352 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
May 6 
[ Woman and Home \ 
From Day to Day. 
TWO VIEWS. 
FIRST poet: 
Ob, tbe haunt of the bird la the leafy wood, 
In a shade remote and free; 
He tunes his throat to a lover’s note 
For his mate in the blossoming tree. 
chorus: 
Sing tweet! sing sweet! the bird in the tree, 
And the bird with wings for the sky; 
We listen long to his happy song 
As the hours go dancing by. 
8ECONP toet: 
Oh, the haunt of the bird is the broad-brimmed 
hat, 
Where he perches with airy grace, 
With his feathers dyed, and his wings spread 
wide, 
And flanked with ribbons and lace. 
chorus: 
Sing heigh! sing ho! for the bird on the hat, 
Yet I wonder, at times, upon it, 
Why a sensitive maid is never afraid 
Of the corpse on her Sunday bonnet! 
Carol Schetlcy Turney , in Life. 
# 
“Aunt” Deborah King, of Young 
Hickory, Ohio, who has reached the dis¬ 
creet age of 103, cast her first vote for 
school director this year. She enjoyed 
the experience, and says that she will 
vote again next year. 
* 
A physician in New York State asserts 
that he has traced several cases of ap¬ 
pendicitis to the drinking of muddy 
water, the particles held in suspension 
settling in the appendix, and there caus¬ 
ing inflammation. Apparently, the only 
safe rule for a water-drinker is to boil 
that fluid for half an hour or so, then to 
filter it, slaking his thirst with fear and 
trembling. 
* 
Maine appears to be trying the central¬ 
izing of the schools, judging from a new 
school law in regard to the conveyance 
of school children, enacted by the last 
Legislature, and which went into effect 
April 11. The gist of the new law is 
that the superintending school commit¬ 
tee is the body that decides who shall be 
carried to and from school and who shall 
not, at the expense of the town. It also 
gives the body the right to board a child 
near the schoolhouse, in case the expense 
would be the same or less than the con¬ 
veyance each day would amount to. 
* 
An Apache Indian was a witness in a 
trial in New York City recently. He is 
an employee of the Street-Cleaning De¬ 
partment, having adopted this occupa¬ 
tion after acting as Government scout 
for several years. He was asked as to 
his family, and explained that he had 
been married five times, had eight sons 
in the army, six sons in the navy, a few 
daughters and some more sons. This 
red man appears to supply more than 
his share of fighting stock for Uncle 
Sam. His five wives were all colored 
women; four of them are dead, but 
the fifth, very much his junior, has 
eloped, as poor Lo pathetically explained, 
with a yellow pie-baker of her own race. 
* 
Our foreign news related, a few weeks 
ago, the wreck of the excursion steamer 
Stella, on the Casket Rocks in the Eng¬ 
lish Channel, whereby 70 persons lost 
their lives. Daring the 12 minutes that 
elapsed from the time the steamer struck 
until she broke to pieces, the stewardess, 
Mrs Rigers, was most active in aiding 
the women passengers to put on life pre¬ 
servers, and in helping them into the 
boats, refusing to follow them for fear 
of overcrowding these already danger¬ 
ously laden craft. She remained at her 
post, and went down with the vessel, 
showing as much heroism as any soldier 
who falls on the field of battle. There 
can be no higher courage than that 
which remains cool in the face of dan¬ 
ger, and which devotes life itself to the 
preservation of others. Another heroine 
of the Stella wreck was a young woman 
who encouraged the survivors during the 
15 hours that they drifted about the 
Channel, by her singing of “Oh Rest in 
the Lord ! ” Several of the more delicate 
among them died of exposure, the weath¬ 
er being cold, and there being neither 
food nor water in the little open boats. 
* 
Quinine has recently increased enor¬ 
mously in price, and is higher than it 
has been for years. It has not reached 
the figures of 25 years ago, when it was 
$5 or more an ounce, but has increased 
wholesale, from 14 to 16 cents an ounce ; 
in bulk, to 35 or 40 cents. The high 
price of past years was due to the meth¬ 
od of production, high tariff and a South 
American quinine trust. Now the drug 
is produced in Java, and Great Britain 
is nursing its cultivation in her Asiatic 
colonies, so that the price is never likely 
to mount up to its old figures. The pres¬ 
ent increase is said to be due to a Lon¬ 
don “ corner”, rather than to legitimate 
trading. 
* 
A young woman was displaying a very 
handsome pocketbook of “ real alligator 
skin,” and she was a little bit disgusted 
when an expert friend informed her 
that her purse had formerly belonged to 
a shark who had, probably, disported 
himself on the Jersey coast. Shark hide 
is so valuable in the leather business 
that sharks are regularly fished for, the 
Long Island and New Jersey coasts be¬ 
ing the chief source of supply. Neither 
is the skin alone the only part utilized. 
Shark oil is valuable, fins are dried and 
sold to the Chinese for soup-making, the 
backbone is used for glue, the flesh and 
smaller bones for fertilizers. Sharkskin 
is used to imitate a number of more val¬ 
uable skins, in addition to being sold 
under its own name. 
* 
That St. Louis justice, who was wide¬ 
ly quoted as advising an irate husband 
to slap his wife when the discipline 
seemed necessary, has received so much 
gratuitous advice on the subject that he 
now says he meant nothing of the kind. 
A justice in New York State, who re¬ 
cently sentenced a wife-beater to six 
months’ imprisonment and $50 fine, felt 
grieved because the prisoner didn’t take 
the sentence with Christian humility. 
On the contrary, he talked back at the 
judge, and said some very unjudicial 
things, whereat the judge descended 
from the bench, removed his coat and, 
in the capacity of a private citizen, 
soundly thrashed the prisoner. Such a 
proceeding was not judicial, but it ap¬ 
pears to have voiced the sentiments of 
the community as regards wife-beaters. 
* 
Most of the telephones used in busi¬ 
ness offices are inclosed in a closet like 
a sentry-box, thus securing privacy to 
the person speaking, and also shutting 
out distracting noises A young woman 
in Chicago, who was using the telephone 
in a public building recently, having fin¬ 
ished her talk, tried to leave the tele¬ 
phone box, when she was horrified to 
find that she was securely caged by the 
snapping of a spring lock, like Ginevra in 
the cedar chest. After several ineffectual 
efforts to release herself, she telephoned 
to another office in the same building, to 
learn that the only man who had keys 
to the telephone box was at home sick, 
with those precious keys in his pockets. 
After the building had been searched, 
and scores of keys tried, the janitor 
finally released the fair captive. This 
modern Ginevra says that she will al¬ 
ways be a believer in the open-door 
policy hereafter, in so far as it applies 
to telephone boxes. 
* 
For several months past, great adver¬ 
tisements have stared at us from the 
pages of newspapers and magazines, 
whetting our curiosity concerning the 
Uneeda biscuit. The effect of such ad¬ 
vertising, day after day, is similar to 
the acquaintance with vice, as described 
by the moralizing poet, “we first endure, 
then pity, then embrace.” There is noth¬ 
ing demoralizing, however, in Uneeda 
biscuits, for they are very crisp and ap¬ 
petizing. Another biscuit firm, moved 
to envious emulation by the success of 
this make, put up what they called 
the “Uwanta” biscuit. Judging that 
many people are unable to distin¬ 
guish between their wants and their 
needs, the Uneeda makers have sought 
and obtained an injunction against 
the Uwanta biscuit, preventing the 
makers of the latter from using that 
name. It is a palpable imitation, there¬ 
fore, an infringement. Any successful 
article of general consumption is likely 
to call out a host of imitators, who reap 
where they have not sown, in the way 
of advertising. 
* 
A little incident took place in Chicago 
recently which was dramatic enough to 
be more like the world behind the foot¬ 
lights than real life. A girl from a little 
Kansas town, whose soldier sweetheart 
had been reported among the dead at 
Manila, grew tired of her quiet home 
life, and went to Chicago, thinking, like 
many another foolish girl, that the great 
city would give her the chance of some 
great career. Soon after her arrival, 
she met a very agreeable man, who rep¬ 
resented himself as a dramatic agent. 
He was sure that he could give the 
country girl a fine opening on the stage, 
and as a preliminary, he secured a room 
for her at a small hotel, and then took 
her out to see some of the sights One 
of the first places visited was a cyclorama 
of Manila. The girl began to feel dis¬ 
trust of her smooth-spoken guide, and 
finally told him that she would not go 
back to the hotel with him. The fellow 
showed his true character at this, and 
after some rough words, seized her wrist 
as though to drag her away. At such a 
juncture as this, on the stage, the or¬ 
chestra gives a few notes of inspiring 
music, and the virtuous hero rushes on 
and boldly defies the villain. This scene, 
in real life, being extemporaneous, there 
was no appropriate music, but a slim, 
boyish figure in faded soldier clothes 
rushed forward, drawing a pistol, and 
threatening all sorts of vengeance upon 
the villain ! The girl recognized her 
Kansas sweetheart, and fell into his 
arms, while the villain sneaked away, 
to avoid the crowd, who showed a dis¬ 
position to become pressing in their at¬ 
tentions. The young soldier had been 
invalided home, learned that the girl 
had come to Chicago, and followed her, 
in time to rescue her from a fate that 
has engulfed many another. It is un¬ 
necessary to point out the moral of the 
story, but it accentuates one point we 
have always held, in opposition to some 
of the most modern American novelists ; 
that the most romantic book ever written 
contains nothing that may not happen, 
or has not happened, in real life. 
* 
We have heard several stories of thrift, 
which seemed to exhi bit that virtue in 
its most italicized form, but we advance 
the following incident, related in Forest 
and Stream, to the head of the class : 
While we were eating breakfast, the farmer 
said: “ That remark o’ yourn y isteddy about sell- 
in’ Elmiry the dishes an’ havin’ the coffee for 
nothin’ ’minds me of the way Hi Robinson got 
somethin’ fer nothin’ out er the storekeeper at 
the village. You’member Hi, don’t you? He’s 
kinder slow spoken, ’n’ some folks call him fool¬ 
ish. One day I was settin’ in the store a spell, 
with a lot more, an’ in comes Hi. He goes up to 
Lish, who keeps the store, an’ takes an egg out 
o’ his pocket an’ says, ‘ How’ll yer swap ?’ ‘ Oh, 
I d’n’ kno’s I want to swap fer one egg,’ says 
Lish; ‘what do you want for it?’ ‘A darnin’ 
needle ’ ‘ Well, I’ll swap with you,’ says Lish, 
an’ took the egg and giv’ him ther darnin’ needle. 
Hi stood 'round a while, an’ then he says, drawl¬ 
in’ like, ‘ Say, ain’t yer goin’ ter treat ?’ ‘ Treat ? 
On one darnin’ needle ?’ says Lish. ‘ Not much ’ 
‘ Feller ’cross the way will,’ says Hi. Lish 
grinned. * All right,’ says he, jest ter humor him; 
‘ what’ll yer have ?’ ‘ Cider ’n’ aig,’ says Hi. 
That tickled the rest o’ us, but Lish brought the 
cider an’ broke ther egg into it—Hi’s own egg— 
an’ Hi see it was a double-yelker. Hi took up 
ther glass an’ looked at ther egg some time. 
Then he says, says he, ‘ Say, hadn’t yer better 
gimme ’nother darnin’ needle ?’ ” 
Hi Robinson evidently deserves equal 
celebrity with tbe village worthy who, 
being invited to join a general “ treat" 
at the corner store, explained that he 
didn’t drink, but that he’d take a quar¬ 
ter of a pound of mustard ! 
* 
The manufacturing city of Manches¬ 
ter, England, disputes with its sister 
town of Birmingham the distinction of 
being the best-governed city in the 
world. It furnishes the most advanced 
example of municipal socialism and, ac¬ 
cording to the Chicago Record, has made 
a new departure by adding manufac¬ 
tories of soap, tallow, oil, glue and fer¬ 
tilizer to its garbage and sewage de¬ 
partment. The city government now 
owns street-car lines, gas, electric light 
and water works, ice factories, 15 mar¬ 
kets, baths and public laundries, slaugh¬ 
terhouses, cemeteries, cheap lodging- 
houses, technical schools, art galleries 
and workshops for the manufacture and 
repair of its vehicles, tool9 and imple¬ 
ments. It has reclaimed a large swamp 
by depositing its street cleanings and 
the Eolid matter found in its sewage, and 
is now reclaiming another, by which it 
is expected to add several millions of 
dollars to the wealth of the corporation. 
The most novel branch of the city gov¬ 
ernment is a corps of housecleaners, who 
can be employed by the occupants of 
stores, flats, office rooms and residences 
to overhaul and clean their establish¬ 
ments as often as desired. A Manches- 
You Must Have a Watch! 
WALTHAM WATCHES are the best you 
* can buy. They are guaranteed by the 
AMERICAN WALTHAM WATCH 
COMEANT . The movement engraved 
with the trade=mark “ RIVERSIDE ” 
is specially recommended. Insist on 
a Waltham Watch, and do not be 
persuaded that something else is better, 
for there is no better. 
For sale by all jewelers . 
“ The Perfected American Watch," an illustrated book of interesting 
information about watches, sent free on request. 
American Waltham Watch Co., waltham, mass. 
