486 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
July 1 
l Woman and Home 
From Day to Day. 
THE WEAVER. 
Beside the loom of life I stand 
And watch the busy shuttle go; 
The threads I hold within my hand 
Make up the filling; strand on strand, 
They slip my fingers through, and so 
This web of mine fills out apace, 
While I stand ever in my place. 
One time the woof is smooth and fine 
And colored with a sunny dye; 
Again the threads so roughly twine 
And weave so darkly line on line 
My heart misgives me. Then would I 
Fain lose this web—begin anew— 
But that, alas! I cannot do. 
Some day the web will all be done, 
The shuttle quiet in its place, 
From out my hold the threads be run; 
And friends at setting of the sun 
Will come to look upon my face, 
And say: “Mistakes she made not few, 
Yet wove perchance as best she knew.” 
—The Independent. 
* 
It is said that in soutnern Maryland 
there is an old superstition that whoop¬ 
ing-cough may be cured by giving the 
patient a piece of bread buttered by the 
mother of twins. Whooping-cough pre¬ 
vails at Annapolis, and Mrs. Lowndes, 
wife of the Governor of Maryland, who 
is the mother of twin boys, is frequently 
called upon to dispense this remedy. 
Anxious mothers have besieged the Ex¬ 
ecutive Mansion, asking for this curious 
remedy, and Mrs. Lowndes is too kind- 
hearted to refuse these appeals. A good 
many old superstitions die hard, and 
people who will not own up to actual 
belief in them are often very easily per¬ 
suaded to try them. 
* 
Heke are a few incidents noted in re¬ 
cent issues of the daily papers, which 
suggest that “the weaker vessel” is 
quite able to rise to an emergency: 
Three women in California plunged into a 
roaring surf, and saved the lives of three 
men whose boat had been overturned, leav¬ 
ing them helpless. 
Two women in Jersey City captured a 
thief and held him till a policeman caught 
up with them and took him in custody. 
A young woman of Staten Island seized a 
broncho which was running away with a 
16-year-old boy, forced its head to the 
ground and held it there until several men 
arrived and took charge of it. 
In Pennsylvania, a house caught fire, and 
two young girls placed their aged grand¬ 
father in a sheet and lowered him from a 
second-story window, without a thought of 
themselves. 
In Maine a forest fire threatened to wipe 
out a village, and a brigade of women 
fought the fire for four hours, saving many 
buildings. 
* 
When the vividly-colored hats be¬ 
came fashionable last Spring, fastidious 
women soon tired of their garish hues, 
and plain black or black-and-white 
headgear, especially when composed 
wnolly or in part of tulle, replaced the 
gaudier styles. Some very fashionable 
black hats are of shirred silk muslin, 
with irregularly-waved brims. Now we 
see these hats, which were so pretty, 
disfigured by the pathetic corpse of a 
gray and white pigeon. The entire bird 
is taken, spread out flat, the neck thrust 
through a rhinestone ring, and tucked 
down in a most extraordinary fashion, 
while the feet and wings are left out¬ 
spread. The claws are there—indeed, 
everything is absolutely perfect. This 
bird is generally seen on the hats worn 
down over the face. Of course, the wo¬ 
man who thus turns her hat into a dove¬ 
cote is not violating the ethics of the 
Audubon Society, because tne pigeon is 
not a songbird, but a bird killed for 
food. But what an ugly, barbarous 
fashion it is! We were looking recently 
at the headgear of a Papuan belle; a 
coronet or fillet of tightly-plaited hu¬ 
man hair, ingeniously adorned in front 
with a highly-polished segment of hu¬ 
man shinbone. Really, the woman who 
thinks that her hat is improved by 
spreading a dead pigeon in front of it, 
seems to be actuated by taste very sim¬ 
ilar to that of the South Sea Island 
maiden with the shinbone fillet. 
* 
One of the peculiarities of Philippine 
hotels is the skeleton-like bed, devoid 
of mattress, springs, pillow and cover¬ 
ings. It is merely a cane lounge and 
bolster, covered with a mosquito can¬ 
opy. New-comers often complain indig¬ 
nantly when bedtime arrives, that the 
bed has never been made up, and are 
filled with indignation when the hotel 
proprietor explains that he will furnish 
a sheet, but that there is not a mattress, 
or a quilt, or a pillow, on the premises. 
One soon learns, however, that this cane- 
seated bed is the only thing suited to 
the climate. Some of our friends find 
comfort during hot weather by remov¬ 
ing the mattress and sleeping on the 
springs, the only disadvantage being 
that one is likely to wake up completely 
tattooed with an impression of the 
wires. A very thin mattress of shred¬ 
ded corn husk over springs makes a 
very comfortable Summer bed, and may 
be aired and replaced readily. 
* 
We recently saw Summer pillows 
stuffed with curled hair instead of 
feathers. They are much cooler an i 
less expensive, costing 35 cents a pound 
made up. Among Summer comfortables 
or, as they are called by the dealers, bed 
cosies, some are now filled with lamb’s 
wool. This is less expensive than eider¬ 
down and, the makers say, never goes 
into lumps, like cotton batting. This 
idea is quite practicable for homemade 
cosies, where sheep are Kept. A great 
many of the so-called down quilts are 
really filled with feathers. The R. 
N.-Y., described, two or three years 
ago, a method of making feather- 
filled quilts at home. We have often 
wondered how down or feather quilts 
are made, it being obvious tnat the 
quilting is not done through the filling. 
A manufacturer tells us that the com¬ 
fortable is first quilted, and the filling is 
then blown into it by a pneumatic ma¬ 
chine called a feather-blower. It will 
be noted that these quilts are now never 
quilted in squares or any intersecting 
design, but in convolutions which leave 
a wandering channel right to the center 
of the pattern. If the quilting intersect¬ 
ed, it would be impossible to blow in the 
filling. 
* 
A respectable Brooklyn hardware 
dealer finds himself in a very unpleas¬ 
ant position, as the result of determin¬ 
ing that he wouldn’t take a uare. Sev¬ 
eral years ago, while visiting his old 
home in a country town near New York, 
some one dared him to go through the 
marriage ceremony with a young wo¬ 
man in the party. They went to a jus¬ 
tice, and were married by him, all taking 
the affair only as a joke. The young 
man returned to the city, made a second 
marriage with another woman in good 
faith, and is the father of four children. 
Some one told the second wife of the 
first ceremony; she insisted that her 
husband look into its legal standing, and 
the man.finds that the first woman is his 
legal wife, while the second woman and 
her children have no right to bear his 
name. Fortunately for the man, who is 
thus a bigamist, the first woman is as 
anxious to be free as he, so they will 
be divorced, alter which he must marry 
the woman whom he has for many years 
regarded as his wife. The only person 
in this wretched affair for whom we 
can feel sympathy is the second wife, 
who, innocent of any wrong, is put in a 
most painful position. This is only one 
of many incidents which show the shame 
and misery arising from a lax view of 
the sacredness of marriage. 
* 
A Delaware correspondent writes as 
follows, regarding a recent reference, in 
The R. N.-Y., to peanut butter: 
As this is the time of year for lunches 
sometimes prepared in a hurry, peanut but¬ 
ter for cracker sandwiches is a handy thing 
to have ready prepared. The note in The 
R. N.-Y. says that it retails for 30 cents 
a pound. Any one who has an Enterprise 
meat-cutter can prepare 30 cents’ worth for 
15 cents. After removing the hulls and 
brown skin, put the nuts through the cutter 
three times. Sprinkle a little salt over it 
after having put it through the first time. 
I do not know how long it will keep—ours 
never has a chance to spoil, two boys are 
so very fond of it. I put it in a pint jar, 
and keep the top on. 
Among the Children of Gibeon. 
TENEMENT WORKERS AND'WHAT THEY DO. 
A “Slum Settlement.” —Last Sum¬ 
mer, The R. N.-Y. told about a day on 
board the Floating Hospital which, all 
through the hot weather, takes the poor 
mothers and babies of New York’s tene¬ 
ments into the salty, health-giving 
breezes of the Lower Bay. This Sum¬ 
mer, St. John’s Guild will double its 
work, for a second hospital boat, the 
Helen C. Juilliard, has been given to the 
society by a philanthropic woman, 
whose name it bears. Many of the suf¬ 
fering children and worn-out mothers 
who enjoy outings on the St. John, re¬ 
ceive this pleasure through the care and 
watchfulness of what are known as 
“slum settlements.” The “slum settle¬ 
ment” consists of ’ a band of earnest 
workers who unite to form a household 
in the poorest part of a great city, where 
by giving themselves, and not merely 
material aid, they may improve the con¬ 
dition of the very poor. London has a 
number of these settlements; Chicago 
has her famous Hull House, and in New 
York, the College Settlement on Riving- 
ton Street, and the King’s Daughters’ 
Settlement on Henry Street, are doing 
an amount of good that we barely real¬ 
ize. 
A Settlement Meeting. —A few 
weeks ago, I attended a public meeting 
of the King’s Daughters, where reports 
of the Settlement work were given. It 
was a large gathering, and strange it 
seemed to see the crowd of women, 
young and old, adorned with the little 
silver cross, in the gilded and florid ball¬ 
room of a fashionable hotel. Two lead¬ 
ing speakers were Mrs. Margaret Bot- 
tome. President of the order of King’s 
Daughters, and Jacob A. Riis, whom 
Gov. Roosevelt described as the most 
useful man in New York. Mrs. Bot- 
tome was rather a surprise to me; I had 
pictured her a quiet, gentle, Quakerish 
woman, whose presence would breathe 
only of peace and rest. I saw a large 
woman of commanding presence, nearer 
70 than 60, I judge, with waving gray 
hair, keen dark eyes, and a rich con¬ 
tralto voice that became masculine 
when she expressed emotion. She uses 
much gesture, and impresses one as a 
woman of strong character, whose ar¬ 
dent faith dominates her hearers. 
What the Settlement Does. —lmss 
A. C. Mayer, the superintendent of the 
Settlement, told in her report of the 
work done. In addition to nursing the 
sick, visiting, conducting general relief 
work all the year around, distributing 
fruit and flowers and taking children in¬ 
to the country during the Summer, a 
“happiness fund” is maintained for 
special pleasures at Christmas, Thanks¬ 
giving, etc.; a playground known as the 
King’s Garden is kept open from May 
to November, a penny provident fund is 
maintained, and a public bathroom is 
open every week day. J he educational 
work includes a kindergarten, a library, 
and 18 clubs and classes. These meet¬ 
ings and classes include men, women 
and children; some of them are devoted 
to instruction, oiners to social recrea¬ 
tion. The men have an American his¬ 
tory club, under the supervision of the 
University Extension Society; the boys 
a City history club. Women and girls 
are instructed in sewing, cooking and 
home-making generally. There are 
three bands of mercy, a little girls’ sun¬ 
shine club, mothers’ meetings, and a 
circle of King’s Daughters. 
The Pleasure of a Bath. —Miss 
Mayer told of one woman living near the 
Settlement who invited her old mother, 
who lived in an up-town tenement, 
to make her a visit, for the cake of the 
change. A number of treats were laid 
out for the old woman’s pleasure, and 
among them was a bath in the King's 
Daughters’ bath-tub! Think of the pov¬ 
erty in which a comfortable bath is a 
rarely attained luxury—but, according to 
a recent authority, there are but 10 
cities in the broad United States pro¬ 
vided with public baths, and New York's 
supply is painfully inadequate. Great 
Britain is far before us in this par¬ 
ticular. 
The Penny Provident Fund. —This 
modest little savings bank system is of 
great service. Many of the people with 
whom the Settlement has to do manage 
to earn just enough for food and rent 
(uie latter fearfully high for the accom¬ 
modations given) with nothing left to 
buy clothes and shoes which, as one lit¬ 
tle girl lamented to Miss Mayer, “just 
wear themselves out.” Others there are 
who are in a constant struggle to keep 
out of debt, but if they are able to 
squeeze out a cent at a time, and save 
it in this way, their condition is bet¬ 
tered and their self-respect increased. 
They would not take these tiny savings 
to a bank. 
Jacob A. Riis told the audience at this 
meeting what the Settlement does for 
the boys and girls, and I shall tell some¬ 
thing about this side of the work in a 
later issue. e. t. r. 
Mother’s Apple Pies. 
Away up among the Rockies, 10,000 
feet above sea level, where no gardens 
grow, but where hundreds of men go 
down deep into the bowels of Mother 
Earth for hidden treasures, lived a little 
woman. Her home was one of the many 
car-roofed houses, (shanties we would 
call them in the East), the sides cover¬ 
ed with red building paper, kept on by 
laths; one room was all. In a niche 
among the rocks it perched, reminding 
one of an oriole’s nest. Here she lived 
and supported herself and two children, 
a boy perhaps 10 years old, and a girl 
two or three years younger. She had a 
husband who worked in the mines, get¬ 
ting large wages, but every cent went 
for drink or at the gambler’s table. 
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