332 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Apr 1 <!') 
[ Woman and Home \ 
From Day to Day. 
Painted quills are seen on many of 
the new outing hats. The style started 
with polka-dotted quills, which have 
been worn to some extent all Winter ; 
now, in addition to the dots, such em¬ 
blems as tennis rackets, golf sticks, 
hunters’ horns, etc., are painted on the 
quills. 
* 
A woman who follows the gentle pro¬ 
fession of lion-tamer in a circus recently 
obtained a divorce from her husband, on 
the ground of excessive cruelty. This 
shows that a woman may be able to 
beard the lion in his den, yet fail in the 
guidance of a mere man ! Perhaps she 
tried lion-taming methods on her hus¬ 
band, which we consider inadvisable, 
save in exceptional cases. 
* 
Mention was made in Hope Farm 
Notes, last week, of the faults of the 
oil stove. According to our experience, 
there are some oil stoves that are always 
unsatisfactory, ill-smelling and danger¬ 
ous. If improperly cared for, dirty as 
to wick and burner, any oil stove will 
be offensive, like a badly-trimmed lamp. 
But a really good make, kept clean, the 
wick renewed or cleaned before it be¬ 
comes too short or dirty, there is no 
odor, and no more danger than in using 
an oil lamp. We have used oil stoves 
for several years, and find them a great 
comfort during severe weather. 
* 
The new styles in men’s outing shirts 
so far shown are so loud in design and 
color that they look like colored supple¬ 
ments ; but the women are not to be 
outdone, and have risen to assert their 
rights to be the gaudiest of the sexes. 
While purple and yellows will be the 
reigning solid colors for the rest of the 
year, a woolen man says that the looms 
are now at work on about the loudest 
and gaudiest p’aids for women’s wear 
that have ever been put on the market, 
and that the rule is, apparently, going 
to be, the louder the plaid the nearer it 
will be to the height of the fashion. 
Patterns will be large, and the color 
combinations the most striking, even 
more showy than the golf plaids in 
which the fair female has reveled to a 
slight extent in the past. 
* 
The wearing of bloomers or knicker¬ 
bockers, without skirts, by wheel women, 
which prevailed a few seasons ago, has 
passed away in most parts of the coun¬ 
try ; but while the style existed, some 
wearers of this costume were mortified 
and annoyed by the refusal of restaurant 
keepers, in a few instances, to serve 
them, owing to prejudice against their 
attire. It is interesting to note that, in 
England, recently, no less a person than 
Viscountess Harberton, president of the 
Rational Dress Society, brought suit 
against an innkeeper for refusing to serve 
her with a meal when in her cycling 
suit, which included knickerbockers, but 
no skirt. Lady Harberton has been de¬ 
voting herself for years to the subject of 
dress reform, and she has the courage of 
her convictions, regarding knickerbock¬ 
ers as the only rational costume for out¬ 
door exercise. The innkeeper, also a 
woman, had the courage of her convic¬ 
tions, also, and while fully aware of the 
viscountess’s rank and social standing, 
it was the rule of her house not to serve 
women cyclists who dispensed with 
skirts. Her reason for this rule was 
that her inn was on a much-frequented 
highway and, if she did not observe 
such restriction, she would be compelled 
to entertain daringly-dressed women of 
objectionable character, and would thus 
lose a better class of customers. The 
jury took the same view as the innkeeper, 
and Lady Harberton lost her case. 
* 
One would think a postage stamp a 
very innocent and innoxious thing, yet 
English papers report the case of a little 
girl who, having fallen and hurt her 
knee, applied to the injury a piece of 
postage stamp, which caused blood poi¬ 
soning, resulting in pneumonia, which 
caused her death. In another fatality, 
resulting in lockjaw, a nurseryman’s 
helper tripped over a cold frame, and 
fell, wounding h’s leg very slightly. 
Lockjaw set in the next day, resulting 
fatally. 
found in the ground, in certain locali¬ 
ties, and it was the opinion of the doc¬ 
tors attending this latter case, that the 
contact with the earth had induced the 
fatal disease, the injury itself being of 
the most trifling character. 
* 
A St. Louis justice recently rendei ed 
the decision that, in some cases, it might 
be necessary for a husband to slap his 
wife. He staged that he was not to be 
regarded as a friend of wife beaters, but 
if the wife failed to recognize the hus¬ 
band’s position in household manage¬ 
ment, and contradicted his authority, he 
might discipline her with a slap. It is 
related that, a century ago, an English 
judge ruled that a husband might legally 
correct his wife with a rod no thicker 
than his honor’s thumb, whereupon the 
wives of that circuit sent a deputation to 
ascertain the exact thickness of the 
judicial unit of measurement. In the 
modern instance alluded to, the wives of 
St. Louis might get a dynamometer 
record of the exact force permitted to a 
disciplinary slap. 
* 
A blooming cactus plant recently re¬ 
sulted in serious injury to its owner. 
The plant was placed in an open win¬ 
dow, and a sudden breeze blew some of 
the pollen into the eyes of its owner, 
who was bending over the plant. In¬ 
flammation resulted, and the effects 
were so serious as to require careful 
treatment by a physician. It does not 
follow necessarily that the pollen of a 
cactus possesses actual poisonous qual¬ 
ities greater than those of other plants, 
for the pollen of many different flowers 
proves extremely irritating to the mu¬ 
cous membranes lining the air passages. 
Golden rod is very irritating to many 
persons ; the common ragweed is another 
offender, and in fact, complaint is made, 
by some sufferers, of all flowers whose 
pollen flies readily in dustlike form. 
# 
An Arizona paper states that an out- 
of-town school trustee recently visited 
the county superintendent to see whether 
there was any legal way to head off 
their school teacher. Said he : 
We hired her fer six months. The time wcz up 
las’Friday. I tole her a couple o’weeks afore 
that I guessed we wouldn’t have more’n a six- 
months’ term; thet the money was ’bout all gone, 
an’ we’d have to git some furnicher and make 
some repairs about the schoolhouse, so we 
wouldn’t have no more school this year. But she 
was loaded fer me an’ told me she’d been to 
town and seen Mr. Fulton, an’ he told her ther’ 
was money ’nough for four weeks more and 
ther’d still be about $30 left. Nothin’ we could 
say’d shake her, an’she just keeps on teachin’, 
an’ goodness knows when she’ll stop. I s’pose 
when the money runs out. She’s on’y got four 
scholars, an’ three of ’em comes from where 
she’s boardin’. All the Mexicans is quit, an’ one 
man tuk his children out after they’d been agoin’ 
three months. He said they didn’t know es much 
es they did when they started in. If they’d kept 
on till the end o’ the term, they’d forgot how to 
read writin’. 
The teacher, however, appears to be 
mistress of the situation, for her con¬ 
tract, instead of specifying the length 
of the term, makes it contingent upon 
the funds appropriated for the teacher’s 
salary. Such a contract is often made 
in some rural districts and, when the 
teacher fails to give satisfaction, as in 
this case, the trustees are powerless to 
dismiss her until the money runs out. 
* 
At this season, many disgusted citizens 
who have borne the rigors of the Winter 
without harm, suddenly begin to catch 
cold, and acquire all the miseries of in¬ 
fluenza. Colds seem peculiarly the result 
of civilization. Nansen and his lone 
companion, when wandering over the 
Arctic ice, were almost in the condition 
of icicles ; their clothes were frozen on 
their backs, and after they were tucked 
in their sleeping bags at night, it took 
at least an hour to thaw out. But they 
never took cold until they returned to 
civilization. This appears to be the ex¬ 
perience of all Arctic explorers. The 
sists in outdoor life, which at once de¬ 
stroys disease germs, and strengthens 
the resisting power of the constitution. 
There is no doubt that the same treat¬ 
ment is valuable in giving immunity to 
colds. _ 
Lenten Days in Havana. 
Plain Food no Depbivation —Even 
a protracted Lenten fast could not be 
very severe in this tropical isle of always 
simple living, pure air and lavish fruits, 
says Fannie B. Ward in the Philadelphia 
Record. If one chooses to deny himself 
the morning coff e or chocolate, which 
is served with bread immediately on 
rising, there are sweet, juicy, incom¬ 
parable oranges to slake one’s thirst, 
while a golden Cuban banana contains 
nourishment enough for a full meal. De¬ 
pend upon it, the old monks we read 
about, who lived on figs, raisins and 
goats’-millc cheese, did not fare badly. 
In this country, it would be no depriva¬ 
tion to go without butter, or the im¬ 
ported compound that passes under that 
honored name, for wagon grease and 
soap fat are savory in comparison. 
The Plague of Fleas. —If one is 
heroically bent upon a veritable mortifi¬ 
cation of sense and spirit to atone for 
some grievous sin, he might, perhaps, 
shut bis eyes to the small black dots 
that are sprinkled through the excellent 
roll allowed with his morning coffee, 
and let them go the natural way with 
the bread, instead of disgustedly pinch¬ 
ing them out with their enveloping 
crumbs, and hiding them under his plate 
rim. That would, indeed, be a penance 
of antique robustness, worthy of Spain 
in Inquisition days—for every black dot 
is a flea, as recognizable in its minute 
anatomy and articulation as flies in am¬ 
ber. It, is an open question whether the 
sweet, light, well-baked bread which is 
so creditable to Havana bakeries could 
possibly be made entirely without the 
wicked flea which no Cuban pursueth ; 
since in the daintiest private housekeep¬ 
ing of the Island, the pestiferous insects 
make life a burden, swarming the beds, 
the wardrobes, the cane-seat chairs and 
couches, and even the seams of the mar¬ 
ble floors. Every carriage, car or other 
public vehicle is literally alive with 
them, and one invariably returns from a 
promenade with polka-dotted hose and 
undergarments. It is taken so much a 
matter of course, this pest of fleas, that 
nobody wonders when the person to 
whom he is talking suddenly retires for 
a private hunt, or smiles to see the 
priest in the pulpit reach down to scratch 
a leg in the midst of prayer or exhorta¬ 
tion. 
Palm Sunday Penance. —But on Palm 
Sunday, women, at least, may realize 
that Lent is a penitential season. Think 
of being compelled to kneel on a hard 
stone floor three hours at a stretch. 
While some seats are owned by the privi- 
Health as Cash Capital 
DOCTOR CYRUS EDSON has 
an article in this week’s number of 
m SA TURD A Y 
EVENING POST 
Showing to young men the necessity 
of steady nerves and good digestion, 
and general good health, if they want 
to succeed in business or a profession. 
Rear-Admiral Philip Hichborn , 
chief constructor of U. S. Navy, has 
a page article on “ The Passing 
of 6 Wooden Walls’”—a Century of 
Naval Progress—also in this number. 
Stories by GENERAL CHARLES KING, 
HAROLD FREDERIC and 
HALLIWELL SUTCLIFFE. 
To be had of All Newsmen at 5 Cents the Copy 
THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY 
PHILADELPHIA 
The bacillus of lockjaw is modern treatment of consumption eon- 
