cure for them valuable estates in the Old 
Country, the business is still thriving. A 
short time ago a meeting of the “LawTenee 
Heirs” took place at Chicago w hich resulted iu 
the formation of a ring or syndicate, with 
duly elected officers, for the purpose of secur¬ 
ing an alleged fabulous sum of money, at 
present said to lie iu the custody of the Brit¬ 
ish Chancery Court, for certain “next of kin” 
in the United States. 
A short time back au inquiry was made in 
the English House of Commons with regard to 
the existence of such estates, or of any un¬ 
claimed funds iu the Court of Chancery. 
Mr. Robertson, speaking for the Chancer}' 
Court said that nothing caused a greater 
amount of heart-breakiug among ignorant 
I>eople thau such statements and the weari¬ 
some investigations and waiting to which 
they gave rise. He said that it has been fre¬ 
quently alleged that the unclaimed funds in 
Chancery amount to £100,000,000; that there 
exist even in the United Kingdom flourishing 
agencies which lay themselves out to deceive 
the public by the most grossly exaggerated 
statements of the amount of mouey lying in 
the Pay Office; that a gentleman of the press 
hud informed him that a particular adven¬ 
turer had been spending as much as £850 a 
week in advertisements asking people to ap¬ 
ply to him for information; and, finally, that 
as a matter of fact the actual amount of 
unclaimed money in the Court of Chancery 
was not much more than £1,000,000. 
Another member of the House of Commons 
said that there were few villages in England 
iu which one would not find three or four peo¬ 
ple who hod been taken in by this “nextof 
kin " delusion and who bail sjient a great deal 
of money iu trying to get estates which had 
no real existence. This member might also 
have added that in nearly every city and 
town in the United States may be found per¬ 
sons who have been similarly plundered. 
It has been suggested to the British Govern¬ 
ment that the only perfect way to dispose of 
these parties who for years have made the peo¬ 
ple of the United States and Great Britai 
their illegal prey is to make an end of the en 
tire fund—to confiscate the moneys for the 
use of the State. Possibly until that is done, 
and in spite of repeated warnings of the press, 
this “next of kin’’delusion will continue to 
flourish. 
What’s become of the Tortilita Gold and 
Silver Mining Co.? Has it collapsed; or have 
its members struck a bonanza and resolved to 
keep it all to themselves just like other selfish 
monopolists/ Can it be possible that publish¬ 
ers have become dubious as to the value of 
payment “in shares” on the nail,or “in cash” on 
the first of December. These were the induce¬ 
ments offered for the insertion of the adver¬ 
tisements of the concern; but if the induce¬ 
ments have lost their charm for newspaper 
folks, their sense of honesty has probably be¬ 
come more sensitive about placing in their 
columns doubtful allurements before public 
gullibility. Whatever the cause, Tortilita 
blandishments have appeared in very few 
newspapers since we spoke on the subject 
three weeks ago. 
Wunum’s XUork. 
CONDUCTED BY EMILY LOUISE TAPLIN. 
CHAT BY THE WAY. 
As much depends on the way food is served 
as the way it is cooked. A really scant meal 
will pass for a better one if there is some at¬ 
tempt at garnishing. It is very little trouble 
to keep a box of parsley growing in the 
kitchen window during the winter and how 
much better a dish of cold meat looks with a 
few sprays of feathery green around it. And 
a dish of ordinary every-day bash is very 
much improved by a few triangular spillets 
of toast as garnish. We may say that this 
does not in any way really add to the meal, 
but it has a great deal of influence on the ap¬ 
petite of a delicate person. 
* * * 
It is just as easy to set the family table pret¬ 
tily and well as to put the dishes on carelessly. 
Where a tired housekeeper has many cares 
and little help we cannot wonder if she seems 
to pay little attention to the minor points of 
home courtesies; she has enough to do in at¬ 
tending to the material wants of her home 
brood. But as they grow older her little girls 
will tie able to attend to these duties, if rightly 
trained. And as a rule children feel rather 
proud of being allowed to help in the house¬ 
keeping; a little girl is all the happier tor hav¬ 
ing some recognized daily duties. 
•* * * 
A daily round of duty and occupation is, 
after all, the very best cure iu the world for 
loneliness and the blues. Whenever we hear 
a girl complain of loneliness and monotony 
we are very apt to think that her life is merely 
an aimless one. We are sure to lie happier 
for having a purpose iu life, if it is only to 
keep house better than our neighbors. We 
can’t all have what the ambitious girl calls a 
career —we should not be inclined to put it 
in capitals if we attaiued that goal—but au 
ideal career often looks so much brighter thau 
the real duties of everyday life. 
* * * 
The opponents of the dromedary-like dress 
improvers now worn have an additional ar¬ 
gument against them; they seem to increase 
the number of femiuine smugglers. Nearly 
every steamer from Europe of late has been 
the scene of attempted smuggling ou the part 
of women, and the favorite hiding place has 
been the large touruure. So voluminous 
draperies are looked upon by the inspectors 
with much suspicion. One woman coming 
from France had four silk dress patterns 
quilted into her petticoats, while her ilress-itn- 
prover contained a stock of lace and small dry 
goods. As a rule, these wholesale smugglers 
are dressmakers or milliners. 
* * * 
This is the most enjoyable season in the year 
for country excursions,either driving or walk¬ 
ing. Nothing is more delightful thau to pack 
up a lunch and start for a day's drive; there 
is so much to see. But unfortunately there is 
as much to occupy us indoors as out,though in 
a different way. There is the usual fall eleau- 
ing and the important question of our winter 
wardrobes. The first thing is to look over 
last winter’s garments, aud decide upon their 
fate; when renovating and making over is 
complete new purchases may be made. When 
one is obliged to wear the same clothes for 
some time it is more prudent to defer purchas¬ 
ing until a little La ter, when the styles are more 
settled. A thing that looks stylish aud desir¬ 
able in the autumn may be very common be¬ 
fore midwinter. For this reason eccentric 
tyles should always be avoided. We can 
never make mistakes by sticking to a quiet 
style of dress. 
SOMETHING MORE ON THE SUBJECT. 
E. A. C. 
The woman question ! Will it ever be set¬ 
tled ? So much is said ot the why and why 
not that one is almost led to believe that 
woman is a necessary evil, created and toler¬ 
ated for the mere gratification and help to 
man. A kind of human machine standing 
ready to revolve when man touches the 
wheel. 
According to the writer of “Womans 
Work” in the last issue of the Pojral, it 
would seem that,if she remains at home where 
her services are not actually needed, she is 
“ anxious and aimless;” if she goes into out¬ 
side business life she is receiving less wages 
the cause of which is that she has not been 
able or willing to fit herself to command the 
same as her more worthy brotUer; and again, 
if she doesn’t marry her intended mission has 
not been fulfilled. A sorry condition for the 
woman and a burden imposed upou some man 
to whom she can give no recompense. 
If this was really the position of woman 
many of her sex would be ready to reiterate 
the words of the poet 
“O, for a lodge In some vast wilderness !” 
Because if she takes a position in business un¬ 
til the man appeare, she is condemned: if she 
remains at home listlessly waiting for mar¬ 
riage, she is condemned: if she steps from the 
prescribed pathway aud in any way makes 
the advances toward such a result, she is con¬ 
demned. Where then is her place t Echo 
answers, where ] 
It is foreign to etiquette and certainly un¬ 
dignified for her to offer herself to a man and 
more than this, unless she happens to possess a 
fortune great or small, she would be asking 
for support without knowing that he would 
wish to put himself in such a position. 
A man selects his wife and if he takes her 
from au occupation outside the home he will 
secure one who will grace his home and per¬ 
form the neces=arv household duties with con¬ 
tent. If be picks out a doll or one unworthy 
he must cast the blame where it belongs—on 
his own shoulders—not euter a tirade on 
women in general. He must remember he 
has the first privilege. If a man marries for 
the sole object of obtaiuiug a cook, laundress 
aud what not, let him, but if a wife iu the 
broadest sense is his desire, why not be satis¬ 
fied with something short of an expert, for to 
have become such she would needs have con¬ 
quered many branches of industry. 
I believe in marriage, but do not sanction 
the London Lancet’s sentiments. I do not 
think that a woman should necessarily marry 
before she is 35, but would advocate waiting 
uutd that time in the majority of instances. 
A woman does not always meet the oppor¬ 
tunity for marriage before that age, or if so 
may not have received an offer that she could 
justly accept. I say justly, for it certainly 
would not be justice to the man nor to herself 
to enter into a bondage that should, but would 
not. be hallowed. He might possess ail the 
requisites of a noble manhood aud have con¬ 
vinced her of his sincerity, hut if her heart 
could not respond with something more thril¬ 
ling than respect, she should refuse the offer. 
She should not he influenced by the fact that 
she is causing sorrow at the time, or whether 
she may lie laying the foundation for a life of 
loneliness; but should take the risk rather 
than desecrate so sacred au ordinance. 
Such an experience would probably' bring 
the time of marriage, if that was to be her 
mission, hey 0 ud 25 years. Must she then sac¬ 
rifice happiness because of age i 
A woman should not deceive a man as to 
her age; doubly wrong would it be, because 
there are physiological reasons why there 
should be the greatest candor. If kuowing 
this, a man chooses to share his life with a 
woman, and the attending risks are mutually 
accepted, what matter how much the years 
outnumber 25 f 
That same periodical considers success iu 
life impossible before 25; this argument is 
seemingly used to substantiate the other. I 
do not support this theory, hut granted it is 
logical, if she does not gain success until then, 
does that form an argument to impede her 
progress? Why ne, the masculine community 
do not attain mastery at a stride. All a rea¬ 
sonable woman asks, and this is the kind I 
am attempting to defend, is compensation ac¬ 
cording to merit. If she fails to command 
she fails to receive, and is willing to make the 
best of the situation and wait until success 
comes. If iu the meantime she is sought for 
wedlock, the knowledge so far obtained will 
not have been wasted, even if incomplete. 
“For better or for worse” lias significance 
for both, aud should mean that iu the events 
of sickness or emergency befalling the hus¬ 
band, the wife should dojier part, if need be 
