AUG. f> 
544 
lem of deliverance further than we, and asked the 
ballot on all questions whatsoever. They do the 
same In Minnesota and In Iowa: while at. the East 
the W. C. T. ti. of grand old Maine endorses the 
temperance vote, and Rhode Island sends to 
Illinois resolutions of approval, while Massachu¬ 
setts, under Mary A. Livermore, has declared for 
Home Protection and Is preparing for thw fall cam¬ 
paign ; and within a few days Ohio, the Crusade 
State, which Is the mother or us all, has fallen Into 
line. The most conservative States are Connecti¬ 
cut, Now-Jersey, and New York ; but in each of 
these there are many brave women, who hut hide 
their time for this same declaration, and the whole 
twenty-three states already Joined In the Wo¬ 
man’s National Christian Temperance Union will 
ere long clasp hands In the only work which can 
ever lullill the glorious promise of the Crusade. 
History tells us that on the morning of December 
•Ltd, ls7C. when In Hillsboro, Ohio, the Pentecostal 
power fell on the “ praying band” which first went 
forth, the leading men of Unit rum-cursed town 
went out rroin the church where their wives and 
mothers had assembled saying: “ We can only 
leave this business with the women and the Lord.” 
nistory has repeated itself this winter in our Illi¬ 
nois crusade. Men have placed money In our 
hands to carry out, his work, saying : “the women 
of America must solve this problem. Our business 
relations, our financial luterests, our political 
anillationsand ambitions have tied our hands; but 
we will set yours free, and you may rid us ol tills 
awful curse.” 
WOULD WOMEN VOTE KIUIIT? 
Yet a lew men and women, densely Ignorant 
about tills movement, have been heard to say: 
“ Who knows that women would vote right ?” I 
confess that nothing has more deeply grieved me 
than this question from the lips of Christian peo¬ 
ple. Have distillers, brewers, and saloon-keepers 
then, more eonlldenco in woman’s sense and good¬ 
ness than she has herself ? They have a very prac¬ 
tical method of exhibiting their faith. They declare 
war to the knife and the knife to the hilt against 
the Home Protection Movement. By secret circu¬ 
lars, by hired lobbyists and attorneys, by the ridi¬ 
cule ol their newspaper organs, and threats ol 
personal violence to such women of their families 
as sign our petition, they display their confidence 
In womankind. 
The only town in mmols which sent up a dele¬ 
gation ol citizens openly to oppose our petition 
was Belleville, with its heavy liquor Interest and 
ten thousand German to three thousand Ameri¬ 
can Inhabitants; and among our 204 legislators 
there were no other dozen men whose nagging 
ol the nome Protection Committee was so persis¬ 
tent and so petti as that of the senator who 
openly declared he was there lo defend the vested 
Interests of his Peoria constituents, who In 1ST8 
produced eight million dollars’ worth (?) of ardent 
spirits. Nay, verily, woman's vote Is the way out 
ol our misery and shame, “ our enemies them¬ 
selves being judges.” The women ol t he Crusade 
must come to judgment—not, as aforetime, with 
trembling lip and tcarlul eye, but wit h the blaring 
sword of power; and none see this so clearly as 
the liquor dealers, whose alligator eye Is their 
pocket-book, and the politicians, whose Achilles 
heel Is their ambition. 
now women no vote. 
But, after all, “ seeing” is a large part ol “believ¬ 
ing” with this square-headed Yankee nation ; so 
let us seek the testimony of experience. 
In Kansas the law provides that the signatures 
of women shall be requisite to a petition asking 
for a dram-shop before that boon shall bo conferred 
upon any given community. This arrangement 
•wrought such mischief with the liquor dealers that 
they secured an amendment exempting largo 
towns from such bondage. But In small towns and 
villages It has greatly Interfered with the traffic, 
and has so educated public sentiment that prohibi¬ 
tion can—with impunity!—form the theme of a 
governor’s Inaugural, and Kansas Is on the war¬ 
path for a law hardly less stringent than that or 
Maine. 
In Des Moines, Iowa, a lew weeks since, as a test 
ol popular opinion, the women voted on the license 
question; twelve declaring In favor of saloons and 
eight hundred against them. In Newton, Iowa, at 
an election ordered by the council, 172 men voted 
lor license to 319 against—not two to one against 
it,; while the women’s vote stood one In favor to 
394 against licensing saloons. Iu Kirkvllle, Mo., 
ten women favored the liquor traffic, t wenty de¬ 
clined to declare themselves, and rive hundred 
wanted “ no license.” In our Illinois campaign, 
which resulted In 95 ,000 names of women who ex¬ 
pressed their wish to vote against saloons, not one 
woman In ten declined to affix her name to our 
petition.—To be continued. 
THE WOMAN’S CLUB. 
A VIGOROUS PROTEST. 
Miss Faith Ripley I was interested In your 
conirlbutor “ M. L, S.," for having presented so 
fine a method tor preparing that very popular bev¬ 
erage—coffee. It is Just my particular plan, al¬ 
though not a practice of mine for reasons 1 might 
state, but conclude to keep my private domestic 
affairs ivom the gaze of the world, thus avoiding 
painful and unnecessary criticisms from a rabble 
of meddlesome, motherly old—what shall 1 call 
them? No bad names, of course. No— but suffice 
It to say, M. L.s.’s method is not new, though val¬ 
uable. But 1 am at a loss to know by what right 
she dares to bring forth f rom the laud of the past, 
visions or the stoaml ng old coffee-pot which afforded 
me so much comfort In its day, and but for my 
then ignorant doings, might sun have served me. 
In some way. Is It possible she knows how I was 
so short-sighted us to do what she recommends as 
a cleansing operation—that is, to use ashes , 4 l 
had supposed no other person In the world was so 
foolish but my humble self; but since I've no remem¬ 
brance of giving any but my little girls the benefit 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
of my experience, I shall take the liberty to ask 
the lady to Introduce herself, and then let us hold 
discussion over the propriety of treating the time- 
honored coffee-pot so abusively. Perhaps she is a 
quarrelsome creature like some people I’Ve known 
and shunned all my days ; and perhaps she wished 
to Intrude upon my especial realm—the kitchen, 
the dining-room, the chamber and the sitting- 
room. If so, allow me to state her place is the sit¬ 
ting-room while we hold this confab over the 
coffee-pot. Mine Is none of those prim affairs, 
gotten up by a coffin-dealer, smelling of varnish 
and dazzling with gilt—( l deal in realities, and have 
all my life)—and while I beg leave to state that I 
commenced housekeeping without much practical 
knowledge of the aid, yet my natural ability 
helped me, together with what 1 learned from ob¬ 
servation ; and but for a kind, considerate mother 
who was guilty of an oversight In the management 
of her daughters, (or of a slight error) 1 might 
have known that ashes are ruinous to the kind of 
tin in use now-a-days; a kind which poor people 
have to deal in. it Is prssible M. L. S. does not 
know even one of the many little valuable items 
which 1 might teach her (If she Is young and inex¬ 
perienced,as I once was,)but I will say that I believe 
ashes to be Injurious to the best quality of tin, and 
that according to my experience, gained as it lias 
been, by not having sand procured for me when 1 
should have had it, frequent, thorough washing 
with soap-suds Is the first, best process, If only 
thorough rinsing with hot water, and drying by 
heat follow It. Then, when polishing Is really ne¬ 
cessary, the sand If of fine quality, will be harm¬ 
less iu removing stains from the inside of the 
coffee-pot as well as the tea-pot. If M. L. s. can 
afford two tin pots for coffee and leave the ashes 
out, her plan is well enough. My poor little stock of 
patience has been meddled with iu ways too aggra¬ 
vating to describe, especially, In the face and eyes 
of a respectable corps of editors, so I forbear to 
further teach M. L. 8 ., without personal acquain¬ 
tance. 
Perhaps she may not comprehend that ginger, 
when we first get It, Is full of fibrous atoms, and 
then if sifted, for pumpkin pies or other pastry, the 
fibrous portion is fit to add to the vinegar used for 
pickles If one likes the fiavor In the vinegar, and 
If not pies and cookies are Improved by it. Per¬ 
haps I am capable of learning something more 
than I already know through the columns of the 
Domestic Economy; but even then one should have 
a right hand man. to help carry all these truly nice 
arrangements into effect. If you have a fine piece 
of steel In the house without a handle, which could 
with the help of a man and proper tools, be the 
chief Instrument in constructing a very handy ar¬ 
ticle called a “ bread-cutter” you are smarter than 
I am, If you can go to a shop—within sound of your 
voice, and say to the man who presides there, “ l 
know how this should be made, but I have not 
time nor patience or I would do It.” Perhaps you 
would say, “ I will borrow the tools and construct 
the article myself." Now I have sufficient me¬ 
chanical ability to manufacture just such an article 
with my own hands but 1 am a woman and have 
not strength or time, so It my Individual duties 
prevent me—and my husband should wilfully neg¬ 
lect to provide fer my comfort, why, then, as It 
costs money to hire all this done, my little plans for 
bread-boards and brick-board for scouring knives 
and similar conveniences would be useless, and all 
because lam “A Woman.” 
-- 
MOTHER’S BIRTHDAY. 
BV ZttNA CLAYBOURNE. 
God gave each year its season, in Its turn. 
Some subtle beauty, all its own. 
But Summer stands among the rest. 
For tender, lustrous charms, alone; 
But even of summer months, one, June 
Has such a rare, exceeding glory 
That all the birds and leaves aud flowers 
Appear delirious with the story; 
Yet, still, in June God gave to on«£day 
More of son than any other. 
Then, to crown the work completely, 
bent on earth my precious Mother ! 
So, her birthday always comes 
With balmy air, and blossoms gay. 
The sweetest time of all the year, 
The very longest lov eliest day | 
- »■* ♦ - 
SHALL FANCY WORK BE TABOOED I 
I am deeply interested In the Ritkai., especially 
so In the women’s department., I read with inter¬ 
est the article, “Truly Spoken.” by M. A. B. My 
attention was called to the words of Emily Faith¬ 
ful regarding fancy work, it Is no wonder to me 
that M. A. B. Is trot fully In sympathy with that 
writer, I should wonder if any lover of the beau¬ 
tiful could, for one moment, wish fancy work 
“blotted out of existence.” "it a nan, or grown 
boy, should spend his time so foolishly, he would 
be considered, and rightly, either a fool or crazy,” 
and yet strong, able bodied beings, nailed men, do 
spend their time shooting glass balls, lounging 
about street comers and til bar-rooms, indulging 
In Indecent conversation, and are not “considered 
either fools or crazy.” especially by their own sex. 
1 have noticed that, as a rule, lovers of flowers 
are lovers of fancy work. Go Into any home that 
Is entirely destitute of fancy work, and generally 
you find the yard a mass of grass and weeds. I 
have lu mind Mrs. A. No fancy work adorns her 
rooms, no (lowers beautify her yard or garden. 
Indeed, she has no desire for things of that sort. 
Go Into her parlor, and you wilt find It neither 
cheery, cosy nor Inviting. There Is something In¬ 
expressively chilly aud dreary about her home 
and its surroundings. Not so at Mrs. B’s. Before 
you enter her home you have a promise of pleasant 
things. There Is an abundance of (lowers, and 
one can but stop and admire them, they are so 
beautiful. On the piazza Is a fiower-staud, filled 
with blooming plants; hanging In the window Is a 
beautirul white dove (fancy work), which I always 
think Is a proper emblem of the peace and quiet 
within. 
The afternoon is pleasant, and Mrs. B invites 
us Into her parlor, she Is not afraid that the 
sunshine will injure her carpet. Here hangs a 
wax wreath of wondrous beauty, made by her 
own hands. The old ladles exclaim, “It is the 
prettiest thing I ever laid my eyes on!” Oh, but 
It Is fancy work, “blot it out of existence!” Here 
la a hanging basket, made of card-board, zephyr 
and pictures—a lovely thing. I cannot speak of 
all the beautiful ornaments In that room—picture 
frames, wall pockets, brackets, etc., all making 
the room a cosy resting-place. 
There Is my friend May, who does not enjoy good 
health. No one can tell what a comfort fancy 
work has been to her. Hours, otherwise dull and 
dreary, have passed pleasantly away. With 
neither body nor mind in a condition for study, 
fancy work comes in admirably. I would not 
“deliberately sit down day after day,” and kill 
time with my fancy work, (farmers’ wives and 
daughters have something beside sitting down to 
do), but if any have a taste In the direction of 
fancy work, let them cultivate It. Many a rainy 
afternoon and odd spell may be pleasantly passed 
In that delightful occupation. 
I believe the Intense lover of the beautiful Is 
really capable of a higher sense of enjoyment 
than one who cannot appreciate the beauties of 
name and art. A woman with a taste for home 
adornment can, with very limited means, con¬ 
struct many articles, both useful and ornamental, 
that will give a charm to home. 
I made a. wall pocket after a description given 
In the Rural, and It Is really pretty, as well as 
useful. In my kitchen hangs a motto, “in God we 
Trust,” worked with shaded red and green zephyr. 
Now that Is fancy work; but It Is of use as well as 
pleasing to the eye. 
Many, many times, when I am tired (and cross, 
too, I fear), when I get discouraged, I happen to 
see my motto, “In God we Trust,” then I ask Him 
to help me trust Him fully. So I calculate that 
my motto is a blessing to me. Let us love the 
good, the true and the beautiful, and by so doing, 
shall we not grow better? 
I would like to express my thanks to the “club- 
Ites” for their interesting letters and words of good 
cheer. Yours cordially, Mrs. j. W. K. 
A PLEA FOR EDUCATION IN HOME 
MATTERS. 
T am very much Interested In the Rural, and es¬ 
pecially so in the Women’s Club. I have often 
thought I would like to Join. 
With delicate health and three little children 
clamoring for mamma’s constant care, I hardly have 
time to avail myself of the Boston Society’s liber¬ 
ality. As a profession for women take the manage¬ 
ment of children, by far the most important within 
the range of womanly duties, and for improve¬ 
ment a home-field now left to weeds and waste; 
a profession, to call It by Its right name, which It 
Is In the power of every woman, whether mother 
or childless, to honor and perfect. 
There Is nothing, as things are, In which women 
need enlightenment more than In thl3 same man¬ 
agement of infants and the education of children. 
Where one has an intelligent understanding of the 
needs and proper care of infants, thousands are as 
ignorant as owls of the very alphabet of physiolo¬ 
gy, and consequently they make the most disas¬ 
trous mistakes in practice. Go into the homes of 
the educated and watch the nursery diet, the 
clothing, the hours, the general arrangements, and 
then say whether the management of the next 
generation, which Is by rar the most precious thing 
belonging to the present. Is of a character to re¬ 
joice the soul of one who hopes for progress, and 
who loves his kind. Yet woman ought to learn 
something of the requirements of motherhood, and 
not spend energy and strength In studying ab¬ 
stract questions which are simply intellectual 
pleasures, aud of no human profit, while the best 
mode of making fine men and women out of the 
raw material of Infancy Is Ignored as a thing of no 
value. This is but a queer inversion of natural 
duties —1 eoniess not quite to my taste. 
If this mismanagement or Ignorance Is true of 
so-called educated mothers, what ts the condition, 
then, of the uneducated? The wonder Is not that 
so many children die, but that human life Is so 
tenacious, and that so many of these delicate little 
creatures survive the ill-usage to which ignorance 
and mistaken kindness subject them from the very 
hour of their birth. 
You hear one of these young mothers boast com¬ 
placently that her baby, only a few months old, 
si is up at the table with the family and takes all 
tuey have, while she crams tt with pudding, pota¬ 
toes and stringy meat. 
Suppose girls were taught as a matter of educa¬ 
tion, what babtes are like, and the best way of 
managing them, if ever they had them, do you 
think they would go counter to their education 
any more than they do now, when they have to 
bake bread or roast meat ? It Is only because girls 
are never taught when young, that they make 
such terrible mistakes when they come to the pos¬ 
session of little oues. brownie. 
-— »♦♦- 
STRINGS. 
“ Wife, will you get me a few strings to tie up 
those young grape-vines with; ” or “ Mother, can I 
have some strings to use for my flowers; ” or 
“What shall l tie tire tomatoes to the stakes 
with ? ” 
What, housekeeper whose husband loves Ills 
vines aud trees has not hail her ears saluted by 
such questions, and been puzzled to know whore 
all the strings are to come from, Oiten when I 
have seen rnv husband stand with a broken and 
wilted branch of some cherished plant In his hand, 
and have heard him say, with a fallen coun¬ 
tenance, “ ll 1 had had a suitable string yesterday 
when I saw tiffs swlnglug In the wind, 1 might 
have saved It,” 1 have ruefully made a mental 
parody on the well known saw, “ For want of a 
uall the shoe was lost, for want of a shoe the 
horse was lost,” &c. This Spring I determined 
that the supply should not foil. I according ly pro¬ 
vided a calico bag to hang In my kitchen. Into 
which I should put everything that could be 
made Into strings. Clippings and trimmings from 
the work table, strips of cotton—new and old—If 
not too old twine from packages of groceries, &c., 
Szc. It was surprising how soon it filled up, and 
how easily It Is kept filled, though it is put under 
almost constant requisition to supply the regular 
wants. And If In the hurry of the moment Its 
contents are pulled (out and left on the table or 
floor, it is not much trouble to put them back, 
since one knows where they belong-and that is 
something worth knowing, too, 1 bad a friend, 
new to the duties of housekeeping, who once ac¬ 
knowledged that she did not think herself a good 
housekeeper In some things. Said she, “ I never 
quite make my rooms look nice, I can get almost 
picked up, but there are always a few things which 
I don’t know what to do with, and so I leave them 
where they are.” Now I acknowledge that, till 
this summer, strings have always been my bane 
because I never knew exactly what to do with 
them. I do not think any one of the few " im¬ 
provements” we have treated ourselves to this 
season has given my husband half as much satis¬ 
faction as that bag of stilngs. Our uew carpet Is 
nothing to It. Indeed I am not sure there would 
have been any new carpet bad it not been for the 
beneficent Influences emanating from the wealth 
of that deposit. 80 cheaply can we make ourselves 
and others feel rich sometimes by supplying a 
long felt want. Mrs. a. J. B. 
-♦♦♦- 
NEATNESS IN THE HOUSEHOLD. 
How much better one feels to think her house 
is clean when callers come unexpectedly; then 
why not have it so? When my windows get dusty 
or fly specked I take clean water and wash them 
off, It takes but a little while and they look enough 
better to pay. I wash the doors and window sills 
once a week the year through. Ono can take a 
day when there Is no baking or washing on hand. 
It takes but a short time If you do nor let them get 
too dirty; but If they are left until they become 
so dirty that they must have soap, this soon 
takes off the paint, aud It is hard work to get them 
clean. Then by giving the floor a good sweeping, 
and the furniture a good dusting, and with neat 
tidies on rocking-chairs and lounges, you have a 
neat looking room. But If the kitcheu and pantry 
are not Just as clean as the sitting-room, parlor and 
bed-rooms It spoils all. The pantry should have 
clean papers put on the shelves as soon as 
soiled, a nd every dish In its place, the floor cleaned 
and the walls brushed down to keep cobwebs off, 
the lamps trimmed and cleaned, and the yard 
around the door swept. But I am taking too much 
time on this subject. I was very much inter¬ 
ested In Bertha Winkler's “ Sunday Rest for 
Women”—those are my thoughts, exactly. 
CANNED STRAWBERRIES. 
Pick over the berries and put half as much sug ar 
as fruit, and let them stand over night. In the 
morning drain off the Juice and let It boll a few 
minutes, then put In the berries and as soon as 
they are heated through can up ; this Is an excel¬ 
lent way, they retain their color. D. A. R. 
-- 
A SWEEPING HINT OR TWO FROM A 
SOUTHERN HOUSEKEEPER. 
Noticing something from one of your corres¬ 
pondents in reference to cleaning aud dusting 
carpets, 1 will give you my experience. Take 
drawn, damp tea-leaves, sprinkle them over the 
carpet, and then sweep them off. This mil both 
lay the dust and brighten the colors. Another 
very good way Is to take a pail of water, put some 
beef-gall into It, dampen the broom with It and 
sweep the carpet. This will “set” the colors of 
the carpet, and will also set the colors of any 
good3, such as lawns, calicoes, etc. 
Though I am an old lady, l have not lost my 
taste for flowers. I am very successful in their 
cultivation, and my friends often remark . ’ How 
Is it that your flowers always look so fresh and 
flourishing?" I will tell you. I have raised eight 
beautiful geraniums, from the seed sent by the 
Rural Nkw-Yorkek, which are pronounced the 
prettiest In the place. The way In which I man¬ 
age my plants is to mix a little sand with the soli, 
then procure some manure from the hen-house 
and put on top of the other soil. By this means, 
the water, penetrating through the manure, carries 
just enough of the richness to the roots of the 
plants to make them grow well. Mrs. T. J. B. 
Okolona, Miss. 
-- 
HOUSEKEEEPING NOTES. 
An economical lady of my acquaintance tells me 
that when she buys cotton stockings, sha selects a 
good article, aud before wearing them at all, she 
lines the feet with new thin muslin, that is the 
•parts that wear most quickly—the heels aud toes. 
She says they wear twice as long as they do with¬ 
out. The linings must be nicely tit ted and run on 
smoothly, or they will not answer the end desired; 
but a little practice enables one to do It quite 
easily. 
Where there Is any suspicion that glass fruit- 
cans are not perfectly air tight, they can be made 
so by putting putty around the crevices after the 
cans arc filled and screwed down. It Is prepared 
the same as for putting in window gloss, stone 
Jugs for fruit may be sealed In the same way, and 
with less trouble than with ordinary sealing-wax. 
During the semi-annual house clean lugs, as well 
at other times, the ueat housekeeper should 
avoid making a wholesale destruction of w rttten 
papers, tax receipts, or indeed receipts of any kind. 
Sometimes old letters prove to contain Informa¬ 
tion which becomes valuable to the possessor. 
Every house should contain some receptable for 
such business papers, and they should he filed and 
preserved for future use, if necessary. 
Aunt Rachel, 
