4883 
THE RURAL RgRMfGRKIR. 
Cflttr. 
“Every Man is presumed to know the Law; 
Nine-tenths of all Litigation arises from Ig¬ 
norance of Law;.” 
WILLS. 
J. G., Fremont , Minn. —Two years ago my 
mother was sick, and she got me to draw her 
will for her. I am one of the interested par¬ 
ties; is the will valid? Mother is still alive. 
Ans. —If the will is valid in other respects, 
the fact that one interested in it drew it up 
will not render it invalid. You are confound¬ 
ing the person who may have drawn up a 
will with the witnesses to it. Three disinter¬ 
ested witnesses, who will have no interest in 
the bequests made in the will, are required in 
the District of Columbia, Connecticut, Flori¬ 
da, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, 
Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, 
New Mexico and South Carolina, and two in 
the other States and Territories. If there are 
more witnesses to a will than the number re¬ 
quired by law, a bequest to any of them will 
be valid, provided there are enough other 
competent subscribing witnesses, so that the 
will may be proved without resort to the testi¬ 
mony of the interested witness. 
HEDGE PARTITION FENCE. 
C. V. K., Carrollton, Ohio. —Is a hedge a 
lawful fence? If lawful, is the planter of a 
line hedge fence allowed to put up a protec¬ 
tive barrier on a strip of his neighbor’s land 
until the hedge is stock-proof? 
Ans. —The laws of Ohio provide that the 
owner of land may plant and cultivate a 
hedge fence precisely on the line, and place a 
protection fence on the margin of the adjoin¬ 
ing property, not to occupy more than six 
feet thereof, which shall be permitted to re¬ 
main for seven years, or longer if necessary, 
upon the written permission of the township 
trustees. The owner of any hedge fence on a 
partition line or along a public highway shall 
not permit it to remain of a greater bight or 
width than six feet.fcr more than six months, 
or leave cuttings from the same on the adja¬ 
cent land or the public highway for more than 
10 days under penalty of not more than 20 
cents per rod of such fence to the person dam¬ 
aged, or 15 cents per rod to the township trus¬ 
tees if the fence is along the highway. The 
party complained of must, however, have at 
least 20 days’ notice from the party complain¬ 
ing before the beginning of the suit. All ac¬ 
tions in the matter must be brought before a 
justice of the peace of the township in which 
the hedge is situated. 
L. Y., Poughkeepsie, N. Y. —Can an alien 
legally own stock in an unincorporated socie¬ 
ty owning real estate, and can he act as pres¬ 
ident or treasurer of the board of trustees of 
the society? 
Ans. —The laws of this State require 
trustees of joint-stock corporations formed 
under the general law to be citizens of the 
United States, and a majority of them to be 
citizens of this State. There is no objection 
to an alien being a stock holder, however. 
The laws on this matter differ in different 
States. What is said here applies to New 
York State only. 
i?. H. S., Glen Cove,N Y. —During my ab¬ 
sence the telephone company has cut out the 
center of three fine shade trees in front of my 
premises; how can I prevent such an outrage 
in the future? 
Ans. —The telephone company can be pros¬ 
ecuted for the damage already done to those 
trees. If any operator is caught attempting 
further depredations he can be forcibly stop¬ 
ped and the company can be prosecuted for 
any injury done to the property. 
T o Several Inquirers.— Yes; Franklin 
Putnam of this city will certainly send the 
gobds he advertises. They are worth the 
price asked for them. We cannot say wheth¬ 
er similar goods can be got elsewhere as cheap 
or cheaper .. Yes; we have seen sev¬ 
eral of the circulars sent out of late by the 
Tortilita Mining Company controverting the 
charges of dishonesty and rascality made by 
the New York Herald against its managers. 
They are plausible; but it is very rarely that 
the defendent’s side cannot make a plausible 
defence in a criminal charge. The New York 
Herald is abundantly responsible for any 
damages assessed against it. It still continues 
to reiterate its charges. If its charges can be 
so easily disproved in a court of justice where 
all allegations are sifted under oath, why do 
not the Tortilita people bring an action of 
libel against it?. As far as the Rural 
is concerned, all it wants is “The Truth 
About It.’ 1 But it wouldn’t invest a cent 
in the Tortilita as the case stands at present. 
We cannot recommend any person who ad¬ 
vertises to remove superfluous hair by means 
of any liquid preparation. Such a thing can 
undoubtedly be done; but it requires skill not 
usually possessed by ordinary people. The 
E.-O. has read of a number of cases where 
serious injury was done by the use of such 
nostrums, and many of the advertisers are 
sheer humbugs. This answer is intended to 
apply to several inquiries about different ad¬ 
vertisers of this sort.... When you are offered 
by a stranger a $15 watch for $5 50 or any 
other bargain of that sort, of course, if you 
are a reasonable person, you will never ex¬ 
pect the offer lo be fulfilled. You may get an 
article worth almost the lowest figure, for 
this style of advertising is sometimes adopted 
“to catch the eye” by quite honest concerns, 
but their advertising expenses are so heavy 
that they really cannot afford to give genuine 
bargains. The style is also often adopted by 
catchpenny affairs, and the patrons of these 
will, of course, be cheated in one way or 
another. These remarks are intended to an¬ 
swer several inquiries about the reliability of 
parties who advertise in this way in this city 
and other places. “A word to the wise, etc.” 
....The American and Foreign Collecting 
Bureau of this city, like its predecessor, the 
great Anglo-American Claim Agency, burst 
up over a year ago by the Rural’s ex¬ 
posure, claims to be able to get vast fortunes 
for its patrons from the enormous sums wait¬ 
ing claimants in the English Court of Chan¬ 
cery and the Bank of England. There are no 
such deposits, and the affair is a humbug. 
Concerns Censured —Under this caption 
the Eye-Opener will from time to time, give 
the names of various concerns he has seen de¬ 
nounced in other papers, but which have not 
been investigated from the Rural Office. 
Among these are the paper called Progress, 
Athens, Ga-F. & F., Cleveland, Ohio, with 
their bogus “Bottled Electricity”... .The 
New York Herald, whose agent has been in¬ 
vestigating Southern land-booms, denounces 
that Tallapoosa, Ga. affair as an unmitigated 
humbug — People are “cautioned” against 
the American Literary Supply Association, 
Chicago, by several Chicago papers. 
Woman s U)o* *k. 
CONDUCTED BY EMILY LOUISE TAPLIN. 
CHAT BY THE WAY. 
M rs. Helen Campbell, whose pathetic 
“Prisoners of Poverty” told of the 
working women in this country is now en¬ 
gaged in studying the poor of London, with 
the intention of writing about the condition 
of workingwomen there. 
* * * 
The Woman’s Journal says that Mrs. A. 
Hills, of Skowhegan Falls, Wis , is a success¬ 
ful bee-keeper. In three years her stock has 
increased from two colonies to 41, and the 
surplus honey, after enough had been sold 
to pay all costs, averaged 82 pounds per col¬ 
ony. She thinks bee keeping is a good busi¬ 
ness for women. Mrs. Thomas, President of 
Sorosis, is another successful bee-keeper. 
* * * 
Book lovers who are called upon to lend 
their library treasures are often annoyed by 
the carelessness of the borrowers. Many peo¬ 
ple never seem to think of the actual dishon¬ 
esty there is in returning a borrowed book 
with rubbed cover and dog’s-eared or even 
torn pages. A certain wise physician of our ac¬ 
quaintance has taken a gentle way of remind¬ 
ing the careless in this particular. Pasted on 
the fly leaves of all his books is a printed tag 
bearing this legend: Library of Galen, M. D. 
“And if a man borrow aught of his neighbor 
and it be hurt, he shall surely make it good. 
Exodus xxii, 14.” This idea is well w orthy of 
adoption by all who are in the habit of lend¬ 
ing their books. 
* * * 
A good many women wash their hair only 
at very long intervals, asserting that the prac¬ 
tice is injurious. A recent medical work by 
Dr G. T. Jackson,on the hair and skin,direct.y 
contradicts this view. Dr. Jackson says that 
women should shampoo their hair every two 
weeks regularly; if they are exposed to much 
dust, every week or ten days. The head 
should be well rubbed in a lather of some 
good soap,preferably Pear’s or clear glycerine. 
All the soap should then be thoroughly rinsed 
out with warm water, and after hair and scalp 
have been well rubbed with a towel, drying 
should be completed in the sunlight or by a 
register. Any evil results from washing the 
hair are simply caused by dressing it before it 
is properly dried. After washing, the doctor 
recommends rubbing a little vaseline into the 
scalp, but not on the hair; he considers oiling 
the hair a mistake, and an uncleanly one. 
* * * 
Much, too, depends on the way the hair is 
brushed. Once a day it should be most thor¬ 
oughly brushed with a stiff brush, which will 
remove particles of dust, and rub the scalp 
into a glow. However, it must not be stiff 
enough to produce any irritation, which is a 
prolific source of dandruff. For dressing the 
hair, a moderately soft brush should be used, 
with a smooth comb for parting it. The stiff 
brush is only used for cleansing. The comb 
must be carefully selected, as any roughness 
tears the fine hairs. 
* * * 
It is always a mistake to strain the hair into 
any unnatural positions. Arrange it either 
high or low, as is most becoming, but never 
do it so tightly as to strain the hair. Do not 
wear heavy metal pins or ornaments in the 
hair; they injure it and often cause trouble¬ 
some headaches. If possible avoid curling the 
hair artificially ; if it must be done put it up 
dry in soft paper, but never use hot irons or 
curling tongs, or “patent” crimpers. , 
* * * 
At present, though the classic knot at the 
back of the head is greatly affected by young 
women, it is quite as fashionable to wear the 
hair on the top, especially for occasions of 
ceremony. Women are growing sensibly in¬ 
dependent in such things, and wear their hair 
as best it suits them. Bangs will never go en¬ 
tirely out of style, but they are less aggressive 
and more natural now, and leave some of the 
brow uncovered. If a woman has .a low, 
Grecian forehead she turns her hair back; if 
she has a lofty,intellectual brow she softens it 
by a fringe of bair, and in either case it is fash¬ 
ionable, inasmuch as it is becoming. 
THE DARK SIDE OF FARM LIFE. 
WHICH CONCERNS WOMEN. 
MARY WAGER-FISHER. 
I am frank to say that there is no class of 
workers that has my sympathy and respect 
for their work equal to farmers—both the men 
and the women. No one, I think, will dispute 
the assertion that the prosperity and comfort 
of a nation depend more upon the labor and 
results of agriculture and its kindred occupa¬ 
tions than upon any other one branch of in¬ 
dustry. What we shall eat and wherewithal 
we shall be clothed spring from the care and 
toil of the men and women who till and 
garner the varied harvests of the soil. 
It is also undoubtedly true that in morality, 
integrity and good citizenship farmers rank 
higher than any other large class of people. 
Crime is comparatively rare among them. 
Their chief ill-doing, or undoing, lies in the 
burden of their work, that unlighted drudgery 
of farm life that drives boys and girls from 
the green fields to brick walls, that saps pre¬ 
maturely the elasticity of the body, that fur¬ 
rows the face with care—the unremitting toil 
that wearies the physical life and leaves the 
mind a fallow field turned over to the weeds 
of worry and trouble. To touch at all upon 
this dark side of farm life is no pleasant task, 
and my only object in so doing lies in the 
hope that some suggestions may arise where¬ 
by the greatest sufferers from the hardships 
of it may see a way to relief. 
Of course, there is no vocation that is en¬ 
tirely free from disagreeable or objectionable 
features which constitute what may be called 
its dark side. Neither is it desirable from the 
standpoint of mental and spiritual develop¬ 
ment that life should be exempt from the trials 
that require patience and perseverance, that 
necessitate forbearance and stimulate indus¬ 
try. But when the environment or surround¬ 
ing circumstances of one’s everyday work are 
of so severe a character as to dwarf the intel¬ 
lectual and ruin the physical life and render 
existence a burden when it should be a joy, it 
is but reasonable to infer that somewhere there 
exists a grave misapprehension of duty—for it 
is never any one’s duty to undergo perpetual 
self-sacrifice. 
In the growth and development of the vari 
44 
ous occupations by which people earn a liveli¬ 
hood, there has come a simplification in many 
lines of work through the division of labor. 
There has been less of this in agricultural pur¬ 
suits, probably, than in any others. It is true 
that much has been modified by the help of 
machinery, but in the domain of woman’s 
work upon the farm machinery counts for 
very little. The sewing machine shortens 
work in one way, and through the vanity of 
women, increases it in another. The more 
vacuous the mind of a woman the more men¬ 
tal recreation she finds in the complexity and 
adornment of apparel with superfluous appen¬ 
dages. Pianos and organs are oftener found 
in the homes of the farmers than bath rooms, 
carpet sweepers, egg beaters and bread cut¬ 
ters. 
In the close economy that of necessity must 
rule farmhouse expenditures in order that 
debts may be paid and that both ends of the 
year be made to meet honestly, there is con¬ 
stant and imminent danger that some one of 
the family will be sacrificed in the achieve¬ 
ment, and I think all will concur in naming 
the most frequent offering laid upon this altar 
of farm labor—the house mother, the farmer- 
ine, or the daughter that fills her place. 
1 have been struck in looking over reports 
upon lunacy at the large proportion of the 
wives, daughters and widows of farmers 
among the insane in hospitals. In the State 
of Pennsylvania, where I live, the annual re¬ 
port of the State Board of Charities furnishes 
these figures: Total females admitted in all 
the asylums in 1886, 734; wives of farmers, 46; 
daughters of farmers, 20; widows of farmers, 
9—75 women in all from farms, while of the 
insane not in hospitals, a larger proportion is 
undoubtedly cared for at home among farm¬ 
ers than elsewbere.Tbe Secretary of the State 
Board of Agriculture reminded me that the 
women on farms exceeded in number any 
other class, and as there are in the State 217,- 
000 farms (the census of 1880 gives 213,542) he 
places the female population on them 
at 550,000. Taking the entire female 
population of the State at 2,200,000, 
the farmerines constitute one-quarter of 
this population. The proportion of insane in 
hospitals falls far short of one-fourth of the 
number of admitted insane; and s’ill the pro¬ 
portion is large for the class whose condition 
in life would be supposed to be altogether fa¬ 
vorable to sanity. The only class exceeding 
them in insanity are domestics and the wives 
of mechanics and laborers As to the com¬ 
parative longevity of women on farms, I have 
been unable to obtain any statistics whatever. 
Life insurance companies, which are supposed 
to form ideas as well as tables on the health¬ 
fulness of various occupations, furnish none 
in regard to country women, so far as I have 
been able to learn, probably from the reason 
that such women rarely insure their lives. 
From one report on vital statistics, it was 
made to appear that tbe average longevity, 
covering a period of 11 years, of farmers was 
47.16; of blacksmiths, 51.45; bank officers, 
61.72; carpenters, 49 33; judges, 67;19 (the 
highest) and clerks 33.73 (the lowest) paupers 
65.19, and lawyers 56.60. It would be inter¬ 
esting, if valuable in no other way, if agri¬ 
cultural societies would make such records of 
vitality and so furnish conclusively data as to 
the comparative longevity of people upon 
farms. 
Wives and mothers everywhere in the large 
majority of cases, fill no sinecure position, 
and the habit that prevails of speaking of 
women being supported, and of men as the 
supporters is a very extraordinary use of the 
term support. I remember once hearing a 
gentleman in New York City say, that when 
he wanted to be protected in the streets at 
night, he preferred taking a lady with him as 
a companion in his walk to any man. And 
so in the best sense of support women furnish 
quite as much of it in families as do men, as 
is often evidenced by death of the mother. 
But in addition to the thousand and one 
things that the wives of merchants and me¬ 
chanics have to do, look at this formidable 
catalogue of tasks that devolve in large part 
upon the women on farms,and all tasks of ex¬ 
ceeding weariness; the milk, butter and cheese 
business, soap making, the rearing and pick¬ 
ing of poultry, care of feathers and the mak¬ 
ing of beds and pillows, rendering lard and 
tallow, the fatigue of butchering days, making 
sausage and head-cheese, mince meat, fruit 
gathering, drying and preserving, making 
pickles, pumping and lugging water, often 
feeding calves and pigs, washing, baking, 
cooking and cleaning for hired men, knitting 
socks and mittens and no end of mending- 
more on the farm than elsewhere—Is it any 
wonder that their lives are one round of 
drudgery, leaving little room for the sweet 
and gracious influences that mellow age, only 
for the hardships that dry up the mind and 
devastate the beauty of the body. One wo¬ 
man wrote to the Rural not long ago, of’get- 
ting < up.in^the_moming - and_being obligedj,to 
