292 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
April 15 
m'T W w w v ▼ ▼ ▼▼▼▼ ▼▼ ▼ ▼▼▼▼▼▼• 
l Woman and Home j 
From Day to Day. 
POOR THING! 
She can swing a six-pound dumbbell, 
She can fence and she can box, 
She can row upon the river, 
She can clamber ’mong the rocks. 
She can do some heavy bowling, 
And play tennis all day long; 
But she cannot help her mother, 
’Cause she isn’t very strong! 
-Life. 
* 
Thk champion mean man was recently 
located at Stroudsburg, Pa., where he 
gave a boy one cent for returning a lost 
pocketbook containing $300. 
* 
An English paper reports that Ann 
Grant, a domestic servant who died re¬ 
cently at Linton, Cambridgeshire, aged 
87, had been employed 71 years in one 
family. That speaks volumes for the 
characters of both mistress and maid. 
* 
A Minnesota veteran gave a public 
testimonial to a patent medicine firm, 
stating that their nostrum had restored 
him to perfect health. He is now trying 
to square himself with the Pension Office, 
which proposes to take him at his 
word, and cut off his pension. 
* 
Moss-green or copper-colored shingle 
stain is advised to treat the floor of a 
country bedroom, the effect being very 
pretty with light-colored furniture. 
Enamel paints in Wedgewood blue or 
Indian red are pretty for the same pur¬ 
pose, unless the floor receives very hard 
treatment. 
* 
A farmer in Indiana buried $1,600 in 
old shoes, tomato oans and other recep¬ 
tacles. His hired man dug it up, and is 
now under arrest in consequence of his 
unique gold-mining. Probably the man 
who adopted this magpie method of in¬ 
vesting his savings had no confidence in 
banks or safe deposit vaults. 
* 
An Indiana man recently filed suit for 
divorce, on f^he ground that, during the 
entire nine years of his married life, his 
wife had seldom left her bed, though 
fully able to do so, and that she com¬ 
pelled him to do all the housework, at¬ 
tend to their little daughter, and do the 
family washing. We would like to know 
who provided the family bread and but¬ 
ter, while this long-suffering man was 
enslaved in domestic servitude. 
* 
Ribbon cravats and stocks will blos¬ 
som out with the shirt waists, and they 
will be very beautiful. Flowered rib¬ 
bons with borders of solid color have 
renewed their vogue; many of them are 
very beautiful, both in design and color. 
The ribbon cravats seem to grow more 
extravagant each year, in spite of bar¬ 
gains in ribbon, but the quantity re¬ 
quired is greater. Three yards are de¬ 
manded for the new bows, which have 
large loops and ends reaching nearly to 
the waist. 
* 
An Iowa Congressman has been work¬ 
ing energetically to induce the National 
Government to locate an army post at 
Des Moines. The arrangement seems 
likely to be made, but it is now reported 
that the W. C. T. U. has appointed a 
committee to fight the scheme. They say 
that soldier camps leave a train of deso¬ 
late homes behind them on account of 
the young women, and that a post would 
certainly be worse. The good women 
who take this view imply two unpleasant 
suggestions; one, that the American 
fighting man is unfit to associate with 
decent women; the other, that our young 
women are only virtuous in the absence 
of temptation. We are not inclined to 
admit either and, furthermore, we be¬ 
lieve that regular army posts are more 
likely to be efficiently disciplined than 
great camps of raw troops slackly gov¬ 
erned by inexperienced officers. We do 
not wish to belittle any volunteer, but 
must own that the sternly-drilled, im¬ 
passive, businesslike regular has, as Mrs. 
Primrose says, our warm heart. 
* 
One of the daily papers tells about 
some poor city children sent out into the 
country by the Fresh Air Fund, who 
were noticed looking in wonder at a 
yardful of fowls. The owner of the 
birds asked the children whether they 
had ever seen any before. “Oh, yes, 
ma’am,” the eldest child responded, with 
the air of one for whom the farm held 
no mysteries : “ we’ve always seen ’em— 
lots—only generally it was after they 
was peeled!” 
* 
It is stated that an Indiana woman 
married her fourteenth husband the 
other day. She was 15 years old when 
she married first, and has averaged 
about one marriage every two years 
since. Nine of her husbands have been 
lost by divorce. She appears to have a 
rival in an Indiana youth of 19 who has 
lost his third wife by divorce. At 14, he 
married a girl of 12 by parental consent, 
and treated her so badly that the mar¬ 
riage was annulled. His treatment of 
the next two was no better, and for the 
third time he is a grass widower. Ac¬ 
cording to this, Indiana has no right to 
throw stones at Utah, on account of 
Mormon polygamy. 
* 
One of the climatic peculiarities of 
Porto Rico is the great difference in tem¬ 
perature between open sunlight and 
dense shade. The difference is so marked 
that it is actually dangerous, when over¬ 
heated, to seek shelter in the shade of 
trees or jungle ; pneumonia is produced 
in this way, and many pulmonary com¬ 
plaints may be traced to such injudicious 
cooling. Harper’s Weekly says that a 
bit of superstition exists in the minds of 
the untutored natives to the effect that 
certain large trees which form bowers 
of shade, exhale poisonous, noxious 
vapors, and that those who unwittingly 
or foolishly rest beneath them, die with 
frightful pains in the chest and back, 
the true explanation being, of course, 
that acute congestion is superinduced. 
* 
Many persons have a constitutional 
distaste for fish, finding that some diges¬ 
tive disturbance is caused by eating it. 
In some cases, fish ordinarily innocent 
appears to cause acute poisoning, and 
this when perfectly fresh and whole¬ 
some. There are, however, some fishes 
which lie under the imputation of being 
poisonous to any consumer. Several 
fishes common in Cuban waters bear this 
evil reputation. In Havana there is an 
ordinance which forbids the sale of 
jacks over two pounds in weight, because 
there is a poisonous jack which attains 
a weight of 25 pounds. Another jack, 
called in Cuba chicaro, is regarded there 
as perfectly wholesome, while in other 
West Indian islands, it is considered very 
poisonous. At Guadaloupe, it is said, at 
times, the flesh of this fish is so poison¬ 
ous that it is used to destroy rats. The 
barracuda is considered a wholesome fish 
on the Florida coast, but is regarded 
with suspicion in the Bahamas, and 
along South America. The Cape of Good 
Hope bears a bad reputation for its poi¬ 
sonous fishes, and a number are reported 
from the East Indies. On our own coast, 
cases of poisonous fish are very rare, and 
without doubt, this bad repute may 
often be referred to popular prejudice ; 
still, there is no doubt that poisonous 
fishes do exist. 
* 
Milk and cocoa combined are among 
the newer canned goods ; all that is re¬ 
quired is hot water, to complete making 
the beverage. Coffee extract is, also, 
bought in cans, to be made in the same 
way. We recently noted peanut butter, 
in 15 and 25-cent jars, at a large grocery, 
and were informed that the sale of this 
article is largely increasing. Many per¬ 
sons of weak digestion consider that they 
cannot use animal butter without ill 
effects, while the vegetable fat is digested 
without effort. The grocer remarked 
that the demand for “ health foods ” of 
infinite variety is constantly increasing, 
and he began to wonder whether people 
with a natural digestion were an extinct 
species, or whether the doctors were in¬ 
terested financially in the consumption 
of these products. 
* 
Our recent articles upon rug-making 
as a village industry remind us of the re¬ 
vival of many such home manufactures 
in the Old World. In several of the 
British Isles, hand-woven tweeds and 
serges form an important industry, the 
Ruskin tweeds of the Isle of Man and 
several makes from Scotland enjoying 
special fame. The women of the Shet¬ 
land Islands knit veils and other articles 
of woolen of exquisite fineness, which 
sell for a high price. A Shetland veil is 
the very thing for baby’s wear, warm, 
yet filmy-fine. Pottery is made by home 
workers in several English villages ; lace, 
basket work, cabinet-making and linen 
weaving are other English home in¬ 
dustries. The value of these trades lies 
in the conscientious work, and in the 
artistic value of the design. It must be 
superior to the machine-made article, to 
command a sale. 
A Prince of India. 
A Gorgeous Figure. —Mr. R. D. Mac¬ 
kenzie describes, in the Century Magaz¬ 
ine, the imposing state supported by a 
minor potentate of Hindustan. Ameri¬ 
cans feel a greater interest in that far¬ 
away land, now that an American woman 
shares the dignity of the Viceroy who 
represents “ the Widow at Windsor.” 
The potentate described is the Nawab of 
Bahawalpur; he rules only over a minor 
state of Rajputana, about 300 miles long 
and 100 wide, yet he keeps a magnificent 
court. Except on special occasions, the 
Nawab dresses in white muslin trousers, 
very wide and baggy, silk or cloth coat 
and waistcoat, and silk-and-gold turban. 
His pockets are numerous, and their con¬ 
tents surprising. It is a common thing 
for him to wear two or three watches, 
and very beautiful ones they are. This 
does not astonish one so much as the 
fact that he possesses no less than 1,700 
watches of all descriptions, and is con¬ 
stantly purchasing others. 
His Jeweled Setting. —He has, also, 
some remarkably fine jewels. His crown 
weighs nine pounds, and is a mass of 
diamonds set in silver, with a row of 
very large pear-shaped pearls as pend¬ 
ants around the base. He has a sword, 
the jeweled scabbard and hilt of which 
are valued at $500,000. He wears some 
extraordinary rubies and uncut emeralds 
attached to chains of rubies and pearls 
that he wears as a necklace. He has, 
also, a set of 15 uncut rubies as large as 
the largest of the emeralds. They are 
historic gems, with the names of the 
Mogul emperors engraved upon them. 
They are very irregular in shape, and 
measure fully 1% inch in diameter. 
The Nawab's Amusements. — The 
Nawab leads a very active but whimsical 
life. His greatest passion is hunting, 
consisting of shooting, pig sticking, and 
hawking. He is an excellent shot, espe¬ 
cially if the game is moving rapidly, and 
I should be afraid to say how many wild 
boars he has killed, pig-sticking being a 
sport not generally indulged in by Mo¬ 
hammedans. He, like most Indian 
princes, has killed his tiger. He is 
equally skilled in telling a story, and his 
English, though slow and measured, is 
very good. From the time he was five 
years old, he was under an English tutor, 
appointed by the British government. 
At the death of his father, the former 
Nawab, the whole state passed into the 
hands of the British government until 
the young Nawab, coming of age, was 
placed on the throne, and given full 
powers to govern his 600,000 subjects, 
together with several crores of rupees, 
which had accumulated in the treasury 
under the administration of the English. 
(A crore is 10,000 000 rupees, or ICO lacs, 
a lac being 100,000 rupees.) 
Domestic Service —The Nawab has a 
body-guard of 4C0 mounted men, nearly 
all from Baluchistan, a wild, dirty, and 
most picturet que set, and the best and 
the most reckless riders I have ever seen. 
He maintains only one squadron of 
cavalry, and half a regiment of infantry, 
but has 2,000 domestic servants, and 300 
shikarees, or hunters, distributed over 
the whole state, whose duty it is to send 
news to the Nawab when game is found 
in their locality, and to keep poachers 
from trespassing. He has, also, a stable 
of 150 Arab, English, and Australian 
horses, and two large river steamers are 
held in readiness for six months at a 
time on the Sutlej, which forms the 
northern boundary of his state for a dis¬ 
tance of about 200 miles. The Nawab’s 
present income is about 15 lacs of rupees 
a year. He is an absolute monarch, hold¬ 
ing the power of signing life or death 
sentences on criminals. 
Tables and Trenchers. 
The dining table of the colonists of 
New England was a long, narrow board 
laid on trestles, shaped like a sawhorse, 
says the Youth’s Companion. It was 
called a table-board, and its linen cover 
was known, not as a table-cloth, but as 
a board-cloth. Portions of packing-boxes, 
in which stores had been brought from 
England, were made into table-bcards 
and carefully treasured. 
“ One such oaken table-board,” says 
the author of Home Life in Colonial 
Days, “ still in existence, has on the un¬ 
der side, in quaint lettering, the name 
and address of the Boston settler to 
whom the original packing-box was sent 
in 1638.” 
The colonists had plenty of napkins, 
which were a necessity, as forks being 
unknown, hands held the food. The 
table furnishings used in those days 
were cups, spoons, knives, chafing-dishes, 
chargers, salt-cellars and trenchers. The 
trencher was the most important arti- 
ticle, as it was used as a plate. Often 
it was a block of wood, 10 inches square 
and three inches deep, hollowed into a 
sort of bowl, into which the food was 
placed. A man and his wife, or two chil¬ 
dren, ate out of one trencher. An old 
Connecticut deacon, who owned a wood¬ 
turning mill, turned out a sufficient num¬ 
ber of round trenchers to allow each child 
to use one. Whereupon his neighbors re¬ 
monstrated with him for putting on airs 
and encouraging extravagance. Square 
trenchers, each to be used by two per¬ 
sons, were good enough, in their opin¬ 
ion, for a deacon’s family. 
“I have seen,” writes the author 
quoted, “a curious old table top, or 
table-board, which permitted diners 
seated at it to dispense with trenchers. 
It was of heavy oak, about six inches 
thick, and at intervals of about 18 
inches around its edges were scooped out 
deep, bowl-shaped holes 10 inches in di¬ 
ameter, in which the portions of the dif¬ 
ferent eaters were placed. After each 
meal, the top was lifted off the trestles, 
and thoroughly washed and dried.” 
Macbeth lamp-chimneys 
save nine-tenths of the cost 
and all the trouble. 
Go by the Index. 
Write Macbeth Pittsburgh Pa 
