lie has no ear for music, and the man who smokes 
In this way shows that he Is not quite a gentleman. 
But some ladles smoke ? Yes, and some ladies 
drink liquor. Does that mend the matter? The 
Easy Chair has seen a lady at the head of her own 
tahle smoking a flna cigar. You will see a great 
many highly dressed women in Paris smoking 
cigarettes. Does all this change the situation ? 
Does this make it more gentlemanly to smoke with 
a lady beside you In a carnage, or upon a bench 
on the piazza v But some ladles like the odor of a 
cigar? Not many; and the taste of those who 
sincerely do so cannot Justify the habit of promis¬ 
cuous pulling in their presence. The intimacy of 
domesticity is governed by other rules; hut a gen¬ 
tleman smoking would hardly enter his own draw¬ 
ing-room, where other ladles sat with Ids wife 
without a word of apology. The Easy Chair Is no 
King James, and Is more likely to Issue blasts of 
tobacco than blasts against It. But King James 
belonged to a very aelllsh sex -a sex which seems 
often to suppose that Its indulgences and habits 
are to be tenderly tolerated, for no other reason 
than that they are its habits. Therefore the young 
woman pnusl defend herself by showing plainly 
that she prohibits the Intrusion of which, if suffer¬ 
ed, she is really the victim. In other times the 
Easy Chair has seen the lovely Laura Matilda un¬ 
willing to refuse to dance with tho partner who 
had bespoken her hand for t he German, although 
when'he presented himself he was plainly flown 
with wine. The Easy Chair has seen the hapless, 
foolish maid encircled by those Bacchic arms, and 
then a headlong whirl and dash down the room, 
ending in tho promiscuous overthrow and down¬ 
fall of maid, Bacchus, and musicians. 
If In the (JraWilsonian day the morals were 
wanting, It was something to have the manners. 
They at least were to the imagination a. memory 
and a prophecy. They recalled the idyllic age 
when flue manners expressed flno feelings, ana 
they foretold the return of Astrma to her ancient 
haunts. Here Is young Adonis dream! ng of a four- 
in-hand and a yacht, like any other gentleman. 
Let us hopo that ho knows the test of the gentle¬ 
man not to be the ownership of blood-horses and a 
unique drag, but perfect courtesy founded upon 
fine human feeling—t hat, rare and Indescribable 
gentleness and consideration which rests upon 
manner as lightly as the bloom upon a fruit. It 
may be Imitated, as gold and diamonds are. But 
no counterfeit can harm It; and, Adonis, It Is In¬ 
compatible with smoking In a lady's lace, even if 
she acquiesces.— Harper's Magazine for September. 
Atlantic Monthly for September.—Contents: 
Cresar’a Art, of War and of Writing; Miss Magda¬ 
lena Peanuts, Phoebe Yates Pember; on Latinos, 
Miss L. W. Backus; Mountains In Literature, 
Thomas Sergeant Perry; Irene the .Missionary. 
XXIII.—XXVI.; Married Bohemians, Edgar Faw¬ 
cett ; The Use of Numbers In Society, N. 8. Shaler; 
Tho Race, and Why Yale Lost It; American Fi¬ 
nances from 17® to 1935. II., Johu Watts Kearny; 
Genesis, Ernest Dale Owen; Songs and Eccentrici¬ 
ties of Birds, Wilson Flagg; A Tennysonian Retro- 
spect, Julius u. Ward; Recent. Novels; A Lesson 
lu a Picture, Bailie M. B. lflatt; Nobility and Gen¬ 
try, Bichard Grant White; A Word to Philoso¬ 
phers, Christopher 1'. Crunch; Story-Paper Litera¬ 
ture, W. If. Bishop; The Contributors’ Club; 
Recent Literature; The Jennings Sanitary Depot 
and colonel George E. Waring. 
The Use of Numbers in Society.— 'The contrast 
between the rather evenly' distributed wealth of 
France and the far less uniformly shared wealth 
of England is In good part the result of the lower 
birth-rate In the former country. Each generation 
in France Is much better endowed with all the 
substantial elements of prosperity than that of 
any other country. Costly and ruinous wars, mal¬ 
administrations of government, and a scanty sup¬ 
ply of those mineral resources to which nations 
now look for the greater part of their gains have 
been more than counterbalanced by the fact that 
her wealth has not been wasted In the export of 
men,—the costliest product of the earth,—who 
have been driven in a great tide from the more 
northern States by the excessive growth of popu¬ 
lation. Fifty years of this conservatism of popula¬ 
tion has restored the waste of her laud during the 
revolutionary' period, and has laid the foundations 
for a great and stable future. 
If the system of our modern society left the 
forces of natural selection in vigorous operation, 
there would be something to say for the continu¬ 
ance of this reckless Increase of man. If the 
strongest alone survived, if the selection of combat 
or disease took away the weak, and left the strong 
and the skillful alone to continue the race, there 
might be some reason found lu It. But the dic¬ 
tates of that humanity which must be reckoned as 
the most precious acquisition of the race preserves 
the weak along with the strong, the vicious with 
the virtuous, tli© fool with the philosopher. Edu¬ 
cation must lu a good degree replace the ruder 
ancient, training, and In order to educate effective¬ 
ly wo must, limit the number to be trained. We 
must educate highly, in order that, the greater 
elevation ot the few may give us in an economical 
way what Nature might win In her more wasteful 
way. Such education demands a high standard of 
comfort, and a great Increaso of the wages fund. 
It cannot he accomplished In poverty, but ODly in 
a condition of society where it Is lifted to the level 
of self-sacrifice, and fortifled by tho Influences of 
inheritance and tradition. 
* * * U « « 4 « 
There Is another Important point on which there 
are some dangers of a considerable popular misap¬ 
prehension. it Is boldly asserted that the diminu¬ 
tion of tiie birth-rate is In some way connected 
with the lowering of the general vital conditions of 
a people. This la a fallacy, based on the assump¬ 
tion that the number of the progeny In a race is an 
Index of ihe vital force. Wo have already seen 
that the number of the progeny of animals Is sub¬ 
jected to a steady decrease with every advance in 
the grade of the organization, and has been direct¬ 
ly connected with tho gain in individual power. 
Tho force .that formerly went to the BJhJtipJJcaUoh 
THE RURAi. NEW-YORKER 
ot the species now goes to the making of a higher 
Individuality. The growth of the Individual and 
the multiplication of the race tire opposed uses of 
the organic forces. The individual seems always 
to have gained by the reduction of numbers In Its 
progeny, and there is no reason to fear that the 
reduction of the birth-rate Inman has yet gone 
beyond the point, where It is advantageous to the 
race. 
» «-K * * « * * 
Last, but by no means least, we must consider 
that nothing so debases our conception of life, our 
understanding of the ends and possibilities of ex¬ 
istence, as the wasted life that clogs every step ot 
our way. We turn with horror from the ancient 
amphitheaters, with their contending gladiators; 
we easily see how debased and debasing they must 
have been; yet our system of crowding two mor¬ 
tals where there Is hut room for one makes the 
world an arena, In its way as debasing as the spec¬ 
tacle of the gladiatorial combat.—.V. S'. Shaler, in 
Atlantic. 
Sunday Afternoon for September.— Sunday 
Afternoon (*3.oo a year, Springfield, Mass.) for Sep¬ 
tember is the last issue of the magazine under that 
name. The uew title will be Good Company. The 
character of the magazine will remain the same, 
and there will be no change in its management. 
This number has stories by Hose Terry Cooke ancl 
Elizabeth W. Denison; those sketches,—A Bit of 
New England, A Practical Leaven, The Old Log 
School-houso, and Sketches In Southern California; 
also, an account of the summer charities of New 
York, by William it. lUdelng. 
Kev. B. E. Warner writes about the pernicious 
periodical literature for the young, now so abun¬ 
dant; llev. Dr. ,T. M. Whlton about some peculiar¬ 
ities of the books of Esther and Ruth, aud there 
are carefully prepared papers on LaOmer as a so¬ 
cial Reformer, by octave Thanet, and on the Pub¬ 
lic Schools and National Culture, by Noble C. But¬ 
ler. The Hebrew Hereafter IS a reply to the He¬ 
brew Faith In Immortality in the last number. 
There are several poems, Including one in the 
Still Hour Department. 
The Editor's Taole has articles on Rink Religion; 
Vacation Sundays; makes an onslaught on the 
trashy periodicals of the day, and expresses grati¬ 
fication “that the great International Game of 
Hop, Skip and J ump, in which our Sunday-schools 
have been engaging every Sunday for almost seven 
yeare, Is pretty nearly ended. '' 
With the issue of Sunday Afternoon for January, 
1S79, Rev. Washington Gladden, finding the care 
of a large parish and the sole editorial charge ot a 
magazine more than enough to occupy his time, 
withdrew wholly from his connection with the 
contributors’ department of the magazine, and has 
not since had anything to do with it, though he 
has, as before, conducted the special editorial de¬ 
partments, and will continue to do so. The posi¬ 
tion of general editor was then taken, for the time 
being, by Edward F. Merrlam, who lias, however, 
retained it, and will sustain a similar relation to 
Good Company. 
Washing Day in a California Caui\— To such 
depths of degradation had I come at last that I 
roust wash my own clothes, and, like Mr. Minim¬ 
um, I thought it a demnition grind Indeed. Had I 
been as fastidious as some people are. they might 
have gone unwashed till the summer’s end for all 
of mo and my drudgery, but my baser nature pre¬ 
vailed, and I went forth laden like a slopshop ped¬ 
dler, to wash my clothes. Over the valley and 
half-way up the hill was a pool of warm mineral 
water which was better than concentrated lye for 
this purpose, so they said. By Its side there sat 
an Indian, solemn and alone, probably come here 
on a mission like mine, and contemplating with 
timorous hesitation the event of Ills annual clean 
shirt. He looked at me and smiled. He saw the 
burden I bore, realized my Intentions, noticed my 
hands, the cut ot my whiskers, and other such 
items of appearance, and almost laughed outright. 
Well, what of It ? 
To say that l was nettled by his mirth and evi¬ 
dent enjoyment Is to put it, very mildly. I could 
have slain him forthwith had I not feared remon¬ 
strance on Ills part. As It was I could only take 
revenge, which proved to be ample and sweet, by 
teaching lilm a lesson to the useful art of washing. 
From the moment in which I dipped the first gar¬ 
ment into the water he became Interested. When 
I drew it out and slashed it around upon the rock 
which was my wash-board, and plastered It with 
soap, which I nibbed to wit h my knuckles, just as 
I have seen my wl—1 beg her pardon—my washer¬ 
woman do, he smiled, not to derision, but in de¬ 
light. Then 1 mangled tho cloth, tortured it, 
twisted It, and wasted the better part of my 
strength on It. After a time of exertion, emerging 
from a sea of lather and suds, I gave the cleansed 
garment a pull through the fresh water to rinse it, 
and. with many a dexterous twirl of hand over fist, 
1 wrung it dry. Holding It up before his eyes, I 
shook the folds of flannel to tho breeze, and lo, 
they were as blue as the depths of Heaven at mid¬ 
day. Then the stoic savage could no longer con¬ 
tain his admiration within himself, and he cried, 
to uls contusion of tongues, “ You sabe muncho 
Which polyglot oompUment may be translated to 
mean, *• You've washed before t Like as not your 
wife takes In washing for a -living r—Sunday 
Afternoon for September. 
Woman’s Position in Germany,— The young 
housekeeper will now be Installed in her new 
office, but she will not be so genuine a mistress of 
It as my American reader may suppose, it is cus¬ 
tomary lu Germany tor the man to exercise a per¬ 
sonal surveillance and control ovoc all domestic 
regulations and expenditures, so that tho wife Is, 
strictly speaking, more like the steward of his 
house than tho mistress of his home. Her position 
is meanwhile an arduous one. A lady Is expected 
to do all the cooking and laundry-work of her 
household, washing excepted, together with such 
service as Is usually assigned to the American 
housemaid; while the one rude servant who is ap¬ 
portioned to a family scrubs tue uncarpeted poors,' 
chops the kindling-wood and carries the coal, tills 
the garden aud does the washing. This Is not 
confined to the middle class or classes: ladles of 
lofty title and estate, unless their meaDS arc ex¬ 
ceptionally large, perform all these functions In 
common with thetr liumbler-liorn sisters. The ob¬ 
ligation of unremitting drudgei y for women Is so 
universally maintained In Germany that no class 
of society escapes It. This statement presents a 
striking Incongruity with the received Idea of the 
German woman gathered from the German liter¬ 
ature, hut not more striking than that furnished 
by the fact. Woman in Germany is theoretically 
the helpless dependant, the unassertive worship¬ 
per at the shrine of the man. It is her own boast 
that she Is so. Yet the part she performs In the 
partnership of married life Is so large, so arduous 
and so Incalculably valuable, that it would seem 
to entitle her to the recompense o^a promotion to 
something like equality with her lord. At present, 
however, she neither possesses such equality nor 
desires It, hut continues to spin day by day from 
tho fibres of trr own life the wings with which 
her nobler mate soars into the empyrean. Her 
patience, her Industry and her thrift are beyond 
praise. In this land of poverty and pride, where 
lofty claims and slender purses go hand in hand, 
they have their amplest exercise .—LtpptncotVs for 
September. 
Jfor Momcn, 
CONDUCTED BY MISS FAITH RIPLEY. 
A RAINY DAY. 
ELLA WHEELER. 
How tired one grows of a rainy day, 
For a rainy day brings back so much; 
Old dreams revive that are buried away, 
And the past comes back to tho sight and touch. 
When the night is short and the day is long, 
And the rain falls down with ceaseless beat, 
We tire of our thoughts, as wc tire of a song 
That over and over is played in the street. 
AVhen I woke this morning, and board the splash 
Of the rain-drops over the tall elms’ leaves, 
I was carried back, in a lightning's flash, 
To the dear old home with the sloping eaves. 
And you and I in the garret high, 
Were playing again at hide-and-seek; 
And bright was the light of your laughing eye, 
And rich the glow of your rounded cheek. 
And again T was nestled in tny white bed, 
Under the eaves, aud hearing above 
The feet of the ruin-steeds over my head, 
While I dreamed sweet dreams of you, my love. 
Love, my lover, with eyes of truth— 
O beautiful love of the vanished years. 
There is no other love like the love of youth— 
I say it over and over with tears. 
Wealth, and honor, and fame may come_ 
They canuot reptaco what is taken away. 
There 1« no other home like ttio childhood’s home— 
No other love like the love of May. 
Though the sun is bright in the midday skies. 
There oometh an hour when the sud heart grieves 
IVith a lonely wail, like a lost child's cry. 
For the trundle-bed and the sloping eaves; 
When, with vague unrest and nameless pain 
'Ve hunger and thirst for a voice and touch 
That we never on earth shall know again. 
Oh ! a rainy day brings back so much. 
I Chicago Times. 
■“----— 
“ HOME PROTECTION," 
An Argument for Woman’s Temperance 
Ballot. 
BY FRANCES E. WILLARD, 
PRF.SLDF.NT OF ILLINOIS W. C. T. U, 
There is also great force in the consideration 
that, if women, not themselves eligible to office, 
had the power to elect or to defeat men (who will 
alone be eligible for a long while yet), the precise 
check might by this arrangement he supplied 
which would keep politics from formlug with the 
worst elements of society, that unholy alliance 
which Is to-day the grief of Christians and tho 
despair of patriots. Belonging to no party our¬ 
selves, we might b? able to nit tho Sabbath, the 
temperance movement, and kindred moral ques¬ 
tions out or the mire ot merely partisan politics 
Into which they have fallen. It is, at| least, worth 
trying. Into the seething caldron, when the 
witch's broth Is bubbling, let us east tins one In¬ 
gredient more. In speaking thus I am aware that 
I transcend the present pro pose of my constitu¬ 
ency. and represent myself rather than “ the folks 
that voted me to l” 
tlans for the future. 
Our temperance women in the West are learn¬ 
ing that, while the primary meetings are the most 
easily influenced, they are the most Influential po¬ 
litical bodies In America. Kre long the W. c. T. Us. 
will attend these, beginning to the smaller and 
more reputable communities. Wo are coufidcnt 
that nothing would be so effective lu securing the 
attendance of the respectable voter as the pres¬ 
ence at the primaries of •• his sisters and his cous¬ 
ins and his aunts?” To be »la at the birth” of 
measures vital to Hie well-being of society seems 
to us, In tho light of last winter's experience, a 
more useful Investment ot our Influence than to be 
“to at tho death.” At Springfield wc found Ihe 
enemy entrenched, while in the primaries ids sol¬ 
diers are not yet even recruited, Wo intend also 
to open In each locality books of record ; and, by 
thorough canvass, to secure an Informal registra¬ 
tion of all men and women—the former as to how 
they will and the latter :ts to how they would 
(mournful potential mood I) vote on the question 
of permitting saloons. Every such effort helps to 
obliterate party lines; or, more correctly, to mass 
the moral elements by w&jcjialoji* society coheres, 
against the disintegrating forces, which of them¬ 
selves would drive us into chaos and old night. 
» * » « -4 4 
Friends, there Is always a way out for humanity. 
Evermore in earth’s affairs God works by means. 
To-day he hurls back upon us our complaining cry: 
“How long? o Lord : how long ? Even as he an¬ 
swered faint-hearted Israel, so he replies to us: 
IF7mf can I do for this people that I hare not done ? 
“ Speak unto the children gf Israel that they go 
forward .” 
There’s a light about to beam, 
There’s a fount about to stream. 
There’s a warmth about to glow. 
There's a flower nboutto blow. 
There's a midnight blackness 
Changing into array; 
Mon of thoughta. of votes, of action, 
Clear the way / 
Aid that dnwnliiK .torque and pen; 
Aid it, hopes of honest men ; 
Aid it,, lor tho hour is ripo. 
And our earnest tuust not slacken into play. 
Men of thoughts, of votes, of action. 
Clear the wav ! 
Miss Willard s address was given in full in the 
Independent of July 10. 
-- 
CORRESPONDENTS’ CORNER. 
Dear Miss Ripley After an absence of some 
weeks I read the Rural again with great pleas¬ 
ure ; as usual, it la full of Interest. The ladles 
especially, are making their department of It very 
entertaining with their letters. I hope Aunt Es¬ 
ther will continue her advice to girls, there is 
much need of it, and need of their learning to sew. 
I was taught to sew at school, hut that Is all out 
of fashion now. I think If I were compelled to do 
anything to earn money, keeping a sewing school 
would not only be a good financial experiment, but 
also a charity to others. Let us have a letter olten 
from the “-Sunny South,” Florida. 
Would not all ot the lady readers of the Rural 
like to take a peep into Miss Harvey’s Artistic 
Room ? I know you all would. I have seen lately 
some very pretty log-cabtos, but our Jessie's was 
not among them. I would like to live In one, they 
look so comfortable and cosy, and I have seen 
some people In iny travels like her Mrs. Brown, 
with no energy to make use of the good things 
that God has given them. 
I cannot give you any recipes about cooking, for 
I know very little about It myself. I can make 
good bread and cook a plain dinner, but pies and 
eake I never could and never did make fit to eat; 
I do all kinds of home decoratings, and I love to 
see my house full of pretty home-made work. 
There are many things to he found to the Moods 
that can be made use of by the way of ornaments 
In the house. I am always looking for pretty 
things when I go to the woods, and 1 find them 
too. I have brackets made of fungus; I have one 
18 Inches high and six Inches wide, a perfect beau¬ 
ty, I think more of It than anything 1 could buy. 
Matilda should have her Bubals bound, then she 
could always refer to them. I would not cut one 
of mine for twice the price of It; there Is too much 
good and useful reading to them, they are always 
good to refer to. I put mine away where they will 
not get harmed, and some day intend to have them 
bound, and then they will find a place to our 
library. 
Faith’s advice to girls is good, I hope many will 
see it and profit by It. GU Is can do more good 
than older persons, among their young men friends, 
they never should let an opportunity pass to warn 
men against Intemperance. If young girls would 
turn the cold shoulder on all of their Wends who 
use liquor too Ireely, they would soon see the good 
resulting from their course of action. Give the girls 
more ou the same subject, do not let it. rest here, 
and you will be well repaid by the thanks of all 
that read your letters; remember, men, young and 
old, read your letters, and some one Is sure to 
benefit by them. I agree with Faith, life Is short, 
and we have hut one life. Live It well, do all 
the good you can. Never be afraid to give advice 
la a good cause; you may not be always listened 
to or thanked, never mind that, better have your 
feelings hurt than to see a dear person go to ruin, 
when a few words from you would help to save 
him. He may not take It kindly, the time will 
come though when he will ana so will others that 
love him. This ts a subject I am very much In¬ 
terested In, and I will read with deep interest any¬ 
thing that is written on It. Do, ladles, all take up 
the subject and do all you can. c. 
-»» . ♦■- 
Miss Faith Ripley Allow me to Introduce 
myself to the notice of my aged Southern lady 
friend (Mrs. T. J. B., In Rural of Aug 9.) Aye 
yes, the lovers of the Rural, are all cougenlal 
friends. I know that I should like her, for I am 
particularly fond of old ladles, as having lost my 
own dear mother my heart reaches out in love to 
them. One must love Qowers to he successful In 
raising them. The way Mrs. B prepares her soli 
cannot but produce beautiful flowers. Now Is 
the time to propagate new plants from old ones by 
layers, viz: those of the AVlegela, Honeysuckle, 
Wisteria, Running Roses etc. A good support 
for any of them, or tender vines, can be so con¬ 
strue'eel, as to be lowered to the ground, at the 
approach of winter. These vines sometimes 
go through the winter unprotected, but In 
our climate particularly It Is safest to lay 
them to the ground where they will be pro¬ 
tected by the snow. Set a post, three and a half 
feet long, and four Inches square, in the ground, 
and leave eight, or ten inches above the surface. 
Cut an opening to the top of this post to receive 
an upright shaft, eight, or ten feet high, three 
inches thick at the base and tapertug at the 
top. Insert several rods In this shaft, to which 
vines nre rattened. This shalt is kept to its place 
by two stout plus, at ihe bottom. Before the 
ground freezes, draw out tho upper pin, and lay 
the frames ancl vines together on the ground; 
then cover with straw or leaves, and put boughs or 
sticks to fasten them down, l do not claim to he 
the originator of this support, hut having tried It 
find it entirely satisfactory for the purpose and 
send a description ot it for til© benefit ot the 
readers of tjte " ' myiuav, 
