4887 
THE RURAL REW-YORTT*. 
703 
Cfltxr. 
“Every Man is presumed to know the Law; 
Nine-tenths of all Litigation arises from Ig¬ 
norance of Law.'" 
(SHOWING CROPS IN EJECTMENT CASES. 
M L. T., Medera, N. Y, —What is the law 
• with regard to growing crops iu case 
of the ejectment of a tenaut from the farm on 
which they were growing? Do the crops be¬ 
long to the tenant or the landlord ? 
Ans.—T he recovery of land in ejectment 
cases entitles the successful party to the crops 
growing on it, for they lorm a part of it. 
After judgment has been obtained the tenant 
has no right to harvest the crops, and should 
he attempt it, the landlord can recover the 
value in an action for mesne profits—profits 
of premises during the time the owner has 
been wrongfully kept out of the possession of 
his estate. If a tenant sows a crop during 
the pendency of an ejectment suit, and with 
notice of the pendency of it, he has no right 
to enter, after having surrendered the premi¬ 
ses, to remove the crop sown. If a defendant 
in ejectment, after the execution of a writ of 
possession, enters, cuts, and removes a crop, 
the plaintiff in ejectment can recover its value 
from him by an actiou iu trover—an action to 
recover the value of goods wrongfully con¬ 
verted by another to his own use. 
C. H. F., Kankakee, III. —A holds notes 
against R secured by mortgage ou real estate. 
The last of the notes falls due the coming 
spring. No payments have been made on the 
notes but interest has been paid annually. 
Now both parties wish to extend the time on 
the notes. Will it be necessary or toA's in¬ 
terest to make out new notes and mortgage, 
or if not, will it be necessary, in order to have 
the present mortgage hold good that pay¬ 
ments be made on the principal of each note, 
or docs the auuual payment of interest on the 
notes have the same effect in extending the 
limit of time in which they may be collected 
after maturity as would the payment made 
on the principal? 
Ans —A similar question was answered in 
the Rural of Sept. 10. A mortgage qr a 
note is good for as many years as the interest 
is paid. Every payment on the principal of a 
note acts as a renewal of the contract for six 
years, which is the limit provided by the stat¬ 
ute of limitations. With these provisos a 
mortgage ou a note is good for all time. 
L. N /?., Gray, Nebraska. —Can a person 
who is not a citizen of the United States vote 
for President iu auy part of the Union? 
Ans. —Yes; in several States aliens who 
have declared their inteutiou to become citi¬ 
zens are allowed to vote the same as citizens. 
This is the case in Alabama, Arkansas, Col¬ 
orado, Florida, Iudiaua, Kansas, Louisiana, 
Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, 
Nevada, Oregon, Texas and Wisconsin. Con¬ 
gress has provided how an alien may be 
naturalized and become a citizen. But the 
States may admit anybody, man or woman, 
alien or citizen, to vote, and when they can 
vote under State law without restriction, they 
may vote for Presidential electors aud for 
members of Congress. No State allows an 
alien to vote in geueral until he has declared 
his purpose to become a citizen. 
if. T. L., Sken ne a teles, N. Y.—A second 
mortgage is given iu paymeut for materials 
used iu the construction of the house on the 
mortgaged property. Should it be signed by 
the wife of the mortgagor, or is it properly 
classed as a purchase money mortgage? 
Ans. —In this State it should bear the wife’s 
signature as well as the husband’s if the prop¬ 
erty stands in his name. 
S, T., Elmira, N. Y.—A lady dies leaving 
one child, an infant She leaves no will. Un¬ 
der the laws of this State what part of her es¬ 
tate does her husband inherit, he becoming 
guardian of the child? 
Ans.—I n this Suite he will have an absolute 
title to one-third of the personal property and 
be “tenant by the courtesy” (that is to have a 
life use) of the real estate. 
L. II. M, } Townsend , Ohio. —Is a laud- 
owner obliged to cut brush and briars along 
the highway running through liis laud? 
Ans.—N o. It is the duty of the supervisor 
to do this, and he is to he paid for the workout 
of the township funds. 
J EWELRY* HUMBUGS.—The Swiss Im- 
porting Company of this city is engaged 
iu much the same business as the Mozart Im¬ 
porting Company, of New Haven, exposed in 
this department of the Rural of November 5. 
For 85 cents it offers “a stem-winder and set¬ 
ter,” with patent adjustment, etc., etc. It is 
a hunting case “watch” and “in appearance is 
similar to a solid gold watch costipg $100.” 
A warranty for “five years” is given with 
each, “if used with reasonable care.” It is to 
be sold only for 60 days, ou condition that 
“the purchasers receiving it will faithfully 
promise to show it to their friends and honest¬ 
ly endeavor to influence other sales.” The 
w hole make-up of the advertisements which 
this concern is liberally inserting in papers all 
over the country, intimates that the article ad¬ 
vertised is a genuine watch, and that the price 
asked for it is much less than its real value. 
Both intimations are false. The “stem-winder 
and setter” is not a watch at all, but a child’s 
plaything in the shape of one. There are no 
works, the bands being mechanically turned 
by the owner working the “winder.” It is 
like the “sun-dial” advertised lately by the 
“Massachusetts Watch Company,” which was 
denounced by the Eye-Opener a short time ago 
and shortly afterwards summarily interfered 
with by the Post Office authorities. There are 
a multitude of such humbugs widely adver¬ 
tised just now. The advertisement of the 
Alpine Safe Company of Cincinnati is 
word for word the same as that of the 
Swiss Importing Company of New York, and 
the cut of the 85-cent “stem-winder and set¬ 
ter” is identical in both cases. There is no 
need to give more names; they are all of the 
same class. Every one of them pretends to 
offer a useful timepiece, but really offers a 
worthless toy. They all pretend to have 
other valuable jewelry to dispose of at ruin¬ 
ously low prices, and they offer the “watch” 
at a marvelous sacrifice to introduce the 
others; but they all know that no customer 
who has got swindled in the “watch” will give 
them a chance to swindle him in anything 
else. The 85-cent “watch” cannot Dave cost 
them over 15 to 20 cents, so that after paying 
postage the rascals make a very fair profit, 
even if they send on the goods; but this is a 
thing they seldom do, especially after they 
have been running the business for some time, 
for they know their career must soon be 
checked, and they stick to ever} thing. The 
“Swiss Importing Company,” the “Imperial 
Fire Extinguisher Company.” the “Inter¬ 
national Watch Company,” “Russell, Walker 
& Co.” the “Household Journal,” etc., are all 
run from the same little office in this city, and 
should all be left severely alone. 
Patent Sharpers. —On the whole it is 
probable that there is no other single class of 
sharpers who victimize farmers so much as 
agents for worthless patents, and bogus agents 
for valid patents. The country is constantly 
swarming with these pests. The former 
claim royalty on various farm implements 
and appurtenances alleged to be infringe¬ 
ments on patents of no earthly use, except 
as means of swindling; aud the latter falsely 
claim to be agents of genuine patents. The 
Eye-Opener is constantly noticing accounts of 
such swindles in the papers. It is seldom, 
however, that he has seen au account of a 
legalized swindle like that which comes from 
Morrison, Ill. Some time ago agents for 
driven wells visited the farmers in that vicinity 
and sunk driven wells. Owing to the dryness 
of the past summer they did a particularly 
handsome business. They cleaned out the 
wells, drove an iron pipe down a few feet, 
and tapped water beneath the well. The 
work was performed cheaply and quickly. 
After visiting nearly all the farms in that 
region the driveu well men left. Immediately 
after their departure a man named W. S. 
Dodge, who said he came from New York, 
appeared there and demanded a royalty from 
the people who had drive welis. This was a 
surprise to the people, who had taken the 
wells in good faith aud paid for them. Dodge 
was supported by legal counsel and made 
large collections. He demanded $10 for each 
well, and rather than stand a lawsuit the 
farmers paid him. Last Tuesday Dodge 
settled all of his personal accounts and sud- 
denlj loft the place. He had received a 
despatch from his partners, the agents, an¬ 
nouncing the decision of the United States 
Supreme Court invalidating the claims of 
the patentees to drive wells. He had collected 
large sums there, but now there is great re¬ 
joicing among the 600 or TOO other owners of 
drive wells in that county. This is only a 
single specimen of hundreds of cases where 
agents for this invalid patent were busy col¬ 
lecting royalty when the bubble burst. The 
law protected, yes, aided them in doing so; 
but not a dollar of the money legally filched, 
from the public will ever 1 e returned. 
Blind Fool Swindles.— English dupes 
are just now having au experience like that 
“enjoyed” by American aud Canadian gud¬ 
geons two years ago in the case of Flemming 
& Merriam, the Chicago “blind pool” swin¬ 
dlers. The English fraud was known as Ab¬ 
bott, Page & Co., though the firm really con¬ 
sisted of only one man—John Neil. Like its 
"Western prototype, it seDt circulars flying all 
over the country; while its tempting adver¬ 
tisements, showing the secret of getting rich 
in four or five days, filled the columns of the 
newspapers. Its system was, of course, in¬ 
fallible—all prizes and no blanks. The patron 
sent in his or her money; it was to come hack 
doubled, and there would be absolutely no 
risk. On these alluring representations the 
firm received £250.000, say, $1,250,000, and 
then of course burst up, with less than $1,000 
worth of assets. It was the poor aud simple- 
miDded who were the principal investors. 
People of ordinary common sense knew that 
the concern couldn’t possibly fulfill its prom¬ 
ises. Thursday’s cablegrams tell us that hun¬ 
dreds of families have been ruined, and thou¬ 
sands of persons crippled in their means of 
livelihood by the collapse of the swindle. 
Similar frauds are being practiced in this 
country at this moment. Will the greedy 
nincompoops here leara caution from the 
misfortunes of the greedy nincompoops beyond 
the water? 
IPonum 5 IWotrK. 
CONDUCTED BY EMILY LOUISE TAPLIN. 
CHAT BY THE WAY. 
H OW short a space it seems since our last 
Thanksgiving time was here! The dis¬ 
contented will paraphrase Toby Yeck, who re¬ 
flectively says that there’s nothing so regular 
in coming around as dinner-time, and nothing 
so irregular as dinner. True, Thanksgiving 
Day may come to some of us without much 
apparent thanksgiving, but even if our lot 
has no bright side, we may as well try to 
shine up the dark one. 
* * * 
Sir Thomas Browne says; “Blessme in this 
life with but the peace of conscience, com¬ 
mand of my affections, the love ot Thyself, 
and of my dearest friends, and I shall be 
happy enough to pity Caesar.” His is the real 
Thanksgiving spirit, but, alas! we are not all 
philosophers, and it seems easier to write little 
homilies on the duty of thankfulness than to 
act them. 
* + 
New England has given us but few holidays; 
the Puritan spirit that used to ignore the Feast 
of the Nativity was sternly opposed to frivol¬ 
ous festivals. But this November anni versary 
was the one day when the disciples of Jona¬ 
than Edwards unbent from their pious rigor. 
They began the day by thankful devotion to 
the Giver of all good, and then gave them¬ 
selves up to feasting and reasonable mirth. 
And though our modern ideas change many 
of their customs, in this at least we should 
follow them; the one purely American, re¬ 
ligious festival in our calendar. 
* * * 
Thanksgiving means a season of family 
hospitality, and we fear a good many ambi¬ 
tious housewives hardly enjoy the day as they 
should, through their over-lavish preparations. 
They prepare pies and cake, sauces and meats, 
until they are too tired in both body and mind 
to be hostess in anything but name. A hostess 
should be something more than cook and 
housekeeper, and herein so many of us fall 
short. We do want our housekeeping to be 
perfect and above reproach; our menu must 
be as elaborate as if we had half-a-dozen able 
lieutenauts. This needless profusion is more 
often seen in countnp than in town; four or 
five sorts of preserves aud as many kinds of 
cake are the regular thing when entertaining 
guests in a good many country neighborhoods. 
* * * 
A daintily set table, well spread, without 
ostentation of food, shows the truest hospital¬ 
ity ; add to this a bright-faced hostess, not so 
much fatigued by her exertions that, she can¬ 
not do something towards entertaining, aud 
the hospitality becomes perfect. Profusion of 
food may be bought, but the essence of hospi¬ 
tality is without price. As for the art of en¬ 
tertaining, it is the easiest thing in the world, 
once you learn the secret; put yourself in 
perfect sympathy with your guests, and act 
accordingly. And we trust and hope that all 
our Rural sisters will find this a Thauksgiving 
Day indeed—a day of kindly thoughts and all 
good cheer. 
STILL MORE. 
E. A. C. 
T H. G. is an enigma; whether or not he 
• has swung around the circle is best 
known to himself, but certaiu it is that he has 
not answered or overthrown my former state¬ 
ments. He makes a quotation aud then puts 
forth opinions but does not attempt contra¬ 
diction. 
He says much that is true, and provided the 
opportunity offers, is feasible, but he also says 
questionable things. 
I am of the opinion that women should 
occupy positions in the home, should carry 
out the meaning of the marriage vow. [ can¬ 
not understand how any true woman would 
wish to do otherwise. When she consents to 
live with a man in such relationship she will 
assume the responsibilities and be a woman 
and do the home kind of woman’s work. 
She will endeavor to fit herself, as much as 
is in her power, for that position before enter¬ 
ing that state, but is it necessary for her to 
be ready to begin where her grandmother 
left off? If she is at all intelligent, she will be 
able quickly to comprehend. She may some¬ 
times blonder, but mistakes are common oc¬ 
currences; they are made by the best and 
oldest housekeepers. No one has reached per¬ 
fection ; men in their positions are not infalli¬ 
ble, and I do not imagine that many, if any, 
women expect or require that they should be. 
If this home-making is purely a business 
alliance, then there will be exaction; but if 
the affections are involved, as they should be, 
allowance will be made for deficiencies. Not 
morbid sentimentality, but heartfelt consid¬ 
eration. If the heart essence is lacking, then 
the home had better not be established. Bet¬ 
ter have “old maids” and bachelors—they 
ought to he equally objectionable—than un¬ 
happy homes where children are clothed and 
fed, but not fully nurtured. 
Because good homes are uot made cannot be 
accounted for by the fact that women have 
been recognized and have accepted positions 
outside the home. There has been progres¬ 
sion, ana out of it has developed the place for 
women. This very demand and need have in 
a great degree been created by man. He has 
invented machinery whereby much of what 
used to be woman’s work at home now takes 
her outside if the work is to be obtained. 
Women in all times have been obliged to bear 
the burden of support. 
In every case of need with women, the 
man does not loom up to support her. and in 
many cases where women are provided for, 
they are made to feel their dependence, or if 
not know that they are receiving what per¬ 
haps is due some one else. A father and hus¬ 
band are the only ones from whom she can 
actually expect support. She may not have 
eitherof these; if not it is more commendable 
and satisfying for her to be self-supporting 
and she should have the same privilege of 
choice as the man. 
Business is not so soul-inspiring that women 
rush into it from mere love. If any do they 
are not committing sin. 
My knowledge is uot sufficent to assert as a 
fact, but I venture to say that a greater num¬ 
ber of women would prefer home as their 
field of labor and would make its necessities 
their first care. They must, however, have 
the assurance of being wauted there and that 
the man will warrant the chauge in their lives. 
Having her rightful position in the chang¬ 
ing world doesn't transform her: she preserves 
her womanly nature and would rather be¬ 
come an “unattractive old maid” than force 
herself or be forced into marriage; aud what 
man would be pleased with such a state of 
affairs? That, however, is the gist of J. H. 
G’s argument; but it is to be imagined and 
hoped not of his convictions. What he needs 
is to have the subject shown to him in the 
proper light. 
Homes, the old and new kinds also, if true 
ones, we need; not dwelling places merely,but 
homes where woman is willing to perform 
the drudgery, if need be, but wilt dignify it 
with elevated thoughts and will not beep so 
near the grindstone that her husband, children 
aud friends cannot enjoy a portion of her 
society. Her children will be her special care 
if there is a division of labor in the household. 
If she enjoys or it seems best to take occa¬ 
sional interest m matters not strictly in the 
category of home, she will see to it that it is 
uot done at the expense of needed service. 
I am supposing things as they should be; 
things as they should not be prevailed long be¬ 
fore the present position of women. 
Don’t blame the working women for the 
misfortunes or sius of the parents of those ne¬ 
glected little ones seen on the streets or else¬ 
where. Seek the mother—find her with no¬ 
thing of the elevated spirit of the worker, or 
else a creature discouraged by much sorrow; 
perhaps a drunkard. Seek the father—find 
him in a grog-shop probably, possibly a vic¬ 
tim of misfortune. 
What sort of representatives of advance¬ 
ment iu women are the above described moth¬ 
ers? 
Drive women from business and the chances 
are that you would increase, not lessen, such 
scenes. 
If there is just cause for alarm look for the 
remedy, not amoug the self-supporting class 
of women,but among those who are supported 
by men, or_are fortunate euough to possess 
