44 
THE RURAL HEW-TORKI8. 
JAfl 24 
farm hands is a very sore grievance to most 
women on the farm, and that it is so is evi¬ 
dent enough even to a stupid mind. The hired 
man may be very nice, and even of better 
blood and breeding than his employer. The 
caste feeling has nothing whatever to do with 
it. The privacy and freedom of the home 
may be as much invaded by a king as by a 
beggar. But aside from the invasion, the ad¬ 
ditional work and care involved in doing for 
the hired man are, in nineteen cases out of 
twenty, that much too much for the house 
women—to have to cook, to wash, to iron, to 
clean for him, to have him sitting about in the 
house, to make his bed, may be (an indignity 
no woman should allow herself to assume), to 
never eat a meal with her family without the 
presence of an “outsider” at her table, to be 
worried lest he will speak ill of her meals—is 
it at all difficult to realize the extreme trial 
of the case? It is equally plain to see that 
the farmer can better afford, as a rule, 
from a money standpoint, to board and lodge 
his hired help, than to pay them the increase 
of wages required when they “find” them¬ 
selves, even when that can be done. Proba¬ 
bly in the millennium every farm will have 
its tenant, house and occupants, who will 
board all the hands employed by hire. This 
has come to pass already on some farms, 
while modifications of the difficulty have 
come about on others. On one of the largest 
and best managed farms 1 have spent any 
time upon, there was an outbuilding for the 
use of the hired men. It had a sitting-room, 
with place for fire and their beds, all of which 
they took care of themselves. They only en¬ 
tered the farmhouse for their meals, and then 
as gentlemen, with brushed clothes, clean 
shoes and hands, face and hair well cared for, 
self-respecting, intelligent men. It was as 
much a part of the harvest-time programme 
to provide extra help for the cooking as for 
the field. If a woman could not be had a man 
was hired—and men are often mor< useful 
with heavy housework than are women. In all 
wealthy rural localities in the East, where a 
man is employed as coachman, gardener and 
general barn and lawn work, he has a room 
for his use in the carriage-house, where he 
sleeps, and which, as a matter of course, he 
takes care of. To make his bed and keep his 
room in order is as much his province as it is 
that of the hired gii’l to attend to her own. 
He furnishes his own light and fuel, or 
it is furnished to him by his employ¬ 
er, as they arrange when he is hired. 
Generally he has to put out his washing, 
for some families, although well supplied with 
house help, never wash for the hired men. 
And this arrangement can be as well carried 
out on the farm as elsewhere, without addi¬ 
tional expense, or if any, nominal. The 
farmer who respects his wife and daughter, 
will protect them so far as possible from being 
servants to hired men. While the propriety 
of lodging men out of the dwelling is appar¬ 
ent enough, I was at one farm house in Ohio, 
where the hired men occupied a room in the 
farm house, but the entrance was directly 
from the outside and it had no inside connec¬ 
tion with any other part of the dwelling. Hired 
men undoubtedly prefer a provision for their 
lodgment, that insures them privacy as well 
as their employers,and which makes their posi¬ 
tion one of greater toleration to the family. 
So if the farm hand cannot be eliminated al¬ 
together, eliminate him as much as is possible. 
If it is not the custom of your neighborhood 
so to do, begin by making it so. The hard 
litres of your life can be softened by lopping 
off, here and there, burdens that you have long 
borne, but which in fact are not necessarily 
borne. A great many things are made possi¬ 
ble when some courageous and suggestive 
soul shows them to be so. There is assuredly 
nothing so pernicious to success in life as to 
break down the health. Ill health does not pay 
debts, nor educate the children, nor win love 
or admiration. Men have limitations in 
their work; make the same in yours and even 
more. Pumping or drawing water is just as 
much in the peculiar province of men or of 
machinery, as are plowing and har¬ 
rowing. Bring yourself to feel that the 
bath-room, and water running into the 
kitchen, are just as essential as beds and 
chairs. The man who contributes of his 
substance to build churches or to pay a 
preacher, and who in the meantime fails to 
provide these all-necessary conveniences for 
his wife, is worse thaujan infidel. He has 
failed to provide for his own household. 
There is something like that in Holy Writ. 
There are hundreds of men who have eminent 
respect for the contribution box, but have 
none whatever for the need of a hand^ drain 
in the kitchen, and to see a woman going to 
the door-way or without, to fling away slop- 
water, is a sorry spectacle. 
The hard work of farm life is often render¬ 
ed more harmful by uuwholesomehabits of liv¬ 
ing, never haviug a dressing room with fire 
ip winter, sleeping in small or ill-ventilated 
bed rooms, sameness of food, foods fried in 
grease and food conjured into masses of indi¬ 
gestibility in the way of pastry. Every year 
when I chance to go abroad among country 
people, I see them swallowing pie and dough¬ 
nuts that would give a rhinoceros the dyspep¬ 
sia. Where milk and eggs are plentiful, pas¬ 
try ought to be unkown. The average pie is 
not only exceedingly hard to digest, but it is 
vulgar, plebeian, mean, to the last gasp. The 
pie-eater announces himself as belonging to 
the back-woods of gastronomy — as a 
relic of mediaeval times, as having the 
stomach of an ostrich, and no conscience 
whatever in regard to his health, and it 
is just as much one’s duty to care for his body 
as to care for his soul. Both are the gifts of 
God. Moreover, a woman should not forget 
that she is a woman, the crowning work of the 
Creator, and that the object of her creation 
was not toil. Neither do I think labor to be 
that of men. But the valuable and noble 
qualities of men do not suffer from hard work 
as do those of women. It is women who make 
that dearest spot called home and in the good 
wife and the good mother are realized the 
nearest ideals of angels to be found on earth. 
Sometimes I see a woman who seems to real¬ 
ize that she is of the utmost importance to her 
family and takes intelligent care of herself, 
while occasionally a man is found who real¬ 
izes her value and takes care of her accord¬ 
ingly- 
I believe it is true that what is written 
rarely reaches the class of people who might 
be most benefited by it, or who most need 
criticism when it is offered, and it is hardly to 
be supposed that the homes into which this 
journal is invited and read, are the abodes of 
women who see more of the dark side of things 
than do women in other spheres of life. Ex¬ 
istence to them ought to be far sunnier than 
is that of dwellers in cities and towns In 
health of body and of mind they should be 
the peers of the best. But are they ? Or is there 
a far too large cla«s who might with peculiar 
fitness choose in advance for their tombstones 
this: 
“a tired woman’s epitaph.” 
•‘Here lies a poor woman who always was tired. 
Who lived in a house where help was not hired, 
Her last words on earth were: Dear friends lam 
going 
Where washing ain’t done, nor sweeping, nor sew¬ 
ing. 
But everything there is exact to my wishes, 
For where they don’t eat there’s no washing of 
dishes. 
I’ll be where loud anthems will always be ringing, 
But having no voiee.I’ll get clear of the singing. 
Don’t mourn for me now, don’t mourn for me 
never. 
I am going to do nothing forever and ever.’ ” 
CONDUCTED BY MRS. AGNES E. M. CARMAN. 
Do all the good you can and make as little 
noise about it as possible. 
Wise is the mother who takes the trouble 
to “dress up” for her children. 
The neglect of regular and frequent bathing 
in Winter, favors colds and congestive dis¬ 
eases. 
Cut ham into thin slices and broil it. You 
will find it much superior to the fried article. 
Hang a picture so that its center is about 
534 feet from the floor. 
White and gilt picture frames are just now 
fashionable, but they need a dark background 
to make them effective. 
A small scrubbing-brush (kept for the pur¬ 
pose only) is the best thing that we have 
found for cleaning potatoes for baking. 
A wise little mother that we know of keeps 
what she calls “visiting toys” for her baby 
boy to amuse himself with when away from 
home. He is never permitted to see or handle 
these particular playthings at any other time 
and so he is amused and consequently good 
when other children are often fretful from 
lack of something to play with. 
It is worth ones while to remember that it 
is not what we earn, but what we save, that 
makes us rich; not what we eat, but what we 
digest that makes us fat, and not what we 
read, but what we remember that makes us 
learned. _ _ 
THE NEW YORK TRADE SCHOOLS.—II. 
THE COURSE OF INSTRUCTION. 
The instruction is given on three evenings 
on each week, from October to April, the 
teachers being skilled mechanics, who not 
only show how the work is to be done, but ex¬ 
plain why one method is better than another. 
The pupils are not allowed to form awkward 
habits, which once contracted are not easily 
abandoned, but are taught to handle their 
tools with ease, and as much grace as they 
can muster. The hours are from seven to 
half-past nine in the evening. The terms, 
which are merely nominal vary with the in¬ 
struction desired. Twenty dollars are charged 
for the course of instruction in bricklaying, 
12 for stone-cutting and plumbing, 15 for car¬ 
pentry and ten for fresco painting and carv¬ 
ing. In the bricklaying class, for instance, 
the young men are taught, first, how to 
handle the trowel and spread the mortar. 
They are then practised on flight and 12-inch 
walls. When these can be earned up plumb, 
and the courses laid level, they are put upon 
walls returned at right angles, piers, arches, 
fire places and flues. Each brick is required 
to be properly laid, and the joints neatly 
pointed. No attempt is made at speed, (ex¬ 
actness being the principal requisite) until 
towards the close of the course, when an hour 
is given at stated intervals to see how many 
bricks each member of the class can lay in 
that time in a workmanlike manner on a 
straight wall. 
The gentleman with whom I visited the 
school, one of our self-made men who has risen 
to bis present position b} 7 his own unaided 
skill and industry, was consequently well able 
to judge of the proficiency of the work exhib¬ 
ited. He declared that in all the depart 
ments, the work done by the pupils at the end 
of the first course, excelled that of those who 
had been apprenticed in the ordinary way for 
four years,and that in every case when choos¬ 
ing men for his employ, he gave the prefer¬ 
ence topupils of the trade schools. 
All this knowledge is acquired in a large 
and brilliantly-lighted workshop, and if the 
strong, active, earnest-looking young men, 
who have paid their hard-earned money to 
learn how to raise themselves in life, by work¬ 
ing during hours that are usually given to 
recreation, are fair specimens of the youth of 
this country, then we have indeed reason to 
be proud of our sons. You may be sure, how¬ 
ever, that they are specimens of the best and 
manliest only. No rude or profane word has 
ever been heard within the walls, and although 
often inconveniently crowded, the young men 
are invariably courteous to each other, and 
respectful to their teachers. 
BRICKLAYERS. 
The members of the class of 1885-fi have 
built a number of houses in various parts of 
the city, and as all the brick except the face 
brick w'ere laid by lads who could not handle 
a trowel six months before, when they joined 
the school, they have attracted great atten¬ 
tion. My friend, the builder, assured me no 
better work could be found in the city of New 
York. When you consider that the ordinary 
wages of a bricklayer are four dollars a day, 
while in rapidly-growing towns, where much 
building is done, as in Los Angeles, for in¬ 
stance, builders are paying from five to seven 
dollars per day to competent bricklayers, you 
will see what au excellent opportunity this 
school affords for a young man to acquire, at 
a small cost, and in a short time, one of the 
most profitable trades in the United States. 
Six months at a trade school would be well 
spent, if it only taught a boy what work he is 
or is not fitted for. 
BLACKSMITHS. 
The blacksmith shop is a large and well- 
lighte 1 room, lately completed. The course 
of instruction is based on that followed at the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Bos¬ 
ton, and is in charge of a practical mechanic. 
There are forty-three exercises in forging and 
twenty in vise work, and the ease and deftness 
with which some of the handsome, brawny- 
armed lads used tbeir tools, and the wierd look 
of the forges at night, recalled the scene in 
“Put Yourself in His Place,” where Henry 
Little forged a knife and fork for his storm- 
beaten and famished sweetheart at midnight, 
in the old, disused village church in which he 
had set up his forge. This course of instruc¬ 
tion affords a more thorough and varied 
knowledge to those who intend to become ma¬ 
chinists than can be obtained in a shop in a 
long time. 
STONE CUTTING. 
Stone-cutting is a trade in which there is 
constant progress, and which, involving as it 
does, something of the sculptor’s skill, should 
almost be included among the fine arts. Very 
remarkable work was shown that had been 
done with one season’s study. The course of 
instruction begins witn squaring au irregular 
block of stone. The pupils are then shown 
how to finish the surface in various ways, such 
as rubbed, tooled, brush-hammered, random 
pointed, tooth-cbiseled, etc., after which he is 
taught to cut chamfers, simple and return 
mouldings, and raised and sunken panels. A 
visit to the workroom while the class is in ses¬ 
sion, makes it easy to understand how much 
more thoroughly such a trade can be learned 
with a master mechanic to show how each 
piece of w’ork should be done, and to explain 
why it should be done in that particular way, 
than by leaving it to the natural aptitude for 
observation of the pupil. 
WOOD CARVERS. 
It is possible to learn to draw, and al=o to 
carve without a teacher, but the advantage of 
having an instructor not only saves a vast 
amount of time on the part of the learner, but 
it makes him a better draughtsman. Wo< d- 
carving is an artistic trade, and one in which 
skilled workmen are in great demand. Beau¬ 
tiful specimens of work done by the pupils are 
on exhibition. 
Progress in acquiring any trade is necessarily 
rapid under these conditions. It is sought to 
ascertain, not only what a pupil knows,but in 
what he is deficient. In a workshop where 
each employee is necessarily put upon the 
kind of work he can do best, such a system 
cannot be followed. The New York trade 
schools are intended neither for a charitable 
nor a money-making institution, neither are 
they managed in the interests of nor in oppo¬ 
sition to any trade organization, but solely 
for the benefit of such young men as desire to 
avail themselves of the opportunities they of¬ 
fer. 
There are in the city of New York alone, 
over 4,000 foreign brick-layers, stone masons 
and cutters, as against 2,000 native workmen. 
If 81,000 per annum is a fair estimate of the 
earnings of a skilled workman, (and many of 
them can earn much more) we have the enor¬ 
mous sum of two millions of dollars paid an¬ 
nually to foreigners, who in a great majority 
of cases send it at once out of the country. 
Skilled labor all over the United States com¬ 
mands the highest wages, the constantly in¬ 
creasing demand, far exceeding the supply. 
New York contractors tell me that in a large 
city like New York over 2,000 workmen from 
abroad come over every spring, paying only 
a steerage passage, and leaving their families 
behind, to whom they return taking their large 
earnings with them. One need not be a light¬ 
ning calculator to estimate how large a sum of 
money is thus taken out of the hands of Amer¬ 
icans. Whether our boys shall earn this 
money by the sweat of their brows, in good, 
honest toil, or whether they shall become 
puny, dapper clerks, must betlecided largely 
by mothers. Comparatively few parents can 
leave their children a fortune of 820,000, but 
they can leave them an equivalent in a thor¬ 
ough knowledge of a trade, at which, if they 
labor but 200 days a year, they will receive 
an income equal to that from 820,000 invested 
in Government bonds. 
A. promising young builder in New York 
told me that the first year after leaving the 
schools he got work at 82.50 per day, the next 
year at 84 00. During these two years he 
saved 8500, and the following year took a con¬ 
tract to build some houses at which he cleared 
88,000. ____ a. G. 
KITCHEN TALKS. 
ANNIE L. JACK. 
After the holidays the kitchen settles 
down to quiet, and loses the bustling stir of 
preparation. The work is done up so much 
more easily and the afternoon sun sends 
lengthened shadows over the floor, and rays of 
sunlight penetrate every chink and crevice. 
Instinctively our thoughts turn to spring. 
The word New Year seems to bring with it a 
feeling that our days have already begun to 
lengthen; and that we are nearer busy hours. 
So we plan and look forward with hopeful eyes. 
There are so many things one can do so much 
better than in former years, and having expe¬ 
rience, the New Year may see us better pre¬ 
pared than we were in the past. 
“ That to perfection’s sacred hights, 
We nearer still may rise.” 
Meanwhile the work of the house goes on, 
and meal-time comes round three times a day 
with invariable regularity. We must cater 
for the family and use the kitchen as our 
workshop; and if it is comfortable and helpful 
and bright there, so much the better, for the 
cooking and its results. 
I have lately had the pleasure of going 
through the well appointed kitchen of a 
young housekeeper, and I thought how much 
more sensible to have all the necessary appar¬ 
atus for work that must be done than the 
usual display of finery and plated ware that 
fills too many modest little homes. Among 
the things I admired was a steamer, a pan 
with a close-fitting lid, and perforated bottom. 
It is wonderful how much nicer a plum-pud¬ 
ding was cooked in this way as the steam did 
not stop as the water was likely to stop boiliug, 
When Baby was sick, we gave her Castorla 
When she was a Child, she cried for Castorla. 
When she became Miss, she clung to Castorla, 
When she had Children, shs gave them Castorla. 
