4888 
Caw. 
“Every Man is presumed to know the Law. 
Nine-tenths of all Litigation arises from Ig¬ 
norance of Law .” 
“necessaries” for a wife. 
R. M. T., McConnellsville, Ohio. —If a wife 
contracts debts after her husband has put a 
notice in the paper that he will not be respon¬ 
sible for them, can they be legally collected ? 
Ans. —It will depend upon what kind of 
debts they are. If they are for necessaries of 
ife, the publication of the husband that he 
will not pay them has no legal effect, even 
though it be read by the person who after¬ 
wards supplies the goods; for the common 
law, with all its injustice to women, does not 
and never did permit a husband without cause 
to drive his wife from home to subsist on the 
charity of jothers. Whenever he fails to pro¬ 
vide for her at his home, or drives her away, 
or so conducts himself as to justify her in 
leaving him, he is liable for the necessaries 
furnished her, though they are furnished in 
violation of his express command. A man 
can, however, prohibit any particular person 
or persons from furnishing his wife necessaries 
upon his credit, provided it would not prevent 
her from obtaining them elsewhere. As he is 
bound to support her, he has a right to deter¬ 
mine where she shall trade. A'husband, how¬ 
ever, cannot be made chargeable for goods 
furnished his wife without his consent, either 
expressed or implied, unless they are neces¬ 
sary. Food and clothing are not necessaries 
to a person whose wants in this line are fully 
supplied. The maintenance to which the 
wife has a right must correspond in some de¬ 
gree to his wealth and position; for the wife 
of a rich man has a legal and moral right to 
pleasures and privileges to which the wife of 
a poor man can make no claim. The word 
“necessaries” in this connection does not 
mean things essential to existence; but may 
or may not include a great deal more accord¬ 
ing to the circumstances of each case. 
R. M., New Haven, Conn. —A party is made 
guardian of three children each of whom has 
an equal interest in property which has been 
held by the guardian in common. The child¬ 
ren have each been paid unequal sums and at 
different times. The surplus income has been 
invested as it accumulated. One of the child¬ 
ren having attained majority, it becomes nec¬ 
essary to divide the property and adjust the 
income. Can the Rural suggest a safe and 
proper method of settlement? 
Ans. —If the accounts have been properly 
kept, they will show what is due from the in¬ 
come to the child who has reached his majori¬ 
ty. If the property can be divided without 
being sold, an order of court may be obtained 
for such sale and settlement. 
S. T. M., Fonda, N. Y. —A man dies leav¬ 
ing about $3,000 in cash and makes no will; 
he leaves a widow, a mother and brothers, but 
no children. 1. What amount is the widow’s 
share? 2. Are his mother and brothers en¬ 
titled to any of the money; if so, how much? 
3. Do the husband’s watch and chain go to the 
widow, or can his folks claim them? 
Ans. —1. If there are no children or legal 
representatives of any children, the half of 
the money, after paying the debts due by the 
estate, goes to the widow. 2. The mother 
and brothers each share equally in the other 
half of the property. 3. The watch and chain 
and all other personal property belong to the 
estate, and unless the heirs agree as to the 
distribution, must be sold by the administra¬ 
tor and the proceeds divided as above stated. 
L. T., Port Richmond, N. I. — If a wife 
who has some property of her own acquired 
before her marriage dies, is her husband, who 
has property of his own, liable for the ex¬ 
penses of her last sickness and funeral? If he 
refuses to pay them, can they be collected 
from his estate? 
Ans. —In this State the husband is bound to 
furnish all necessaries to his wife, including 
medical attendance and burial, and her sep¬ 
arate estate cannot be charged with any of 
these expenses except with her consent. It 
has been held in this State that the neces¬ 
saries purchased by a married woman herself, 
on credit, are not chargeable to her separate 
estate, unless expressly purchased on the cred¬ 
it of it, and charged thereon by some affirma¬ 
tive act on her part. 
L. T. M., Tonawanda, N. Y.— Can a wife 
claim dower right in the real estate acquired 
by the husband after the wife had obtained an 
absolute decree of divorce from him? 
Ans.—T he New York Supreme Court de¬ 
cided in 1875 that a woman is not entitled to 
dower in the lands which the husband ac¬ 
quired after she had obtained a divorce from 
him, and this decision has ever since been con¬ 
sidered good law. 
Woman's Work. 
CONDUCTED BY EMILY LOUISE TAPLIN. 
CHAT BY THE WAY. 
W e discovered a use for an old waterproof 
cloak recently, which is of value these 
house-cleaning days. It is a most satisfactory 
scnibbing apron, large enough to meet in the 
back, where it may be fastened by tapes. It 
keeps the skirts thoroughly dry, as no other 
apron will, even when it is too much worn to 
be used as a cloak. 
* * * 
Some of the new parasols are extremely 
gorgeous, and very expensive, with their paint¬ 
ed panels and jeweled handles. One we saw 
recently was completely covered with white 
ostrich down, relieved here and there by curl¬ 
ing tips. It had an exquisitely ornamented 
silver handle, but it was really in very bad 
taste—it exhaled too strong an odor of dollars. 
Another was of white moirfe, painted with a 
lovely design of orchids in water-colors and 
trimmed with point lace. Of course, these are 
carriage parasols; in walking, a plain coach¬ 
ing parasol in surah or moirfe is tasteful and 
stylish. Light colors are most favored, though 
at the seaside flaring reds are much liked. 
But glaring colors and eccentric styles are 
more often seen at the watering-places than 
elsewhere. 
* * * 
There is one great advantage about these 
hot days: women can dress prettily at a much 
smaller cost than they can in the winter. 
Pretty figured challies, Danish cloth, seer¬ 
sucker, gingham, or batiste, are all inexpen¬ 
sive and pretty. For a best summer dress 
nothing is more satisfactory than sateen; it 
can be made up handsomely, and it will re¬ 
tain its freshness through more than one sea¬ 
son. Danish cloth is a very cheap material, 
but it stands a good deal of wear. A frock of 
dark red Danish cloth, with a little trimming 
of black moil’d is very becoming to a brunette; 
it might be accompanied by a large hat of 
rough, black straw, trimmed with a wreath of 
poppies. These large hats have a very sum¬ 
mery look, though many of them are too lav¬ 
ishly trimmed. Little net bonnets which may 
be made by any deft-fingered woman, are a 
necessary part of one’s summer wardrobe. 
The most popular ones are little capotes of 
puffed net, with a wreath of forget-me-nots all 
around the brim. One little beauty in a New 
York milliner’s was of black net, with a bunch 
of very natural fern fronds on the top, and 
fern-green moird strings. Another was of 
smoke-gray tulle, with a bunch of apple blos¬ 
soms. A passing fancy for the early summer 
is the wearing of cream-white cloth tailor 
jackets. They are very dainty, though unbe¬ 
coming to many, but they are also expensive 
and easily soiled, and they can only be cleaned 
by a professional scourer. 
* * * 
A mother of growing daughters is often 
puzzled in trying to decide what reading 
matter they shall indulge in. Many mothers 
object—rightly, too—to most novels, thinking 
that they will unfit them for their duties, and 
give them false ideas of life. This is true of 
a great many books we see in the hands of 
young girls. But let them begin with Miss 
Alcott, and make merry with May and Jo, or 
Rose and her cousins, or little Polly Shaw; 
then let them read Rosa Nouchette Carey’s 
delightful tales, and they won’t want trash. 
Miss Carey is certainly one of the best writers 
one could choose for growing girls. Con¬ 
stance Fenimore Woolson is another woman¬ 
ly woman, and there are many others whose 
works are an education to any girl. Girls 
want healthy fiction as they grow up, just as 
they craved sugar when younger, and it will 
do them good rather than harm. 
PUBLIC OPINION ABOUT WOMEN. 
SELMA CLARE. 
It may help my tired sisters to know how 
others regard them. It is the fashion for 
ELglish novelists to be rather severe on the 
American woman; he acknowledges her beau¬ 
ty, and her good heart as a general thing, but 
dwells upon her nasal intonation (while we 
have “pretty noses,” we “all talk through 
them”), and does us the honor to be doubtful 
as to our character on account of our waut of 
“reserve of manner.” The late Mathew Ar¬ 
nold, in the Nineteenth Century for April 
comes to our rescue in so truthful a way that 
I must ask you to bear with me if I give the 
exact in full. 
“Much may be said against the voices and 
intonation of American women. But almost 
every one acknowledges that there is a charm 
in American women—a charm which you find 
in almost all of them wherever you go. It is 
the charm of a natural manner, a manner not 
self-conscious, artificial and constrained. It 
may not be a beautiful manner always, but 
it is almost always a natural manner, a free 
and happy manner, and this gives pleasure. 
Here we have undoubtedly a note of civili¬ 
zation, and an evidence, at the same time, of 
the good effect of equality upon social life and 
manners. I have often heard it observed that 
a perfectly natural manner is as rare among 
English women of the middle classes as it is 
general among American women of like con¬ 
dition with them. And, so far as the observ¬ 
ation is true, the reason of its truth, no doubt, 
is that the English woman is living in pres¬ 
ence of an upper class, as it is called—in pres¬ 
ence, that is, of a class of women recognized 
as being the right thing in style and manner, 
and whom she imagines criticising her style 
and manner, finding this or that to be amiss 
with it, this or that to be vulgar; hence self- 
consciousness and constraint in her. The 
American woman lives in presence of no such 
class; there may be circles trying to pass 
themselves off as such a class, giving them¬ 
selves airs as such, but they command no rec¬ 
ognition or authority. The American woman 
in general is perfectly unconcerned about 
their opinion, is herself, enjoys her existence, 
and has, consequently, a manner happy and 
natural. It is her great charm; and it is, 
moreover, as I have said, a real note of civil¬ 
ization, and one which has to be reckoned to 
the credit of American life and of its equality.’’ 
Evidently true worth is beginning to be 
recognized, and it may be well for some of us 
to take Horace Greeley’s advice to young 
men to ourselves and “Go West.” A corres¬ 
pondent of the Boston Advertiser, writing 
from Oskaloosa, Kansas, tells us that the 
mayor and aldermen (“must we say aider- 
women?”) of that favored city are all women, 
elected by a majority of more than two to 
one, and “in the interest of public improve¬ 
ment and law and order.” The six women are 
all married and their ages range from twenty- 
three to forty-nine. The mayor, Mrs. Low- 
man, is the wife of a former register of deeds 
and is the mother of two children. Like her 
husband, she is a Presbyterian and Republi¬ 
can. Of the council, one is the wife of a 
physician, another the wife of a lawyer, an¬ 
other the wife of a real-estate dealer, another 
the wife of a bank cashier, and another the 
wife of a mechanic. Three of them differ 
from their husbands in politics. One is a 
Presbyterian, one an Episcopalian, and four 
are Methodists. Their husbands are not all 
equally religious. Among them there are 
eleven or twelve children and one grandchild. 
The ladies are all prohibitionists, but not of 
the third party. Oskaloosa is not a frontier 
town, but a county seat, forty-six miles from 
Kansas City and twenty-eight from Topeka 
and is surrounded by an intelligent farming 
population, mostly from the East. The new 
city officials intend that a new broom shall 
sweep clean. 
Miss Dilke, although she finds many things 
to amuse her in America, is prepared to tell 
the people of England that the women 
of America are mostly pretty and are all well 
dressed; that in professional work, in scientific 
pursuits, in the conduct of public affairs, 
are far ahead of their sex in other coun¬ 
tries. 
The Western Reserve University of Cleve¬ 
land is to include a woman’s college. This 
new Institution will be the equal of Adalbert 
College, says the Cleveland Leader, in its op¬ 
portunities for obtaining a higher education, 
and sufficient financial support has been as¬ 
sured to place this new branch of the Univer¬ 
sity beyond the risk of failure. 
Mr. Walter Besant claims that no woman 
should be forced to work at all, except at such 
things as please her. To him it seems a 
shame that “any lady should ever have to 
stand in the labor market for hire like a milk¬ 
maid at a statute fair.” He would have par¬ 
ents adopt the French plan, and as soon as a 
daughter is bom, begin to accumulate her 
dot, or dowery. In Germany, there are in. 
surance societies on a modified tontine plan 
for providing for unmarried daughters. On 
the birth of a daughter her name is entered 
on the books of the society, and her father 
pays a small sum yearly on her account. If 
at 25 she is unmarried she has a right to live 
rent free in two rooms, and receives a small 
annuity. If she marries she gets nothing. 
We might adopt a modification of both plans 
with good results. 
ANOTHER ILLUSION GONE. 
S. C. 
Children ought to love Dr. James C. White, 
Professor of Dermatology in Harvard Uni¬ 
versity, who says that the prejudice against 
candy came from the efforts of parents of 
limited means to curb their children’s in¬ 
dulgence in so expensive a dainty. He avers 
that when parents tell their children that eat¬ 
ing candy will ruin their teeth, the remark is 
dictated by economy, and that no educated 
dentist will endorse the statement. The no¬ 
tion that the use of butter will cause the faces 
of the young to break out in what is called 
‘ ‘butter sores” is denominated an old wives’ 
fable, good uncooked butter being perfectly 
harmless as far as the skin is concerned. He 
also demolishes the idea that buckwheat cakes 
and oatmeal are productive of skin diseases, 
and calls Dio Lewis’s declaration that toma¬ 
toes are productive of cancer and loosen and 
destroy teeth, an absurdity. He points out 
however, that buckwheat served in the form 
of improperly cooked cakes, is not healthful 
food. 
♦ ♦ ■■ 
EARLY INSTRUCTION. 
SOPHIA C. GARRETT. 
If possible, parents, teach your children to 
do work suitable and proper for their age. 
If a mistake is made, do not reprove them 
sternly. Kindly point it out, if unnoticed, and 
allow them to undo or correct it, if it is in their 
power. Mothers are often so hurried and wor¬ 
ried with work and the care of children, that 
they feel or think they have no time to teach 
them to cut out simple articles, or to do sew¬ 
ing, knitting, etc. The oldest daughter is 
usually taught those useful arts as early as 
her sixth year. There seems to be time to in¬ 
struct her, as the wants of those younger do 
not yet need attention in that way. The old¬ 
est son, too, is early called to help about work. 
Younger sisters wait on the little ones, and 
often spend the rest of their time in play. Re¬ 
creation is necessary, but if kept up too long, 
fatigue is the result. Boys and girls, whose 
home is on a farm have peculiar advantages 
for learning to do work suited to their capaci¬ 
ty. The well-kept district schools of the coun¬ 
try are pleasant places in which to gain knowl¬ 
edge. The long walks to and from school, 
with fields of grain and orchards bordering on 
the road, have charms for healthy, happy 
children. After supper, when the evening 
work is done, the lamps are lighted, and les¬ 
sons studied. Reading and play have a share 
of their attention also. With all these, time 
can be taken for needful instruction in needle¬ 
work, etc., for girls. Be determined in this 
matter, dear mothers. See to it that every 
piece of work assigned to each is finished by 
herself, and within a reasonable time. Never 
allow a child to say, “Ob, it’s no matter when 
I finish this,” or. “Any time will do.” These 
are dangerous expressions for young or old to 
use, as they help to form the habit of putting 
off until to-morrow, the work of to-day. 
Strive to inspire your children with self-re¬ 
spect by your sensible example and advice, 
and they will respect and honor you in re¬ 
turn. 
REMINISCENCES OF AN OLD HOUSE¬ 
KEEPER. 
GRANDMOTHER. 
Almost every farmer thinks that a dog is 
a necessary appendage to the farm. At times 
dogs do good service, and by their watch¬ 
ful vigilance save property and avert serious 
losses. But there is a great difference in dogs 
as well as in people. I have seen some of the 
canines that are not worth a picayune, and 
are a perpetual annoyance, not only to the 
family, but to the whole neighborhood, and to 
travelers, too. The sooner such an animal is 
served out the better. But I have had some 
of the most intelligent, good-natured dogs in 
my family that really seemed almost human: 
their memory will be held precious through 
all time. Now, there is a deal of work 
in educating a puppy and that business al¬ 
most always fell to my share. It has to be 
taught as much as a child. Obedience and 
neatness are essential elements in its education, 
and without these qualities it will be a perfect 
nuisance. We had one noble fellow that 
would carry a basket to the store with a note 
and give it to the clerk, who would put up the 
articles sent for, place them in the basket, and 
Argus would bring them home in less time 
than a boy could do it; and when the mail 
coach stopped at the post office he always 
came for the basket to go to the 
office for the mail and no one but 
some member of the family could ever take 
anything from the basket. He would do very 
cunning tricks, and his comfort was a mat¬ 
ter of consideration, for he had rendered him¬ 
self very dear to us; but, alas, hydrophobia 
broke out among the dogs in an adjacent vil¬ 
lage, and a general war was declared against 
the whole canine race, and in order to save 
Argus’s life, we took him away to a friend to 
remain for a while, till the panic was over, 
and he rendered himself so serviceable that 
the gentleman was loth to part with him, and 
offered so large a price that we sold him. 1 
think there were more tears shed over his loss 
than were ever given to a Southern slave that 
was sold. Poor fellow, he had got to be twelve 
