1899 
353 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
ter woman, who desires her house 
cleaned, can telephone to police head¬ 
quarters, and a gang of scrubbers, 
sweepers, window-washers, etc., will be 
sent at once to take up the carpets and 
relay them and do her spring house¬ 
cleaning in short order and first-class 
style, while she goes to London, or visits 
friends in the country. 
Women Sanitary Inspectors. 
Pour women have been appointed as 
sanitary inspectors in Birmingham, Eng¬ 
land. It will be the work of these 
women to penetrate into the worst slums 
of Birmingham and, as the report say r , 
to speak to the mothers on such subjects 
as the cleaning of the house, the venti¬ 
lation of the rooms, the destruction of 
refuse, and the care of their children. 
Especially do the committee feel that 
instruction of mothers as to the feeding 
and care of their infants will bear fruit 
in the reduction of the high infantile 
death-rate of these districts. 
The Birmingham Health Committee 
have only followed the example of a 
number of other towns in Great Britain. 
Glasgow has now six women sanitary 
inspectors employed by the corporation, 
Liverpool has five, Chesterfield has one 
(paid by a voluntary society), and Man¬ 
chester and Salford together have 16 
Of this last number, nine are paid by the 
corporation, and seven by the Ladies’ 
Health Society, which with astonishing 
energy initiated the movement, and has 
now the pleasure of seeing its paid vis¬ 
itors become the servants of the cor¬ 
poration. 
The system at work in Manchester is 
somewhat peculiar. The poorer parts are 
mapped out into 16 districts, together with 
six in Salford. Each district has a super¬ 
intendent and a paid visitor. The super¬ 
intendent has oversight, the visitor acts 
under her direction, and the excellent 
results proceed from this combination of 
tact, foresight, and energy. The visitor 
“ lends a hand” in nursing a patient, 
tending a fractious, improperly-fed in¬ 
fant, cleaning where the case demands 
it, and giving sensible advice at all 
times. Carbolic soap is sold at low rates, 
whitewash brushes and pails are lent, 
leaflets on children’s maladies and the 
necessity for c'eanliness are distributed 
and explained. Under these circum¬ 
stances, the visitor is regarded, not as a 
fault-finder, but as a friend and helper. 
It is the proud boast of one visitor that 
she has sold fifty blocks of wood for 
placing under the window sashes and 
affording ventilation with the minimum 
of draught. Such health visitors are 
also able to report to the sanitary in¬ 
spectors cases where serious nuisances 
are found to exist 
Women’s Clubs Out-of-Doors. 
The Woman’s Home Companion says 
that, nowadays, when every woman in 
the world is supposed to get out her big¬ 
gest broom to “ clean up,” it is interest¬ 
ing to know what club-women are doing 
in that broader out-of-doors housekeep¬ 
ing of “village improvement.” 
Somebody plainly observed one day 
that Uncle Sam was running his prem¬ 
ises on bachelor principles Inasmuch 
as his national helpmeet is the Goddess 
of Liberty, who does nothing but pose 
on her pedestal, it was suggested that 
there should be a practical Aunt Sam to 
give the womanly touches to our towns. 
Since there is no Aunt Sam, the club¬ 
women have assumed these housewifely 
responsibilities in hundreds of hamlets. 
They are industriously sweeping the 
streets, securing receptacles for scraps, 
cutting down the weeds, planting shade 
trees, opening up parks—in short, by 
such attractive improvements, keeping 
dirt-collecting communities from liter¬ 
ally getting “ in the dumps.” The wide 
extent of this movement may be in¬ 
stanced in Minnesota. This one State 
has 85 federated clubs of women, and of 
this number, 45 are enthusiastically de¬ 
voted to the improvement of their re¬ 
spective towns. In most cases, the trans¬ 
formation from unattractive villages 
into beautiful and beflowered garden 
spots has been simply wonderful. 
Two unique samples of this out-of-door 
housekeeping are found in New Mexico 
towns In Santa F6, the club-women, 
among other “blooming” enterprises, 
have charge of the plaza, the city council 
appropriating $200 a year to its care. 
They, the club-women, hope to secure 
control of the cemetery, and turn this 
“ old burying-ground ” into a beautiful 
“resting-place” Their club sisters in 
Las Cruces are not only do’ng the con¬ 
ventional improvement work, but have 
bought a hearse for $1 000, and a hearse, 
let it be known, is a luxurious innova¬ 
tion in these parts. 
Other wide-awake women’s clubs over 
the country have an improvement pledge. 
Thereby each member promises to keep 
attractive her individual premises. This 
is excellent, for, after all, c'eanliness as 
well as charity begins at home. 
Two Mats and a Cake. 
It is a good thing to “ think of your 
mercies,” as Jo March said, and Harper’s 
Bazar tells the following of one woman 
who polishes up the dark side, when the 
bright side seems limited in area. 
“Well,” said a poor little poetess of a 
housekeeper, after a visit of a richer 
and more competent sister, who had 
been detailing all the conveniences and 
contrivances of her own modern-built 
and furnished kitchen, “ I may not have 
agate and aluminium cooking utensils, 
or running water, or even a patent dish¬ 
washer—John and I do the dishes,” she 
chuckled—“but”—and here her face 
brightened—“ I have two mats on my 
kitchen floor that Madam Glory would 
not even know how to appreciate, let 
alone value. One came from Alaska ; it 
is made from the bark of a cedar tree, 
and braided in squares. Just think of 
the faraway country it came from; of 
the ice and snows that covered it, when 
it was beautiful and green and proud in 
its crown of purple berries; of the 
strange animal and bird life it knew 
all about; of the queer Alaska Indian 
who cut it down; of the squaws who 
braided and bound it ! Why, it is really 
a magic carpet to me, and the hardest 
kind of kitchen work becomes interest¬ 
ing, when I remember to look at it and 
think of it. And as for the other, listen ! 
“ It grew in the warm sunshine far 
away, on one of the beautiful Bahama 
Islands, where birds sing and flowers 
blossom all the year. For it is made of 
the tall salt-grass blades that know all 
about the marsh hen’s family, and can 
gossip of coral insects and sunset fish, 
and has many a time bent with the 
weight of chittci the striped water-snake 
who lived at the corner, and who often 
hid among its roots; until one day a 
black man—a big broad-shouldered man 
—singing a strange song it had often 
heard, but never so near, came and 
gathered it, cutting close to its roots 
with a keen, bright knife, and frighten¬ 
ing poor old chitta so that he sped like 
a flash to the next pool, telling of what 
had happened. Then it was taken to 
the black man’s home, and there it was 
sorted out, the good broad leaves from 
the weak stray ones, and the women and 
girls, dressed in bright-colored gowns, 
with big gold rings in their ears, talked 
and laughed and sang as they braided it 
with clean brown fingers into—my mat. 
Oh no, I would not change my corner of 
a kitchen with all its inconvenient treas¬ 
ures for any electric-lighted and fur¬ 
nished room such as Madam’s, although 
I should love to have only agate cooking 
pots and kettles. But”—and here she 
smiled again—“I can do that which 
Madam herself acknowledged she was 
unable to do, I can make and bake angel 
cake, and in an old pan. 
MOTHERS.—Be sure to use “Mrs. Wins¬ 
low’s Soothing Syrup ” for your children 
while Teething. It is the Best.— A<Lv. 
A Periodical Party. 
Book-title gatherings, in which each 
guest must suggest, by dress or adorn¬ 
ment, the title of a popular book, are 
now tolerably familiar; a periodical 
party is a newer development. In each 
case, there is a guessing contest, to be 
rewarded by some suggestive prize, and 
much fun results from the accuracy or 
inaccuracy of the guesses. The periodi¬ 
cal party gives scope to great ingenuity 
in arrangement, yet gives a better 
chance for guessing, since no one who 
passes a newsstand can avoid familiarity 
with the names of prominent magazines 
and journals, while many of us are prone 
to forget the titles of familiar books. 
The whole idea of the affair is for each 
guest to represent, in dress or decoration, 
the title of some periodical. This may 
be done either with the aid of symboli¬ 
cal decorations applied to ordinary dress, 
or it may take the form of fancy dress 
of the calico-ball type. Each guest is 
supplied with tablet and pencil, on which 
to record names correctly guessed. 
Many ideas will suggest themselves 
to bright-witted women, but here are a 
few familiar titles : The Sanitarian, 
represented by a Red Cross nurse; The 
Puritan, a demure imitator of Priscilla ; 
Good Housekeeping, a trim-looking lilac 
cotton frock, girt with a big apron, 
a dusting cap, and chatelaine formed 
of miniature broom, dust-pan, and other 
household weapons. The Woman’s Home 
Companion suggests a variety of mys 
tifying emblems It may be suggested 
by a plain, everyday man in business 
clothes, who is, after all, a home com¬ 
panion most of us are willing to work 
for ; it may take the form of an infan¬ 
tile costume, with coral and rattle, or 
any other idea suggestive of feminine 
work and duty. St. Nicholas would, of 
course, be a very obvious man’s costume. 
The Idler would be emblazoned by a 
gilded youth of the exaggerated “ chap¬ 
pie ” type. The Argonaut would call for 
the rough dress of a western miner; 
The Century for a not too-new bicycle 
suit. Outing or Forest and Stream may 
be implied by hunting or athletic cos¬ 
tumes. The study of a subscription 
agency catalogue would give a great 
many ideas for such use ; one may readily 
find an amazing list of publications 
whose names are suggestive. 
The same idea could be applied to a fair 
or bazar, separate booths being arranged 
to symbolize the various periodicals, the 
articles sold carrying out the same idea. 
Rev. Chas. Josiah Adams, of Rossville, N. Y., 
is manager of the Bureau of Animal Psychology 
or Biophilism, which being interpreted, seems to 
mean a society for the collection of interest¬ 
ing facts about animals. Mr Adams wishes 
to obtain the facts relating to the dog, horse, 
bird, or any other animal that has seemed par¬ 
ticularly amusing or interesting. The object is 
to make a careful study of the most interesting 
traits and habits of our underfoot friends. All 
who care to do so, may send such facts to Mr. 
Adams. 
cents saved 
on a yard, and dollars saved on a suit 
length—40 inch Reversible covert Suit¬ 
ings— 33c. yard—blue mix, gray mix, 
brown mix, green mix—sightly goods— 
worth for suits or skirts we’d like to see 
equaled anywhere under 50c. 
25c. quality wool Suitings 15c.— 
medium and light colored—neat effects 
and good goods, or this store wouldn’t 
have sold so—goods show it, or all who 
have seen them wouldn’t have been so 
eager to buy. 
Splendid 40-inch wool Suitings i£5c. 
yard—novelty styles — money’s worth 
for skirts to wear with shirtwaists, and 
for good everyday wear so unusual as 
makes getting samples and investigat¬ 
ing important. 
American dimities 
—6)4i 8, 10 , 12%c.—prettiest inexpensive 
wash goods ever offered or that this 
great country of ours ever produced. 
Choice assortments fine Imported Dim¬ 
ities—beautiful styles and colorings, 20c., 
25c. 
It’s choice goods and less to pay that’s 
winning greater business here. 
BOGGS & BUHL, 
Department C, 
ALLEGHENY, PA. 
GOOD INCOMES 
(20,25 and 30 per cent commission) 
made by getting orders for our 
celebrated Teas, Coffees, Spices, 
Ac. The goods sell themselves. 
If you don’t want commissions, 
wo will give you Premiums: Lace 
—r- Curtains, Tea Sets, Toilet Se’s. 
Watches, Clocks, Dinner Sets, Ac. Send this ad. and 
15c., and we will mail you a sample of best Tea im¬ 
ported and catalogue. The Great American Tea Co., 
31 A 33 Vesey St.. New York.N.Y. P.O.Box289.RURAL. 
274 WAYS 
TO COOK 
MEATS, VEGETABLES, 
FISH and POULTRY 
Mailed for 30c. in 2-cent stamps. Address 
W. B. JONKS CO., Silver Creek, n. y. 
FULL CREAM CHEESE. 
We make a specialty of supplying families and 
grocers in tlve-pound and 20-pound sizes. Write for 
prices and terms. A. A H. E. COOK, Denmark, N Y 
WM& 
|$2.45 buys a reed body Baby Carriage 
132 pago Catalogue Free. We Pay Freight and ship on 10 
Idays trial No money required in advance. Address 
l„ . VICTOR MANUFACTURING CO., 
■ Dept. 11 56, 205 and 207 Fifth Ave., Chicago, III. 
S5 >° $30 3000 BICYCLES 
^ tveryon* ■ Bargain. 
NEW AND 8ECOND HAND. 
Sd Hand— (M <1 m any f.r MtTlM, |i u 111. 
New ’»» Models *12.50 to *10. Ion 
higher. We guarantee to hay* jou money. Urgeet 
variety to ®«l®ct from. Loweet price® ever quoted. 
Every customer set lulled. Shipped subject to examtn- 
/ Ation end Approval. No money in Advance. A few 
good AGENTS WANTED. For price Hat and partio- 
- „ „ ,“ 1 *™ address the old reliable cycle house, 
BHOWN-LEWI8 CO., (DM' 203 Wabash At., Chicago. 
AFTERNOON 
Tied down to 
housework, to 
the scrubbing 
brush and 
bucket, to the 
dish pan and 
housecloth, is 
the condition 
of the woman who still uses soap in 
her cleaning. On the other hand 
the woman who uses Gold Dust 
has her work all done by noon, 
does as she pleases in the after- ^ 
noon. With Gold Dust she does her cleaning with half the effort, 
in half the time and at half the cost as with soap or any other 
cleanser. For greatest economy buy our large package. 
Washing Powder 
THE N. K. FAIRBANK COMPANY 
Chicago St. Louis New York Boston 
New, compietB, ready to ride. Agents Wanted. Others $17.50 
to $.15.00, cash or time. Sent on approval. Guaranteed one year. 
Beau ti f ui 
catalog free. 
. _ . .... Bicycle sun¬ 
dries cheap. Get our prices before buying. Write quick 
AMERICAN MACHINE CO., Dept. 213 : Elint, Mich. 
w/jpw.uu, canu ut tuut?. OUltb UU dpprUYal. CjrUcirUUii 
SOLD ON TIME. 
/ 
