312 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
April 22 
l Woman and Home 
From Day to Day. 
AN OLD EASTER BONNET. 
I wish the Easter days were now like those that 
once I knew, 
When Jenny wore the bonnet plain, with ribbon 
bows of blue; 
When we walked to Sunday meetln’ o’er the 
meadows green and sweet, 
Where lilies waved in welcome, with violets at 
our feet. 
It ain’t the farcy fixin’s I mind so much—the bills 
For birds and fluffy feathers—all the fine new¬ 
fangled frills; 
Fer I know that fashion changes, that it rules the 
world complete; 
But the old-time Easter bonnet was so simple and 
so sweet. 
Its ribbons -matched the color of the blue sky 
overhead, 
An’ the lips that smiled beneath it seemed to 
mean the words they said! 
The lips that smiled so sweetly—never knowin’ 
any art— 
An’ the eyes whose sunny glances made a light 
around your heart! 
I’ve nothin’ ’gainst the fashions—they’ve got to 
have their day; 
But I love the simple bonnets of the far an’ far 
away; 
An’ thinkin’ bow she looked in ’em—there, in the 
long ago, 
I sigh<an’ praise the Lord from whom all blessin’s 
used to flow! 
—Atlanta Constitution. 
* 
We are now threatened with a con¬ 
solidation or trust of the liver-pill and 
porous-plaster manufacturers. It is evi¬ 
dent that there is a vast army of be¬ 
lievers in these remedies, or they would 
not be sufficiently remunerative to form 
a trust. By joining the Apple Eaters’ 
League, we can enjoy life without fat¬ 
tening this particular capitalistic octo¬ 
pus. Suppose we all try it! 
* 
It is said that several soldiers who 
went through the Santiago campaign 
with safety, fainted while they were be¬ 
ing vaccinated on their return to this 
country. Our dentist says that men who 
have proved their courage in great emer¬ 
gencies, make more fuss over filling a 
tender tooth than some nervous little 
woman who screams when she touches a 
caterpillar 1 We are none of us entirely 
consistent. 
* 
Farming in Rhodesia, the newly- 
opened territory in British Africa, ap¬ 
pears not entirely devoid of excitement, 
and it may be recommended to any one 
who thinks farm life monotonous. An 
Australian girl, writing tome during a 
visit to Rhodesia, remarks: 
The country around Bulawayo still seems to 
abound in lions and leopards, though I did not 
have the good fortune to see any except two 
young lions that had been brought into the town, 
and were kept in a cage. Just before I left, some 
friends living at a farm about 12 miles out of 
Bulawayo were greatly troubled with lions,which 
took four of their best donkeys from the kraal 
[corral or cattle-pen.— Eds.] leaving one partly 
uneaten. Hoping to poison the lions, my friends 
put arsenic on the remains. The following night 
the lions came again, this time taking the pois 
oned carcass, as well as 13 sheep and goats, a 
bullock and two heifers. The arsenic evidently 
failed to have the desired effect, for no dead lions 
could afterwards be found. Game is very plen¬ 
tiful, and sportsmen seem to have a very good 
time, although I believe a license must be ob¬ 
tained to shoot big game 
* 
A new development of the “ endless 
chain ” idea has been tried in Indiana as 
a means of raising money. It is called a 
“calendar.” It is started by one per¬ 
son in each case, who assumes the title 
of the year, and pays $2 and selects 12 
others for the months, who each pay 81, 
and find four people who each pay 50 
cents, and assume the weeks of the 
month. They get seven people at 25 
cents apiece, for the days, and these 
seven each secure 24 at 10 cents each, to 
cover the hours of the day. The min¬ 
utes and seconds could also be worked 
on, but the chain is stopped on the hours. 
Each chain run thus far successfully will 
bring in just an even 81,000 It is much 
more satisfactory and not so much trou¬ 
ble as the endless-letter chain, as all the 
work is done by personal canvass. 
* 
A little girl in New Jersey recently 
died as a result of swallowing a wad of 
chewing gum. There are, doubtless, 
cases where this gum is equally deadly, 
without being swallowed entire. Cases 
are known where dangerous diseases 
have been communicated by the filthy 
practice of passing a masticated wad of 
gum from one child to another. We can¬ 
not understand how any person, child or 
adult, above the intellectual level of a 
Digger Indian, can possibly put in his 
mouth a piece of gum which has been 
chewed by another; but this practice 
does prevail among children, and we 
have known households where mother 
and children chewed the same pieces of 
gum indiscriminately ! We have always 
regarded the gum-chewing habit as un¬ 
healthful, unclean, and disgusting to the 
observer; it is evident that it may be, 
also, a source of actual danger. 
* 
In the Spring city elections at Beattie, 
Kan., two tickets were in the field, one 
composed of women and the other of 
men, Mrs. Charles Totten was elected 
Mayor, Mrs Sheldon, Mrs Schlight, Mrs. 
Smith, Mrs. Kirlen and Mrs Watkins to 
the Council, and Miss O’Neil, City Clerk. 
At Coffeyville, Kan., the daughter of 
Capt. D. S Elliot of the Twentieth Kan¬ 
sas Regiment, who was recently killed 
at Manila, was elected city clerk without 
any opposition, her name being on both 
tickets. 
* 
Women as milk tasters suggest a new 
line of industry. They are so employed 
in Denmark at the creameries, tasting 
samples for dilution, sourness, bad flavor, 
etc. A sample considered doubtful by 
these tasters is examined by the bacteri¬ 
ologist, and reported to the farmer. 
Women should make expert tasters of 
any commodity, their palates being un¬ 
impaired by tobacco, etc. ; but every 
woman would not be sufficiently acute 
in this respect. One realizes this in ob¬ 
serving how many different grades of 
eggs will be eaten, without question, as 
“ new laid,” when boiled or poached. 
* 
A Chicago woman, wearing a bonnet 
with numerous nodding plumes, leaned 
over a c’gar-lighter in a cigar store, and 
in a moment her headgear was a blazing 
conflagration. There was a brief period 
of wild confusion; then a policeman 
snatched the pyrotechnic headgear from 
the wearer’s head, and the soda-water 
clerk extinguished the flames with a 
siphon of seltzer. No one was hurt, but 
the new Spring hat was a blackened 
wreck. 
* 
We read recently of a woman in a 
sleeping-car, who stunned the porter by 
ordering him to place a mouse-trap, 
which she provided, under her berth, 
when he made it up. The porter observed 
that there were no mice on the cars, to 
which the woman responded, with acerb¬ 
ity : “ Do you think I’m going to be 
mutilated in my bed by those dreadful 
creatures ! I’ve caught two mice in sleep¬ 
ing-cars within eight years ! ” Many of 
the traveling public will be astonished 
that any woman who wasn't afraid to 
talk back to a Pullman-car porter should 
be afraid of mice. 
$!• 
Among the contract nurses who went 
to Santiago last July, to care for the sick 
soldiers, are several very efficient col¬ 
ored women. One of them, Mrs. Ennis, 
is a native of Santa Cruz, West Indies, 
who received her training in the Freed¬ 
man’s Hospital at Washington. At one 
time, at El Caney, Mrs. Ennis had 110 
sick and wounded soldiers under her in¬ 
dividual charge, and they all speak in 
the highest terms of her energy, skill 
and devotion. 
* 
In the Philippines, the natives make 
use of an odd substitute for glass, the 
shell of the Chinese window oyster, as 
it is called. This shell has about nine 
inches of surface, and is so transparent 
that print can be read through it. It 
gives a soft, mellow light, the shell re¬ 
sembling isinglass in appearance. The 
outer surface is rough, while the inner 
side is smooth and glazed, with a pearly 
luster. This shell is used in China for 
windows and lanterns, and is also ground 
to make silver paint 
DESERTED COUNTRY CHURCHES 
WHY DO THEY LOSE GROUND ? WHAT TAKES 
THEIR PLACE? 
That is where the gospel is dispensed with! 
Jonn Gould made this quotation as he 
stopped his horse in front of the aban¬ 
doned church shown at Fig. 125. It was 
a dull October day—raw and cheerless 
We had driven through a section of aban¬ 
doned and gloomy-looking villages in 
northern Ohio, and this was the second 
abandoned church we had passed. The 
other was in good repair, but this one 
was hopelessly given up. Weeds and 
uncivilized shrubs grew up to the very 
door, and the corn had been planted up 
clear to the side. One door stood open, 
| and the windows were badly broken. 
This was the old Baptist church at 
Mantua Center. Years ago the little 
village nearby was a thriving country 
place, with stores, wagon shops and 
small factories. Now most of the larger 
buildings stand like the church—empty 
and idle. It is not likely that they will 
ever be occupied again. The railroad 
and the great changes of commercial life 
have carried trade away forever from the 
little town centers. With it has gone 
the old social and spiritual life—never to 
return. 
This change has been going on for 
years. It is long since religious services 
were held in this church. During the 
famous woman’s temperance crusade in 
Ohio, this church was used as head¬ 
quarters for one band of crusaders, and 
the last meeting ever held in it was a 
temperance meeting by the W. C. T. U. 
So the old church closes its long and 
honorable service. It stands sadly as a 
memory of old days that were simpler, 
yet more satisfying than the present. 
All through Ohio, and in fact, through 
most of the Middle West, the country 
churches are losing ground. Various 
reasons are given for this state of 
affairs—change of markets and methods 
of doing business, a failure to interest 
the young people in the church, and a 
decided change of public opinion with 
regard to the observance of Sunday. 
Whatever the true reasons may be, there 
can be no doubt that the breaking up of 
the country church is a serious blow to 
rural American life. 
Wishing to obtain an opinion of these 
conditions from the clerical standpoint, 
we asked several prominent clergymen 
to give us their views of this decay of the 
American 
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WALTHAM, MASS. 
* 
f 
OLD BAPTIST CHURCH AT MANTUA CENTER, OHIO. Fie. 125. 
