256 
APRIL 44 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
ed, I would never recommend a country girl 
to seek her living in the city if she can sup¬ 
port herself comfortably at home. I could 
never see such a dark side to country life my¬ 
self, though I’ve spent a good part of my ex¬ 
istence three miles from a lemon, where we 
had to tramp that distance over rough coun¬ 
try roads every morning to school, and the 
same back again at night. But that daily six 
miles’ walk brought health and strength and a 
strong liking for out-door exercise, which 
does a good deal to make life enjoyable. 
But in spite of this little preach, country 
lads and lasses will long for the joys of the 
city, even if they finally resolve themselves in¬ 
to harder work than in the old country home. 
To those who will go to the city, I can only 
say, learn something thoroughly, and learn 
to do your work better than anyone else, and 
you may be sure of a living, though you are 
never likely to be happier than in the freedom 
of your country home. cottage maid. 
FARM HELP IN CALIFORNIA. 
MRS. H. 
The misunderstanding manifested in some 
of the comments upon Mrs. Fisher’s letters 
concerning farm life seems to me very singu¬ 
lar, even absurd. The Rural stated that 
Mrs. Fisher was to show up the dark side of 
farm life for women. That being the express 
object of her articles, how could any one with 
reason expect her to write of the pleasant side 
or discourse of the undesirable features of me¬ 
chanics, ministers or miners’ lives, or any 
thing else except the subject on which it was 
announced she would write? And she has 
given the truest picture of the black side of 
farm life that I have seen in print, though she 
did not touch half heavily enough upon the 
hired man question to suit me. My mother 
slaved for hired men for more than thirty 
years, and I shared her labors until I was 
twenty-eight years of age, and know all about 
it. But for the last eight years I have lived 
upon a ranch in California and have been 
happy for we employ Chinamen only who 
cook their food over a little fire in a hole in 
the ground under a large apple tree, and sleep 
in one end of the corn crib (quite sumptuous 
quarters for them). We pay them $1.25 a day 
—an increase of 25 cents the past year—and 
they “find” themselves. We do not believe in 
Chinese immigration, but as they are here we 
employ them in preference to boarding men 
in the house. 
A large ranch adjoining is occupied by a 
tenant and no Chinamen are employed. For 
three years the tenant’s wife has cooked for 
the men, but she does no washing of clothes 
or bedding for them. They come into the 
house only to meals, usually breakfasting at 
five o’clock in summer, half-past five in win¬ 
ter, and sleeping in a “bunk house” near the 
barn. I have yet to know of a farmer’s wife 
in this country who washes either clothes or 
bedding for hired men, even though she may 
cook for them. When a man goes to a place 
to work he takes his blanket with him and 
sleeps in some place outside of the house and 
washes his clothes himself (on Sunday) or has 
them washed at a laundry. 
The woman must be poor, indeed, in Cali¬ 
fornia, who does even her own washing—much 
of it. If she keeps no hired help in the house, 
the washing is sent—sometimes many miles— 
to a Chinese laundry. If she has help—usu¬ 
ally of necessity a Chinaman (but life would 
have few charms for me with a Chinaman 
always in my kitchen)—the hired men very 
seldom eat with the family, but in the kitchen, 
or a room provided for them, and their 
table appointments are of the plainest. 
On the very large ranches there is a cook 
and eating house expressly for the workmen. 
They are not given tablecloths, seldom or 
never have milk, butter, eggs, cake or pie, 
and they have dark-brown sugar and tin cups 
for tea and coffee, tin teaspoons, and usually 
tin plates. Oftentimes they have mutton 
three times a day for weeks and months. 
(Sometimes, for a change (and economy),where 
many hogs are Killed, the men are feasted (?) 
on hogs’ heads for a week at a time. 
Some of the Eastern farm hands who so 
disdain the idea of making their own bed, 
would doubtless change their minds were they 
to try farming in California. 
It is not because a man is poor or works for 
hire that one objects to having him in the 
family; as Mrs. Fisher says: “The caste feel¬ 
ing has nothing whatever to do with it.” I 
should not be willing to have the President of 
the United States become a fixture in my 
family under the same circumstances that at¬ 
tend the invasion of the hired mail. 
and ingenious way of doing good, which may 
not have originated with that good man. He 
has a pleasant way of talking with instead of 
at his congregation; as some one says, 4 -he 
does not stand up in his pulpit and throw 
stones at people,” and in his quiet, impressive 
way, he said that he had a little book called 
“Miss Toosey’s Mission,” which he would like 
to lend to some one of the congregation after 
the service, with the understanding that after 
having read it he would send it on, making 
that condition each time it was lent, that the 
borrower should in turn pass it to a friend. 
You can easily see how much good may in 
this way be accomplished by one little 
volume. 
Now since l.bave not the genius to originate 
a plan for doing good, I am going to borrow 
that of Dr. Deems. I wish some of the dear 
sisters who read the Rural, and who perhaps 
live in out-of-the-way places, where it is not 
so easy to obtain books as it is in New York 
City, would send to me for a copy of “Wik- 
key,” on just the conditions mentioned above 
that they will keep it in circulation. Address 
your request to Miss Emily Taplin, Rural 
New-Yorker, who has charge of this depart 
ment, and who will forward them to me. 
THE TRADE SCHOOLS. 
Mrs. M —., of Orange, New Jersey, writes: 
“I have read the very interesting articles in 
the Rural, on the New York Trade Schools, 
and would like to thank you for telling 
me what I should perhaps have known but 
was ignorant of. It has enabled me to see 
a future for my three sons, bright lads, 
whom I cannot afford to give more than a 
common-school education. I have a nephew 
in .California, a boy who left school at the age 
of 14. For a year he was a boy in a broker’s 
office at $5 a week; during this time he stud¬ 
ied stenography, and is now getting $50 a 
month in an Insurance office as stenographer. 
I mailed him your papers, and he writes. “I 
am coming to New York to attend the Trade 
Schools. I will support myself at short-hand 
while I am taking the evening course in brick¬ 
laying. I would rather make $4 a day at 
that than $2 at short-hand.” 
We will just mention for the benefit of 
others who may be interested, that circulars 
of the schools can be obtained by addressing 
the Superintendent of the New York Trade 
Schools, First Avenue, between 67th and 68th 
streets, New York. 
GOLDEN GRAINS. 
NOTES AND COMMENTS. 
PALMETTO. 
Last Sunday I attended the Church of the 
Strangers, of which the Rev. Dr. Deems is the 
pastor, aud was greatly pleased with a new 
’Most anybody can do a thing he feels like 
doing, but it takes a true man to do a thing 
when he doesn’t feel like it. 
Wilt thou seal up the avenues of ill? Pay 
every debt, as if God wrote the bill.. 
He who does right is frequently left alone. 
He who sees under the surface and discerns 
the true state of things, will be left alone by 
the undiscerniug multitude. 
The superior man wishes to be slow in his 
words and earnest in his conduct. ■••• 
I CAN hardly see how a Christian life can be 
liyed outside of contact with the industries 
and business of life. The tests that are found 
there are the only true tests of character. 
There is no person in this world who so uni¬ 
formly takes his pay as he goes along, as he 
who does good at the expense of his own com¬ 
fort and convenience. 
People don’t get famous iu a hurry, and it 
takes a deal of work even to earn your bread 
and butter. 
In II. Esdras 14, xiii., one may find this bit 
of wholesome counsel: “Be thou not curious 
how the ungodly shall be puuished, and when; 
but inquire how the righteous shall be saved.” 
Dr. Storrs says that He who yielded 
Himself to the cross, aud then rose to the skies, 
is to bring His kingdom of righteousness and 
peace to final and glorious consummation on 
earth, we are joyfully assured; and equally 
that in supernal realms of light aud triumph, 
to which He has ascended, a home is prepared 
for the humblest and the weakest who follow 
him in faith. 
Conscience is the true Vicar of Christ in 
the soul; a prophet in its information; a 
monarch iu its peremptoriness, a priest in its 
blessings or anathemas, according as we obey 
or disobey it.. 
All those who have their nobler nature de¬ 
veloped until they feel in themselves the in¬ 
spiration of God’s presence, says Mr. Beecher, 
are luhabitants of his kingdom aud none others 
are.. 
Religion is only love going about doing 
somethiug.. 
One of the best things iu the gospel of Jesus 
is the stress it lays on small things. It ascribes 
more value to quality than to quantity. It 
teaches that God does not ask how much we 
do, but how we do it. 
Earnestness commands the .respect of 
mankind. A wavering, vacillating, dead-and- 
alive Christian does not get the respect of the 
church or the world. 
Fig. 90. 
A HANDY DEVICE. 
The above is a device for raising and lower¬ 
ing a clothes-line: a is a stake driven firmly 
into the ground, to which b is attached by a 
pin; c is attached to b in the same way. The 
cross-piece, d, is for convenience in raising 
and lowering the line. a. m. c. 
WOMEN ON THE FARM. 
ANNIE L. JACK. 
I am surprised to see a paper like the New 
York Tribune, in a late article, express this 
sentiment: “As society is now constituted she 
loses caste and respect working in a field 
when her brother may gain, as a boy. The 
question often asked why a girl should not 
command the same respect as her brother 
working in the same place, does not change 
the fact that, as thiugs noware, she does not.” 
With this authority ou such an important 
subject to our girls, I take up the American 
Garden and in a well written editorial, read: 
“One sound doctor is bold enough to say, ‘No 
liberal man would shrink from the expense of 
a board fence, if it would induce his drug- 
poisoned wife to try her hand at turf spading 
or a bit of wheelbarrow work,’ and the 
heavens have not fallen on him yet. There 
are women well-born and well-bred who are 
not averse to taking a turn at turf spading 
or wheelbarrow work, while their neighbors, 
more sensitive as to their gentility, shrink 
from being seen with anything heavier than 
a trowel in their hands. Where the dread of 
being ungenteel has no sway, the fear of get¬ 
ting tanned or freckled rules. Know all wo¬ 
men that with proper diet, coarse, rich 
wheaten bread for staple, fresh fruits and 
vegetables, the skin is fairer and clearer for 
the sun.” While I cannot endorse the latter 
sentence, having so often experimented with 
one hand bare and the other covered, to the 
detriment of the former, I perfectly agree 
with the rest of the article, and even in the 
matter of the tan, I think and know by ex¬ 
perience that it is a matter of constitution 
that makes all the difference. Two children 
of the same age in our home differ wonder¬ 
fully in this respect; the brunette becoming a 
veritable gipsy as soon as spring sunshine 
comes; the other, a blond, keeping her fair 
skin, though going out hatless, letting the 
winds of heaven blow over her. The diet, 
exercise aud all accessories of the children are 
alike; but the brunette has more iron in her 
blood, probably. Regarding the Tribune’s 
article, it is absurd to promulgate such a doc¬ 
trine, and while I would not expect a girl to 
do the heavy labor that her brother could 
rightly perform by the “sweat of his brow,” 
yet I see no difference iu the matter of “caste” 
and “respect” in a girl helping her brother in 
the garden, field, or orchard in labor that 
does not over-tax her strength. Indeed, gar¬ 
dening, fruit picking and hay making are 
more inspiring and elevating than standing 
over the wash-tub to cleanse his dirty shirts, 
socks and overalls. A^ girl must not plant 
potatoes. Oh, no, our farmers’ daughters 
scorn the very idea! yet placidly they wash 
the dirty bags that held the potatoes, and the 
brother drops the little bits into the ground; 
which is the easier work? 
Writing some time ago an essay on grapes 
for our Horticultural Society, a Quebec editor 
quoted me as making a “new departure for 
girls” iu the simple fact of writing as if I un¬ 
derstood the business of grape growing, aud 
he advocated teaching this branch iu our 
schools. Upon hearing this some of the wom¬ 
en of this vicinity said with scornful tones 
there would be but a small following. Yet 
the same people do harder, less remunerative 
work, but it is in the house. Driving past a field 
one day in summer I saw a young French Can¬ 
adian and a young woman, evidently his wife, 
in a field of grain, he reaping, she tying. It 
was an old-fashioned and slow-going method, 
of course; but the happy expression of the 
young couple proved that she was a real help¬ 
meet, willing to aid in whatever her hands 
found to do. My companion was a young 
man of lofty ideas, and he said jeeringly: 
“That’s the kind of wife I would like—that is 
something like the thing.” But my idea was 
that the thrifty couple would prosper if she 
always maintained an interest in his work—for 
one of the stumbling-blocks to married happi¬ 
ness is that a woman is taken up with the 
petty details of her own small world, aud sel¬ 
dom shows an interest in the bread-winning. 
Men whose wives sympathize with their work, 
and talk freely of business, are sure to excel. 
I have noticed it in many cases and different 
pursuits. The wife need not go into the grain 
field, if it is not necessary; but I certainly 
should not lose my “respect” for her if she 
chose so to do, and could spare the time. Why 
should the men have a monopoly of out-door 
employments and the “respect” too? It is a 
foolish distinction and the sooner our farmers’ 
wives and daughters disabuse their minds of 
the idea that their lives must be spent 
within the walls of kitchen or parlor the bet¬ 
ter it will be for their health and comfort. 
And if the wife has time to tie the grain that 
he is cutting, or otherwise to help iu time of 
need, I say all honor to her, she is indeed a 
helpmeet. 
An intelligent-looking, sweet-faced woman 
attracted our attention on a ferry-boat latf ly 
by holding a five-cent piece between her teeth 
while she clasped aud returned her pocket- 
book to an inner pocket. The sight opened a 
train of thought somewhat at variance with 
the woman’s refined exterior. 
SOME NEW RECIPES. 
THE rural amateur cooking club again 
TO THE fore. 
My kind young friends of the R. A. C. C. 
recently sent me a bundle of recipes with the 
laconic message, “Tested.” As such, I present 
them to the lady readers of the Rural. 
SOUP A LA BONNE FEMME. 
Pare and slice a quart of potatoes; parboil for 
ten minutes, and drop them into boiling broth 
of any kind. Two quarts of broth will be re¬ 
quired for this measure of potatoes. When 
tender press through a sieve, and return to 
the saucepan. Add a teaspoonful of flour wet 
with cold water as soon as boiling commences. 
This will prevent settling. Add also two 
handfuls of lettuce and one of sorrel minced, 
aud boil until tender. Prepare two table¬ 
spoonfuls each of asparagus tops, green peas, 
and Brussels sprouts, all cooked in salted 
water, strained, and heated with a little but¬ 
ter. Give one boil and add the yelks of two 
eggs well whipped, and mixed with a cup of 
boiling milk or cream. Season to taste with 
salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and do not allow 
the soup to boil after the cream and eggs are 
in. You may use for this soup any greenjvege- 
tables in season, and it is often a most econo¬ 
mical soup, as the vegetables left from two or 
three preceding meals may be thus utilized. 
FISH SALAD. 
The original recipe calls for flounders, but 
any fish may be used in like manner. Cut the 
cold boiled fish in as even pieces or slices as 
possible, and let them lie in a mixture of one 
tablespoonful of oil, half as much lemon-juice, 
and salt and pepper, turning occasionally. 
Prepare a salad of vegetables—potatoes, 
celery, minced lettuce, asparagus, any kind of 
cold boiled vegetables may be used, including 
raw tomatoes. Pile on a dish; cover with a 
mayonnaise dressing; lay the pieces of fish on 
top, and garnish with hard-boiled eggs. 
FRIED CHICKEN. 
This is an Italian dish and is very appetiz¬ 
ing. Quarter a broiling chicken and lay the 
pieces in a deep dish with a little oil, lemon- 
juPe and minced onion, turning the pieces 
frequently for an hour. Lay them on a sieve 
to drain, dip in a batter and fry. Be sure to 
have them thoroughly done, and serve with a 
tomato sauce made by simmering half a can 
When Baoy 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. 
