4888 
THU RURAL N£W-V0RlfR 
Cmtr. 
“ Every Man is presumed to know the Law. 
Nine-tenths of all Litigation arises from Ig¬ 
norance of Law." 
USURY IN NEW YORK. 
L. T., Brooklyn, N. Y. —Has a bank of this 
city a right to charge more than six per cent, 
interest, and what redress has a person if he 
is charged as much as 12 per cent.? 
Ans. —No person is obliged to pay more 
than six per cent, interest in this State. If 
he is charged more he can refuse to pay it, 
and the charge itself works a forfeiture of all 
the interest due or to be collected. If any 
extra interest has been already collected by 
a bank, either State or National, the person 
who paid it, or his legal representatives may, 
at any time within two years, sue and recover 
twice the entire amount. 
./. T. S., Newark. N. J. —If a married man 
dies without leaving a will, having a wife but 
no children or brother, sister, nephew or 
niece, but only cousins, what personal and 
real property does the widow receive? 
Ans. —If the deceased left no father or 
mother, his real estate, by the law of New 
Jersey, would descend to “persons of equal de¬ 
gree of consanguinity to the person so seized, 
as tenants in common, in equal parts, however 
remote from the person so seized the common 
degree of-consanguinity may be.” The wid¬ 
ow’s right of dower, however, remains, which 
is the use and benefit “for the term of her 
natural life of one full and equal third.” In 
the same case, the personal estate would go 
half to the widow, while the residue would be 
“distributed equally to every of the next of 
kindred who are of equal degree, and those 
who represent them.” 
J. T. F., Bates City, Mo. —I have no chil¬ 
dren of my own, but I have a niece who has 
been with me from infancy. She is now 
married. Eight years ago I gave her a deed 
of adoption, having first had it recorded. Is 
that sufficient to enable her to inherit all my 
property, or should I also make a will leaving 
it to her? 
Ans. —Better make a will also, as in such 
cases there is always a strong inclination on 
the part of other blood relations to contest the 
disposition of the property. 
L. S., New Haven , Conn. —Some months 
ago, before the Eye-Opener exposed fraudu¬ 
lent mining schemes, I was unfortunate 
enough to invest more money than I can con¬ 
veniently spare in one of those denounced; is 
there any means of getting the money re¬ 
turned? 
Ans. —There is no possible means of getting 
that money back. All our friend can do is to 
earn and save more, and keep out of mining 
speculations. 
A. S. F., Geneva, N. Y .—Can a person 
whose life is insured in a Relief Association 
change the persons to be benefited by the insur¬ 
ance, in his last will, without notice to the of¬ 
ficers? 
Ans.—A policy of insurance is payable to 
the beneficiaries named therein, and these 
cannot be changed by the will of the person 
insured. 
S. L. T., Buffalo, N. I.—A widower with 
only two children—a son and a daughter—just 
before his death, transfers all his personal 
estate to the son without the knowledge of his 
daughter; is such a transfer legal, and has the 
daughter any redress? 
Ans. —If the father was of sound mind, 
he had a perfect right to make such a disposi¬ 
tion of his estate. 
Implied Warranty.— Where a farmer kills 
and sells hogs to be used as food there is no 
implied warranty on his part that they are fit 
for that purpose, according to a recent deci¬ 
sion of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts in 
the case of Givoux vs. Steedinan. The Court 
said that the law was settled that in a sale of 
an animal by one dealer to another, even with 
a knowledge that the latter intended to con¬ 
vert it into meat for domestic use, or in the 
sale of provisions in the course of commercial 
transactions, there was no implied warranty 
of the quality. This settles the matter in 
Massachusetts, but it is doubcful whether this 
law would hold good in several of the other 
States. 
1 The.^.Gold” Goods^ Swindle. —The' “gold 
goods”'swiudleJs rapidly taking the place of 
the “green; goods” fraud.J^There’s.^nothing 
new about the thirg itself, however. It has 
been practiced, to a limited extent, for years. 
It has been exposed over and over again in 
this department of the Rural. Lately, how¬ 
ever, it has been widely adopted by the frater¬ 
nity of crooks. Within the last fortnight the 
Eye-Opener has collected accounts of no less 
than nine cases in which the “game” was 
“worked” successfully. The modus ojterandi 
is always substantially the same. Take the 
case of James B. Chapman, of Adams, Jeffer¬ 
son County, N. Y., as an example. He was 
old enough to know much better and rich 
enough to be cautious; yet he was foolish 
enough to lose $7,500 by a barefaced fraud. A 
short time ago a brace of sharpers visited him 
at his home and told him they were miners 
who had come all the way from Colorado, 
where they had been engaged in gold-mining. 
A companion, they said, had died sudfllnly 
and before his demise had confided to them 
that he had buried two gold bricks on a farm 
in Jefferson County, N. Y. The schemers 
produced a map which they said their com¬ 
panion had given them to show where the 
treasure had been secreted. On examining 
the map old Chapman was astounded on re¬ 
cognizing that it was a map of his own farm. 
There was one spot in particular which was in¬ 
dicated as the place where the gold could be 
found. 
The three men went to digging and stuck to 
it for two days, when one of the strangers 
came, of course, upon the bricks. Of course, 
also, the swindlers claimed that they were en¬ 
titled to a part of the value ot the find. To 
this, equally of course, their victim agreed. 
The sharpers told the farmer to bore into the 
bricks, designating the spot where he was to 
do so. Of course, the bricks were plugged 
just there, and when Chapman took the shav¬ 
ings to a local jeweler, the latter honestly 
pronounced them genuine gold. On this in¬ 
formation farmer Chapman hustled about, 
and collected from bank and friends $5,000 
which he paid over to the swindlers, and on 
the advice of the latter he immediately 
started for Philadelphia to dispose of the 
bricks to the United States Mint. Of course, 
he could just as readily have sold them on the 
way, at the Sub-Treasury in this city, but he 
didn’t know that. Well, when they got to 
Utica, farmer Chapman, in the exuberance of 
his joy, mortgaged his farm for $2,500, which 
he paid over to his companions. At Trenton, 
N. J., the rascals alighted from the train on 
pretence of getting something to eat, and that 
was the last old man Chapman saw of them. 
Thinking they had either missed the train or 
taken another car, he continued his journey 
to Philadelphia, fully convinced that he could 
obtain a big fortune for his couple of bricks. 
On his arrival in the Quaker City, he hurried 
at once to the Mint, and offered his treasures 
for sale as bullion; but on testing them, Clerk 
Cochran “knocked him silly” by telling him 
they were brass and not worth $5—each?—no, 
for both. Just fancy the old man’s feelings 
as he traveled back to his mortgaged farm, his 
empty bank and his disappointed family I 
There are, of course, many little variations in 
the method of working this swindle; but the 
above is an excellent sample of the cuteness of 
the sharpers. They had found out beforehand 
all about the thrift, greed and gullibility of 
poor old Chapman, and very cleverly planned 
to take advantage of all his '^little innocent 
weaknesses. The main point in all this class 
of swindles is that the sharpers bamboozle their 
dupes into the belief that a brick of brass or 
gilded lead or other heavy metal is gold, worth 
many thousands of dollars instead of a few 
hundreds of cents. For this purpose they pre¬ 
pare the brick in advance by boring holes here 
and there and inserting real gold in them, or 
putting bits of gold at the corners. Then they 
tell their dupes to bore just where the gold is, 
or to file off the corners and take the shavings 
to some jeweler or goldsmith to be tested. Of 
course, the latter says that what he has tested 
is genuine gold, and the victim thinks the 
whole brick is of the same precious metal. 
The Eye-Opener has just received from cor¬ 
respondents in different parts of the country 
three circulars which tell of a somewhat dif¬ 
ferent form of the same swindle. They offer 
“gold goods” for sale, and tell of the recent 
discovery of a composition undistinguishable 
from gold. They go on to say that the 
“goods” are of the finest workmanship and of 
the exact look, weight and ring of genuine 
gold coin, and that the makers defy the best 
coin experts in the country to distinguish be¬ 
tween theirs and the genuine—and so forth, in 
the hackneyed style of the old “green goods” 
or “sawdust” swindlers. The circulars,which 
are precisely the same in text, though differ¬ 
ent names and addresses are affixed, all end 
with this declaration: “I will expect my pay¬ 
ment in greenbacks, as I don’t care for gold 
coin, as I can furnish an article as fair and 
safe as any coin in use as there is a God 
above; for should you bring gold witn you 
some of it is liable to be of my own manufact¬ 
ure, as has often happened.” 
Inclosed in each circular is a bogus news¬ 
paper clipping credited to the San Francisco 
Chronicle. The clipping tells of a Belgian 
arrested in San Francisco in January,charged 
by a Mexican with offering to sell him $20,000 
in gold for $800 in greenbacks. Experts called 
in on the trial pronounced the coin genuine, 
and the prisoner was discharged. An account 
of a Mormon case, that really did appear in 
the paper, is reproduced on the other side of 
the bogus “clipping.” Just as with “green 
goods,” when the purchasing swindler comes 
to town to get the counterfeit money, real 
gold will be shown him, and then the packages 
will be so manipulated—Diss-Debarred—that 
he will start joyously home with a lot of lead 
pipe nicely done up in paper, and which he 
fondly imagines is bogus gold with which 
he intends to swindle his neighbors. 
{%tx udlantout. 
IMPROVE THE ROADS. 
The Road Making Special came just at the 
right time, apparently. It has set people to 
thinking, and the friends of good roads have 
made use of it by having copies sent to their 
friends. The following notes show how en¬ 
terprising men everywhere are trying to start 
the work of road reform: 
I have been looking over the Road Special, 
and it is far ahead of anything I ever saw in 
print on the subject. There are, however, one 
or two things to which I wish to call attention. 
Mr. Stewart says, “A dead level is tiresom® 
to a horse and his driver as well; a slightly 
rolling road is more agreeable and easier,” 
etc. I would add that it is less expensive to 
build and keep in repair, for the reason that 
the water does not accumulate in such large 
quantities, but gets off, and does not carry 
with it so much of the material of which the 
road is made. 
In discussing the road question, I often 
come in contact with parties who think the 
road must be wide, otherwise there will be 
ruts; I seldom see a road so narrow that its 
small width is the cause of ruts, unless it con¬ 
sists of a narrow strip on each side of a horse 
railroad,and the travel is up one side and down 
the other. w. v. 
Franklin, N. J. 
I think the Rural cartoon on road-making 
is good. I have been road supervisor three 
years, but did not work like the men in the 
first cut. I gave every man to understand 
that he had to work. I made it a practice to 
make good ditches and took out all rocks and 
large stones. But a good man who under¬ 
stands road-making cannot be elected every 
year: the people don’t know the importance of 
the thing. If they get a good man one year 
they think he has had the office long enough. 
If they want good roads in this country they 
will have to change the system, because no 
good man is going to give his time to the 
country for $1 per day, and that is what the 
law allows to supervisors in this State. All 
road taxes should be paid in cash. % As a rule, 
men who go to work their tax on the road, 
don’t care about working; all they want to do 
is to put in their time. w. w. 
Kane, Pa. 
The road-making picture on first page of a 
late Rural is about correct. It represents 
the way the work is done a great many times. 
Our town voted to raise 20 mills on the dollar 
to build roads and bridges to be paid in money 
before June next. We have three road com¬ 
missioners living in different parts of the town 
to take charge of the roads and road machine. 
Our roads are improving every year. 
Franklin Co., Vt. w. o. 8. 
Iu the coming election we vote whether we 
will have our roads worked in the old way 
or the new way—old way, tax-payers to work 
the tax out; new way, the work to be done by 
hired help who can be discharged if not liked. 
TLe Rural’s Road Special is going to help us 
out well. F. A. K. 
Davisville, R. I. 
I thank the Rural most heartily for its 
Road Special. Its universal distribution 
would be of great service, and the adoption 
of many of its suggestious would be an incal¬ 
culable boon to any community. f. h. b. 
Raleigh, N. C. 
The last cartoon on road making is a “stun¬ 
ner.” It speaks a whole bookful, without say¬ 
ing a word. The two upper pictures repre¬ 
sent, I am sorry to say, familiar scenes on a 
good many country roads. “The shoe pinches 
the foot,” even in this vicinity, but the advent 
of road machines (and we have one near-by) 
will soon change all this. I do love a good 
road, for it’s a pleasure for us farmers to ride 
on one. Yes, the Rural Cartoons hit the 
bull’s-eye every time, so don’t let up in the 
good work. m. h. c. g. 
Orange Co., N. Y, 
The picture of road making, Fig. 99, is the 
“boss” one of the series, so our meu-folks say. 
They claim to know some in the lazy group, 
and think the Rural’s artist must have taken 
them from life. j. a. 
H«rrisville, Mich. 
I was so much interested in the late Road 
Special that I thought it a good idea to have 
our highway commissioners peruse the Ru¬ 
ral. We have about 150 path-masters in this 
town. o. p. reeve. 
Orange Co., N. Y. 
I think the Rural has struck a good lead 
in its Road Special, and that prompt and ju¬ 
dicious action on the suggestions contained in 
it would result in the benefit to our country of 
millions of dollars. e. o. 
Marysville, Tenn. 
The Road Special is an excellent number. 
I learn that our road-master does not take the 
paper. Please send him a sample copy of 
that issue. r. j. 
Vineland, N. J. 
The Road-Making Special so pleased me 
that I would like to have my associates on 
day’s work see it; and it may be the cause of 
bringing them to think that $2 invested in 
the Rural is one of the best investments they 
can make. j. s. t. 
Bayard, Ohio. 
lUotnmr’s Work. 
CONDUCTED BY EMILY LOUISE TAPLIN. 
CHAT BY THE WAY. 
M iss Willard is a good woman, but we 
feel inclined to suggest a Society for the 
Reform of Reformers when she speaks in re¬ 
probation of childhood’s cherished dolls. She 
thinks dolls are “heathenish,” and is of the 
opinion that they are anything but beneficial 
to girls. While deeply respecting Miss Wil¬ 
lard, we must differ emphatically from this 
opinion. In fact, we always feel a pang of 
grieved surprise when we hear a mature young 
lady of ten or twelve declare that she doesn’t 
care for dolls, “its too babyish. ” So far from be¬ 
ing babyish, it is simply an expression of the 
maternal feeling which every real woman pos¬ 
sesses; without which she is simply a monstros¬ 
ity. The sight of a little make-believe mother 
soothing to sleep a refractory infant of mus¬ 
lin and sawdust, is only less beautiful than the 
same child come to woman’s estate, hushing 
her living and breathing babe in her arms. 
* * * 
And, apart from mere sentiment, dolls are 
not without their use. The girl who has a 
large family of these inanimate pets to dress 
and care for is taking excellent lessons in the 
art and mystery of needlework. If she has to 
duplicate her own garments in miniature it is 
the first step towards the construction of her 
own wardrobe. She learns economy, too, in 
cutting limited quantities of material, as well 
as gaining ideas of taste and suitability. 
* * * 
Then look at the moral effect dolls exert! 
Does this sound very absurd? But we think 
that girls who are interested in dolls, who do 
not think themselves too big to fuss with such 
playthings, even when they have attained the 
mature age of thirteen or fourteen, are not 
likely to have many of the silly, mock-roman- 
tic notions some of our school-girls hold. 
They are more apt to practice housewifely vir¬ 
tues in caring for their numerous brood, and 
since so many writers deplore the distaste for 
domestic life so many girls display, a reaction 
in favor of the doll-baby should take place. 
And, as Miss Willard, good and sensible as we 
know she is, has owned up to wearing tight 
gowns, uncomfortable shoes, and useless bon¬ 
nets, just as any frivolous woman might, we 
respectfully suggest that she turn her energies 
in other channels, rather than to an anti-doll 
crusade. 
* * * 
A very effective and artistic wall covering 
is cartridge paper, which is dull blue in color, 
very soft and thick-looking. It forms an ad¬ 
mirable back-ground for pictures. It should 
have at the top, a frieze of some warm metallic 
tint, to take off an effect of coldness. In one 
instance the frieze, about a foot deep, was of 
silvery Lincrusta Walton, with a copper 
moulding at top and bottom. The dining¬ 
room at the Woman’s Exchange, 329 Fifth 
Avenue, gives a very good suggestion for such 
a room in a private house; the walls are cov¬ 
ered with satin paper, a soft, pale terra-cotta, 
