FEB 44 
years later there was an armed neutrality be¬ 
tween them, and five years later she went 
home to her mother. Years ago I used to 
meet in society a literary gentleman of note 
whose bonhommie made him the center of at¬ 
traction of every circle. I secretly rejoiced 
at the thought of his probably ideal home 
and happy wife. I afterward came to know 
his wife intimately, and to be on so friendly a 
footing with the family as to see the true in¬ 
wardness of their life, and I found that my 
model gentleman rewarded himself for his fine 
manners abroad by going to exactly the oppo¬ 
site extreme at home. As Rowland Hill said 
of a man’s religion, so I say of his manners, 
I do not think much of them unless his cat 
and dog be the happier for them. 
ALICE GOLDSMITH. 
REDUCED PATTERN OF PURITAN 
HOOD. 
The hood has two seams where the side 
forms the fastening to the center. It is fitted 
smoothly to the head of the wearer, and, with 
the rounded point coming in the middle of the 
forehead, it is very becoming. For an adult 
the center piece should be 15 inches long, three 
inches wide in the back and four in front. 
The side form is about seven inches wide at 
the widest part and five inches at the bottom. 
The hood is trimmed with a ribbon bow on 
the top, and the edge is finished with a cord 
or ruehing. It may be made in cloth, velvet, 
or plush, lined and padded with batting. 
* * * 
Many of the papers have been making fun 
of Ella Wheeler Wilcox because she advises 
women not to wash their faces very often. 
She says that a thorough rubbing with almond 
meal will both cleanse and soften the skin, 
while water will coarsen and discolor it. Such 
a habit seems decidedly dirty according to 
our ideas; we believe in water and lots of it 
too. But it is certainly a mistake to use a 
quantity of soap on the face; it should be 
thoroughly washed with clear tepid water. 
Very hot or very cold water is equally bad 
for both face and hands. Lemon juice is cer¬ 
tainly the best thing for removing stains from 
the hands, but it is apt to destroy the polish 
of the nails, so should be used carefully. A 
capital thing for those whose hands chap read¬ 
ily is a mixture of one-third water to two 
thirds glycerine, containing a pinch of borax 
and a few drops of alcohol. This should be 
used after every washing; it whitens as well 
as softens the hands. It is always a mistake 
to let the hands go merely because one has to 
do rough work; a few minutes’ attention daily 
saves a good deal of discomfort. 
A PIE-EATER’S PROTECT.. 
H. S. C. 
Mary Wager-Fisher has raised herself 
nearly to the top round of the ladder as an in¬ 
teresting writer for the Rural, and I am sor¬ 
ry that her letter in Rural of Jan. 21 was 
ever written, as we all dislike to have our 
idols broken. What pie-eating has to do with 
the ‘‘dark side” of farming, I am not able to 
see. • 
Now I am not a farmer, only doing a little 
in the way of small fruits, etc. I do not chew, 
smoke, or drink whiskey, but I do eat pie. 
For the last 60 years I have eaten one piece 
of pie a day. That is equal to 21,360 pieces, 
divided by six makes 3,560 pies,and I am alive 
yet. 
My father was a pie eater and lived to over 
80. Both my grandfathers were pie-eaters 
and both survived over 80 years. No doubt 
my great grandfathers ate all the pie they 
could get and perhaps cried for more. I have 
no doubt that four-fifths of the oldest people 
in this country are pie-eaters—pretty strong 
evidence that pie is not a deadly poison. But 
then I suppose we all belong to the “back- 
woods of gastronomy” and have “stomachs of 
an ostrich.” 
I am pleased she gave us one thing to be 
thankful for. I am sure a strong stomach 
is a great blessing. The Rural can hardly 
imagine how I feel to know that my ances¬ 
tors and myself all belong to this “vulgar 
plebeian, mean-to-the-last-gasp” class. I sup¬ 
pose if eating pie had not dulled my finer sen¬ 
sibilities. I should have known it before. 
Mrs. Fisher would have us eat eggs and 
milk. Now neither eggs nor milk agree with 
me, but if combined in a good pie and sugar- 
coated a little I do not scorn them. 
It is pure folly for one person to make bill- 
of-fare for another, “What is meat for one is 
poison for another.” 
After 60 years’ trial, I claim that pie prop¬ 
erly made is not unhealthy. Tea or coffee 
can be, and often is so made as to be un¬ 
healthy. 
I am quite willing to give women full cred¬ 
it as home builders, for I am sure a home 
without a woman could not be a home for me. 
No doubt many women work too hard and 
perhaps farmers’ wives work harder than 
others, and I think many men work too hard. 
I do not believe that even many farmers’ 
wives are more overworked than men. Would 
Mrs. Fisher’s home be complete without a 
a man? 
CONCERNING HIRED HANDS. 
E. R. 
In the Rural New-Yorker of Jan. 21,1 
notice an article from Mrs. Mary Wager 
Fisher, from which I quote the following ex¬ 
tracts concerning farm labor. 
“It is evident enough, even to a stupid 
mind, that the boarding and lodging of farm 
hands is a very sore grievance to most women 
on the farm. The hired man may be very 
nice, and even of better blood and breeding 
than his employers; but the cast of feeling has 
nothing whatever to do with it. To cook, to 
wash, to iron, to have him sitting about the 
house, and to make his bed—an indignity that 
no woman should allow herself to assume. If 
the farm hand cannot be eliminated altogeth¬ 
er, eliminate him as much as possible; if it is 
not the custom so to do in your neighborhood, 
begin by making it so.” She further suggests 
that all the farm help employed by hire, 
should be boarded and lodged by the occu¬ 
pants cf tenant houses. 
Now is not the essence of the above state¬ 
ments a choice display of wisdom,coming from 
the pen of a woman whose influence should 
edify the farming population! If the farm 
hand is a necessary evil, as the above remarks 
imply, and his presence becomes so annoying 
and burdensome that the good house-wife can 
no longer tolerate him in the household, how 
kind and consistent would it be to shift the 
“dreaded mortal” into a tenant house where 
the incumbrance may be heaped upon another 
woman and family, who probably understand 
the true principles of life quite as well as their 
more fortunate neighbors who have more 
wealth! If all the households in the respecta¬ 
ble circles of society should protest against 
the admission of hired hands within a due 
range of Christian hospitality, what would be 
the result; how would such indifference affect 
the welfare of those who are unfortunately 
placed in subjection to selfish authority? 
Did the pioneers who laid the foundation 
upon which the great progress of agriculture 
rests, make such a marked distinction be¬ 
tween master and servant? I would sugges’t 
that Mi's. F. concentrate her ingenuity, and 
invent a self-propelling machine, by the use 
of which all farm labor may be successfully 
performed, in consequence of which the 
much-despised vexation of farm help may be 
exterminated. No doubt, millions of farmers 
would buy the machine; and the U. S. would 
grant Letters Patent for it. 
It is understood and acknowledged by all 
intelligent farmers, that a line should be 
drawn between farmers’ families and their 
hired help; but good judgment and unselfish 
interests should be exercised and the division 
made in the proper place. Those farmers who 
employ many hands could not reasonably be 
expected to open the household to all; and if 
the average farmer prefers to pay his hired 
hands the requisite amount extra to “find” 
themselves rather than to admit them into his 
household as regular boarders, it is fair and 
right. But a large proportion of the farm 
hands in half a dozen States east of the Rocky 
Mountains, are the sons of respectable far¬ 
mers—many of them are employed by their 
own parents, and I defy Mrs. Fisher, or any 
other would-be reformer, to distinguish a farm 
hand from a farmer’s son in the better class 
of society; in church,at home, or in their man¬ 
ners and education; they dine at the same 
table, ride in the same carriage and even wor¬ 
ship the same God. These hired men under¬ 
stand how to appreciate the hospitality of a 
household, and their good conduct entitles 
them to the social position which they occupy, 
and the privacy essential to the proper exer¬ 
cise of family association is not molested. 
Their labor is profitable at the usual price paid 
for it; and the intelligent farmer is liberal- 
minded enough not to estimate a working¬ 
man’s value simply by the manual labor per¬ 
formed. 
In many of the States, the agricultural re¬ 
sources are sufficient to enable farmers to se¬ 
cure comfortable support and fair education, 
without devoting all their time to drudgery, 
or imposing irksome tasks upon their house¬ 
holds. And if a man is hired who is of “better 
blood and breeding than his employer,” as 
Mrs. F. alluded, I think that to shut him out 
simply because he is a hired man, would not 
be consistent with reason or Christian fellow¬ 
ship. But if the farmer prefers to close his 
doors to exclude the invasion of inferior hired 
help, with a view to maintain an exalted 
household, or to provide against excessive 
household drudgery, it is his privilege to do 
so, and there is no cause to blame him. I 
think that the would-be reformers who have 
protested so emphatically against the social 
position now occupied by the average Ameri¬ 
can farm hand, should devote a part of their 
writing to something that would help to exalt 
him to a higher standard, instead of trying to 
“eliminate” him. Having been a farm hand 
myself and since then employed upwards of a 
hundred men in various capacities, I have 
something more than theory upon which to 
establish my views on the subject of farm la¬ 
bor. If my views are too liberal to meet with 
the approval of agricultural teachers, then 
half a million of our American farmers will 
need a complete revolution in the manage¬ 
ment of their households. 
CONCERNING WOMEN. 
MARY WAGER-FISHER. 
Two of the lecturers before the Academy of 
Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, the present 
winter, are women, and the leading city jour¬ 
nal says of the list, it “is one no city can sur¬ 
pass and few equal.” The scope of women’s 
work has so enlarged within the past 25 years 
that it is folly to pronounce judgment upon 
what women are fitted to do. Any lawyer 
will tell you that his profession comprehends 
the most wearisome drudgery, and yet there 
are, by recent count, about 60 women in the 
country practicing law. The Kansas woman 
who is mayoi of her town says that she has 
not found the duties of her office either bur¬ 
densome or degrading. “Although United 
States Marshall sounds formidable, yet its du¬ 
ties are what any ordinarily bright woman 
can perform. They are sometimes entrusted 
to men who are stupid, rather than bright. 
The only wonder is, when women are appoint¬ 
ed to “new” positions of trust, that they 
weren’t so appointed long ago. 
There ought to be, on an average, two good 
women physicians in every township in the 
United States. Quacks in medicine are an 
abomination, but the women in the medical 
profession who have been regulaUy educated 
for their work have had, and continue to re¬ 
ceive, more thorough and pi’olonged training 
than the average male medical student, and in 
so far are justly entitled to a full measure of 
confidence from the public. But in medicine, 
as in everything else, more depends up¬ 
on what the woman is by nature than by train¬ 
ing. No amount of education will put into 
the head of man or woman what God with¬ 
held. 
One of the most lucrative trades in which 
men and women can engage, is that of dress¬ 
making. A woman who can cut economical¬ 
ly, fit smoothly, who has taste in designing 
and ingenuity in construction, is sure of un¬ 
failing and well-paid employment, for there 
is no end to the making of gowns, and an ar¬ 
tistic and well made gown is the exception 
rather than the rule. The business, however, 
requires brains and judgment—two ingredi¬ 
ents that money cannot buy, except in hiring 
people who possess them. To send home with 
the finished garment the left over pieces, 
would be a good idea for some dressmakers to 
entertain, and might be one stepping-stone 
to success. 
Wellesley College (for women) is in need of 
a new president. Salary $5,1100. Only wo¬ 
men need apply. Ordinary school teaching 
by women in New England is paid for in sal¬ 
aries averaging $43.85 per month, while men 
in the same occupation receive an average 
salary of $120.72 per month. In Colorado, 
where women are fewer, they receive an aver¬ 
age salary of $67.63. In West Virginia, 
equality reigns—men and women are paid 
alike. The young woman who “goes West,” 
generally succeeds, possibly because she has 
courage and energy, and would succeed any¬ 
where. 
In the recently published life of Charles 
Sumner, one is rather surprised to find that 
he had a twin sister, who lived to be 20 years 
old, and then died of consumption. The twins 
weighed three pounds each at birth. “Tall 
oaks from little acorns grow.” 
“Newspaper Clubs” are not altogether new, 
but they are very good when properly directed. 
The object is for women (particularly young 
women) to congregate once a week and discuss 
the news of the day, each one to contribute all 
she knows of value concerning the French cri¬ 
sis, the new President, the tariff on sugar, 
Gladstone and Ireland, the food that produces 
Anarchists, the literary qualities in the last 
book by the Queen of Roumania, etc., etc. 
Where there is a man or woman of ability and 
tact to lead in these meetings, and who is well 
posted on current matters, these “clubs” can 
be made very profitable indeed. They furnish 
the kind of gossip that goes to the making of 
history,and not to the defamation of the next- 
door neighbor. 
If women would realize what is the absolute 
fact, that ministers of the gospel are human 
like all other men, and neither better Christ¬ 
ians than a great many lawyers—and often 
with less strength of character—there would 
be fewer ecclesiastical scandals. A preacher, 
if a gentleman, should be treated as such, but 
the fact that he is a minister is no reason what¬ 
ever for treating him with any greater de¬ 
gree of intimacy than if he were your attorney 
or your grocer. One of my friends has for his 
book motto, “Not by whom, but how.” Bo in 
our estimate of men and women, we should 
take their measure in their character and not 
in their profession. It is not what people do, 
but what they are that constitutes their value. 
Moreover, it is always the part of good sense, 
and of discretion, to give one’s confidence 
slowly. A secret once told can never be re¬ 
called. and what one cannot keep for herself 
she cannot fairly expect another to keep for 
her. 
A little powdered alum beaten in white of 
egg, and rubbed on the hands at night (draw 
on old kid gloves), will whiten the skin—this 
for the “vain sisters.” 
GOLDEN GRAINS. 
Rise! for the dayis passing, 
And you lie dreaming on: 
The others have buckled their armor 
And forth to the tight have gone. 
A place in the ranks awaits you. 
Each man has some part to play: 
The Past and the Future are looking 
In the face of the stern To-day. 
—Adelaide A. Prootor... 
Phillip Brooks concludes that no true 
man can live a half-life when he has genuinely 
learned that it is only a half-life. The other 
half, the higher half, must haunt him. 
Helen Jackson says: It is a piteous 
thing to see how, in this life, the gentler and 
finer organized nature is always the one to 
suffer most, and come off vanquished in col¬ 
lisions, and the coarse-grained, brutal one to 
triumph. 
Carlyle desires us to remember now and 
always, that life is no idle dream, but a sol¬ 
emn reality based upon eternity and encom¬ 
passed by eternity. Find out your task: 
stand to it; the night cometh when no man 
can work. 
The Independent says: The tender affec¬ 
tions, especially those of the family, which 
bind men together in this world, are largely 
the source of their earthly happiness. And 
yet these very affections, when ruptured and 
lacerated by the death of those we love, be¬ 
come the source of the most exquisite anguish 
known to the human heart. God be praised 
that in Heaven there is no death, and no sor¬ 
row over the dead. 
The way to get the most out of this life is 
to begin the work at as early a period as pos¬ 
sible, then and there to form some definite 
plan of what life shall be, to prepare for the 
execution of this plan, and then, the plan be¬ 
ing right and wise, to pursue it with an un¬ 
faltering step in the fear of God to the end of 
life. This is the best general rule of which 
we can think .. 
Dr. Young says: “Man is immortal until 
his work is done.” Then, and not before, 
death comes and transfers him to another 
world. Then God assigns to him a destiny 
according to the character of his work. 
No man is so important that he cannot be 
spared from this world; and as soon as he 
disappears therefrom by death, every man 
begins to be forgotten; and unless there be 
some remarkable # fact or facts in his earthly 
history, he will, in a comparatively short 
time, be forgotten altogether. Living men 
are too much occupied with the matters of 
life to give much attention to dead men. 
What a mere bubble is fame; how soon it 
bursts. 
CONDUCTED. BY MRS. AMINES E. M. CARMAN. 
UNEXPECTED GUESTS. 
I have before me a number of the Rural 
New-Yorker, in which a writer refers to 
unexpected company brought home by our 
usually larger, if not better half. I am so 
accustomed to having unexpected guests at 
meal time, that I ventured to write and give 
some of my experiences. Years ago, when I 
was first married, an old lady friend gave me 
some excellent advice in regard to company. 
Her family was small (only herself and hus- 
When Baby was sick, we gave her Castoria, 
When she was a Child, she cried for Castoria, 
When she became Miss, she clung to Castoria, 
When she had Children, she gave them Castoria. 
