m 
THE PIE DIES HARD. 
C. L H. 
Mrs. Wager-Fisher may feel flattered at 
the success of her “Dark Side” articles. They 
evidently have set many to thinking. And 
what better result could be desired? 
I once knew an old fellow who was a great 
expounder of political issues. But be never 
cared to talk with any one who agreed with 
him. He considered such talk both tame and 
useless. It was only when he got some one to 
take the other side that he could express him¬ 
self in a way worth listening to. And at the 
same time he would awaken the best thoughts 
in the opposing party. 
Now, whenever a writer attacks any wide¬ 
spread evil in a straightforward, fearless man¬ 
ner, there are always plenty who stand ready 
to take the other side. The evidence in favor 
of pie eating reminds me of a case brought 
against a man for murder. The State had two 
witnesses who saw him commit the deed. But 
he thought he could get cl ear because he could 
bring a dozen witnesses who did not see him 
commit it. 
I am glad there is one American citizen who 
can stand pie for 60 years. I know of one who 
has drunk whisky equally as long; of another 
who has used tobacco for more than three¬ 
score years and is still alive. Because one 
man can fight a tiger and come off victorious, 
it does not make me the less fearful of meeting 
one. It raises my opinion of the man’s nerve 
and muscle rather than lowers that of the 
tiger. 
Henry Stewart says that pie-making is only 
a recreation. Perhaps it is to the one who 
looks on. But has he ever tried it day after 
day for months and years? When I referred 
that paragraph to our cook it so stirred up 
her feelings that she declared she could shake 
him if he were within her reach. Her earnest 
manner told more than her words, and im¬ 
pressed me with the burden of pie-making 
more than a 20-page sermon could have done. 
A MISSIONARY KINDERGARTEN. 
w. 
Joaquin Miller spent a day in a Kinder¬ 
garten in Silver Street, San Francisco, and 
he fills a page of the Pacific Rural Press 
witli a delightful description of it. A “Babel 
for babes” he calls it, and he excuses his ex¬ 
citement over such a tiny and low-down sub¬ 
ject by the fact that it “lies mighty close to 
the nourishing roots of this nation.” The 
queer-looking, kindly German Froebel, who 
first began to teach babes and took to his 
noble heart the sublime and simple lesson of 
the lowly Nazarene “Suffer little children to 
come unto me;” lived less than a century ago, 
and a pupil of his, Frau Sender, first taught 
afrer his methods in California. There are 12 
youug teachers, only two of them drawing 
any salary, in this Silver Street Garten, with 
hundreds of little people not much more than 
knee high.of all nationalities,loving and loved, 
playing at a chequered table or working, or 
resting, now and then one sleeping, and car¬ 
ried on careful arms to a sofa where others 
sleep. There are no books and no tasks, but 
they learn the best of learning in most pleas¬ 
ant ways. 
At times the Lilliputian army marches 
round or out or in, to the sound of music. To 
see them, led by their drum-major in petti¬ 
coats, and wearing a big red paper cap would 
make you laugh with delight, and feel glad to 
the heart. For these little ones, many of 
them swept up from the gutter, are already a 
long way above it, and one feels glad to the 
heart in the assurance that they will not 
easily let go and recede to depravity. 
They have instru ctive and exhilarating 
games every day and almost every hour, and 
there is a great deal of singing, which some¬ 
times brings tears to little eyes; it moistened 
mine, and I am a better man for hearing it 
and seeing these babies and their bappy-look- 
ing teachers. If 1 were a woman and bad no 
work nearer, but wanted to do solid good, 1 
would teach in one of these lowly schools. 
One of these teachers seemed less beautiful 
than the others, but as I saw how kind, how 
patient, how attentive she was to little weary, 
slipshod waifs, I began to think her the fairest 
of the whole fair flock of 12 pretty little mis¬ 
sionaries. 
Joseph, poor little Joseph, with his coat of 
many colors, with only about a shoe and a 
half and no stockings at all was there up out 
of the darkness of Egypt with a dozen pretty 
American ladies for his nurses and his mother. 
And courtly Lord Roland, yellow-haired, still 
in petticoats—dear, pretty, dimpled Lord 
Roland, loving as a lamb. 
The principal brought to me two “favorites” 
—two curious little creatures, so very small. 
One was a Kanaka brown as a nut. The other 
had a towsy head of flax. They were very 
glean, but could barely toddle—favorites, 
THE RURAL WEW-YORKER. 
MARSH 4? 
evidently, because of being so small and help¬ 
less. 
I remember these streets when many police¬ 
men were necessary to control the drunken 
brawling, dissolute crowd. I only met one 
now and I asked him what he thought of these 
kindergartens. “If I could open plenty of kin¬ 
dergartens, sir, I think I could almost shut up 
the penitentiary.” 
The wife of President Diaz has opened a 
house in the City of Mexico where working 
women may leave their children through the 
day while out to service. She is a dear friend of 
mine, or rather of humanity, and I am going 
to write to her at once to turn the place into 
a kindergarten and get some good, patient, 
stout-hearted American girls to go down there 
and show her how. 
If you could see the heart that these women 
here put into their work—big work for small 
reward; great praise but little pay—you would 
love them and help them. And you would 
love and adore Adolph Sutro. Miss Crocker, 
and the other good people in the background, 
who pay the bills and make these big little 
free schools possible. German and Jewish 
ladies and gentlemen were the first to move 
in this line. It has had signal success from 
the first through California; people have given 
money for it freely and gladly, and children 
flock into every kindergarten door that has 
been opened. 
GOLDEN GRAINS. 
Apropos of this age of partial prohibition are 
the words of Horace Greeley: “To sell ram for 
a livelihood is bad enough, but fora whole 
community to share the responsibility and 
guilt of such a traffic seems a worse bargain 
than that of Eve or Judas.”.. 
Who does not agree with Judge Greer when 
he says: “And if a loss of revenue should ac¬ 
crue to the United States from a diminished 
consumption of ardent spirits, she will be the 
gainer of a thousand-fold in the health, wealth 
and happiness of the people.”. 
A little charity girl was asked by an in¬ 
spector of schools whether she could explain 
the meaning of bearing false witness against 
one’s neighbor. “Please sir, when no one does 
nothing to nobody, and some one goes and 
tells on’t.”.. 
An Exchange says while women have not 
the right to vote they have the right of peti¬ 
tion, which they may use to better purpose 
than they do. There is truth in this state¬ 
ment not as fully appreciated as it might be. 
The right of petition was one of the inestima¬ 
ble privileges tor which our fathers fought and 
which they purchased with great sacrifices. 
Let the women use the right of petition, and 
make a liberal use of it. 
Emerson said: “Manners form at last a 
rich varnish, with which the routine of life is 
washed and its details adorned. If they are 
superficial, so are the dewdrops which give 
such a depth to the morning meadows.” 
“Every man takes care that his neighbor 
shall not cheat him. But a day comes when 
he begins to care that he does not cheat his 
neighbor. Then all goes well. He has chang¬ 
ed his market-cart into a chariot of the sun.” 
It is a proof of fine breeding, says an author¬ 
ity in the world of fashion, to seem to be hap¬ 
py whether one is content or not. We have 
no right to permit our mental or physical tastes 
or moods to depress or annoy other persons. 
Moods should be our own secrets, and if we 
have them not well in band we .may be sure 
there is something for us to attain that we can¬ 
not afford to live without, and that is a triumph 
over ourselves. . 
CONDUCTED BY MRS. AGNES E. M. CARMAN. 
LAMP SHADES. 
The shade illustrated at Fig. 65 is made of 
cream-colored lace with bows of pale pink 
ribbon. Of course, this cover can be varied 
as one’s taste suggests. 1 k One recently seen 
was ofj.pink,. crepe liberally sprinkled with 
silver spangles and edged with cream-colored 
lace. 
THE HELP QUESTION.—THE HIRED 
MAN. 
It does not seem to me that any one per¬ 
son can have bad experience varied enough to 
enable him to speak advisedly or justly on all 
points of the much vexed question of domestic 
help. When I read much that is written on 
the subject I must say I nearly always feel a 
desire to tske up my pen in behalf of the ser¬ 
vants. Because part of a class of people are 
untrustworthy and a trouble it seems very 
unjust to condemn the whole class as such. 
For 20 years have I known what it is to hire 
help, and our help always have a home in our 
family. At the present time we have one girl 
and four hired men the wdiole year. When 
there is extra work to be done, like icing or 
Alfalfa to harvest, our men number ten or 
more. I can not say a word upon the help 
question as it affects the helpless lady who 
cannot cook a meal for her own family if her 
girl absconds Neither can I speak for the 
gentleman who cau not black his own boots 
or care for his own horse. I know of help as 
a working woman knows them. I work with 
my girls when my aid is needed, and when 
the work is too heavy for us I call in one of 
the men and give him a place at the washing- 
machine or somewhere else where his strength 
will count in making the day’s work endur¬ 
able. 
When we first began housekeeping our help 
was onehired man. I washed his clothes,and, 
feeling a pity for the stranger in a strange 
land, I mended his shirts and socks—just as I 
would have liked tojjiave had some other 
woman who had the time to doit, care for my 
brother had he been in this man’s place. As 
my cares increased I dropped the mending, 
but our men never hired their washing until 
within two years, when it became necessary 
to keep so many men I dropped that as I had 
dropped the mending, because it seemed too 
much work. Now, do not think that the girl 
or myself scrubbed their clothes in the old- 
fashioned way. On washing day we had the 
services of a man as long as he could be of any 
help to us, bringing water and turning the 
washing and wringing machines. After all, 
it was not such a dreadful thing to let their 
clothes be washed under those circumstances, 
and I always believed it made the place seem 
more homelike to the “boys,” and I was really 
sorry not to b6 able to do all I wished to en¬ 
hance that feeling. 
Then as to boarding the men—if folks have 
a living to make, they must make it;-it will 
notcome without some exertion on their part. 
Man} r a man couldn’t afford to hire a hand if 
the money for his work and board had to be 
raised in clean cash; but if he could be boarded 
in the family that would help greatly. I con¬ 
tend that in a properly arranged house¬ 
hold, w r here husband and wife try to 
help each other, the hired man can, and 
does do enough of the heavy work, so that the 
mistress is not really burdened by his pres¬ 
ence. The hired man can lend a helping hand 
when the busy husband can not spare the 
time, as is often the case. Now, as to grum- 
bliug, boorish men. There is no need of keep¬ 
ing such a man over-night. Whefi such a one 
finds a place on our ranch, as soon as his char¬ 
acter is known he is quietly informed that his 
services are not needed .and as soon as possible 
a fitter one is in his place. There is just where 
master and mistress are equal to the occasion; 
especially if they make good his place until 
another baud is found, they are, in a measure, 
independent of their help. We make it a rule 
to eat with our help—to have them at our ta¬ 
ble. They are good enough to work for and 
with us, to cook for us, and to be with our 
children at times; then why. in the name of 
reason, are they not good enough to sit at our 
table? I believe few men will find fault with 
the cooking or the meals under such circum¬ 
stances. If one does there is an easy way to 
settle the case—let him seek a place more to 
his mind, the sooner the better. I believe that 
help like to be by themselves in their spare 
time, just as the family like to be by them¬ 
selves. Excepting boarding together, our 
help and ourselves are as separate as any two 
families in one house could be. I take pains 
to have papers and books in the dining-room 
where they sit winter eveniugs, and grateful¬ 
ly do I remember some of our hired men of 
studious habits, who seemed to delight in help¬ 
ing my children in their school lessons. Of 
course, we are particular about what men we 
hire. A man with a cigar or a great lump of 
tobacco between his teeth has one black mark 
against him, and such are never given the 
preference. We have been fortunate enough 
to have our whole number of men for months 
together free from the tobacco vice. 
In our 10 years’ residence in the West we 
have had many good men. Many of them 
were from the East—sons of farmers, well- 
manuered, well-educated, youug men, who 
came here to get a start in the world. Why 
it should lower them in the social scale to do 
the same work here they would have done on 
their fathers’ farms, I cannot see. In either 
case they would have been hired men, for 
after young men are of age they are gener¬ 
ally paid for work done on their fathers’ farms. 
Most of these youug men are now thriving 
land owners near us, and respected by all who 
know them. Some of our leading merchants 
got their start in the world as hired men. 
Indeed, it will not do to inquire very closely 
into the former pursuits of a good many solid 
business men if to be a hired man is to be 
only an object fit to be “eliminated.” In 
truth, it is just the most sensible thing a 
young man can do to hire out a year or two 
in this land of irrigation before he ventures 
too much without experience to guide him— 
no matter how much money his purse con¬ 
tains. There is no indignity in having a 
cleanly, well behaved man in the house, as 
a guest—even if his comfort must be attended 
to by the mistress of the family; but there is a 
chance that as a guest his presence is not 
desired. But let this same man hire to 
the family and although his presence 
and help are so much desired as to call 
forth the hard-earned dollars to keep him 
there, what a change has come over the 
face of things—it is now an “indignity” for 
the housewife to see that he is comfortably 
lodged and fed. 
An old lady used to say, when any case of 
failure to do right came to her ears, “We are 
all poor creeturs.” Often and ofteu her 
quaint sayiDg comes to my mind. We all 
need words of kindly encouragement—the 
hired help as well as those who hire. We 
need lots of charity; for in truth “we are all 
poor creeturs.” 
“Do you get good help—are you faithfully 
served?” asks some one. On the whole, I 
think we are faithfully worked for. Remem¬ 
ber we try to put each man in the place he 
seems best fitted to fill, and if one is found 
lacking in any respect, a better one is sought 
for and put in his place. We pay the best 
of wages and expect good returns in careful¬ 
ness and honest, painstaking service, and on 
our part we make no unreasonable demands 
and never keep a man waiting for the wages 
that are his due. So a steady man finds it 
as much for his interest to hold his place, as 
it is for ours to have him do so. s. e. ii. 
Ribbon bows for the hair are very pretty 
and fashionable. 
The sleeves of new spring dresses are com¬ 
fortably loose. 
A black cashmere dress recently seen had 
jet ornaments down the side panel, jet collar 
and cuffs, and white watered silk vest. 
The draperies of cashmere and other woolen 
dresses are frequently finished with hems 
three inches wide and two rows of machine 
stitching at the top. The basque is then 
stitched twice near the edge. 
Challis at eight and ten cents the yard is 
shown in desirable colors, and bid fair to be 
again popular for summer wear. Velvet 
trimmings—vest, collar, cuffs—will convert a 
frock of this goods into quite a dressy affair, 
and at a cost of not over $2 00 for materials. 
A woman limited in means will find a good 
quality of black cashmere the most satisfac¬ 
tory goods that she can buy for an all-purpose 
dress. Such a dress can be worn winter or 
summer, and the addition of ribbon bows or 
lace jabot so smartens it up that it can be 
worn without hesitancy upon festive occas¬ 
ions. For several years the writer had but 
one good dress at a time, and that was a black 
cashmere. It was well made, kept dean and 
in perfect repair, and the wearer, although 
appearing in it at places win re more dressy 
materials were worn, never remembers to 
have experienced the feeling of shabbiness. 
THE HOSPITALITY OF A JERSEY 
FARM-HOUSE. 
The idea of hospitality is generally con¬ 
nected with wealth, spacious rooms and a 
retinue of servants, whereas all these are as 
nothing if a host or hostess has not good¬ 
breeding and that innate grace and tact 
which can transform cabin walls into those of 
a palace. Have you never met persons whose 
courteous, and grand manners so surrounded 
When Baby was sick, we gave her Castoria. 
When she was a Child, she cried for Castoria, 
When she became Miss, ste clung to Castoria, 
When she had Children, she gave them Castoria. 
